The Congress of Vienna, the Carlsbad Decrees, and the Purpose of Compulsory State Education

"What were the major principles guiding the diplomats at the Congress of Vienna?"

The Congress of Vienna was influenced by three major principles that revolved around keeping the peace after the Napoleonic wars.

The first principle is legitimacy focused on (of course) keeping or reinstating the power of the legitimate leader/king/royal family. This basically only works though, if you believe in the idea of the natural power of your leaders. And back then, that had been widely believed.

The second principle is the balance of power. This principle was kept to make sure that the powers were "balanced" as to avoid any one power becoming too great. If one power became too great, then there was too much of a chance for it (the one power) to create more war. And the whole point of the Congress of Vienna, after all, was providing and keeping the peace.

The third principle is compensation. The principle of compensation runs a great deal along the lines of the balance of power. Compensation dealt with the powers being compensated for their losses during the Napoleonic wars. If they lost land, then they would be compensated through the gain of more land. With this though comes the fact that in order to keep a balance of power, then you would have to likewise continue giving land to the other powers to balance things out.


These three guiding principles were used by the Congress of Vienna to keep the peace and reinstate stability for their world. War was undesirable, and where there is war, death quickly follows.


         "What were the Carlsbad Decrees?"

The Carlsbad Decrees were decrees which were put into effect by those whom were on the conservative side, in order to abolish the revolutionary uproar that was occurring at that time. The terribly unfortunate occurrence that truly brought this about was the killing of an individual who was more opposed to the revolutionary ideas by an unstable university fraternity member.

The Carlsbad Decrees put the universities on a leash, dissembled the fraternities, and the like. These decrees were used to demolish the revolutionary tendencies and protect the conservative way of thinking.


"According to Rothbard, did compulsory state education emerge because governments simply wanted their people to become more knowledgeable, or were there other motivations at work?"


Murray Rothbard's idea was not that governments simply wished for their people to be educated. It was that the governments wished for their people to be educated as to instill a nationalistic vigor in them. This technique would then lay the foundations for a people that would rely on their government and trust in its strength.

It's like a parent raising a child. If you raise a child to think a certain way and act a certain way, then that child is much more likely to stick to that way of thinking and choose a life path that runs along with it. Chances are that the child won't turn around, spit on the old principles, and run down the road in the opposite direction.

This technique was supported by both Martin Luther and John Calvin as a resourceful way to instill particular religious views in young people.

Murray Rothbard's view was that the government wished to instill certain ideals and principles in its people, so that the people would trust in the deeds and wishes of the government.


Thanks for reading!  

Francis Bacon's Essays

"Would any of Bacon's essays have been more persuasive if he had talked about his own experiences? Which ones? Why?"



Bacon had dealt with a great deal of troubles in his life. He was in debt, he took bribes, etc.. The essays that he wrote were lacking in details which could have potentially strengthened his writing throughout his essays. In essays such as,"Of Expense", "Of Riches", "Of Ambition", etc., I can see instances wherein it may have been helpful for him to have included his own experiences. The reason? The reason of course being that people are much more likely to put stock into what you're saying if you say it because you have endured it. Thank you for reading!

Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis

"Compare and contrast photosynthesis and cellular respiration."

All plants use photosynthesis.  Even the
apple trees in this orchard.

     Hello all!  Today I am going to be talking about some of the similarities and differences in the two interesting phenomenons called photosynthesis and cellular respiration.

     Right off the bat we see an obvious similarity between the two.  They both use ATP.  (In case you were wondering, ATP is a chemical compound that conveys chemical energy inside of cells for metabolism.)

     We also see a key difference between the two.  This difference is how photosynthesis happens inside of things that we call chloroplasts, but cellular respiration takes place in the mitochondria.

     The last thing that I would like to mention is how photosynthesis and cellular respiration help each other.  They rely upon one another in order to properly work.  In my opinion, this is the main similarity between the two processes.

   
I hope that you find this essay useful, and please let me know what you think!  I would love to hear from you!