Author: Nazaria Mitchell

Hey guys! Today we are going to dive into what was discussed in the Congress of Vienna and the dynamics of the group.

 

If you were here last week then you know we ended the blog by introducing the congress of Vienna. The Congress of Vienna consisted of all of the European nations that suffered severe consequences from the Napoleonic Wars and other conflicts from France under the ruling of Napoleon.

 

These nations had meetings after Napoleon’s first defeat and after his last defeat they exiled him. During his first exile the Congress of Vienna met in Vienna,Austria to forge a new Europe. A man named Klemens von Metternich led the meeting with the goal to restructure the political map of Europe and bring stability to the continent. There were many other leaders present such as Robert Steward of Britain, Czar Alexander the 1st of Russia, and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord of France.

 

The French Revolution and other movements similar to it argued for freedoms like freedom of speech, representative governments, and an end to monarchies. Metternich and some of the other leaders argued that these movements brought nothing but chaos, mob rule, and a plague of violence in Europe. They argued that a return to absolute monarchies would create stability.

 

Conservative Reactionaries were those who felt the remedy to cure the problems that came from the Enlightenment Revolutions and the Napoleonic Wars was to return to the old system of absolute monarchies. Liberals were those who felt that, despite the chaos that came from the movement, the Enlightenment’s priorities of individual rights, representative governments, and the like should be a part of Europe’s future. While Conservatives andLiberals differed on these areas, one thing most nations agreed on was steps should be taken to ensure France never tried to conquer all of Europe again.

 

The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars had devastated Europe. The Congress of Vienna did not want severely to punish France for fear of antagonizing the nation to pursue future conflicts. Yet, the Congress wanted deliberately to take steps to ensure France was never positioned to try and conquer Europe again. One major step toward this endeavor was creating buffer states that bordered France and could challenge the nation, if it expanded again. The buffer states included the stronger Kingdom of the Netherlands, several areas in the German Confederation combined as a group, and renewed independent Switzerland. This new political map of Europe looked more like Europe did before the Napoleonic Wars.

 

Thats it for today guys… See you next time!!!!

 

 

Hey guys! Today we are going to talk about the things that happened after the French Revolution.

 

After the Reign of Terror, France struggled under the Directory (a five member executive government).  The Directory faced corruption, political conflict, economic difficulties, and continuing war.

 

Napoleon Bonaparte gained fame through successful military campaigns and became increasingly influential. In 1799, Napoleon helped overthrow the Directory in the Coup of 18 Brumaire. He became First Consul and gradually concentrated political authority in his own hands. In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French, showing that the Revolution had moved from monarchy to republic to a new form of personal rule.

 

Napoleon made a lot of changes, some were a benefit to the citizens and some weren’t.

 

The Napoleonic Code was created to have a more uniform legal system. It strengthened equality before the law for men, protected property, and weakened remnants of feudal
privilege.

 

Napoleon strengthened the national government and appointed officials to administer France more consistently.

 

The state expanded secondary education and created institutions designed to train officials and military officers.

 

Napoleon reached an agreement with the Catholic Church that restored religious stability while keeping the state in a strong position.

Political opposition was restricted, censorship was used, and Napoleon controlled much of the political system. Revolutionary equality did not mean political democracy.

 

During Napoleon’s spread of liberalism  he introduced many ideas.

 

Property Rights — Private property became more protected

 

Merit — Government and military advancement became
merit based

Administration — Government became centralized

 

Contradiction — Legal liberalism didn’t mean political liberalism. He censored his opposition and ruled as an emperor.

 

 Nationalism — a political idea and feeling of strong loyalty to one’s country. It holds that a group of people who share the same culture, language, or history should rule themselves in their own independent land.

 

German lands — Resistance to French rule encouraged ideas of greater unity among German speaking nations. The lead to the eventual unification of Germany.

 

A bunch of powerful people that didn’t like Napoleon came together and made the “Congress of Vienna”.

 

The Congress met after Napoleon’s first defeat and continued after his final defeat in 1815. Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and eventually France were central to the settlement. They wanted to prevent another Napoleon so they redrew borders and restored monarchies. The settlement showed that Europe has conservative fears about more revolution.

 

The Congress of Vienna aimed to create stability, create balance, establish nationalism, and establish liberalism.

 

That’s it for today guys.. See you next time!

Hey guys! Today we are going to continue last week’s blog about the French revolution.

The Third Estate delegates went to their usual meeting hall just to find it was closed so they gathered in the indoor tennis court. In the tennis court the delegates pledged to remain together until they established a constitution for France. Around this time the political authority was shifting from the king and the estates towards a representative body (The National Assembly) that claimed to speak for the nation. The National Assembly’s actions adopted the idea that the citizens of the nation could be the source of political authority.

King Louis XVI got word of this and was shaking in his boots. He surrounded Paris with troops and many of the delegates thought he wanted to undo the progress that had been made. On July 14,1789, a crowd attacked the Bastille (a fortress-prison that symbolized royal authority). The attackers were also looking for weapons and gunpowder as violence increased. The Bastille held few prisoners, but its capture still had a symbolic importance. This event showed that ordinary people could directly influence the course of the Revolution. This later became France’s National Day.

