How to React to Threatened Power

Essential question: What should people in power do when their power is threatened?

In class, we watched a interactive map about the Congress of Vienna. The map showed how the Congress of Vienna impacted Europe. We then watched a 4 minute video of Napoleon and Metternich. In the video Metternich commanded Napoleon to stop his conquest. Napoleons response was that he threatened to reduce Vienna to rubble. The essential question is "What should people in power do when their power is threatened?". The question in what they discussed greatly at the Congress of Vienna.


A reaction that the European powers had when Napoleon was defeated was that they felt there needed to be more balance in the power of Europe because they wanted to avoid having another "Napoleon". Before Napoleon was defeated, he had all the power. The reason Napoleon has all the power is because he conquered Belgium, Venice, Egypt, Austria, Prussia, he captured Vienna, he occupied Berlin, he lead the invasion of Spain in 1808, he invaded Portugal and he invaded Russia. The powerful people at the Congress of Vienna were able to create the balance of power by creating a more powerful Russian presence on France's eastern border. A treaty was created that made Belgium and Holland neutral countries. The other European countries included France into the Grand Alliance to avoid war. By creating these new "systems", they were able to balance power so their power won't be threatened in the near future. 


I believe that the powerful people at the Congress of Vienna made the right choice. They where able create a balance of power that would prevent wars and violence. They were able to create the peace that they desperately needed after Napoleons violent conquests. Some circumstances that the powerful might want to give some power up would be when they get threatened by another country of if they get invaded and they invaders ask for some more land or supplies. If this would ever happen, then they should give some power up. Overall, this information answers the question, "What should people in power do when their power is threatened?".

Video we watched in class.

Balancing Power Info

The Three Musketeers of Ideologies

Essential Question: What were the major

how did they influence social and political actions?

For the longest time, liberals and conservatives have been going at it, even during the 1850's. This has to do with the essential question the we had to answer in class. The question was "What were the major political ideologies of the 19th century and how did they influence social and political action?" In class we were split into 6 groups and each group was assigned either conservatism, liberalism, or nationalism. The project was to create a one minute presentation to present to the class. we had to create something that showed how our ideology impacted social and political action. Watching the presentations really helped me to actually understand the ideologies.

Our presentation was a Educreations slideshow. We had animations along with our voices to act out and describe what was going on. Our presentation helps define our ideology because it had a old king that wanted his son to become king. There was also a liberal who said that the people should vote on the next king. Then it went to the next slide and it showed the liberal with his head on chopping block. Next to him was the king's son who is saying "This is what happens when someone questions the traditional ways of this government." The presentation shows that conservatives like to stick to the traditional ways of ruling and governing. Our ideology influenced social and political actions in the 19th century because it made the government not try new things. Conservationist ruled using the old traditions so there was not a lot changing and evolving during this time frame.

The other ideologies that groups did presentations on were nationalism and liberalism. Nationalism is the act of the people teaming up against their government. They often work together to take down a ruler that they do not like. Liberalism is based on merit, rights and freedom. They like to advocate middle class participation and they also didn't want low class because there are so many of them. Nationalism caused a lot of revolution because it was often a lot of people versus the government. Liberalism wanted the government to change when there was a lot of uprisings like the French Revolution. They also wanted to get rid of monarchs and reigning kings. They wanted the ability to actually vote on a ruler instead of the king’s son automatically getting the spot. So these are the major ideologies that were present during the 19th century and how they have impacted political and social actions.

Our Project

How Napoleon had a Firm Grasp on Europe

Essential Question: 
What was Napoleon's impact on the social, economic and political systems of Europe?


             Napoleon changed Frances ways of life by changing their social, economic, and political views. When it comes to political views, Napoleon had strict censorship and the establishment of a virtual police state in order to protect his power. Napoleon also saw equality as a good political style. He like equality because that meant that anyone below him in the class system couldn't overtake his leadership spot. This ruling is called the Napoleonic Law Codes, which made all the men equal under the law while maintaining legal power over women. This crushed any hopes that women had of improving their legal status while Napoleon ruled. His internal policies strengthened France and allowed it to dominate most of Europe. Napoleon increased the amount of trade by creating a lot more canals and roads. This lead to a faster flow of trading with other countries and cities in Europe. Napoleon also instituted a blockade around Britain hoping to cutoff their trad so their economy would cripple. This plan backfired because Britain was creating goods that were much cheaper than the rest of Europe. This severely hurt the continental European economy and created more capitol for Great Britain rather than destroying it. So these the are the major impacts that Napoleon Bonaparte had on the social, economic, and political systems of Europe.



