Success or Failure?

   Following the French Revolution, many other revolutions were starting to take place. The essential question for this unit is were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really a failure as historians have said? We started learning about these revolutions by looking at this quote by Alexis de Tocqueville,"We are sleeping on a volcano. Do you not see that the Earth trembles anew. A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon." The class came together to analyze the quote. We said that liberals and nationalists are the sleeping volcano, the winds are the ideas of liberalism and nationalism that are spreading among the people in Europe who are unhappy, the storm on the horizon is the actual revolution that is about to come, and the Earth is trembling anew because the countries are unstable. The class then broke up into groups and we made time lines bout successes and failures. My groups timeline is below.

    The timeline starts all the way at the left with complete failure and ends at the right with complete success. In the middle is not really a success or failure and the others are partial failure and partial success. 

   Now to get started learning about the actual revolutions. we were again put into groups and each group was assigned a revolution. My group had the revolution of France in 1830.  The goals of this revolution were to extend suffrage, or establish voting rights, to win power for the middle class citizens, and to gain a constitution that would recognize the rights of the people. The opponent of this revolution was Charles X, he was the younger brother of Louis XVIII who died in 1824. “The liberty of the periodical press is suspended.…In consequence no newspaper or periodical or semi-periodical work, established or to be established, without discrimination as to the matters which shall be treated therein, shall appear, either in Paris or in the departments,”. This quote from The July Ordinances, July 25, 1830 By Charles X and His Ministers is telling the public that all rights they had to voice their opinions are now abolished. Charles X angered the people when he did this, he was attempting to keep the people in check, and to make sure that ideas of revolt couldn't spread. The outcome of this revolution was the people of France receiving a new king named Louis Philippe, who was also referred to as “The Citizen King”. “The Duke of Orleans [Louis Philippe] is a prince devoted to the cause of the Revolution…The Duke of Orleans is a citizen king, …It is from the French people that he will hold the crown.” This is an excerpt from Theirs, Adolphe.2 “Orleanist Manifesto..., and it tells that the new king was voted on. Louis Philippe extended suffrage but only for the wealthier of Frances citizens. Under his reign the upper bourgeoisie prospered, and the majority of the people were still unable to vote. The French Revolution of 1830 falls under the category of either a neutral revolution or moderately successful revolution; things were changed for the better, but not necessarily for everyone that was asking for the change.

 All in all, I think that the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 were not failures like historians have said. I think that the only one I would call a failure is the Decembrists Revolt. The others were not successes, but definitely were not complete failures. The people were able to put up a fight against their government and see changes although the changes still didn't satisfy everyone. Even if the change didn't last long, the people were still able to get what they wanted across to the government in order for them to make a change. The people of this time were able to make their voices heard.

    

   

Balancing the Peace

   The Congress of Vienna was a peace conference in 1814 that was held in Austria. France, Prussia, Austria, Russia, and Great Britain gathered to come up with a peace treaty following Napoleon's defeat. In class we started with the essential question that asked what people should do if their power is threatened. We then learned about Klemens von Metternich and his relationship with Napoleon. We watched a clip of a movie where Metternich and Napoleon had a meeting were Metternich was seeking peace with Napoleon in Dresden. Then as a class we discussed the Congress of Vienna and viewed a interactive map of the changes in Europe and the land boundaries of that time. By the end of the class, after looking at all these activities, we can up with an idea as to what people do to protect their power.
   
   When powerful people feel like their power is being threatened they will first fight to keep their power, and then create a balance of power that so no one will try to take over and threaten their own power again. As we learned from our sources in class, Metternich, who is an official from Austria, power was being threatened by Napoleons conquests. Other big powers in Europe such as Prussia and Russia, were feeling threatened as well. Surrounding countries held The Congress of Vienna to try to make peace. After a long battle Napoleon was finally exiled to Elba then Saint Helena. The Congress then decided to balance their power between themselves. This was to prevent anyone from taking over land like Napoleon had and causing chaos. Also, as seen in the interactive map, the congress divided land among the four big powers, Austria, Prussia, France, and Russia, and made new boarders for these countries. The government officials were happy with these new changes and some order was restored after the Congress of Vienna.