In 1789, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen were adopted. This became one of the Revolution’s most important statements of political ideals. The document attacked the divine rights of kings and recognized the rights of ordinary citizens to rule themselves. Rights such as natural rights, equality before law, popular sovereignty, and liberty.

The revolution became more radical when a war broke out between France and other European monarchies that feared revolutionary ideas and French expansion. When this war broke out the king attempted to flee France which damaged confidence in the monarchy and encouraged accusations of treason. 

Food shortages and inflation continued to affect ordinary people, increasing pressure for stronger action.

During the height of the Revolution, the revolutionary leaders started to turn on one another. This caused a radical political party by the name of the Jacobins to seize power. The Jacobins feared that the revolution was about to fail so they proclaimed that democracy must be put on hold until the security of France was certain.

They created a twelve-man dictatorship called the Committee of Public Safety, which was led by a man named Maximilien Robespierre. The Committee of Public Safety called for a Reign of Terror in which they used extreme violence to solve the Republic’s crisis.

The national convention found King Louis XVI guilty of treason and voted for his immediate execution. Louis and his wife Marie Antoinette (Mrs. “Let them eat cake” herself) were killed by the guillotine and their children were imprisoned. Seventeen-thousand people were executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror.

That’s it for today, see you later!!!

Hey guys! Today we are going to talk about the main causes of the French Revolution.

 

During the thirteenth century French society was legally divided into three groups. Though the groups were technically legal the burdens of taxation were unequally distributed.

 

The First Estate was made up of clergy (church leaders) which made up about one percent of the overall population. This estate owned a majority of French land, collected church taxes(tithes), had tax exemptions (they paid none at all!!!), and enjoyed many other major privileges.

 

The Second Estate consisted of nobility (people related to royalty) which made up about two percent of the population. This estate controlled a lot of land, were in high military and government positions, and enjoyed some of the same privileges as the First Estate.

 

Lastly, the Third Estate consisted of rich but not insanely rich people, working class people, and peasants. They made up about ninety percent of the population. They paid the most direct taxes and feudal dues while having the least amount of political power.

 

PAUSE. If you were here last week then you know about the Enlightenment. Guess what gave the French commoners an idea to resist the power of the higher classes…? That’s right, the Enlightenment!!!

 

Around the fourteenth century leading into the nineteenth century France had a lot of economic problems.

 

Since France spent heavily on wars (mainly on supporting the American colonies during the American Revolution) creating war debts.

 

Since the privileged estates (the first and second estates) refused to pay taxes, the monarchy struggled to raise enough revenue. This was the downfall of France’s government finances.

 

France resorted to regressive taxation which meant many taxes fell most heavily on the ordinary, mostly working class and peasants. (Funding a nation by draining poor people dry instead of the rich) now what does that sound like?!!

 

Poor harvests in the late 1780s increasing food prices increased the price of bread (the main source of food for most of the population).

 

When wages failed to keep pace with food prices, urban workers had less money for necessities. This led to economic hardship.

 

A financial crisis forced the king to call the Estates-General in 1789, giving the estates a chance to challenge the political system (this was a political consequence).

 

When the Estates-General was called, the First and Second Estates outvoted the Third Estate 2-1. The members of the Third Estate argued that representation should reflect the number of people they represented.

 

In June 1789, Third Estate delegates declared themselves as the National Assembly. This is when the Ideas spark…See you next week!!!

Hey guys! Welcome back! Today we are going to talk about the Enlightenment and what it accomplished.

 

The Enlightenment is a movement that occurred during the 17th and 18th centuries to emphasize reasoning and logic, which challenged the established traditions and authority (the church). These ideals were drafted from the Scientific Revolution. The Enlightenment had many characteristics that we are going to learn about.

 

Rationalism, reason, is the arbiter of all things.

Cosmology, a new concept of the existence of earth in the universe (earth is NOT the center of the universe).

Secularism, an application of the methods of science to religion and philosophy.

The Scientific Method, consisted of Mathematical Analysis, Experimentation, and Inductive Reasoning.

Utilitarianism, the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Tolerance, meaning everyone can have free ideas and no opinion is worth beating your neighbor over.

Optimism and self-confidence, the belief that man is intrinsically good and the belief in social progress.

Freedom, bringing liberty to all men and making them free to express themselves.

Education of the Masses, this meant that everyone would get an education, not just the rich kids.

Legal Reforms, this means the people were treated with justice and kindness and NOT tortured.

Constitutionalism, there were written constitutions which listed citizens’ rights.

Cosmopolitanism, this means we all belong to the global community.

 

Later on, down the line an English philosopher by the name of Francis Bacon tagged along. He laid the foundation for the Enlightenment by supporting the idea of empiricism, and the idea that knowledge is power. He also supported separation between faith and reason which was a division of science from religion, enabling independent inquiry.

