Robespierre and the Reign of Terror

Reign of Terror
- After the French Revolution, the Kings and the nobles had lost their power. The Third Estate now had the control over the country. The National Assembly set up a limited monarchy for King Louis XVI. The people of France were still looking for a person to run the country. Groups were appearing trying to run the country, the most famous was the Jacobins. They tried to executed anyone they thought opposed them. They used the guillotine to cut off the heads of the people who were connected with the Old Regime. They ruled with an iron fist and it more of a dictatorship than a democratic government. The Jacobins even executed the King and the Queen by accusing them of treason.

Robespierre

- Maximilien Robespierre came to power and changed the government of France forever. He was very paranoid and during his reign. He was afraid of conspires against him. He was more a dictator than a ruler. Robespierre like the Jacobins used the guillotine against his enemies. He wanted to get rid of every trace of the monarchy by taking away the faces of the King and Queen in playing cards, changed the names of the months, and took away Sundays. He allowed the closing of the church because the radicals thought that religion was a thing of the past. The people of France were terrified and they distrusted each other and no one was safe from the guillotine.

"Robespierre with his cruel moral relativism, embodied with all the cardinal sin of all the revolution, the heartlessness of ideas."-Paul Johnson. In July 1794, the National Convention began to see that if they did not stop Robespierre they would be targeted.Within the government a conspiracy formed the leader. Finally on July 28, 1979 he was led to the guillotine. The Reign of Terror had ended.

The French Revolution

1a) The people of France were critical of the nobility because the nobles had the most power of the peasants. The peasants were forced to use the nobles' mill, oven and wine press and they had to pay for them. The nobles were exempt from paying taxes because they were the wealthiest.
b) The peasants didn't like King Louis XVI because he was a horrible ruler. He was in debt and he let the upper class have the most power. The ninety percent of the country lived in poverty while the King lived in his palace far away from France's economic problems.
c) The clergy were the Church officials. They too taxed the third estate and had complete control over the country like the nobles had. The clergy lived in luxury and watched as the the peasants were forced to do military service.

2) In 1789, the French peasants were angered because there was a shortage of grain. There wasn't enough crops to grow them, and the prices of bread doubled. Many people could barely afford the bread, let alone the heavy taxes.

3) The cartoonist from Source A is describe the fact that the peasants were controlled by the nobles and the clergy. They didn't care about the peasants and obviously enjoyed their absolute power over them. The peasants were waiting for the day that France would become democratic. They wanted their voices to be heard. The third estate were waiting for the revolution to begin.

4) Source B is describing the daily lives of the peasants. Life in France was becoming unbearable for them. Not only did they make up most of the population in France but they were poorly treated. The nobles set high taxes for the peasants for using the nobles land and possessions. The King also put burden on the peasants because they also had to pay their taxes to him. The peasants had very little things and lived in despair.

5) Sources A, B, C, explain why the poor resented the rich. The peasants did everything for them and in return they were poorly treated. They had the least income while the rich enjoyed their luxuries. Nothing was easy for the peasants, they were waiting for the day when their lives would turn around. Generation by generation the Third estate were forced to see that their wages were being taken away by the rich. The rich looked down upon them and took them for granted.

6) The Third Estate would be most influenced by Rousseau's writing. The were sick of the way the government treated them. Rousseau wrote about "the power to make laws belongs to the people and only to the people " no man has any natural authority over others;". The Third Estate wanted to have some control over the government because the upper class had made a rule that there could be only one vote from each estate which would mean that they would always outvote the lower class. They didn't want to be controlled any longer. Peasants were also inspired by the Americans and wanted to overthrow the monarchy so their country could be democratic. By being democratic it would change the way France was run, it promised freedom, and the right to choose their little and most of all it gave them a chance to let their voices be heard.

7) The pamphlet was banned because it went against what the upper class believed in. The King loved having power over everything even though the people of France disliked him. The nobles and the clergy loved living in luxury while the peasants worked everyday to pay their taxes. They didn't want the peasants to get any ideas of revolution because the first and second estate loved the way of the Old Regime.

John Locke and " The Enlightenment"

John Locke
- John Locke is one of the most famous and influential of all the Enlightenment thinkers. John was British and he disliked the monarchic government. He decided to come up with a new government, one that benefited the people's rights. He believed that the people had the right to govern the country in any way they wanted. He emphasized that humans had three natural rights (life,liberty,and property). He said that if the government failed to protect these three rights, then the people had the right to overthrow it. John Locke wanted a democratic government. His ideas might have been similar to the Ancient Greeks but he is credited as the father of modern democracy.

