Response to western history

Response to the statement, min 100 words

1.The French Revolution, although inspired by the American Revolution, began as more of a game of political chess between the bulk of aristocratic figures in the government, and middle and lower class citizens with some supporting nobles. Following the Seven Years War, and the tremendous support of the colonies during the American Revolution, France's economy was encroaching emptiness. Naturally, as with most power structures, the government sought to make up the debt be draining the lower and middle class members with higher tax rates, which the nobles themselves were exempt from. Fast forward through the barring of the Third Estate from the Estates General, the formation of the  National Assembly from the Third Estate and their successful control of the government officials, and a new divide on Constitutional Monarchy and Republic ideologies can be found within the National Assembly. This assembly was dissolved, following the king's failed attempt to escape, and restructured as the Legislative Assembly, which reacted to Austria's Decleration of Pillnitz, which gave Austria the "right" to intervene in the revolution, with a declaration of war. This act was led by the Jacobins faction which dominated the Legislative assembly. The long standing monarchy ended when rumors of treason began, and the king fled capture, seeking refuge with the assembly, who imprisoned, convicted, and executed him instead. Following this event, the Legislative Assembly was reformed again in to the republic National Convention. The Jacobins, unsuprisingly, become split between Giordonists and the Robespierre-led Mountain. This was the hingepoint of radicalism, as Robespierre saw any impediment to revolution as needing to be eradicated. This naturally meant that anyone that didn't agree with his views came under fire, Giordonists included. The result was the imprisonment of 300,000 french men and women and the execution of 40,000. Ultimately, Robespierre eventually met the guillotine himself.

2. I believe Napoleon's government was truly enlightened compared to how it was before.  Napoleon inspired legal reforms in Egypt that abolished torture, introduced equality before the law, and proclaimed religious toleration.  He also created the most fair and comprehensive taxation system that France has ever seen, which they needed at the time.  In 1804 he abolished all feudal and local customs and created a systematic law code called the Napoleonic Code.  The Napoleonic Code ensured equality of all male citizens before the law, universal male suffrage, property rights, and religious liberty.  He made giant reforms in France's education program by starting lycees in every major city which was France's first system of national education, along with the teacher's training college in Paris and a network of military and vocational schools based on specific profession's that young men were interested in.  Although he saw the value of religion as an instrument of social cohesion, he arranged that the clergy receive their pay directly from the central government to stay in control of the churches.  Napoleon had strict limits on freedom of speech and freedom of press to make it nearly impossible to oppose or question his policies however I still believe that France was in a better position than they were in before Napoleon took charge.

3. Many Irish people wanted to stay under British control.  After a few centuries of British rule enough Anglo-Irish protestants lived in Ireland long enough to call it their home land.  However because they were still the minority in Ireland so they feared that if Ireland were to rule on its own they would be treated unequally in government or before the law.  Many loyalists from Britain tried to deny representation and equality to the Catholic majority to avoid having Ireland home rule.  Irish nationalism struggled for Catholic emancipation and they also fought for home rule.  Obviously the protestants were against both campaigns.  Since the 16th century, those willing to take the "Oath of Supremacy" had many restricted political rights. The main thing that the law did was restrict Catholics from holding public office.  Also anyone who refused to take the oath could have been arrested for treason.  So basically Irish Catholics had little to no role in their own government.  Ireland tried to rebel but they didn't stand a chance against Britain's armed forces.  Rebelling actually made it worse because the British followed the armed assaults with legal ones.  By 1700 Irish Catholics were forbidden from purchasing new land, and after that they could not vote, sit on juries, serve in the military, become a teacher, or a policeman.  The Anglo-Irish protestants had economic and political power over the entire island.

4. Islamist believed their historical success was due to there faith and mission. The Islamist realized that many circumstances led to their decline as a community. This included domestic issues and foreign threats. Community disintergration and corruption of "true islam" generated rivivalist movement in the 17th Century and 18th centuries which included Wahhabi, Mahdi, Fulani and the likes of Padni.

European colonialism and imperialism were conditioned both by the source of the threat and islamic tradition. This ranged from holy war to emigration, non cooperation to adaptation and cultural synthesis.

Faced with Christian Europeoan dominance, Islamists responded in a way that was similar to the prophet Muhammad when faced with opposition and rejection. One was to fight (Jihad struggle) in defense of Islam or to emigrate (hijra) as Muhammad and his early followers had done when they went from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE.

Militant resistant Africa, Middle East, South Asia proved impotent due to the modern technology and army weapons. They adopted the modern weapons and technology willingly. Emigration was impracticle for many. Many leaders preached isolation and non cooperation as a way of resisting western threat, but this was not very effective.

A range of secular  modern Islamist accommodated the Europeans in order to acquire European scientific and technological power.They looked at this as a way of empowering themselves and locals, making it a way to regain independence.