   In my opinion, what the attendees of the Congress of Vienna did was effective and the right choice. I think they should have not completely just make decisions and take away land from other countries like Italy because it wasn't fair, but for the most part what they did prevented revolutions for the next 40+ years. I think that the people with the most power always should make sacrifices and give up some of their power to others in order to keep any issues from arising. Napoleon had gained so much power he just fell apart and people were upset everywhere with some of what he was doing. What really makes a powerful leader, is being one that is loved by his people, so giving up sacrifices is necessary for this to happen.


             
Napoleon Bonaparte
http://cdn.medindia.net/health-images/nepolean.jpg                Klemons von Metternich
                                                                                  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Graf_Clemens_Metternich.jpg 

The Most Ideal of the Ideologies

   To begin our lesson on the ideologies of the 19th century, we were given an essential question. The essential question is as follows, "What were the major political ideologies of the 19th century and how did they influence social and political action?". To learn more about this topic, we started by looking up the terms liberalism, conservatism and nationalism. We took a few notes on these terms then our class came together to discuss them. we then discussed what the word ideology actually meant. Ideologies are ideas that are formed by someone or a group of people, that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy. To better understand these three ideologies, my class was broken up into groups to research them. Each ideology was covered by two groups that were responsible to present a sixty second presentation. My group was assigned liberalism. For our presentation, we decided to use the chatter pix to explain our ideology. A screenshot from our final presentation is below.

                                          A screenshot from our video were John Locke was talking
  Our presentation explains the creation as well as what liberalism means. Liberalism is the idea that the middle class has a say in government and that everyone has god given natural rights that need to be protected. Liberalism prevented tyrannic rule and promoted freedom of though and natural rights. However, liberals did not want a democracy, instead they left out the women and poor but gave the middle class a say. It influenced the social and political action because the liberals had opposite ideas from the conservatives and made the middle class happy, but not the poor.  

  After we presented our presentation, we would watch other groups presentations to learn about the other ideologies. Another ideology we learned about is nationalism. Nationalism is when a nation wants to be united and the best and strongest nation it can be. They wanted to be strong and able to conquer others and drive out foreign rulers. Nationalists believed that people were bound together by sharing the same culture, language, and history. The nationalists would not focus on social classes and power as much as how they should all be united as one strong nation. The last ideology we learned about is conservatism. Conservatives believe that the traditional political and economic ways should be kept in use. They do not believe in reform and do not want a revolution. They wanted to preserve the system of aristocracy and set social structures. They liked traditional monarchies. This influenced social and political action because it was giving power to specific people like the monarch.


    

Conqueror of Countries

    Recently, my class started reviewing the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. The essential question for this lesson is, "What was Napoleon's impact on the social, economic, and political systems of Europe?" To get started on the life of Napoleon, we watched the video below,


While we watched this video, we took notes on all the places Napoleon had conquered. My class came up with a long list that included places like Italy, Belgium, Holland, Spain and many more. This helped us realizes that Napoleon was a strong leader if he was able to conquer all of these places during his lifetime. We then looked at two views from different people on Napoleon. The first view was from a women named Madame de Stael. She was a member of the mobility and the daughter of King Louis XVI's former financial adviser. Madame de Stael goes on to talk about how Napoleon would persuade men to go into battle with him and when he became head of government, he had no formal plan for a universal monarchy. The main reason Madame de Stael disliked Napoleon is because he made the classes more even which was a negative to those like de Stael in the higher class. The other view is from Marshal Michel Ney. Ney was an officer that served closely to Napoleon for many years. Ney supported Napoleon by calling him things like sovereign, and says the Napoleon has the right to rule over the country of France. Lastly, we viewed the image below and highlighted Napoleon did that made an impact on the whole world and on France. The text highlighted in pink represents pink and the text highlighted in orange represents the rest of the world. 





    From these sources, we can see how Napoleon impacted the areas in the Essential Question. He impacted the political system in a positive way by his ideas of meritocracy which rewarded people based on their talents and hard work, not because of their social rank. Napoleon impacted the social system by giving more people the rights to property and access to education. Lastly, he impacted the economic system in a positive way by removing trade barriers and stimulating industry. He also was able to steal money from Italy, and created the Bank of France which involved having a budget system and massive public work systems. At first look at Napoleon Bonaparte, you might think more along the line of Madame de Stael, and think that he is a greedy tyrant that will trick and force people into war with him. But, when you see how a lot of his actions have greatly impacted France in a positive way. In the words of the former Duke of Wellington, (Napoleon's greatest nemesis), "Napoleon was the greatest general that ever lived".  

