Say Goodbye to Napoleon and Hello to Powerful Europeans

The essential question of the Congress of Vienna was what should people in power do when their power is threatened? We started off this lesson with the activator. Our activator was to read the background essay about the Congress of Vienna. We had to examine the essay and read about the attendees from the five different countries, the questions being addressed by the Congress of Vienna, and figure out the mood and nature of the Congress of Vienna. The attendees were all very wealthy andwere used to getting what they wanted and when they wanted it. The representatives that attend were from Austria, France, Prussia, Great Britain, and Russia. The attendee from Austria was Prince Metternich. He was elegant, sophisticated, vain, and excelled in the arts of seduction. The attendee from France was Prince Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand. Almost all accusations made against him were true and according to Madame de la Tour du Pin he was the most enchanting man she had ever known. Representing Prussia was the most volatile and hot-tempered of the attendees. Frederick William III, their king, brought one of the largest most educated and hardworking delegations. Representing Great Britain was Viscount Castlereagh. He was an unfriendly and strange gentleman who had recently caused a scandal in London.  Lastly, Tsar Alexander represented Russia. He was a man of sudden impulse and excess. According to the article, “his sexual appetites were insatiable.” These five delegates achieved what they had hoped to and the treaty was signed on June 9^th, 1815.

                                             

Scene from the Congress of Vienna.   

http://www.vienna-unwrapped.com/vienna-history/congress-of-vienna/

With Napoleon defeated, the map of Europe had to be adjusted and Metternich and the other powerful people at the Congress of Vienna had to come up with a new map that everyone agreed on. Their final decision include Balance of Power. They would bring French territory back to its boundaries as existed prior to the expansion. Prussian territory would be expanded to surround France with a stronger neighbor. Also, they would border France with the Netherlands and Austria and Russia would gain additional territory. The land redistribution between the countries will ensure Balance of power among the allies in the face of any later French expansion attempts.

I think the people at the Congress of Vienna made the right choice of ensuring a Balance of power among the five countries. I don’t think that there was a better way to react that would have served more people. They all agreed on the changes to the map and all of the changes will help protect against any future attempts at French expansion.

Ideologies of the 19th Century

The three major political ideologies of the 19th century were liberalism, nationalism, and conservatism. All three of the ideologies influenced social and political actions in some way. To start off our lesson we had to come up with our own definitions for what a liberal is, what a conservative is, and what nationalism is. After defining the terms, we were told the ideologies and took a few notes on them. Next, we were divided into 6 groups and given one of the three ideologies. That meant that two groups had nationalism, two groups had liberalism, and two groups had conservatism. We then read a passage that was describing the ideology we were assigned and had to figure out its social and political impact. After analyzing the passage we had to create a one minute project that explained our ideology. Finally, we presented our projects to the class and took notes on the two other ideologies. 

Link to my educreations:
https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/nationalism/25528935/?s=uUoXCB

My partners and I had to create a project about nationalism. We created a 60 seconds Educreation. We included within our presentation the social impact it had, the political impact it had, and examples from the passage for both. The social impact that nationalism had was it brought nations together through shared languages, history, and customs.

This is a slide from our  project showing the people being united between shared languages, customs, and history.
 The political impact that nationalism had was that people were brought together under one government to fulfill their historical role as a nation and progress as humanity. The social impact example that we included was the book Addresses to German Nation written by Johann Gottlieb Fichte. It urged people to unite in hopes that the nation would become stronger as a whole. The example we included for the political impact was that under Napoleon’s rule the Germans and Italians both learned that their disunity was a weakness and then united.

 From watching the other presentations I learned a lot about both liberalism and conservatism. Liberals wanted a meritocracy, which was a system where things were based off of skill and not social class, because they believed that everyone was born with god given rights and nothing should be based off of social class. On the other hand, Conservatives wanted to keep the church in power and wanted to keep a monarchy. They wanted to reuse ideas from the past and wanted to keep it traditional. They did not like change or they didn’t want change because the system worked for them and they liked it. Also, they feared a revolution would break out and it would be chaotic if they changed anything.

Reflection on Napoleon

Napoleon had a big impact on the social, economic, and political systems of Europe. In class, we watched a video and read through a couple of excerpts to gain more information on Napoleon and his effect on the world. We first watched a video that listed all of the places that Napoleon had successfully conquered. The list just kept going and going. Some of the many places that he took over on his voyage were Italy, Austria, Belgium, Prussia, and a lot more. Although he successfully conquered many places he could not gain power of Britain. People either admired him or were guarded against him. There are many reasons why someone would admire him, but there are also many reasons why someone would be guarded against him. Many admired him because he led a lot of successful victories and he was concise red a military genius. He could be guarded against because in most cases when he took control of a place he ruined their culture.

