Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Semester 1 final: Presentation







"But there had been no news out of India House in London and no further from the subcontinent: no instructions, no suggestions, no acknowledgment of his task at all." (Chapter 8, page 161 electronic)

Friday, December 12, 2014

French Revolution final assessment: Second Right from the revolution


Ben Howson
World History 2 per. 3
12/11/14

The French Revolution in Todays Present World

During the French Revolution, and enlightenment, the idea of natural human rights came along, in which many protected the rights of the people. Today one of these rights is being violated, and the human right being violated is the second right of men from the French Revolution. This right states, “The purpose of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.” To be more specific the right in which is being violated today, is the human right of property.
            Jim and Joanne Saleet have lived in Lakewood, Ohio for 38 years, and they are refusing to sell their house. The city of Lakewood is trying to use eminent domain to try and force the Saleets to move, to make way for more expensive condominiums. The Saleets had plans to live in their home of the rest of their lives, and then later pass their house on to their kids. But know the major of Lakewood is wanting to tare down their house and 55 other houses around theirs, along with apartment buildings and tones of businesses. The mayor wants this, so that private developers can build bigger, nicer house, and a big mall. The mayor said that she sought out a private developer to build these house, and mall, because Lakewood base tax is shrinking, and they need more money. After tones of augments and court cases, the Saleets, and many others were able to keep their homes, because the mayor of Lakewood broke the second right of man, which protects the property of the people. The second right of men is the solution and protector to all case like these and if it weren’t for this right, many people would have lost the homes in which they loved. Due to the Saleet’s case, and many other cases similar to theirs, we, and the government have re-recognized this human right from the French Revolution.
            The second right of men is a very important right in which we had forgotten about for some time. We had forgotten that this right was put into play to stop cases such as the Saleet’s from happening. Due to the government recognizing the second right of men, we no longer have to worry about our property being taken away from us by the government. “The purpose of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.” This right is the answer, to many problems in which exist today, and do to being remembered, the second right of men is no longer being violated as much today, and many cases are being brought to light.


  
This is an image of the first page the declaration of the rights of men and women citizens from the French Revolution.


This is a picture of Jim and Joanne Saleet after winning agains the government of Lakewood, Ohio. 





    


Thursday, December 11, 2014

Thoughts and Reflections on: Edmund Burke Question

Ben Howson
World History 2 per. 3
12/9/14


Exactly what was it that Burke did not like about the French Revolution?

Edmund Burke despised the French Revolution. He hated pretty much every thing that was happening to France during the revolution, because he loved the old France, and hated the new one. The one thing that Edmund really didn't like, was that the king was put into jail. This really made him furious, because he despised democracy, and he thought that the best thing was to just have one ruler that every one would follow. Thats why he was really mad about the king being in jail. He believed that there should be rankings, that the lower would look up to the higher ranked people such as a king. But with a democracy, there was no looking up to people, every one was more or less equal, and every one had rights. Edmund truly believed that people couldn't handle the power and freedom, and also share it between every one. He thought that it would be better for one person to just have it. He believed that if this power were to be shared, that nothing would get done, and that there would just be a lot of arguments, so like I said before, he believed that this wouldn't happen with one leader. Although he made a good argument, and was able to back this up with what he believed. But in the end it didn't go well for Edmund Burke, because France did the things that he hated. They got rid of the king, made a democracy, and gave the power to the people.

  


Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Thoughts and Reflections on: Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens. Questions

Ben Howson
World History 2 per. 3
Thoughts and Reflections
12/5/14

How is the French Revolution and this document in particular a product of the Enlightenment?

Many of the enlightenment thinkers were from France, during the time of the French Revolution, and in a way, the French Revolution its self was an idea from the enlightenment. The document that we read, talks about the laws that were put into play during the French Revolution, and even though most of these laws weren't necessarily great, they were still the ideas of people in the enlightenment. The French Revolution was all about ideas, people standing up saying what they believed in, throwing their ideas in the air for every one to see. They didn't use all of them, but the ones in which they all agreed on came into play in their every day lives. So both the French Revolution and this document are a product of the enlightenment, because they both contain the ideas of the people, both good and bad, right and wrong, but still the ideas of the people.

    


In light of this document how can one see some of the events of the French Revolution as Shocking?

People can see some events of the French Revolution as shocking, because of the laws in which they passed during the enlightenment. The French Revolution was meant to be all about the rights of the people, and laws were meant to protect these people by giving them rights. But this didn't happen at first in the French Revolution. Instead the French government passed laws about what punishment, or death you would receive if you were to break a law. The new laws in which they made, instead of helping the people giving them their rights, they instead laid down laws of punishment, and a lot of these laws were really quite unfair. Due to these new outrageous laws, the people became outraged, putting France in a place of darkness for quite some time. Riots started, hugger came along, and basically France was in a time of death. But that was not meant to happen, the laws should have stopped the blood, but instead they just created more of it. This is why people see some parts of the French Revolution as shocking, and honestly I totally agree with them.


Friday, December 5, 2014

Enlightenment Salon Video: Cesare Beccaria










SCRIPT

Interviewer: Today we have a very special guest, Cesare Beccaria.
CB: Thanks for having me.    
Interviewer: Well before we get talking, do you mind telling us a little about yourself?
CB: I am from Italy and my full name is Cesare Marquis Beccaria-Bonesana, I am a criminologist, jurist, philosopher and politician.
Interviewer: Could you tell us about some of your education?
CB: I went to a Catholic School as a young boy and I went on to get my degree in Law from University of Pavia, from there I went to Milan, where the real education happened, The Enlightenment.