 

French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, René Descartes saw man’s ability to reason as the proof of their existence. He wrote “Discourse on Method” in 1637.He rejected all forms of intellectual authority (higher ups telling him what to think) which he used to prove the existence of God.

 

English philosopher and mathematician, Thomas Hobbes’ political theory portrayed politics as an exact science like geometry. He was an admirer of Galileo Galilei’s (man put on house arrest for telling the truth about the solar system) ideas concerning the nature of the physical and studies of motion. Hobbes wrote “Leviathan” in 1651.

 

A whole generation later, English philosopher and physician, John Locke developed a completely different notion of the basic nature of humankind, which was seen as innately good. When he witnessed the almost bloodless,” Glorious Revolution” in England he was convinced that people can live together peacefully.

 

This concludes today’s blog you guys’ bye!!

 

Hey guys! Today we are going to talk about the scientific revolution that eventually led to the Galileo trial. 

Around the 1400s the earth was believed to be in the center of the universe this was called the Geocentric Universe. This was based on the work of Aristotle and Ptolemy. This model was supported by the catholic church who were in complete control of the government.

A Polish mathematician and astronomer named Nicholaus Copernicus proposed that instead of the earth the sun was in the center of the universe. This new Heliocentric model contradicted the beliefs of the church which were the established authority at the time.

Galileo Galilei improved the telescope and turned it to the sky. He observed and documented the sky at night. He discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter. He observed sunspots and the rough surface of the moon. He documented the phases of Venus, which proved it orbited the sun.

In 1616, there had been an order to not teach heliocentrism as a proven fact but as a theory. After his findings he publicly supported heliocentrism (the belief that the sun is the center of the universe) by publishing “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” in Florence in 1632. This book contrasted the geocentric and heliocentric models, and the heliocentric model made more sense and had a simpler explanation. The catholic church (one-sided beef for real). Galileo was ordered to come to Rome even though he was very wise in age and was poor in health, but he still came and there he was accused of heresy (disagreeing with the beliefs of the church/contradicting scripture). When on trial Galileo claimed that he presented arguments for both sides(which he did). He argued that he gave arguments for heliocentrism,but didn’t actually flat out say it was a proven fact.

The courts had three theologians to examine the book. They claimed that the book strongly favored the heliocentric model. The authorities believed that he had provided arguments in its favor, despite the restrictions in 1616.

In his written defense he argued that the book had been written to indicate that the heliocentric model arguments were not conclusive (basically copping a plea). He pointed out that the book concluded with an argument from the Pope. No matter how much he pleaded his case the Roman Inquisition still saw the book as problematic. In the end he was found guilty of heresy and was put on house arrest until he died. It took the church almost three hundred years to admit he was right.

Have you ever walked into a room and a smell hit your nose that wasn’t quite right? It may have been dirty laundry, the toilet, the bathroom, or the owner of the room. No matter what the smell is- it most likely came from odor-causing microbes. A microbe is a microorganism, most likely bacterium causing fermentation or disease.

 

Bad smells come from fungi, bacteria, streptomyces, and other nasty microbes. Microbes feed on organic residues like skin cells, sweat, food particles, and more. They also thrive in moist, warm places like fabrics (mainly polyester), food storage areas, and humid basements. They can spread because of direct contact, like a smelly microbe touching wet surfaces like foams, plastics, or rubber. Microbes tend to break down organic matter and release compounds such as, amines, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur-containing thioalcohols, and short chain fatty acids.

 

Every microbe carries a different scent. Molds and fungi often produce a musty, mildew like odor in damp and humid areas. Gram-negative anaerobes result in bad breath. Candida bacteria obtain a yeasty smell, and honestly who wants to smell like a bakery worker. Staphylococcus Lugdunensis creates an earthy hay-like smell.  Streptomyces produces an organic compound called geosmin which gives soil its earthy smell. Staphylococcus Hominis is known for producing a pungent smell caused by the breaking down of sweat components. NO ONE WANTS TO SMELL LIKE THIS OR SMELL THIS!!!

 

There are many ways to prevent microbes from spreading. Control moist surfaces. This means fixing leaks, keeping surfaces dry, and avoiding placing wet items in humid areas. Improve ventilation. Let your air circulate to reduce humidity and trap those nasty smells. Disinfect using EPA approved disinfectants on frequently used items and surfaces. Wash your hands regularly. Use hand sanitizer if soap is not available. Keep perishable food items in the refrigerator within two hours of buying (one hour if room temperature is over ninety degrees). Wash your clothes in hot water because it kills bacteria and fungi on clothes. Dry clothes completely to avoid the buildup of mold and mildew. Clean all spills immediately. Replace your kitchen sponges weekly even if they look clean, they harbor bacteria. Use paper towels or sanitization wipes instead of sponges on countertops (they are disposable). Using air purifiers with HEPA filters helps reduce airborne microbes. Clean and disinfect shared tools. Inform your household members so they can take the necessary steps to prevent the smelly microbes.