Andrew Jackson Cartoon

picture link s picture cannot be displayed in blogger:http://www.pbs.org/kcet/andrewjackson/features/galleries/cartoons/gallery.html?id=portraits&KeepThis=true&TB_iframe=true
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The relations between the Americans and the Indians were quite unstable starting all the way back when the Europeans first settled in America. The two groups had major land disputes starting when the settlers tried to expand their land further west into territory the Indians believed belonged to them. This tentative relation continued until Andrew Jackson became president. Jackson thought it to be beneficial to both parties if he were to relocate the Indians to specifically labeled reservations and giving the land they used to own to the American people to help their expansion. Many Indians resented this idea and refused to go along with Jackson's plan, so Jackson decided to forcefully evict the Indians from their homes and march them to their new land. This march became known as the trail of tears and killed thousands of Indians during its existence. The cartoon above can be viewed as satirical because it portrays Jackson as the father of the Indians, which he obviously wasn't because he didn't care for them at all. Due to these events, Jackson should not be considered the peoples president if he forcibly relocates his own people without their consent.

19th Century American Democracy Assignment

America has been labelled a democracy ever since it gained its independence from England. However, early America and it population were not very democratic at all. A democracy can be defined as a government that is ruled by the people, where the majority are able to decide what are the right and wrong courses of action for their country. In America, the citizens demonstrated this power by voting for which person would represent their interests in the government. The only problem being that, at the time, the way these people were elected were not exactly democratic. For one thing, not every member of the population was allowed to vote for their representatives. In the early 19th century, a voter must be a white man who also must own a minimum amount of land to be allowed to vote. This rules out women, the poor and other races entirely from voting. This would completely rule out America from being a democratic system of government. However, as the century wore on conditions began to change and many of the voting restrictions were lifted. The tax that kept the poor from voting was either lifted or lowered and more and more states allowed the people to vote for who they wanted to rule over them. Also, all men were soon allowed to vote regardless of their income thanks to the Dorr wars which led to states adopting new laws on who was allowed to vote. However, women were still not allowed to vote which makes it hard for this period of America to be called a democracy. From these points historians are able to draw a conclusion that America at the beginning of the 19th century was certainly not a democracy, but as the century wore on, more and more democratic laws and regulations were passed so as to create a system of government fairly close to a democracy.

picture link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_election_campaigns_in_the_19th_century

Romanticism Assignment

Romanticism was one of the more important movements of the 19th century. Romanticism can be defined as a movement that effected art, literature and music as a response to the enlightenment ideals that were imposed at the time. In the piece above, Culmins Ghost appears to his mother, there are many different examples of how romanticism influenced art of this time. First, The grotesque looks on both the dogs and the woman's face convey both a feeling of horror and emotion. Also The importance of the individual is crucial to this piece as the artist wants the viewers eyes to be directed to the lone woman in the picture as she is the only living being shown. Finally, the piece itself is irrational in nature because of the fact that ghosts defy the laws of reality and are seen as something fake. These traits all tie in together to create a typical romantic piece of art and the themes that re generally displayed in such pieces.

Revolts of 1830 and 1848 Assignment

Many historians have stated that the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 were failures, and to an extent, they are right. Most of the revolutions of the time had mixed results, which meant that some of the goals the revolutionaries laid out were met, but others were left unfulfilled or were denied completely. This can be shown in the French revolution of 1830 in which the liberal and radical citizens of France were unhappy with the current monarch, Charles the tenth. The difference being that the liberals wanted to just implement a constitutional monarchy in place of the current system of monarchy, whilst the radicals wanted to completely get rid of the monarchy all together. This culminated in an outcome that could be interpreted as either a success or failure because the liberals gained the constitutional monarchy they desired, but the radicals failed to oust the monarchy all together. There were also some revolutions that were perceived as successes at first, but the conditions that the revolutionaries fought for were revoked soon after gaining them. An example of a revolution that had an outcome similar to this was the polish revolution of 1830. This revolution was headed by a group of nationalist poles who wanted Poland to become independent from Russia, who currently controlled Poland. They also wanted to implement a resounding nationalist ideal throughout the nation. Although the polish were able to gain independence from Russia for a short time, Russia was able to regain control of the country shortly after Independence was gained, re implementing the same laws that the polish wanted to escape. This outcome is most likely why the revolution was branded a failure, although success was achieved for a short time. Finally, there were some revolutions that were legitimate failures because none of the goals that the revolutionaries set were ever met. An example that meets these conditions would be the Decembrist revolt of 1825. This revolution was poorly timed and poorly executed, lead by a small group of liberal military officers who wanted to unseat the current tsar and demand a constitution. The revolution was ended as abruptly as it began, with the revolutionaries being ripped to shreds by canon fire. Conditions for the citizens also grew worse after the revolution, which much harsher punishments being handed down to anyone who opposed the tsar. This was the true definition of a complete failure. Although few revolutions of the time actually completely achieved their goals, they should not be branded as complete failures because many of the revolutions were able to bring about change in the governments they rebelled against.