Which Way Works?

     The other day in class, we did an activity that would later connect to our newest lesson plan. We were trying to understand the ideas of Karl Marx and Adam Smith on the economy. My teacher started giving us two pieces of chocolate, with the exception on two students that got eight pieces. This represented the 90% of poor citizens during this time, while the other 10% being wealthy. My teacher then instructed us to play rock-paper-scissor. If we lost the game, we would have to give up a piece of chocolate. If we won the game, we would receive a piece. When all of your candy was gone you would have to sit down. The trade of candy and our freedom of competition represents Adam Smiths idea of the the invisible hand which found out would be Capitalism. The tournament went on until only a few students had the majority of the candy. We came together as a class after and concluded that the students that started with more candy had an advantage over everyone else. My teacher then unexpectedly collected the candy and redistributed the candy so everyone had two pieces. This was representing Karl Marx's idea of socialism and how the government would take all materials and redistribute them equally among the traders. The people who had won the candy for themselves thought this was unfair because they worked for the candy and then they had to share it. A question was then posed that if we had a chance to play rock-paper-scissors again to potentially gain or loose candy, would you do it? When we all agreed to sharing an equal amount, this represented communism and the government no longer being needed. This activities purpose was to connect us to the theories or capitalism, socialism and communism. I liked doing this activity because it made me more interested in the lesson because it was a change from just taking notes. Also, every step we took during the activity connected to something we were learning so it was easy to follow. 

   Since we now know Karl Marx's idea of socialism and the theory of communism, we can compare it to the ideas of Adam Smith. To get to know a little about Smiths ideas, we watched the video below:



This video talks about Adam Smith's idea of "the invisible hand". The idea of the "invisible hand" is that government should leave people alone to buy and sell as they please. This leaves sellers to compete with each other and the consumers would be drawn to the supplier who is selling the most for as little money; almost by a invisible hand. This theory and Capitalism are the same thing. Smith thought that Capitalism would be the best plan to help with the poor because the prices of good quality supplies would go down due to supplier competition. Karl Marx argued that this theory does not help the poor and they will later revolt. Marx thought the best way to help the poor was by creating a system themselves that would end in everyone being equal. This would eliminate class division.

    I think that the idea of Adam Smith's would be the best way to go. The idea leaves government out of the equation, so nobody would have anyone to blame but themselves. Also, prices would go down in result from suppliers having to compete with each other. Also, those who have worked the hardest would see the most benefits because they are not bound to be equal than those who have not worked so hard. I think it would help people realize that the government cant control everything and that people had to work hard for themselves.



 

Working Women

            Recently, we learned about an experiment that was used during the Industrial Revolution to convince girls to work in the Lowell mills. This experiment was used because unlike Great Britain, the U.S. did not have an abundance of cheap labor. The Lowell Experiment was a way to convince young girls and their families to let the girls leave home and come work in the mills. The mill recruiters would promise families to watch over the girls and instill a mature code of behavior. The girls would get paid and send home some money that would help their families cover their debts and expenses. Mill recruiters would make going to work at the mills seem like an amazing experience. The girls benefited from going to the mills by being bale to get some spending money themselves so they could buy whatever they would want. Also, the girls time worked in the mills were temporary and they would leave as soon they were old enough to marry. The downside to working in the mills were that the girls were separated from their families and would miss part of their childhoods. The girls would also face wage cuts and get little pay for all of the long hours of work. Lastly, the mills were a very dangerous place to work. Many cases of working in mills would often lead to serious injury or even death. During this time, mill owners would feel that they could do anything they felt would improve their own status because they knew that working in the mills were the only jobs most of the girls would ever have. This reflected views of women during this time because it shows that women were not valued as workers and the mill owners could treat the women as they pleased. Eventually, the wage cuts left women to start revolting against the mill owners. These revolts left a mark on labor rights for the future years of the Lowell mills.

Above is a picture of some girls that worked in the Lowell mills during

The Lowell Experiment and the women's worker revolt.

