A House Divided The seventeenth century proved to be a century of change as men and women crossed the Atlantic for various reasons. Some moved to escape bad marriages, some moved from poverty, and others moved from troubling royal policies. Whatever their reasons were, the colonists had one common goal— to strive for a better life.
Sharing this common bond, Americans banded together and fought for independence during the Revolution. As the Revolution ended, Americans felt overjoyed and united. They managed to overlook some of the differences between them that would eventually lead to an intense conflict in the years to come. Social, economical, and political differences between the two regions would eventually become so intense that they would cause one of the bloodiest battles of all time-the Civil War. Read more…
QUESTION
What accounts for the defeat of France in 1940? What factors played the most decisive role in the allied defeat: faulty strategy, inferior technology, numbers,…? Was the fall of France inevitable in 1940?
INTRODUCTION
On 10 May 1940, nearly six months after Hitler gave the original order for his army’s to advance towards France, the Blitzkrieg began. With-in six weeks time France had fallen and the face of the civilized world had suddenly changed. Some believe that the defeat of France was due to a lack of will, low morale and defeatism among politicians, and ineptitude with-in the ranks of the allied military. Other’s feel that it was the German Army’s operational and tactical skill along with superior strategic planning that was responsible for the breakthrough at Sedan and the rapid advance to the coast of the English Channel. It is my opinion though that it was a combination of multiple errors made by the French and endless German luck that enabled the advance of the Germans to go nearly unscathed. Read more…
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s main goal in writing her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was to convince people, mainly her fellow northerners, of the need to end slavery by showing it’s evils that are thrust upon black people and to convince all her readers that slavery conflicts with Christian values. To effectively establish her point, Stowe takes us along on the two very separate journeys of the novel’s main characters, Uncle Tom and Eliza Shelby. It is on their journeys that the readers bear witness to the various evils that the system of slavery encompasses.
Stowe begins the novel discussing a warm atmosphere on the Shelby plantation and presents to us the best possible circumstances of slavery where slaves are treated very well by compassionate owners. However, no time is wasted in this warm and compassionate setting, not twenty pages into the story we find that even the best masters fall into debt and must settle their bills by what ever means possible. This development quickly brings the reader into the slave world where humans, such as Uncle Tom, are sold to slave traders to settle their master’s debts and it is here that a very strong argument against slavery is made. Read more…
The history of the Crusades in Europe and the Middle East must first be linked first and foremost to the feudal nature of medieval Europe. Due to the splintered and divisive nature of kingdoms and principalities, the sense of European and Christian identity was severely compromised. The Popes and the Catholic Church were the only force that could both unite Europe under a singular focus and help combat the rise of the Byzantine Empire and the Turks.
The notion of political unity under Church can be directly traced to the foreign policy of Leo IX and Gregory VII and the policy established by the Monks of Cluny that dramatically increased the power of the Pope over all Christian nations. For most of the existence of the Christian church, there has been a nearly constant stream of pilgrims to the Holy Land, and undoubtedly the continued veneration of the sacred city was a motivating factor for Christian unification. Read more…
What does “a city upon a hill” imply? “A city upon a hill” hints to the superiority of one city over another; a model of goodness for other cities to follow. One of the first attempts at being “a city upon a hill” was the forming of the Massachusetts Bay colony. However, the Puritans religious beliefs and the influence of the church on the colonial politics drove away many settlers, such as Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams.
The colony of Massachusetts Bay was founded in order for settlers to be free from religious persecution in England. The founders wanted a safe haven for Puritans along with the prospect of making money. This new “haven” was to serve as an example of holy goodness. The Puritans that settled in Massachusetts Bay did not want to break away from the Church of England. Instead they wanted to reform the Church of England from within. The inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay lived on the basis of hard work and thrifts. Material gifts were considered a sign of being in God’s favor. Although the goals of the Puritan settlers seemed righteous, they were far from it. Read more…