Thomas Jefferson and The Declaration of Independence
- Thomas Jefferson is one of the founding fathers of the Declaration of Independence. His ideas were inspired by John Locke's idea of a democratic government. The "rights" he talks about are similar to Locke's. He says that "all men are created equal", that they have the right for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Thomas Jefferson stated in the declaration that these rights were given by God and that no one, no matter what power they had could take that away. The government gets its power from the people.We have the right to abolish the government if they fail. Like the saying says "For the people of the people". We also have the right to change anything that the government does. The people get to chose their leader. John Locke lead the way for many democratic nations and inspired many to follow in his words.

Corpernicus and the Trial of Galileo

Theories of the Solar System

Geocentric
- The theory of Geocentric was the first theory to come out before the scientific revolution. Many people believed in Ptolemy's theory in which he said that the Earth was the center of the universe. Many people believed in this theory including Ancient Greece, Ancient China and Aristotle. The "proof" in this theory was the stars, the sun and the other planets seemed to revolve around the Earth. The second piece of evidence was the fact that the Earth was solid and stable and did not move. The Ancient Greeks believed that the other planets movements were circular and not elliptical. No one opposed this theory until the sixteenth century.

Heliocentric
- This theory came out during the scientific revolution. It challenged the geocentric theory during the sixteenth century. Heliocentric was the belief that the sun was the center of the universe, that the Earth rotated on its axis and the Earth orbited around the Sun once a year. The astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was the one who introduced it to the world. He studied the oppositions of the plants and the eclipses.Through his observations he made a mathematical model of the heliocentric system. His model would later influence and be expanded by Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei.

The Trial of Galileo
- Before this famous trial could take place, Galileo in 1609 had made the telescope. He took interest in Copernicus' views in heliocentrism. He saw the proof in this theory as he gazed through his telescope. Galileo began to speak about the theory publicly. When the Church began to hear about Galileos' views they immediately began to talk against him saying that he opposed God. After, Galileo published his book, the Church suspended the selling of the book. The Pope sent an order saying that Galileo violated the law by teaching about the heliocentric system and was arrest. Galileo would go to trial three times before the was forced to kneel in front of his accusers and say that he would give up his views. He was given the life sentence. Before the Pope's death he realized that Galileo was telling the truth and geocentric was nonsense and he gave Galileo his freedom.

Scientific Revolution: The Scientific Method

Scientific Method
-The scientific method was a major part of the Scientific Revolution. Scientists began to use the scientific method to conduct their experiments. They refused to accept just one general idea or a theory. They tested their experiments over and over again to come up with their own conclusions.The scientific method has five basic steps to it:

1) Observe your surroundings.
2) Create a hypothesis or an educated guess.
3) Using your hypothesis make a procedure.
4) Testing the experiment repeating as necessary
5) Analysis of the conclusion.

- Aristotle was one of the greatest scientist of the world. He believed that objects that were heavier fell faster than lighter objects.However, 1,500 years after Galileo tested Aristotle's theory by going to the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped two stones; each of them were a different weight. His conclusion was that even though the stones weighed differently both of them fell at the same speed. He proved that Aristotle was wrong by using the scientific method.

Evolution vs. Creation

Evolution
- The theory of evolution was introduced by Charles Darwin. He believed that humans and other animals changed slowly over time. He believed these species evolved over time because of the need of survival. He called it natural selection. In natural selection those who had an advantages survived and those who didn't died. Species that survived reproduced and their offspring now carried the advantage gene. For example, if certain birds developed a bigger beak they are able to carry more seeds and eat more. The birds with the smaller beaks will eventually die out. The evidence for Darwin's theory is that every species changed slowly and in a couple of years those species would look different.

Creation
- In the theory of creation is it believed that God had made the Earth in seven days. Those who believed in this theory are Christians and Jews. This theory is more religious and is described in the Book of Genesis. The Church feels that creationism is how we came to be in this Earth and how everything was created. They oppose the theory of evolution and even today creationism vs evolutions is the most conversational topic in the United States. Before Darwin's Theory came along nearly everyone believed that God had created us. During the 1900s it was banned from public schools in the United States. Though during the 1960s people began to teach both theories in school.

-My opinion is that I believe in both theories because there is some proof that we have evolved during millions of years. Being Christian, I believe in God and I think that he did create the universe and brought human life and animals to this Earth. I have faith in God and he does things for a reason. I believe that God meant for life on Earth to evolve and left evidence for Darwin to create his theory.