Google Hangout

     This week in class, we got the opportunity to chat with Jamie, an expert/explainer from the Museum of Science and Industry. To start with this activity, we watched a video of Jamie giving a tour of the museum. He showed all of the old machines that were used during the Industrial Revolution. My class then searched the web for some of the definitions to the machines Jamie was talking about. We then made questions that we could ask Jamie when it was time to video chat him.
 
      After doing some more backup information, we were ready to start our chat. Jamie started by going around to each machine and explained how they were used. Jamie said that the earliest machinery was a loom that was used in houses. When more product was in demand, people were forced to abandon the at-home looms and go to factories. We learned how cotton was turned into product starting with the hopper feeder scutcher and ending with the flyers. Jamie also talked about the living conditions while working in the mills. Children were forced to go work at the mills to pay off their families debt. While working, the workers would get ill and physical deformities from standing all day and breathing in the contaminated air. Eventually, factory owner would take orphans form the local orphanage to do the work because it was cheaper than hiring other workers. Jamie then went on to talk about his work at the museum. He wanted to work at the museum because he has always been interested in the Industrial Revolution. He walks around the museum giving tours and answering questions for visitors. My class was very fortunate to get an online tour.
   
    Overall, I thought this experience was very helpful for better understanding life during the Industrial Revolution. It was helpful to see the machines not in a picture and to have each piece be explained. One drawback to the online hangout was that the Internet would sometimes cut out which would make it hard to hear what Jamie had to say. I hope that in the future my class will be able to do another web chat from and online source because it gives us more first hand information without actually be there in person.

A Walk in the Museum

This week in class, we were broken up into groups to create an exhibit for a museum that would help us better understand some of the aspect that went along with the Industrial Revolution. For our exhibit, my group was given the topic of child labor. To the right is the final product of my group's museum exhibit we worked on in class. Each group was given artifacts that correspond with your groups topic. My group and I began analyzing the pictures and notes that were given to us so we could write what each item is about. We then started to create the poster. We put on each artifact with their summaries and we then added other decoration that we thought would fit the topic. We chose to do a black background with chains going from each artifact because it represented the dark and depressing state these children were in while working in the factories. We added things like cotton balls and fabric to represent coal and textiles that the children worked with. My group wanted to really give off the feeling that these children were put through harsh and dangerous condition. After we were done and hung the poster, we got the check out the other groups posters.
     The first group I visited had the topic of family-used looms. Families would have their own looms in their houses that became very valuable. As new inventions were created and mills were becoming more common, the home looms were not up to working standards anymore. This caused a lot of families to move into the city and get jobs in factories.
     Another group I visited had the topic of transportation. I learned that the invention of steam engines helped increase transportation by introducing railroad systems and steam boats. Workers would use these new inventions to transport goods at a faster rate.
    The next group I visited had the topic of living conditions during the Industrial Revolution. I learned that with all the factories producing large amounts of goods, it caused major cities to become polluted. Workers who lived in the cities would become very ill and living conditions were becoming more and more expensive.
    The last group I visited had the topic of slavery during the Industrial Revolution. Slaves had a huge role in the productivity of the factories. With the increase of demand of goods, more slaves were put to work in the factories.

Industrialized Inventions

        For my first unit in History 10, my class is learning about the Industrial Revolution. We started the unit by watching a brief video that gave us information about the Revolution. To watch the video, press here. The essential question for this post is what was 'revolutionary' about the revolution? We can categorize the things most effected in the Industrial Revolution into four groups, people, technology, resources and transportation. For this post, I am going to be talking about the two that I think are most important, people and technology.
         Before the Industrial Revolution, most people were farmers. Actually, about 80% of people were farmers who sold their crops for money or just used the goods for their own families. Today, only 1% of people are recorded farmers. This all has to do with the way the Industrial Revolution helped make farming easier and more efficient. Techniques were made to help the farmers like starting using fertilizers, making fields larger, and tools were made to harvest more with the use of less farmers. Also, goods could now be eaten do to the new techniques and fertilizers. Enclosures were also starting to be built to keep out peasant farmers to create more room for cultivation. Also, there was more room for sheep pastures which created more wool to be collected. With all the surplus amount of goods, the health of the people was increasing. Famine was no longer a problem and the birth rate increased with giving birth being safer. The Industrial Revolution made it so people could do their jobs faster and more efficiently.
         During the Industrial Revolution, new technology was being made that made doing jobs faster. Many new machines were being made especially for the clothing industry that allowed making clothes easier and with less people. Inventions like the  spinning jenny, flying shuttle and the water frame all increased productivity in the industry. These machines ushered in the new era of factories. More machines could be stored at once which caused more clothes to be made. With the factories in full swing, more electrical energy was needed. The problem was solved with the invention of the steam engine that made electrical energy by burning coal to boats, power trains and the new factories. New ways to make iron cheaper and stronger were possible thanks to the Darby family. The iron was used on railroads which helped transport goods faster. Below, are some of the machines invented during the Industrial Revolution.