5. The definition of a nation developed over the 19th century from a term describing the aristocracy of a country to the creation of nationalism. Nationalism developed over multi-ethnic populations in Europe and it sparked a yearning to create “organic” nation-states in replacement of “artificial” nations of the past. Nationalism included several factors to define a nation; language, race, political loyalty, religious practice, sentimental attachment and voluntary identity. The desire to develop nationalism, nation-states were able to share both government and identity of the community. In France at this time, Napoleon Bonaparte used nationalism to encourage loyalty to his empire, using is power and government to enhance commercial and industrial development. He believed France had the obligation and right to spread their new ideals of nationalism across Europe. Nationalism in Italy looked a bit different, it was driven by the middle class who wanted to grow their industrialization country wide. In this case, the local identity overpowered the national identity. Germany also took ahold of nationalism, reformed the military with the overwhelming support of the middle and working classes. After several failures and political unrest between the Prussia and Austrian powers over Germany, Germany finally became a single nation, continuing the nationalism thoughts but creating “Germanization.”

6. Imperialism is a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. Karl Pearson a well known British mathematician and champion of the British empire, saw the new imperialism as simply being the best use of the earth's resources. He felt as though the white man was burdened with having to take on the responsibility of evolving the  land and its resources, as the other races were incapable of doing so at the magnitude and accuracy of the white man.  Kipling white mans burden was basically was used to justify European imperialism in the nineteeth and early twentieth centuries. It is a title of a poem by Rudyard Kipling, which phrase implies that imperialism was motivated by a high - minded desire of whites to uplift people of color. The poem also talked about the United States shift from isolationism, a foreign policy where countries keep to themselves, to imperialism, a foreign policy where countries expand their influence through peace or force (but usually force). The phrase " white man" can be taken two different ways. Literally, the white man describes those who are Caucasian men or the phrase "white man" can also be taken figuratively. Around the time the poem was published, people who were considered to be good or pure were called "white men". 

7. Racism was present in some fashion before imperialism because one country wanted to rule over the other. Superiority is a form of racism. The ancient Greeks called any non Greek ethnic group barbarians. The ancient Persians also felt every other culture was inferior to them. Racism became more prevalent and up close during the imperialist experience because they used the theory of Darwinism to justify competition among other societies. this was called social Darwinism. In an effort to create colonies in Africa and Asia they enforced that blacks were superior to whites, therefore , under the control of whites. This superiority also forced blacks to work the lands that the whites took over. King Leopold II of Belgium sought out to colonize Congo due to the its natural wealth. He tricked the tribal rulers of Congo to sign over their land to him. As a result, he possessed thirty million people and area of 900,00 acres. He enslaved the Congolese people and brutally whipped and beat them. He also forced them to harvest rubber, palm oil and ivory. Slaves who failed to meet their work quotas were punished by having their hands chopped off. An estimated five to eight million Congolese were killed during Leopold's reign.

8. The Nuremberg Trials were a series of international military tribunals in the German city Nuremberg.  Senior Nazi z were tried for crimes done in WW11. United states wanted a fair trial. The first was based on criminals held between 20th November 1945 and October 1946. Charges were on crimes against peace and war . Here 24 defendants and 7 organizations were prosecuted including Nazi party secretary, commander of German air force, Hitler s deputy and publisher on an anti semantics newspaper.

Four judges from Britain, Russia, France and USA were involved. 100000 documents considered, 94 witnesses heard, 19 defendants guilty ,1 charged and 3 organizations were considered criminal. There were 12 more trials of judges and lawyers being charged with implementing and advancing the Nazi racial purity. Also prosecuted were the Nazi death squad and directors of a company that made chemicals used in chambers. There was the Dr trial, which led to 23  doctors being charged with crimes of human experimentation, mass murder under the guise of euthanasia and sterilization.

It with this that the 10 principles of modern medical ethics came to being. It was known as Nuremberg Code developed by UN in 2013.

This whole situation led to the Nuremberg Principle being recognized by Charter for the International Military Tribunal and its judgments.  This principle states that heads of state can be tried under international law. They are used under customary International Law. It created a chair for justice worldwide since then many trials have occurred such as  the  International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, international Criminal tribunal for Rwanda Genocide convention among others.

9. The atrocities of world war 2 lead to the war crime trials because of the crimes against peace and humanity. The big four agreed on the principles of the nazi leadership trials, and the big four were the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and France in London in 1945 and the result was the Nuremburg trials. The Tokyo Charter decided on the rules, principles, and how the trials would be held against the Japanese leaders. The ally powers decided to hold the crimes against the axis powers to hold them accountable for their heinous crimes during the war. The trials also were a way for the allies to hold power over the axis powers, as well as to deter people from supporting the governments that were defeated. Some of the crimes that these leaders were being held accountable for were the Nazi criminals who were responsible for running the camps, killing the Jewish people, and running experiments on them against their will and inhumanely.