History Essays
The Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution Iran is a country located in the Middle East. The main source of income for the country is oil, the one object that had greatly influenced its history. Iran's present government is run as an Islamic Republic. A president, cabinet, judicial branch, and Majilesor or legislative branch, makes up the governmental positions. A revolution that overthrew the monarch, which was set in 1930, lasted over 15 years. Crane Brinton's book, An Anatomy of a Revolution...
History of the Panama Canal
History of the Panama Canal In 1825, a group of American businesspeople announced the formation of a canal building company, with interests in constructing a canal system across the Isthmus. This project was to take place in an area now called Panama. The endeavor was filled with controversy. Though the canal itself was not built until the early 1900's every step toward the building and ownership, was saturated with difficulty. Walter LaFeber illustrates the dilemmas in a h...
Reform Judaism In the 19th Century
Reform Judaism In the 19th Century The most extreme precursor to the Reform movement was a man by the name of Samuel Holdheim. He was born in 1806 in Kempo in the province of Posen. At a young age he studied at a yeshiva and received a Talmudic education. He began to study German and secular subjects after his marriage to a woman with a modern education. After their divorce several years later, he began studying at the University of Prague and Berlin and received a doctorat...
Manhattan Project and the A-Bomb
Manhattan Project and the A-Bomb Just before the beginning of World War II, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Urged by Hungarian-born physicists Leo Szilard, Eugene Wingner, and Edward Teller, Einstein told Roosevelt about Nazi German efforts to purify Uranium-235 which might be used to build an atomic bomb. Shortly after that the United States Government began work on the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was the code name for the Un...
D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy
D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy When on D-Day-June 6, 1944-Allied armies landed in Normandy on the northwestern coast of France, possibly the one most critical event of World War II unfolded; for upon the outcome of the invasion hung the fate of Europe. If the invasion failed, the United States might turn its full attention to the enemy in the Pacific-Japan-leaving Britain alone, with most of its resources spent in mounting the invasion. That would enable Nazi Germany to mu...
Auschwitz - Nazi Concentration Camp
Auschwitz - Nazi Concentration Camp Located thirty-seven miles west of Krakow, Auschwitz was the camp where Jewish people were killed and worked. This camp , out of all the rest tortured the most people. At the camp there was a a place caled the "Black Wall," this was where the people were executed . In March of of 1941, there was another camp that started to be built. This second camp was called Auschwitz II, or Birkinau. It was located 1.9 miles away from Auschwitz I. Pep...
The Holocaust and Western Help
The Holocaust and Western Help "When they came for the gypsies, I did not speak, for I am not a gypsy. When they came for the Jews, I did not speak, because I wasn't a Jew. When they came for the Catholics, I did not speak, for I am not a Catholic. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak." -On the Wall at the Holocaust Museum in Washington It is impossible to learn about the Holocaust and the Second World War without the question of how it possibl...
Extradition of Nazi War Criminals
Extradition of Nazi War Criminals The term "laws of war" refers to the rules governing the actual conduct of armed conflict. This idea that there actually exists rules that govern war is a difficult concept to understand. The simple act of war in and of itself seems to be in violation of an almost universal law prohibiting one human being from killing another. But during times of war murder of the enemy is allowed, which leads one to the question, "if murder is permissible ...
Dropping the Atomic Bomb
Dropping the Atomic Bomb On August 6, 1945 the atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Tibbetts, was chosen to make the mission. The mission was recorded as successful by Capt. William S. Parson at 9:20 A.M. This was an extremely controversial military strategy in the United States. Was the United States justified in the dropping of the atomic bomb? Yes, they were justified for many reasons. The primary reason was, that i...
Effects of the WWII Atomic Bombs
Effects of the WWII Atomic Bombs When the atomic bomb went off over Hiroshima on Aug. 6th, 1945, 70,000 lives were ended in a flash. To the American people who were weary from the long and brutal war, such a drastic measure seemed a necessary, even righteous way to end the madness that was World War II. However, the madness had just begun. That August morning was the day that heralded the dawn of the nuclear age, and with it came more than just the loss of lives. According ...
The Fall of Communism in Russia
The Fall of Communism in Russia The Reasons for the fall of Socialism/Communism and the Troubles of Starting the New Democratic System in the Russian Federation "Let's not talk about Communism. Communism was just an idea, just pie in the sky." Boris Yeltsin (b. 1931), Russian politician, president. Remark during a visit to the U.S. Quoted in: Independent (London, 13 Sept. 1989). The fall of the Communist regime in the Soviet Union was more than a political event. Th...
The Rise of Communism In Russia
The Rise of Communism In Russia "Unless we accept the claim that Lenin's coup d'etat gave birth to an entirely new state, and indeed to a new era in the history of mankind, we must recognize in today's Soviet Union the old empire of the Russians -- the only empire that survived into the mid 1980's" (Luttwak, 1). In their Communist Manifesto of 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels applied the term communism to a final stage of socialism in which all class differences ...
