Case Study 3: The Rest of the West

 Week: January 10- January 14

 The French Revolution 

Darry King Live: Guillotine Meets Charles XVI's Head on Prezi

French Revolution

The French Revolution of 1789 was one of the many revolutions that will happen to France. France has been in absolute monarchy for the past century, and the French people began to dislike that idea after knowing about United States. Enlightenment ideas started to appear into French people. They wanted to have equality, liberty, and justice. So they began to protest against the government. Also, the peasants were very much mistreated by the government. French had lost many wars to many different countries in the 18^th century, so they needed a lot of money paying back for the war. The French government didn’t put the taxes on the wealthy nobles, priest, or merchants, the put heavy taxes on the third estate. During that time in France, they had three estates, divisions. The first estate is the clergy, priests, and bishops. The owned about 10-15% of the land in France. The second estate is the nobles. These nobles owned about 30 percent of the land in France. Finally, the third estate is the merchants, manufacturers, bankers, doctors, and lawyers. This estate made up around 25 million people. Not all of the third estate people were in poverty only the peasants, some had a pretty decent living style. Soon, many French people gather around the fort Bastille. Out of terror, King Louis the 16^th tried an attempt to run to Luxemburg for help from the Austrians. He only made it to Vareness before captured by French revolutionists. Another great invention during this time period was the Guillotine. The Guillotine is a quick and fast way to end one’s life. 

Week: January 17- January 21
Geopolitics 

The Geopolitics of Europe at that the 19^th century is very confusing. There were wars going around Europe that shaped up Europe today. A chain of effects led to the revolution of Europe. Monarchy was almost destroyed during the revolution of 1848. It was all started with the French Revolution. Soon after that people from different countries in Europe looked at France and the young United States as examples. At the same time colonialism, conservatism, anti-Semitism, and liberalism were all the major factors that shaped up Europe during the 1800’s.

Many different countries followed the steps of the French Revolution in 1789. Italy was divided up into different many parts by Austria, Kingdom of Two Sicilies, Kingdom of Sardinia, and many more different countries. However the Italian people created a revolutionary group called Carbonari. During the Revolution of 1848, there was chaos all around Europe. Many different countries were all turning against monarchy. During that time Mazzini and Garibaldi, two leaders of the Carbonari, successfully created the Roman Republic, but soon it was taken down by the French Army. It may seem that the hope of unification seems like a dream, but when Camillo di Cavour came it seemed near reach. Cavour was elected as the prime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia. He was able to get Napoleon III, leader of France, to help attack Austria. Thus, the Kingdom of Sardinia was able to take some of the lands that make up the northern half of Italy. Later in 1860, Garibaldi led a group of people against the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. It was an easy win for Garibaldi, since the government of Two Sicilies had been long corrupted. In 1861 Garibaldi shook hands with Victor Emanuel II, the leader of Kingdom of Sardinia; they made the Kingdom of Italy that same year. There were still parts of Italy missing after all these wars. Venetia was controlled by Austria during this time, but Prussia and Austria was in war in 1866. Italy agreed to help Prussia, so that they can get Venetia. Rome at that time was controlled by France, they also went into war with Prussia in 1870. Italy marched straight into Rome without any trouble.

Realpolitik and Kulturkampf are two big ideas that dominated Prussia during the remaining half of the 19^th century. These ideas are thought up by Otto Von Bismarck. In his first half of his life, he always carried a bottle of whiskey around. He didn’t have any sense at all. Realpolitik is a system of politics that is very strict. It doesn’t have human feelings in it. This system is very “real”. Kulturkampf is a way of giving the priests and bishops no power. Bismarck doesn’t want the religious people to get involve with politics. Thus, during this time a lot of priest and bishops were told to move out of the country. Bismarck had gotten a lot of his lands through foul play. He made it seemed like everyone should join him. His power was removed in 1888 by the young Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II, he died in 1898.

