Describe and Analyze World History from 1500 to the Aftermath of the First World War

Describe and Analyze World History from 1500 to the Aftermath of the First World War.

IREL-101/HIST-202

World History Since 1500

Spring Semester

Marina Cuzmin

ID U094N0455

Content

• Introduction
• After the Age of Darkness
• Revolution of 1789
• The Napoleonic Era
• The First World War
• Conclusion

Introduction

Every one realizes that History plays very important role in our life, not only because without our past we don’t know the future, but also because of the knowledge and experience, that are transmitted from generation to generation. World history had been dramatically changed since the Medieval Ages. Most of the negative social factors popularly associated with the «medieval» period are poverty, warfare, religious and political persecution. And now we are living in the high developed technologic century, where the Law plays very important role, and we have the right of vote, liberty of word, individual liberty. In my opinion, in World History were many important events that have changed not only the history of countries, but the history of the whole planet Earth. For example, Renaissance had profoundly affected European intellectual life, the Age of Discovery during which intensively explored and mapped the world and this event lead to Colonialism and United States of America, Industrial revolution that brought changes in agriculture manufacturing, and transport, French Revolution was a period of radical social and political upheaval in French and European history. The First World War showed the power of the new chemical weapons of mass destruction. Also this war led to World crises and period of depression.

After the Age of Darkness

· For many centuries the Church was powerful and had control in every sphere of society. Monasteries were major conduits of civilization, preserving craft and artistic skills while maintaining intellectual culture within their schools, scriptoria and libraries. They functioned as agricultural, economic and production centers as well as a focus for spiritual life. Le Goff, Medieval Civilization (1964), p. 120 Many scandals around the Church, such as indulgency and corruption had bad influence on Church’s reputation. All this things lead to displeasure of many priests. Martin Luther was one of them. He wrote Ninety-Five Theses, where he explained what many people doesn’t like in the Church. Some local German churches accepted Luther’s ideas. Lutheranism won enormous support and spread throughout Europe because:

· People didn’t like all their money going to Rome.

· They didn’t like the Italians controlling all church property. http: //en. wikipedi. orgwikiProtestant_Reformation

After it came Reformation, but I will not mansion it.

The Renaissance is considered the start of Modern times because it is more like today. The Renaissance brought a re-examination of acceptable beliefs. World View of the Renaissance:

A New Conception of Human Beings:

Individualism: People thought it right to be themselves — the great man can shape his own destiny

Humanism; Humans are the center of the universe and the «measure of all things. «

Well-Roundness: Humans could do well at many things: «The Renaissance Man. «

Classicism: People revived an interest in ancient Greece and Rome. www.jcn. humanism. html

Medieval life was kind of a dark life. In the Middle Ages, life was just a short interlude until death, and poverty was respected. The clergy were next to God. By buying indulgency a men could get easy a place in Heaven, In the Middle Ages people were seen basically as scum and God was vengeful. Their whole lives revolved around God. But with the Age of Great Discoveries people got interested in exploring the world, science, and human’s beauty. The Church was against, because the more people know the dangerous they could be for the Church.

Renaissance humanists did not reject Christianity. They didn’t agree with the Church’s interpretation of Bible. Renaissance’s authors were studying classical Latin and Greek, so they could easily translate the Bible. By doing this they find many mistakes in translating and started to conflict with the Church. But still the Church patronized many works of Renascence art. Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel, where the greatest Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and Sandro Botticelli were working at. Many of them were painting the church’s walls with the plots from the Bible.

Protestants generally followed the critical views expressed by Humanists, but for additional reasons. http: //en. wikipedia. orgwikiHumanism#Renaissence_humanism They saw classical antiquity as a golden time, not only because of the Latin literature, but because it was the early beginnings of Christianity. The intervening 1000 years Middle Age was a time of darkness, not only because of lack of secular Latin literature, but as I said before because of corruption within the Church such as Popes who ruled as kings, pagan superstitions with saints relics, celibate priesthood, and institutionalized moral hypocrisy.

Revolution of 1789

· Another important event in the world history, in my opinion is French Revolution. France had a absolutism, that means that all power belong to a king. Most of the Population was The Third Estate-98%. It was made of middle class, urban workers and peasants. They paid high taxes. Many owned the land they farmed, and the only wish that they had is a relief from taxes. What about middle class (The Bourgeoisie) was better than peasants, but they wanted more of the political power. They resented the nobles. The urban workers were powerful in Paris, but they were a small group. Revolution came because the «heads» couldn’t rule as before and the lower classes couldn’t live as before. French revolution characterized with:

· The fall of Bastille, were symbolic affirmations of the new order.

· On August 26 it introduced the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, proclaiming liberty, equality, the inviolability of property, and the right to resist oppression.