Napoleon Economic Info

Other Napoleon Info 

Napoleon Image Source

The Invisble Hand Pushing People to Success

         In class we simulated economy and salary through Hershey kisses.  Everyone started with 2 except for Brian and Meredith who got 8. Many people thought this was unfair. After we received the candy, we then played rock, paper, scissors, shoot. When we played, we were gambling one of our kisses. If you won, then you take one of your opponents kisses an if you lost, they took one of yours. It was very frustrating only starting off with 2. Two losses right away meant you had to sit down. Once most people were out, the teacher told the rest of the kids who were in to stop playing. She then took all of their candy and distributed all the candy fairly to the rest of the class. This is called redistribution. After we did this, we watched different videos on Karl Marx and his theories on economics. We also watched a video on the invisible hand theory. So these are the things that we learned in class about the economic point of view of the industrial revolution.


         Karl Marx wanted poor people to help themselves instead of receiving money form the government. He believed that they should have their own product and sell that product on the free market. He did not want the government to interfere with the market. The free market  would distribute goods to people in a more efficient and cheap way. Communism though, is different. Communism has no state and classes; everyone gets payed the same amount of money even if they work harder than others. Adam Smith also had a theory called the Invisible Hand. The Invisible Hand is the natural force of the free market capitalism through competition of scarce materials. Smith said that each participant will try to maximize self interest, and the interaction between market participants, leading to exchange of goods and services, enables each participant to be better of than when simply producing for themselves. The theory also tries to have the most mutually beneficial exchange of goods so the buyer and seller both benefit. In class we learned that the Invisible Hand slowly lead to good quality goods sell for cheaper. So financially in-stable people would be able to get the stuff they need for cheap, which answers the question, how does Smith's theory of the Invisible hand help benefit the poor.


      I personally like the Invisible Hand theory the best. I think that the market should control itself instead of the government controlling it. I also think that its good that quality items sell cheaply so the poor can get good items. Communism is good for the poor people, but for the rich people who work hard for their money, but then they had to give it to the government so they can redistribute it back to everyone equally. So this is a brief summery of what we learned so far in class about communism, socialism, and capitalism.




Invisible Hand info.

Cartoon of the "Invisible Hand"

Invisible Hand Video we watched in class

Mindless Mill Workers

Option 2

         During the Industrial Revolution, women workers were common in the mills. They mainly went by the name "Mill Girls". Often men went to family farms and persuaded the girls to move to Lowell to work hard in the factories. They persuaded the families by telling them that the girls can make money and send it back home to help pay some of the expenses they might have. They also might say that the girls have some freedom outside of working. They can make some money and spend it in the city to buy items. The mill girls could also meet some friends at the mill. The persuader probably left out some of the bad things that could happen at the mill. The bad things were bad working conditions, chance of getting a horrible injury or sickness that could easily lead to death. The girls also went deaf because of the loud machinery. So those are some of the pros and cons of working in the mills.

         There were many restrictions on life for the mill. They got 3 meals a day that they had to eat while working. The food was basic; stuff like potatoes, rice, and beans. They also had a strict sleeping and work schedule that they had to follow. Inside the mills the over lookers made sure they don't screw anything up. If they did then they often corrected them by beating the girls. They got horribly injured when they beat them; some of the injuries took a long time to heal. The attitudes towards the girls were mostly negative in the 1800's because people thought of them as mindless workers in the mills and that the women weren't really worth much. They didn't think they were worth much because the managers picked girls over boys to work in the mills. The boys worked on the farms so the family often sent the girls to the mills. So those are the restrictions and the attitudes towards the mill girls in the 1800's.

Illustration of a girl working at a mill