A Male Factory Laborer - On Unionization

Being a male factory laborer, I spend most of my day working in the dark, hot mines with very little protection. My job is very dangerous and many are killed doing what I do by being crushed by fallen rocks or by sufocating from the toxic fumes. I go to work every day knowing that I may not make it home to see my family. Though my job is harmful to my body and i make very little money doing what I do, there aren't many other options for me. I must support my family and due to the easy availability of this job, I had to take it. It is great that we all have jobs and I am a good worker, but the life that I live now is a tough one. I really have to fight off the fear that I have of losing my life with the satisfaction of knowing that I am doing the best to support my family through these changing times.

The French Revolution - The Commoner

We the commoners of France deserve much more freedom from the leashes of government. We ask the government to stop spilling more blood over the slightest offense of speaking out against corrupt leaders. We also ask for more land that we work very hard for. We hold the most common of jobs but still dont have much say in government. With a corrupt leader at the head, how are we, the best representatives of our nation, suppose to change France for the better? We must let the common people lead our country into a new era.

Fredrick the Great

On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the greastest)

CULTURAL: 8
Fredrick's people really liked Fredrick. They called him and "Enlightened Monarch" and were happy to finally have a leader who was aware of it's people's needs and lives. He also composed many musical pieces and was well educated in music.

EDUCATIONAL: 9
Fredrick was educated very well in both military and music. Both his music skills and his military skills are incredible, proving that his education in those areas worked very well. Though ataining that education was tough due to his father's brutal tactics of keeping Fredrick's focus, he made it through and used his education to better Prussia and it's people.

LEGAL: 8
Fredrick spread religious freedom and he gave the press much for freedom. He also established more respect for the law. Fredrick still managed to keep control in Prussia after all of these reforms, showing that was able to balance power between him and his people very well.

POLITICAL:7
Fredrick had a bureaucracy and his government was very loyal to him. Though politicaly he didn't make much of an impact, Fredrick brought respect to his role as a monarch and was able to keep his people pleased with how he ran Prussia.

MILITARY: 10
Fredrick had great military skill and lead Prussia through three major wars, the Seven Years' War being the greatest. Prussia came out stronger then when it went in under Fredrick's control and Prussia's and and territory nearly doubled in size.

Louis XIV: From the Commoner

Yet again, another ruler who wants all of the power to himself. Louis establishing an absolutist and centralized state is going to cause even more problems for a commoner like myself. Yes, we may be better defended, but people like us will have no say in our lives and we will have to work even more for less outcome. And all of these wars that he is provocing is terrible, we the commonfolk are the ones that are gonna have to fight these wars for him. It is unnesessary and it's really killing us. We need a ruler who cares more about the commoners and less about his power and starting trouble with other provinces and countries.

The Thirty Years' War

The Theirty Years' War was primarily caused by the fact that people wanted less power given to government and a great rise in religious tension and conflict. Many religious riots were cause by the separation of Protestants and Ferdinand's dislike for Protestants. People were killed because of their religion and beliefs or even who they followed as a leader. These conflicts split countries such as France into two and due to the instability of the Holy Roman Empire and other areas, the Thrity Years' War continued to kill many people. The Peace of Augsburg, which stated that princes could choose which religion would be practiced in their provinces, was one affect of the war. Another affect of the war was the deaths of millions of soldiers and innocent people, making the Thirty Years' War one of the most brutal in European history.

Luther and the Reformation

Martin Luther was a young scholar who found fault and immorality within the Catholic, in that the Church would sell indulgences to people to forgive them of their sins. The Church would then use a lot of that money to either fund the building of new religous facilities or to spend however the priests wanted to. Luther rejected this idea and felt that people should not have to pay for forgiveness. Many of Luther's ideals were sparked as he read from the bible, Romans
1:17 from the passages of the Epistles of St. Paul: "For the justice of God is revealed from faith to faith in that it is written, for the just shall live by faith." Luther felt that one could get into Heaven by living a life of faith and not by indulgences. On the eve of All Saints Day, Luther nailed a copy of the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg. These theses all disputed that practices of the Catholic church and after being translated, it was copied and spread quickly for everyone to read. Many agreed with Luther's ideas and began to follow him to separate from the Catholic church. They thought that Luther's ideas made more sense and that they would save more money by following his ideas.

Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?

To the Europeans, Christopher Columber was a hero, but to Indians, Columbus was a villain. Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines villain as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime. What Columbus did for Europe was great but what he did to do it was terrible and diceitful. When Columbus arrived on the island, he traded unfairly with the Indians and took many into slavery to take back home since he wasn't able to bring back gold. When he came back, he reported that there were mass amounts of gold but there were actually scarce amounts in rivers. The king in Europe soon grew very interested in gold in the New World and Columbus made three more voyages back to the New World. He became much more aggressive with the Indians and even killed many of them. Him and his Spaniards had taken many Arawaks into slavery and made them work in plantations and mine gold. These are not the acts of a hero, these are undoubtly the acts of a villain. To the Indians, Columbus seemes like a terrorist taking their land and killing their people. Columbus must have seemed very scary to the Indians since he had brought weapons and had killed Indians. He brought fear, not hope, to a whole continent of people.