picture link: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255/

decembrist revolt video link: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/decembrist-revolt-of-1825/13391064/?s=qz3Oh7&ref=app

Monroe Doctrine Assignment

The United States of America, lead by the capable president James Monroe, was able to outlast the demands of one of the most dominant forces mankind had seen, the quintuple or "Holy" alliance. The quintuple alliance was made up of European countries that had all attended the congress of Vienna and discussed and implemented new laws and changes throughout Europe. The five countries that made up the alliance was Great Britain, Russia, France, Spain and Austria, the host country. The leaders who attended these meetings and represented their countries were all resoundingly conservative and their ideals showed in every decision they made. Monroe was able to guide the US through times of unease as the great European Juggernaut loomed over them, making demands of the nation. Some major demands that were made by the holy alliance were that Russia be allowed to settle along the wast coast of the US and allowing Spain to march into Latin America and reclaim its colonies that had just gained their independence from Spain. "  Our policy, in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers; to consider the government de facto as the legitimate government for us;..." This quote states how the US would handle the quintuple alliance as a whole, to treat it with respect and to stay out of its internal affairs. However, the US would not tolerate the infringement of the alliance into either their territory nor the Latin American colonies territory.


The picture above illustrates how Monroe cared what his congress would think of his decisions. The US congress in general agreed with Monroe's ideals, such as protecting the Latin American Countries and their western land claim. They also wished the US could have held a more powerful alliance with GB when they offered to ally with the US against the Holy alliance  The Latin American colonists would have felt relatively the same about Monroe's decisions, especially with his decision to protect the Latin American countries. The Russians, however, would not be as pleased with the US's decisions to not let them settle on the west coast of the US, nor the fact that the US was protecting the Latin American colonies. The only thing the Russians would have been somewhat pleased with would have been the fact that the US refused to create a strong alliance with Great Britain. 

Congress of Vienna Assignment

The Congress of Vienna was one of the largest gatherings of power the world had ever seen. It gathered diplomats from European powers which included Britain, Russia, France, Spain and Austria, the host. The delegate for the host country Austria, Klemens von Metternich, was one of the most influential, and most conservative, members of said congress. These men were known for their extravagance and ideals that drove nations and were able to solve many of the problems that currently plagued not only Europe, but other major parts of the world as well. One of such problems that the congress faced was trying to return a balance of power to a struggling European continent. They did this by creating rules that stated that the borders of European countries be redrawn to how they were before Napoleon ravaged the continent with war. Also, The members of the congress of Vienna were prohibited from declaring war upon one and other, lest they wish the other 4 nations to march into their own territory. This kept peace ongoing between the five countries in the quintuple alliance. Metternich was in favor of these changes because he wanted to retain tradition within Europe and resetting the borders to how they were before was the most efficient way to do so. Also, it made so the monarchs who were in power at the time would be kept in power because the revolutions that might happen in these nations could be easily and swiftly dealt with by the other members of the quintuple alliance. These policies were somewhat effective because there were no wars between the quintuple alliance leading up to 1853 and most of the revolutions that occurred in these countries were easily crushed.
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19th Century Ideals

As you can see from our groups vine, we used the seven seconds to portray the ideology of Liberalism in simple stop motion. It shows what the average liberal in the 19th century would want their society to be like. They mainly wanted to oust the ways of the absolute monarchy and introduce more constitutional monarchy's, which is represented by the tipping scale that produces a balance of monarchy and constitutional rights.  One way they could do this was to reduce the amount of power that the monarchs were able to hold over their people, thus the shrinking crown. The liberals also believed that tradition was better off replaced with innovation and new ideas. They saw little to no benefit holding on to old methods of doing things if they could be done easier with more modern approaches. This is represented by the tearing up of the word tradition. Finally, they also believed in god-given right and talent so almost anyone could move up in the classes of the time if they had enough talent. Liberals influenced many great pieces of literature, some of which led to creation of entire political systems like Adam Smith and his creation of Capitalism.

The other two ideals had both similar and very different beliefs. Conservatives of the time believed that tradition was a cornerstone of society that could not be overlooked or forgotten. They thought that since traditions were tested by the rigors of time, they could hold up in any social and political era. They also believed that absolutist monarchs and a hierarchical class system were the only ways to have order in society and highly supported both. Conservatives of the time used many examples from the French revolution as to why they thought monarchy was the only safe way to rule. Nationalists of the time believed that a nation was to be treated as a bond, a sort of brotherhood that tied its citizens together through bonds of language, custom and heritage. They were strongly against having foreign rule in nations they called home and fought against them whenever and however they could. Italy and Germany were the major nationalist nations of the time and allowed no foreign government to rule them without resisting first.