The Guillotine Essay

            Halifax Gibbet- the earliest account of a guillotine used in history. It was a huge wooden structure made of two 15 ft. tall uprights connected by a horizontal beam. An ax head attached to a 4 ½ ft. block that slid on grooves up and down the uprights would be raised to the top and dropped. It may date back to around 1066, but the record of it being used was during the 1280’s. Executions were public and took place in the town’s market place on Saturdays.
            The enlightenment thinkers Locke and Voltaire opposed the use of guillotines. Dr. Guillotin proposed the idea of the guillotine because it was a quick method of execution and involved no torture. He also proposed that executions should be private but his idea was rejected by the Assembly. His plan for the guillotine never gained the Assemblies approval.
            Tobias Schmidt, a German engineer, built and tested the first actual guillotine. The first execution by guillotine occurred on April 25, 1792 when Nicholas-Jacques Pelletier, a highwayman, was killed. It was going to be called the ‘Louisette’ or ‘Louison’ after Dr. Louis but the name guillotine was decided upon since Dr. Guillotin proposed the idea earlier.
            The guillotine would be used on virtually anybody: both males and females of any age, rich or poor. Equal treatment of the guillotine’s victims was expressed because of the new ideas of the Enlightenment period. The guillotine remained in use until April 30, 1650.

World War 1 Essay

            Germany was an aspiring and newly developing world power leading into World War 1. Because Germany was becoming a world power, a sense of imperialism came along with it. Imperialistic nations venture out of their territories and into others in order to get the necessities they need to thrive. Germany was quickly becoming industrialized; therefore, they needed the resources and materials to supply their industries. An alliance was established with Austria-Hungary, in which Germany gave Austria-Hungary a “blank check” in return for resources.
            Nationalism in Germany went through the roof before World War 1. They were extremely prideful at having bigger and better things than everyone else had. Germany was in an arms race with Britain as the two were competing in building up their navies. Both Germany and Britain competed in stocking up their navies with the devastating Dreadnought battleship, while only Germany built the U-boat, which is a submarine. The two countries used their navies to blockade each other; Britain blockaded Germany, preventing all trade with Germany causing them to basically starve to death. Germany did the same to Britain except with U-boats instead of Dreadnoughts.
            Germany’s great sense of national pride led them to increasing their military, otherwise known as militarism. Germany had known that a war was inevitable, so the logical action would be to improve their military. They even had a predetermined time for when they wanted to start the war so that it would be to their advantage. An example of militarism in Germany was that there was an increase in military control in the civilian government. This can be seen when Germany’s military expenditures from 1870 are compared to those in 1914, the beginning of the war. In 1870, Germany spent $94 million on its military and in 1914, $398 million was spent on the military alone.
            The alliances before World War 1 were a major cause for the start of the war. Enemies were pitted against each other, which gave rise to more reasons for conflict. Two alliance groups were formed, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. The Triple Alliance consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy who had little to do with the war. In the Triple Entente were France, Britain, Russia, and the U.S.A. after we were dragged in by the Germans. Since Germany had failed to acquire Russia as an ally, they now had to fight a two front war against France and Russia, which is almost impossible to do. This is why the Germans had to have the war begin in the summer of 1914. It was part of the Schlieffen plan and would allow Germany to fight a one front war because Russia was not prepared for war at the time.
            World War 1 had created lots of political turmoil in Europe. Several things were not settled and another World War was the outcome. U. S. President Woodrow Wilson proposed the Fourteen Points before the end of the war in hope that the European powers would follow the policies. The Fourteen Points proposal established about 8 new countries where Austria-Hungary used to be. These new countries really had no idea about how they should operate and they had no true government. This called for trouble and the fact that the governments were printing excessive amounts of money, causing inflation to skyrocket, did not help. These countries were unstable and dangerous, similar to Austria-Hungary before World War 1.
            Another political situation that contributed to the rise of World War 2 was the signing of the war-guilt clause. Germany was forced to sign a war-guilt clause which stated that they were taking full responsibility for starting the war and all of the destruction that occurred because of it. Numerous restrictions were placed upon Germany such as a limit on their army, a restriction on trade with others outside their borders for the next five years, and the forfeit of their colonies. They also had to pay about $33 billion in reparations. The powerful nationalistic spirit of Germany was down and the country was in a slump. It was the ideal time for a natural leader such as Hitler to come to power and cause the next World War.