Racism can be seen with the “Dreyfus Case”. The case is about a Jewish general name Alfred Dreyfus. He was accused of leaking secret information over to Germany. He went to trial, and it went against him. He was sentenced to an island of South Africa. After much investigation done by Georges Picquart, the leader of the French Intelligence center, Alfred was brought back to trial again. This time he was proven innocent. However the real criminal didn’t receive any punishment, he was allowed to leave the country. Anti-Semitism is another way to say the hatred toward Jews. People believe that Dreyfus was sent to trial was because of his Jewish background.

Colonialism was a big idea during the 19^th century. After North and South America colonialism in the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th century, Europeans decided to move their attention toward Africa. In Berlin conference of 1884, major powers discussed about what should be done with Africa. 14 countries attended this meeting including France, Germany, Britain, and Portugal. Africa is divided up into bits after this conference.

 

Week: January 24- January 28

Economy

        One of the things that were very shocking to me was that economy is actually not physically real. You can’t feel or touch economy. Bills, coins, and money are only ways of representing economy. Economy is something that we as humans develop, and we kind of made it too. There was economy around 100 A.D. but it wasn’t as complicated as today’s economy. From my belief economy came from scarcity. People can’t have anything they want, and it is a fact. The world can’t dig out two tons of gold. So this is where economy comes to play. According to http://www.moneyinstructor.com/lesson/whatiseconomics.asp, economy is the study of how a society uses its resources to satisfy its wants and needs. This situation is very similar to supply and demand. If a lot of people demand or want a certain object, then they might go to extreme to get it done. This is a good place for business to come in. Major corporations make this situation a lot more often, thus they could make a lot more money. The idea that economy is actually not physically real can be find in the article “Beyond The 19^th Century in Economics” by Bill Collier. It stated, “There is no “pie” to cut up. Wealth is not like oil, wealth is as abundant as the wind or sunlight. When we act as if wealth is a pie to be cut up we actually retard the further creation of new wealth! The idea that there can only be a “few” wealthy people is based on a mindset that prevents people from believing they can cvreate new wealth. ” This quote also means that wealth doesn’t have a physical value it can be created. There is no certain amount of money; there is indefinite amount of money around the world. Whenever we say that a person is rich, it is only taking that person compare to the average of the other people. Maybe one day after 100 years, even the poorest people will have the wealth of Bill Gates.

        For the TED video, it was very shocking for me to find out that a prize won’t guarantee that people will work faster. According to him, he believes that people will work better whenever they work for the sake of working. I strongly believe that if we take 20% of our work time like Google, we can develop better new ideas. During those periods we have a time to “free style”, we could do anything we want. Whenever it comes to creative thinking, people can’t do well with prizes. However when it is just a straight forward answer, I believe that people can work really well with prizes.

        I believe that we need to take the idea of 20% free time into KAS, because it will be very beneficial to me. In 19^th century Humanities class, I could see that happening a lot with our own portfolios. It should be broaden out to the whole school. I am not saying that out of the five days of school, we shouldn’t come to one of them. I believe that it will be better, if we get time in each class to work on something we like. Something that can let us learn the subject, but also show our skills that can’t regularly be seen in school.

1/31/2011-2/4/2011

Chinese New Year

2/7/2011-2/11/2011

Karl Heinrich Marx

(May 5, 1818-March 14, 1883)