Analysis of the French Revolution
Analysis of the French Revolution What were the causes and the effects of the French Revolution? The major cause of the French Revolution was the disputes between the different types of social classes in French society. The French Revolution of 1789-1799 was one of the most important events in the history of the world. The Revolution led to many changes in France, which at the time of the Revolution, was the most powerful state in Europe. The Revolution led to the development...
Causes of the French Revolution
Causes of the French Revolution The statement citing the essential cause of the French Revolution as the "collision between a powerful, rising bourgeoisie and an entrenched aristocracy defending it's privileges" has great pertinence in summarizing the conflict of 1789. The causes of the French Revolution, being provoked by this collision of powers, was the Financial debt of the government and the long-standing political differences in the government. Over the course o...
Analysis of the French Revolution
Analysis of the French Revolution "Revolutions evolve in definite phases. At first they are moderate in scope, then they become radical to excess and finally they are brought to abrupt conclusions by the emergence of a strong man to restore order." Discuss this statement with specific references to 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...
The Vikings
The Vikings The Vikings liked clothes and jewelry. The Vikings were proud of their appearance and liked to dress well. Most of their clothes were made of wool or linen that they had spun and woven themselves. The cloth was dyed with mineral or vegetable dyes of green, brown, red, yellow or blue. The men wore sleeved jerkins or three-quarter length coats over woolen shirts and long cloth trousers. On their feet they wore tall leather boots or soft shoes with short socks...
English Parliament's Rise ot Power
English Parliament's Rise ot Power In the seventeenth century, the political power of the Parliament in England, and the Monarchy in France increased greatly. These conditions were inspired by three major changes: the aftermath of the reformation, the need for an increased governmental financing, and the reorganizing of central governments. These three points were each resolved in a different way in both England and in France. The first major point which eventually incr...
Political Effects of the Renaissance
Political Effects of the Renaissance History has shown us how civilizations evolve over time. Broadly interpreted, the age of Diocletian marked a decisive stage in the transition from the classical, the Greco-Roman, civilization of the ancient Roman Empire to the Christian-Germanic civilization of the early Middle Ages. Similarly interpreted, "the age of the Renaissance marked the transition from the civilization of the Middle Ages to the modern world"(Ferguson 1). Therefore,...
19th Century Romanticism in Europe
19th Century Romanticism in Europe Romanticism began in the early 19th century and radically changed the way people perceived themselves and the state of nature around them. Unlike Classicism, which stood for order and established the foundation for architecture, literature, painting and music, Romanticism allowed people to get away from the constricted, rational views of life and concentrate on an emotional and sentimental side of humanity. This not only influenced political...
French Revolution - Radical Stage
French Revolution - Radical Stage By the end of 1971, Europe was preparing to witness the end of a seemingly triumphant revolution in France. The country was restructuring its government in a forceful and bloodless manner, while the tyrant King Louis the XVI agreed to the demands of the masses (albeit without much choice). However, due to the fanatical aspirations of men such as Danton, Marat and Robespierre,it would be only a matter of months before the moderate stage of soc...
Brief Look at the Renaissance
Brief Look at the Renaissance The Renaissance, which began in Italy in 1300s, was one of the largest periods of growth and development in Western Europe. The increase in trade caused a abundance in wealth that resulted in the focusing of the arts. Such things as literature, paintings, sculptures and many more works are known to have blossomed from the period known as the Renaissance. Many other important occurrences , such as the Reformation and split of the Roman Catholic Ch...
The Western European Union
The Western European Union The birth of the Western European Union began some 28 years ago on May 6th 1955. However, this alliance was formed from the original Treaty of Dunkirk. The Treaty of Dunkirk was an Anglo-French alliance which was signed on March 4th 1947, when the two signatories agreed to give mutual support to each other should the event of renewed German aggression show it's face again. It was also to agree on a common action should either signatory be prejudic...
The World of the Vikings
The World of the Vikings The Viking age has long been associated with unbridled piracy, when freebooters swarmed out of the northlands in their longships to burn and pillage their way across civilized Europe. Modern scholarship provides evidence this is a gross simplification, and that during this period much progress was achieved in terms of Scandinavian art and craftsmanship, marine technology, exploration, and the development of commerce. It seems the Vikings did as much...
Airplane Warfare in WWI
Airplane Warfare in WWI During World War One, the role of airplanes and how they were used changed greatly. At first planes were only used for sport, but people started realize that not only could airplanes be useful but they could even influence an outcome of the war greatly. Soon the war was filled with blimps, planes, and tethered balloons. By the end of the war, planes became a symbol of fear, but they were not always treated with such respect. In the time leading ...
Russians and Bosnians
Russians and Bosnians Historically and politically, the Bosnians and the Russians are a perfect match.This history started in the middle of the first thousand years A.D. when the tribes called the Southern Slavs migrated into the southeast area of Europe known as the Balkans. The Slav people as they are known, were separated from the Northern Slavs, that is, related Slavs in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Russia, by the non-slavic tribes that settled the lands of Austria and Hun...