· Louis XVI was judged by the Convention, condemned to death for treason, and executed on January 21, 1793;

· The queen, Marie-Antoinette, was guillotined nine months later.

· Reign of Terror (19 Fructidor, year 1−9 Thermidor, year-2 [September 5, 1793 — July 27, 1794])

The French Bourgeoisie Revolution as one of the most important events in human history. Also the Revolution permanently crippled the power of the aristocracy and drained the wealth of the Church. The French Revolution ended feudalism, absolute monarchy, and the special privileged of the nobles and clergy. The Constitution guaranteed individual rights (lost during the Reign of Terror). The Bourgeoisie gained power and became the most powerful class in France. They started «Nationalism», the love of country, instead of love for a monarch or small group. www.britannica.comEBchecked|topic219315|French-Revolution Outside France, the Revolution captured the imagination of the world. It had a profound impact on the Russian Revolution and its ideas were imbibed by Mao Zedong in his efforts at contrasting a communist state in China.

The Napoleonic Era

By the age of 25, Napoleon Bonaparte was the youngest general in France, and began winning victories with ragged troops who were at the point of starvation. http: //www.napoleonguide.com/leaders_napoleon. htm Napoleon was a former Jacobin, he was supporting them not because he liked all theirs ideas, but for the reason that he just had to choose somebody’s side.

Napoleon was a great Leader. He balanced the budget, and established the Bank of France. He controlled prices, started public works to put people to work, and encouraged new industry. Order, security, and efficiency replaced liberty, equality, and fraternity as the slogans of the new regime. The Napoleonic Code: no privileges based on birth, freedom of religion, and government jobs went to the most qualified. http: //www.napoleonguide.com/codenap. htm Over the course of little more than a decade, the armies of France under Napoleon command fought almost every European power and got control of most of the western and central part of Europe by conquest or alliance until his disastrous invasion of Russia in 1813, where he was defeated at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, which led to his abdication several months later and his exile to the island of Elba. He staged a comeback known as the Hundred Days, but was again defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in present day Belgium on 18 June 1815, followed shortly afterwards by his surrender to the British and he was sent to the island of Saint Helena, where he died six years later.

One of the results on Europe of the Napoleonic Era was Napoleon’s conquest ideals and reforms of the French Revolution — ideas of freedom and equality. And as a «Reaction» to Napoleon, ideas of Nationalism grew, many to create independent nation.

world history war revolution

The First World War

The most significant event was the First World War (1914;1918) which involved most of the world’s great powers. Over 100 countries from Africa, America, Asia, and Europe were part of the conflict. http: //uropeanhistory. about. comod|worldwar1|a|ww1countriesint. htm It was the first war which had so huge territory of conflict, also the first use of chemical weapon: no-one could have predicted the horrifying consequences of modern weaponry being used together with out-of-date tactics.

United Kingdom was afraid of Germany that had strong economic and industrial power, after the unification the foundation of the empire in 1870. The Imperial German Navy established by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the time of colonization Germany didn’t take place init, so she wanted to do it in 20th century. After the murder of the heir of the Austro-Hungarian throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, the World War 1 had started.

· Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire)

· Triple Entente (France, United Kingdom and Russia)

The war was lasted from 1914;1918 and:

«More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. More than 15 millions people were killed, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in history. «http: //www.spartacus. schoolnet. co. ukFWWdeaths. htm

The First World War was a clash of 20th century technology with 19th century tactics. Much of the war’s combat involved trench warfare, where hundreds often died for each meter of land gained. Many of the deadliest battles in history occurred during the First World War. No other war had changed the map of Europe so dramatically — four empires were shattered: the German, the Austro-Hungarian, the Ottoman and the Russian. The experiences of the war led to a sort of collective national trauma afterwards for all the participating countries. The optimism of 1900 was entirely gone. After the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, officially ended the war. Included in the 450 articles of the treaty were the demands that Germany officially accept responsibility for starting the war and pay heavy economic reparations. This country has lost many of its territory, army and strong economy that she used to have. Germany itself was not included in the negotiations of the treaty and she had nothing to do — only to sign this humiliating for her documents. The treaty also included a clause to create the League of Nations.

Conclusion

Renaissance, French Revolution and the First World War are very important events in the development of the world history. Renascence gave us the genius of its century such as Leonardo da Vinci, Rafael Santi, and Michelangelo. One famous historian said that Renaissance brought «the challenge to a veil being removed from man’s eyes, allowing him to see clearly». French Revolution gave us freedom of speech. The First World War showed how easily 750,000 civilians can lose their lives during the war and the horrible influence had this conflict on people’s mind. At the end of the war there left no optimists. Hope this event will be a good lesson for future generations, because History is Philosophy teaching be examples. (Thucydides)