Robespierre and The Reign of Terror

As the French Revolution continued, the king, the nobles, the lords and the the clergy began to lose most of their power over the people in poverty or the lower class men. However the people who were gaining power in France were now becoming greedy and power-hungry. During this time a legislative assembly was set up for the king to share power with but the king didn't agree with that. In results, the Jacobins end up cutting the king's head off for being accused of treason. Around this time, many people's head was cut off using an execution machine called the guillotine. This machine was used with the people found to go against the new government or even people following the old one as well.

Later, Maximilien Robespierre rose up in power. He was the one who came up with the Reign of Terror because during this time the people lived with this fear and terror of their heads being the next one to get cut off (that is how extreme things were). Robespierre as dictator of France did anything and everything he can to get rid of the old government or the old monarchy. For instance, the calendar was changed and Sunday was deleted from the days of the week because they believed religion was now "old fashion." In addition, kings, queens, and jacks were removed and placed with faces of revolutionaries.

Even though Robespierre had so much power, he didn't use it in the right way. The reason why is because people were afraid of getting their heads cut off for really no reason at all. Therefore, Robespierre was arrested and his head was cut off (what goes around comes around) and there ended the Reign of Terror.

The French Revolution

1) Many people in France were critical of the nobility, the king, and the clergy because the king had absolute power. In addition the peasants had to pay taxes and feudal dues to the lord, the king, and also the church. Furthermore, the peasants had no privilages in society even though they made up about 90% of France population.

2) In the year of 1978 a French peasant might have complained about how poor he or she was due to the fact that they had to pay taxes to the upper class men. Additionally, the peasants had to pay the lord in order for them to use their mills, ovens, and winepress. Also the peasants where the ones with the smallest income in France.

3) The cartoonist point in this image is that the upper class men such as the clergy and the lords live of the taxes and the feudal dues of the peasants and that is because in overall, everything that the peasants earn eventually will go to the lord and the Church. The quote " One hopes this will end," means that the peasants believe that one day the king will not have absolute power and that there wouldn't be no more heavy taxes for the peasants to pay.

4) The author of the source B describes the life of a peasants as stressfull and awful with alot of dues. The reason why is because a peasant family only with a morsel of land, a cow, and a horse had to pay feudal dues to two lords and in addition to that they had to pay taxes to the king. Some of the feudal dues include chickens, and a lot of kg of wheat and oats

5) Sources A, B, and C do explain why the peasants resented the rich people because in source C the document conveys that a peasant only make 200 livres a year while a priest would make 10,000 a year. Another reason the peasants would resent the rich people because in source B it states how a family of peasants had to pay so much taxes that they said " the taxes and feudal dues are crushing us," because they had to pay 20kg of wheat and 3 chickens as dues to one lords. To another lord they had to pay 60kg of oats, one chicken, and five pence not including the taxes they had to pay the king.

6) Rousseau's writing would mostly influenced the peasants the most because in Rousseau's writing he conveys that no one has the power to have total control over other people and that in order to achieve something through force such as feudal dues is sort of a violation of the human rights.

7) I believe that the pamphlet was banned by the clergy and the lord (nobility) because they were the ones who were charging these heavy dues and also they were the ones who were living off of the peasants hard work. Furthermore, the king, the nobility, and the clergy all believed in absolute power over the poor people.

John Locke and "The Enlightment"

John Locke was a very influencial person in history especially in the time of "The Enlightment". He as philosopher his notions and ideals influenced Thomas Jefferson when he wrote for the Declaration of Independence. In the Declaration of Independence, John Locke believed that everyone was given rights by God. These rights include Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness. In addition, the Declaration states that in order for the people to keep these rights that a government should be establish and if the government voilates or destructes the rights of the people, then and only then the people should go against it and abolish the government. Additionally, the people have the power to overthrow a government that abuses the human rights of the people. In other words people are the ones that have most of the power due to the fact the we could go against anything and reconstruct it in a more suitable way for the people to live in.