Interviewer: What was your field of interest?
CB: I was interested in justice. I saw the way courts and trials worked and I wanted to change it. Torture was an inhumane method still used to extract information to be used in crooked courts. Confessions could be falsely drawn due to this method of extraction, there was no real justice. I believed that the punishment should be equal to the crime, just enough to outweigh the benefits of the crime. Punishments are for the protection of order and security, they should deter others from doing the same thing. To quote my book, On Crimes and Punishments: “In order that any punishment should not be an act of violence committed by one person or many against a private citizen, it is essential that it should be public, prompt, necessary” - meaning it should be public to deter other citizens, prompt to show the effectiveness of the justice system and necessary, meaning you cannot give a man a death sentence for stealing bread.

Interviewer: What were some of your other revolutionary ideas?
CB: I also believed that there should be a system of punishments. Each man must receive the same punishment for the same crime, no one should be discriminated against and receive too harsh a punishment. And on the other hand, no one should get away with a severe crime and receive no punishment due to his status. I also supported the idea that capital punishment, putting someone to death, should be done away with.

Interviewer: What is in today's world that needs to change and why?
CB: We have come a very long way since I put forth these ideas, yet the death penalty still exists and torture is still being used in countries we are at war with. Although some states have done away with this cruel and inhumane practice, there over 3000 inmates who will still executed by lethal injection. Some states still use horrific acts like electrocution, firing squad and hangings. While I certainly dont believe that the whole justice system should be done with completely, but the methods used today are not the way to protect the people.

Interviewer: Thank you very much for being on the show, your ideas have truly revolutionized the way criminals are punished today.
CB: Thank you for having me. Feel free to read my book On Crimes and Punishments if you wish to learn more about my contribution to the Enlightenment.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Thoughts and reflections on: "The Human Story" Here and there, the people rule, question

Ben Howson
World history 2 per. 3
12/5/14

The Enlightenment influenced many revolutionary events in both France and South America. During the Enlightenment around the 1700s, the world went into an age of democratic revolutions. These democratic revolutions, wanted to put power in the hands of the people, no mater who they were. France was the strongest, richest power in Europe, and it was also its cultural leader. The king of France was Louis XVI on the eve of France's revolution, in 1789. At the time, France was in deep debt, spending tones of money, and many people became angry about this. France was a modernizing country with a growing middle class, who stood up, and razed this issue. The National Assembly then held a private meeting in which they took an oath to never disband until France has a constitution, and at that moment, a revolution began. This revolution slowly was going towards democracy, but at the same time, this created a time of violence and death. Later into the revolution the National Assembly created a Declaration of the Rights of Man, which gave all people with land and some money rights. Near the end of the revolution the people of France stormed into the palace, capturing the royal family, and due to humiliation and the fall of the Bastille the royal rule ended, although the king didn't step down. The deputies then could write a constitution. In doing this many things happened, they confiscated the land of the Catholic Church, they ended slavery in the new world colonies, every French man could vote, and finally they had a constitution. They later found Louis XVI and the queen, and so they brought them back to Paris, and they decapitated Louis XVI and then later his queen. In 1793 the Reign of Terror began, which was when the revolution peaked. Many nations waged war on France, wanting to put a king on their throne, and in 1794 people had experienced to much terror, so they killed Robespierre, which stopped everything. The Revolution was near the end and moderates took charge, writing a new constitution that preserved the republic, but with no king, but instead putting the power in the hands of wealthy men. The next wars that followed ended France's Revolution, and spread revolutions on to the rest of Europe. Later a young general named Napoleon Bonaparte basically became a dictator of France, but in the end with a lot of backward steps, France became a democratic government.

In the 1500s lots of land in South America, and some parts of southern North America fell to Spanish conquerors. In the New World the "Creoles", or the white men that were born in Spain's new world, and they became very excited  about the news of all the revolutions that had happened in France and North America. So they and others decided that they would try to start a revolution and gain their independence. After a lot of fighting due to the revolution a man by the name of Morelos came along. He wanted not democracy, but instead a mix of democracy and socialism, but this wouldn't happen until a century later, due to his death. A few years later, Mexico was freed for Spanish rule, but their independence came through "clinical opportunism, and not because of popular democratic movement. Simón Bolívar was a man born into wealth in Venezuela, at the northern end of South America. In 1819, when Spanish troops still help a majority of Venezuela, Bolívar formed a plan to free Colombia. In winning the people made him the president of Columbia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. While Bolívar "Liberated" northern South America, General José de San Martín did the same for the south. San Martín then took the next big task of liberation, and that was the conquest of Peru. But this was also a problem, because San Martín didn't believe in representative government, instead he believed that Peru required a king, and he believed to be that king. But the Creoles disagreed, and so did his friends, so they abandoned him. Bolívar and San Martín were two very different people, and Bolívar didn't want to help San Martín take Peru; he wanted all of the glory, and wanted nothing to do with the General. Later San Martín died in Europe where he fled, after being disappointed. With his path to glory cleared, Bolívar went to Lima, Where he got prepared to take his glory. He and his men won two major battles, after which the Spanish governor surrendered, but he didn't stop there, Bolívar's forces then went on to beat another spanish army, in the last South American, which was in the center of the continent. This area was later named Bolivia, in honer of the Liberator. But Bolívar's triumphs soon came to an end, when he eurged the former colonies to unite and form a single nation, but only four of them agreed, and eventually let the plan die. After his idea, the nations in which he had freed from Spain made war on each other. Bolívar later died to to his health. Democracy didn't take place in Spanish America for the next century and a half. Later ranchers, miners, businessmen and generals ran the former colonies by them selfs, to suit their own needs. Democracy only took root in much of Spanish America, in the last half of the twentieth century. But since the 1700s, democracy has slowly spread across the world.  


This is a painting of the French Revolution





This is a panting of Simón Bolívar