His family was middle class, and he was born in a city name Trier in Germany. Karl had went to law school whenever he was 17. Karl Marx is one of the most influential socialist during the 19th century. However his Marxism ideas would not be popular until after his death which happened in 1883. Today, about half of our world's population are actually Marxists. Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany to a Jewish family. However his dad abandon his Jewish tradition in order to escape Antisemitism at that time. He enrolled to Law School at University of Bonn in the age of 17. Marx got into many troubles there, so his dad decided to sent him to the University of Berlin. He started on journalism in Germany, but he wasn't successful until he became an editor for The Rhenish Gazette. He attended many different Socialist meeting during that time. Karl Marx moved to Paris in 1843 with his wife Jenny von Westphalen. He got a job as a editor for a political journal called Franco-German Annals. Karl Marx became a communist in Paris, and he was shocked to see so much poverty in France. In 1844, he wrote Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts. This book talks about the isolation happened in a capitalist society, there is three types according to Karl Marx. First, the workers are isolated from their works. Second, a worker does not feel as himself whenever he is working. Finally, in a capitalist environment people marked other people as their enemy. Karl Marx made good friend with Friedrich Engels. They agreed on almost every topic. Karl Marx and Engels moved to Brussels, Belgium in 1845, because they were expelled from France due to their beliefs. Karl Marx spend large amount of time in Brussels thinking about the philosophy of a capitalist society. He visited London many times with Engels. He also started a Communist League for Europe. He attended a meeting in London around 1847, their goal is to make the proletariat dominate the society. Soon, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles started to work on the The Communist Manifesto. The book talks about the change of social status over the last century. It also states that there will be a revolution in which the proletariat would over throw the bourgeoisie. Then there would no longer be a class society, everyone would be on the same level. Right after Karl Marx published The Communist Manifesto in the February of 1848, he was expelled from Belgium. He moved to Cologne, and he started to edit for the New Rhenish Gazette. However, he was soon expelled again from Cologne due to his belief. Marx moved to England, the only place that he can go. The prime minister of England allowed him to stay, because he believed in the freedom of speech and expression. Karl and his family live in poverty during that time, they depended on Engels' income. Marx got a job as an editor for a socialist journal called New York Daily Tribune. He was able to have a stable income for sometime, but the journal came to an end in the 1860's. Karl begin to have money problems again. He rejected job offers in Germany. He started to work on a new book in London, it is called Das Capital. The progress was very slow, he did finish it before his death. The book talks about the revolution that would took place in class society.

Friedrich Engels

(11/28/1820-8/5/1895) 

Friedrich was born into a German industrialist family. Whenever he was young, he was sent to England to look after his father's cotton factory in Manchester. He was shocked like Karl Marx about the poverty around London. He published  Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 describing the situation in England at that time. He moved to France soon after he finished publishing the book. He met Karl Marx in Paris through a radical journal called Franco-German Annals around 1844, they were both editors for that magazine. They were expelled from France in 1845 due to their beliefs. They moved to Brussels, Belgium, because at that time more freedom was allowed in that country. Karl Marx depended a lot on Freidrich Engles at that time financially. Karl Marx set up a Communist Correspondence Committee in Belgium around 1846. Marx wanted to unite all of the socialist leaders around the Europe. Both Marx and Engles attended a Communist League meeting in London in 1847. This meeting got Engels and Marx start writing The Communist Manifesto. This book focused on the division of social classes in Europe at that time. They published the book in February of 1848, and soon they were expelled from Belgium. They moved to Cologne, and they became editors for the New Rhenish Gazette. They only lasted there for sometime, before being expelled from Cologne in 1849. Karl Marx moved to England, and he continued his writing about the economy. While Engles moved back to Germany to work for his dad, so he can support both his and Karl's family. Engels published many different books such as The Peasant War in Germany, Anti-Dühring, and the Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.

Capitalism 

Capitalism defined by Merriam-Webster is an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market. According to Karl Marx, Capitalism will create separation in a society. There are three types of separation in a Capitalist society. One is the separation of the workers from their work. Second is the separation of the workers from themselves. They won’t feel like themselves whenever they work. People believe that Capitalism originated from mercantilism. Mercantilism is the belief that how the wealth of a country depends on the measure of the amount of goods. Mercantilism believes that wealth is actually limited while more modern day people believe there is no such thing as a limited amount of wealth.

This picture is my personal economy in present day. My wants influence comes from commercial, peers, and my role models. While my needs influence comes from me. The wants and needs are made through factories. Many news reports have said that the factory workers worked below minimum wages in different countries. Now, these products don’t get to me directly. They go through a middle-man which is Company A and Company B. Since there are two companies selling the same things, there would be competition. It is the competition in which it makes the economy striving in my opinion. The competition makes the wages of everyone different. This is where the zero-sum idea comes in. This idea states that the low-class’s lost and the high-class’s gain would add up to zero. So the net value of the final economy is actually zero. However, I don’t believe that economy work this way. I believe economy is unlimited. There is an unlimited amount of money in the world. We consider a person rich due to what the person is compared to. Right now Bill Gates is rich compared to us, but maybe 20 years later everyone would be as rich as Bill Gates. Then at that time, they would just be considered as average.