Medieval Europe Essay

            There is a lot of controversy about the Crusades, or Holy Wars. The majority of people will agree that they had basically no beneficial results. If anything, they made the Catholic Church and the Pope look immoral in the eyes of the people in the Eastern world. Some of the causes of the Crusades were that the Western World wished to unify Christianity because there was little communication with the Eastern World. In the Eastern World, the Byzantine Empire was receiving threats from the Turks, so they requested help from the Western World. The Pope saw this as an opportunity to unify the two different religions and sent knights to help them. Now the first Crusade begins and results in the Christian Knights conquering Jerusalem, which is the center of controversy in the East and is coveted by just about everyone. During the second Crusade the Muslim army, led by Saladin, takes Jerusalem back from the Christians. The third Crusade resulted in a draw and nothing was accomplished. The Christian knights didn’t even make it to Jerusalem on the fourth Crusade, instead they sacked Constantinople and took it over and looted it. The main purpose of unifying the Christian religion ceased to exist by the fourth Crusade.

            During the Middle-Ages in Europe, the feudal system was the type of government being used. The feudal system is based on the ownership of land, so the more land one owned, the wealthier they were. Peasants are at the base of the economic, social, and political systems of feudalism and without them it would not function properly. The economic set-up of Europe’s feudal system was called the Manor system. Nobles and land barons owned land that the peasants, who were tied to the land, would work. Each property had at least three different fields so that two of the fields could be used to grow crops while the remaining one stayed fallow. Every year they would rotate fields so the soil of one field was not overused.

            The King was the head of the political structure. He was in charge of anybody beneath him and anyone that was of a lower social status was required to pay homage to him. Knights of that time could be compared to policemen because they enforced the law, which was the King’s word. The King was also near the top of the social structure. Below him were the nobles and knights, then the freemen who were Merchants, farmers and Craftsmen. Friars and monks would be on about the same social level as these people. After them came the peasants and serfs who are at the very bottom. The feudal system failed in some communities because they were excommunicated from the church and the people revolted or they were wiped out when the plague struck.

            The Church was probably the most powerful during the Middle-Ages of Europe. It had so much power because just about everyone was extremely religious at the time. God was all the peasants had in their lives and other than that, their lives were miserable. Since the feudal system ran was fueled by the peasant’s labor, the kings and nobles that owned the land had to be sure that the Church remained in their community. If the Church were to be removed, the peasants would revolt and be unmotivated to work because God was all the hope they had. The Pope had the power to interdict a community, which means the Church would be pulled out of it. He could also excommunicate whomever he wished. This gave him immense amounts of power and control.

            It seems as though all the Plague caused was millions of deaths and destroyed Europe, along with the rest of the world, but most people don’t see that it was also beneficial. Ironically, the Plague was the most beneficial to the people it affected the most, the Peasants. Although they experienced the highest mortality rate, they were helped by the Black Death because it opened up new opportunities for them. There was a shortage of laborers and the nobles and land barons didn’t know how to farm the land, so they were forced to turn to sharecropping. Now the peasants could own land and technically were no longer called peasants. Many people who experienced the death of loved ones never really started another family out of fear of losing them again. Since families were not being created, the population recovered very slowly.

            The Church was not really affected by the Plague; therefore, it did not benefit. It was actually at a disadvantage afterward because it turned the sick, suffering people away and closed its doors. People lost respect for the Church but did not lose any faith in God.

            The Manor system was no longer used after the Plague because the peasants weren’t tied to the land anymore. Sharecropping became a major economic foundation in place of the Manor system.

            Ultimately, The Church was greatly affected by all of these circumstances. The mistake of initiating the Crusades distorted the Eastern Worlds view of the Western World and they were also a waste of man power. The devastating consequences of the Plague hurt the Churches image when they closed their doors to the people of Europe. The Church and society were becoming corrupt and debauchery became common, even among priests.