                                                           The spinning jenny: Link here.                                   

 The water frame: Link here.

                                                           The flying shuttle: Link here.

Exploring the Web

    Over the past couple of days, my class has been learning about online search engines and the reliable and effective way to use them. We practiced using the search engines to teach us how to search and use online resources responsibly.
    The first activity my class did was called a Google a Day. This activity was powered by Google to give users a chance to use the search engine to find the answers to random questions. To try a Google a Day, press here. By doing this activity, we learned how to effectively search for the answers to series of randomized questions. I liked doing this activity because it was a creative way of learning how to use search engines to find the right answers. The most frustrating part of a Google a Day is really figuring out what the question was asking. After finding out what the question was asking, its was then hard to find which link to get the correct information. I learned from this activity how to correctly search and find answers on Google.
     Accuracy, authenticity and reliability are all things to take into account when searching for online sources. Accuracy means the quality or state of being correct or precise. Authenticity means being genuine and not copied. Reliability means the ability to be depended upon. We use these to get good source information. Recently, we visited a website for the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. We put our new knowledge to the test by seeing if the site was accurate, authentic and reliable. This site was not accurate because there is no such thing as a Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. It was authentic because the information was all original from the site. The information was not reliable because the author and the source site for the website was not credible. To visit the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus website, click here.
     Overall, this week has made me feel more confident about finding information on the web.

            The "Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus", click here to view.                                                                                  

    

Hello, My Name is Student

       To start off the year I should introduce myself. My name is Jamie Callahan. I am a high school sophomore. My History 10 blog will include many blogs having to do with the things we are learning in class at the time. My first task given was to decide what makes a good teacher. What makes a great teacher is such a hard question because they have so many jobs. A teachers main job is obviously to teach their students curriculum and make them advance in that subject. But, I think a job that not all teachers take is the task of teaching lessons outside the curriculum that can stay in a students mind for a lasting period in time. Things like social advice, advances in the world of technology or even just those small random facts have always stuck in my mind after the numerous years in school. When I think of some past teachers that I really admired, the name Ms. Gilbert stands out the most in my mind. Even though eight grade earth science was never my strong suit, I always looked forward to that class. The way Ms. Gilbert involved the class with the learning and always kept the subject interesting made learning about rocks just a little more bearable. Even when I was totally lost and confused, she was always there after school willing to help me until I was fully prepared. My favorite thing about Ms. Gilbert though is the talks we shared after the lesson was done. She cared so much about her students problems and was willing to help them through rough times made her a very trusted and admiral teacher. The thing that my teachers could do this year that would help me immensely is just being available for extra help when I need it. I know that there is nothing more over whelming for a student than having to move on from a lesson they don't fully understand. With just some of the things just mentioned, a student could become much more successful.
      
         On author and Youtuber John Greens youtube channel named vlogbrothers, he posted a video called "An Open Letter to Students Returning to School". This video goes into great detail about the importance of education on world and how it is the duty for students to use there education to do great things. I agree with John Greens thinking because amazing inventions that we use today were made from the educations of schools. If we use the education that we get today, we could have the newest invention breakthrough. I plan to utilize my education to the fullest this year. My hopes are to be on honor roll all four quarters. As well as my many sports go, my goals remain optimistic. I hope to learn new tumbling passes and tricks in cheering and gymnastics as well as obtain enough points in track to receive a varsity letter. I know I can reach all my goals this year if I put in all my effort. Staying focused is probably going to be the hardest challenge when trying to reach my goals, but with time I will be able to stay productive and become successful.  I know I can make this year a great one.