 Socialism 

Socialism defined by Merriam Webster is any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. Marx also has a theory of his own about the future economy. He believes that Capitalism would eventually collapse due to internal problems. Socialism would replace Capitalism eventually in time. Soon, there would be no more social classes, there would only one. He would call this time pure communism, or the “Dictatorship of Proletariat”.  I believe socialism would never replace capitalism due to human nature. Humans are just not satisfied with being equal with each other. This can be proven with the game "Win as Much as You Can". This is a game where people have the choice of working together and gaining the same little amount, or working alone betraying other people would get you a lot more. Usually at the end of the game, there would always be some people who won a lot and some who lost a lot. This also shows a zero-sum gain. I believe this revolution of Capitalism into Socialism would never take place.

My take on what socialism would be like.

 Capitalism VS. Socialism

Essay of the Week (Rough Draft)

Capitalism

      Economy is very vital to a nation, so it has the power to completely destroy a certain country. Capitalism according to Merriam-Webster is an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.Capitalist economy will not lead to a corrupted nation, it will lead a nation into continuous growth. Countries that are dominating in the world economics usually have a capitalist economy. Examples are United States, Luxemburg, and Norway are all capitalist countries that ranked in the top ten according to CIA World Fact book. Nations that have a capitalist economy have three major benefits. First, capitalist economy gives the people the ability of ownership. Second, countries as a whole will benefit from capitalist economy. Third, a capitalist economy gives freedom to the people of that nation.
    Ownership is a right that people should not be taken for granted.  In a capitalist country people have the ability to spend what they own. They are not forced to share everything with other people. People might believe at the beginning that sharing right now is a good thing, but eventually people would grow tired of the idea of sharing. The rich people would start to feel unfair whenever they are forced to donate money to the poor. The government has the power to take some money from certain people. This problem has the potential of destroying a country’s economy.
    Not only does the individual of a certain country improve, the whole country as one will improve also. Sometimes in a socialist country there is almost no competition between two companies, because the government sometimes may only allow one company selling a certain object or service. However in a capitalist county, there is more freedom given to the people. People called an economic system that has less governmental control a free market. In a free market situation, people are more like to compete. A country will strive from competition.
    Freedom is an important essence of life. It is another right that people take for granted today. Socialist limits the power of an individual. Sometimes their rights are removed from them, because the government needs to balance out the economy. A person can’t open any type of company that he wants in a socialist economy. He needs to apply for it over the government, and he need to wait for the government’s approval before even he can even do a thing. Government stick their noses in almost every transaction for a socialist economy.
    Economics is very important to a country, because it pretty much shapes up a country. Capitalism may have some faults such as the zero-sum idea, but it is still a lot better than all the others. One of the major advantages of capitalism is that it gives the people of a nation freedom. Another major advantage is that not only does the individual of a country strive the whole country becomes better as well. Finally, in a capitalist economy it gives you the right to own your own things. Economy is something that can’t be seen. However it has the power to destroy a country.

 Capitalism VS. Socialism

Essay of the Week (Final Draft) 

Economy is very vital to a nation, so it has the power to completely destroy a certain country. Capitalism according to Merriam-Webster is an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market. Free market is a very important term when talking about economy. Free market means an economy that doesn’t have much governmental control. The opposite of free market is controlled market. Controlled market allows governmental intervention with the economy. Capitalist economy will not lead to a corrupted nation; it will lead a nation into continuous growth. Countries that are dominating in the world economics usually have a capitalist economy. Examples are United States, Luxemburg, and Norway, countries that lean toward capitalism in their economy, ranked in the top ten according to CIA World Fact book. Nations that have a capitalist economy have three major benefits. First, capitalist economy gives the people the ability of ownership. Second, countries as a whole will benefit from capitalist economy. Third, a capitalist economy gives freedom to the people of that nation.