Copernicus and the Trial of Galileo

The theories of geocentric and heliocentric have brought a big controversy for the people and their prespective on how life was created for many of years. Before the Scientific Revolution started many people believed that the Earth was the center of the universe and the all the planets and the stars including the Sun orbited around the Earth. This theory is called the Geocentri theory. However. after the Scientific Revolution some people believed that is wasn't the Earth that was the center of the universe but the Sun was the center of the universe and that everything including the planet Earth moved around the Sun. This theory was brought up by a person named Nicolas Ccpernicus. Copernicus examed the motions of outer space and came up with the heliocentric theory. However not many people believed the heliocentric theory due to the fact that Copernicus didn't have much evidence to prove his point. Therefore many people continued to believe in the geocentric theory and didn't accpet the heliocentric theory. In addition the Roman Catholic Church never accepted the theory of the Sun being the center of the universe up until their were advancements in mathematics and physics took place.

The trial of Galileo was one of the conflicts that had to do with the argument of what was the center of the universe the sun or the Earth. Galileo Galilei was one of the people who just like Copernicus believed that the Earth was not the center of the universe but however the sun was and that the planets including the Earth revolved around the sun. Galileo was put on trial by the Roman Catholic Church for promoting the heliocentric theory in his book. In other words, going against the belief of the church and against the interpretation of the bible. The church believed that the Earth was the center of the universe and therefore Galileo was found guilty and sentenced to house arrest.

Scientific Revolition: The Scientific Method

Before the Scientific Revolution, people got their notions about science from the Ancient Greeks and Romans which of course is where we got our basic ideas that led to greater and more acurate ideals today. Not only did people believed in the Ancient Greeks and Romans before but they also believed in the words of the bible and also they followed the ideas from the religion of Christianity.

However, the Scientific Revolution exposed the people to a new way of thinking that proved or unproved the ideas that everyone had. Scientis began to experiment their ideas about the world and science in order to reach a conclusion that is as acurate as possible. These experiments were conducted through a method called the Scientific Method. The Scientific Method is based on a number of steps in order to reach a final solution or conclusion.

The first step of the Scientific Method is the problem or question of the idea or theory at hand. The next step is called the hypothesis. Here the person doing the experiment will come up with a educated guess (a prediction) about the experiment which has to do with how the scientist believes the experiment will conclude. Then, the scientist would test his/her experiment more than once to have results that are more acurate. Afterwards, he/she would observe and collect the data and results of the experiment and reach a conclusion.

For instance, if I would want to use the Scientific Method to find out which object has more density a dice or a wooden cube. First I would make an hypothesis which is that I believe that the wooden cube would be more denser because the wooden block ways more. Then I would proceed to conduct the experiment. After I'm done with the experiment I would collect my data (results) and reach a conclusion.

Evolution vs. Creation

There have been many controversies and debates between evolution and creation. The two theories of evolution and creation has been going back and forth for many many years. Some people believe in the scientific proof about life, while other people believe in which mankind was created by God.

Darwin's theory of evolution conveys that all creators on Earth have or decsended from a common ancestor and that all aspect of life is highly related. Further more, the theory also states that every creator evolve from a more simplistic ancestor naturaly over time. This is due to natural selection which has to do with the genetic mutation that occurs in a creator. However the beneficial mutations are preserved and past on to the next generation. As these beneficial mutation become more and more over time it would result in an entirely different organism.

On the other hand, creation is a totally different belief. Creationism is the belief that everything including humanity, life, mankind, everything was presupposed or made by god. People here believe that everything was supposed to happen and that everything is written in the book. God is the creator and therefore he should be worshiped and that this is based on religion.

In my point of view I believe in evolution and science. The reason why is because everything stated has evidence behind. As from in creation which is based on religion is all about having a strong faith in something that has no proof about whether it happened or not. For evolution you can see that one thing leads to the next and that it actually makes sense and that is why I believe in evolution and science more than in creation.