Napoleon's impact on the social, economic, and political systems of Europe was very significant. The impact that Napoleon had on the social system of Europe is that more people had rights to education and property access. Also, he established a meritocracy in which people got money and jobs based on their skills and not their social classes. His impact on the economic system was that he built roads and canals which helped modernize economies. This was positive for France because they were able to control trade agreements with other places throughout Europe. Napoleon had a big impact on the political system of Europe.  He overthrew the directory, which ran things for the benefits of themselves. His political ways and laws allowed people more rights. As I said earlier many were fans of Napoleon and many were not. Madame de Stael was not a fan of Napoleon at all. She was upset because she was born into her social class and when Napoleon took control and rewarded people based on skill her and her family lost power and money. According to the excerpt Two Views of Napoleon she said, “By alternating between cunning and force he has subjugated [conquered] Europe.” She thinks that he only gained control because of force and his cunning ways and that it affected France in a negative. Her opinion on Napoleon could be based off of the fact that what he did caused her family to lose power making him a family enemy. On the other hand, Napoleon had many fans. One of his officers, Marshal Michel Ney, admired him greatly. This is because as an officer and Napoleon being on his side he gained power. Also according to the same source Marshal said, “To the emperor Napoleon, our sovereign, belongs alone the right to rule over our beautiful country.” Clearly Marshal Michel Ney was a big fan of Napoleon because he seems to look at him as a very good guy. In the article The Lost Voices, it says “while we recognize these defects and faults, let us be equally frank in acknowledging his great qualities.” Even though Napoleon had some faults I think overall he was an excellent military leader and should be seen in a good way.

Madame de Stael: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germaine_de_Sta%C3%ABl

Marshal Michel Ney: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Ney

Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism

In class, an activity showing what communism, socialism, and capitalism are was conducted.  Everyone was given 3 Hershey kisses besides two other people who were given 10 Hershey kisses. The two people with 10 pieces of chocolate were supposed to represent the wealthy and the other people represented the poor. Then, the students were instructed to go around the room and play rock-paper-scissors with other people. If you won you would receive a piece of chocolate from the losing person, and if you lost you would give up a Hershey kiss. When you lost all of your pieces you sat down.  At the end of the game some people had a lot of kisses and some people had none.  Mrs. Gallagher then collected the candy and gave everyone 3 pieces so everyone got an equal amount of chocolate. The second round of the activity the students had the choice to play or not to play. At first the students said the game was fun, but then the game became extremely frustrating because you got what you had earned taken away and then everyone got the same amount. The purpose of the lesson was to show capitalism, socialism, and communism in a way that the students could understand them more. It was showing capitalism when you started out with your own candy and you got to choose who you were going to play against. Also, it shows capitalism when some people were winning while other people were losing. It shows socialism when Mrs. Gallagher collected the candy at the end of the game and redistributed 3 to everyone. The goal of socialism was to bring economic equality and aim for classless society. Lastly, the game shows communism because the students could refuse to play and would just agree to share candy without the need for teacher supervision.

Although Marx and Smith had very different approaches, they both seemed to want to help the poor. Marx approach was capitalism, socialism, and communism. He thought that the poor would benefit the most from a classless society. He thought this because the poor would be given equal opportunities as everyone else. Smith, on the other hand, created a theory called “the Invisible Hand”. The invisible hand theory is the theory that the government would not control the economy and the market naturally would take care of itself.  He thought this would help the poor because it gave them a chance to purchase higher quality goods for a cheaper price. They would be able to buy things they couldn't before.

Out of the two theories I think Smith’s is the best because it gives poor people new opportunities to buy goods they could not afford before.  Also, it gives people the opportunity to work for their own wealth and not have it taken away. 

Here is a link to a video further explaining the "Invisible Hand" theory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulyVXa-u4wE&feature=youtu.be

Risks Of Going to The Mills

Girls at the time of the Lowell Mills were to work at home under the guidance of their father and mother while they grew up.  So many of these teenage girls wanted nothing more than to branch off and become independent. The girls found the chance to gain their own independence if they went off to the Mills. They wanted to get out of the farm life and see the world outside of what they were used too. Most of the girls were motivated to make a life for themselves on their own. There were many benefits that came from the girls deciding to go to the Mills. Some benefits were that they would be able to send money back to the family, they would get some money for themselves, they would get more freedom and independence, and they had the chance to create opportunities for their futures. On the other hand, there were also many costs. One cost is that they would have been working in poor conditions and with extremely dangerous machines.  Also, there would have been low pay, and the health risks from working in the factories were extremely high. If the girls were to go to the factories they were not allowed to socialize with men when working which is also a cost and the girls were not treated fairly by the overseers. Many of the Mill girls would go on to be outspoken abolitionists and women’s right activists. The girls were the first women to protest so openly which led to more women to speak out about their rights.