    Ownership is a right that people should not be taken for granted.  In a capitalist country people have the ability to spend what they own. They are not forced to share everything with other people. People might believe at the beginning that sharing right now is a good thing, but eventually people would grow tired of the idea of sharing. The rich people would start to feel unfair whenever they are forced to donate money to the poor. The government has the power to take some money from certain people. Another major idea with ownership is copyright. Copyright is a set of certain proprieties given to the owner of a work. In a very socialist economy, these rights would be taken by the government. This would be unfair to the people who took the time to develop these new objects. If this problem continue on, people would be discouraged to make and invent new things. Thus, a country can’t strive when people are not willing to work for their country. These problems has the potential of destroying a country’s economy.
    Not only does the individual of a certain country improve, the whole country as one will improve also. Competition makes a country stronger. In a capitalist country, there will always be competition between two or more companies that produce the same thing. Examples are Nike and Adidas, Apple and Microsoft, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, McDonald and Burger King, and a lot more. If there was only Microsoft making the computer software, then there wouldn’t be Windows Vista or Windows Seven. It is the Apple company that made Microsoft to produce new software each to attract customers. After a while Apple would come up with some new software that would top Windows Seven. This relationship between Apple and Microsoft is what makes a capitalist economy strive. Sometimes in a socialist country there is almost no competition between two companies, because the government only allow one company selling a certain product or service. Nothing would push that certain company to work harder, because they are all ready the king of that product or service. A socialist economy will not increase or decrease, but the capitalist economy will increase at a much faster pace than a socialist economy country. Individuals can also strive in a capitalist economy. There would be more job opportunities when there are more companies open around a country. So, there are more chances for individuals to live a wealthy life. In a socialist country, there would be limited amount of jobs given a specific field. Thus, people would have to work at a job that they don’t like. Government wouldn’t have the power to control the actions of a company. So an individual can actually do something that he or she enjoys. However, in a socialist economy government sometimes has the power over that choice.  A country will strive from competition.
    Freedom is an important essence of life. It is another right that people take for granted today. In a capitalist economy, there are no limits for the people to start up new companies. So, there would be a lot of creative thinking for the people in a capitalist economy. They can build new companies, without worrying that the government would take their newly-created product. The ability to express people’s creativity is one of the major benefits of a capitalist country. Government wouldn’t have the power to control the actions of a company. So an individual can actually do something that he or she enjoys. However, in a socialist economy government sometimes has the power over the choice of what an individual wants to do. Socialist limits the power of an individual. People in a socialist country can’t create companies anyway they want. The government has a lot of power in the economy. So sometimes a socialist government will not allow a second company that produce the same product as a previous company. Thus, people are forced to work in a job that they probably won’t like. Whenever people are upset about their work, they probably won’t be as efficient as usual. A study done by Dr. Igor Galynker, director of the Family Center for Bipolar Disorder at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, is that depression is contagious as well as happiness. Not only will the rights of individuals in a socialist country will be taken, their health would also take a big hit.
    Economics is very important to a country, because it pretty much shapes up a country. No country is completely capitalist or socialism, usually countries have both socialism and capitalism in their economy. Socialism sometimes has benefits that capitalism doesn’t have, such as a solution to the zero-sum problem. The zero-sum problem is that the range of the wealthiest and the poorest is very big. So, whenever you add the net value of the economy together it will add up to zero. So, that means that the country is not improving at all. This can be seen sometimes in London, United States, and many other major powers. This will become a major problem, if the government doesn’t do anything to fix it. So in a socialist economy, the government will have more control. They probably won’t that this kind of problem appears on the market. Currently, there is no country in the world that has a pure capitalist economy or a pure socialist economy. Usually, they have more of a mix economy, and the countries have a bigger stance on one side. A country should not be totally capitalism, because then there will also be problems coming out. However a country that is more based on capitalism than socialism will be very strong.One of the major advantages of capitalism is that it gives the people of a nation freedom. Another major advantage is that not only does the individual of a country strive the whole country becomes better as well. Finally, in a capitalist economy it gives you the right to own your own things. Economy is something that can’t be seen with our naked eye. However it has the power to destroy a country.