Economics in 17th Century New England
Professor Boyer Lewis Salem Possessed Seminar Economics of Seventeenth-Century New England Kenneth Weiss Kalamazoo College During the seventeenth-century, New England went through many social, religious and economic changes. In Salem Possessed, Boyer and Nissenbaum focused primarily on how Salem’s economy caused factionalism within the village. As a result, they neglected to examine the larger New England economy and the origins of its transformation. In order to fully understand the effects of the diversifying New England economy, one must learn about how Puritans felt about materialism and private ownership. From these fundamental Puritan ideologies, one can understand that as more people became entrepreneurial, problems within society were inevitable. Thus, the transforming Puritan economy caused social and religious factionalism in seventeenth-century New England. Economic ideologies of Puritans were fundamental to the rise of factionalism. Aboard the Arbella, off the coast of Massachusetts, Governor John Winthrop said, “The care of the public must oversway all private respects… for it is a true rule that particular estates cannot subsist in the ruin of the public.”[1] From the beginning, colonial leaders expected all the new immigrants to put the greater good of the community over their own self-interests. Furthermore, these leaders told those who wanted to
Alexandre de Rhodes and the Vietnamese culture
Alexandre de Rhodes and Vietnamese culture Victor Phan Alexandre de Rhodes The consequences of the Jesuits[1] and their attempts to convert those in far off lands to Christianity have had both positive and negative effects. One of the more remarkable men from the Jesuits was Alexandre de Rhodes, an enlightened and brilliant man who has had a powerful and lasting effect on the country of Vietnam. Figure 1: A portrait of Alexandre de Rhode wearing a black robe, and also leaving his hair to fall down to his shoulders[2] Alexandre de Rhodes, born at Avignon (Southern France) on the 15th March, 1593[3], was a Jesuit missionary who was admitted to the Society of Jesus at Rome in 1612 with the intention of devoting his life towards the converting infidels.[4] The vast amount of dedication he had put towards the new venture of evangelizing and establishing missions in Indochina (namely Vietnam[5]) and other works in the majority of his lifetime has allowed him to achieve an acknowledgement of his missionary work from the Vatican bureaucracy for his effort in converting some 6,700 Vietnamese to the Roman Catholic faith as well as the respect from the Modern Vietnamese people for creating a national language (script) accessible for any class in the hierarchy of the Vietnamese society. Consequently, this caused many controversies in the country of Vietnam, and de Rhodes was
How far can the problems facing the colony of Virginia from 1607 to 1624 be explained by the quality of the settlers?
How far can the problems facing the colony of Virginia from 1607 to 1624 be explained by the quality of the settlers In 1606 King James I granted a Royal Charter to the Virginia Company of London to establish an English settlement in the Chesapeake Bay region of North America. Thus in 1607 the Virginia Company of London established the Jamestown settlement on the banks of the James River in the Colony of Virginia. William Kelso has described Jamestown as the place where the British Empire began and the first proper colony of the British Empire.[1] Prior attempts by the English to colonise North America had ended in disaster the most significant example being the lost Colony of Roanoke. Between 1607 and 1624 the Jamestown colony suffered what Kenneth Andrews describes as a “sickly birth”.[2] This is due to the various problems the colonists endured such as disease, famine and conflict with the Powhatans. By far the biggest problem suffered by the settlers was high mortality rates; at least six thousand people settled in Virginia between 1607 and 1624, but by 1625 only one thousand two hundred settlers had survived.[3] There has been much debate over the causes of the problems endured at the Virginia Colony. Traditionalist historians such as Edmund Morgan put forward the view that the poor quality of the settlers was the main reason for the problems suffered at Virginia.
The French Revolution
The French Revolution The French Revolution brought about great changes in the society and government of France. The revolution, which lasted from 1789 to 1799, also had far-reaching effects on the rest of Europe. It introduced democratic ideals to France but did not make the nation a democracy. However, it ended supreme rule by French kings and strengthened the middle class. After the revolution began, no European kings, nobles, or other privileged groups could ever again take their powers for granted or ignore the ideals of liberty and equality. The revolution began with a government financial crisis but quickly became a movement of reform and violent change. In one of the early events, a crowd in Paris captured the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison, which had become a symbol of oppression. A series of elected legislatures then took control of the government. King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed. Thousands of others met the same fate in a period called the Reign of Terror. The revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte, a French general, took over the government. Background. Various social, political, and economic conditions led to the revolution in France. These conditions included much dissatisfaction among the lower and middle classes, interest in new ideas about government, and financial problems caused by the costs of wars. Legal
the french revolution
To what extent could Louis XVI is blamed for the French revolution? Louis XVI (23 August 1754-21 January 1793) was King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of the 10th of August 1792, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed on 21 January 1793. His execution signaled the end of the absolutist monarchy in France and would eventually bring about the rise of Napoleon. There are conflicting views about his conviction. Not only is it believed that he was guilty and deserved to be guillotined in front of a cheering crowd on 21 January 1793, but a divergent view is held, outlining how his intentions were good but the circumstances were. But to what extent was Louis XVI really to blame? One of his disadvantages was his age when he became king as he ascended the throne at the age of twenty; he was of average intelligence, but was not overly concerned with the running of the country. He was known for his love of reading English, a language he taught himself to be able to keep informed on the history, culture and politics of England. Though his mother especially disliked his hobby, it was common for him to understand the current affairs of England more than his foreign minister and because of his love for oceanography; he was also well informed on
The French Revolution.
The French Revolution The French Revolution was based mostly on the Third Estate's desire to obtain liberty and equality. France's social system was set up in such a way that it was only a matter of time before a revolution took place. The economic classes of France were set in three estates. The first estate was the church, or clergy, the second estate was the nobles, and the third estate consisted of peasants and the uneducated. France's economic system allowed for the highest taxation of the third estate while the clergy members were exempt from taxes, and the nobles paid little or no taxes at all. People who are starving and can barely afford to survive can only pay so much before they refuse to pay anymore. It is not suprising that the third estate was driven to immediate action with Louis XVI's demand for higher taxes. Ideas of liberty and equality sprang up with the onset of the American Revolution and paved a way for the third estate to change France's system of government. Philosophes such as Voltaire spread ideas of reform that excited the peasants to believe there was a chance for a better life. Along with the social causes of the revolution, economic and political events brought about the desire for change as well. Economic conditions such as poor harvests made the price of food rise to such high prices that half a worker's wages were spent on trying to feed the