The Powers Of Europe During 1914 History Essay

The Powers Of Europe During 1914 History Essay In 1914 war was just a disaster waiting to happen, all over Europe tensions were raising with each country looking for the smallest excuse to start one of the greatest wars in history; World War I. On the 28th of June 1914 Austria found its excuse; the heir to the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent of the Austrian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Gavrilo Princip; a member of the Black Hand which was a secret Nationalist Serbian group that was devoted to uniting all of the territories with significant Serb populations not ruled by Serbia. This was not the only cause for the First World War however; it was only the match that lit up the unstable barrel of gun powder that was known as Europe during the time. Lots of countries wanted to go to war, but there is just one question; which country was most prepared or would benefit the most from the war? There are a few main factors that should be considered when deciding; economy, military, social Conditions and political polic ies. Economy During the start of the 19th century Great Britain was the kingpin of economic development. This was mainly because of its overseas colonies. 1815 to 1914 was referred to as Great Britains Imperial Century. During that time 10 million square miles and close to 400 million people were made part of the British Empire in which it had access to loads of extra resources. But while Britains economy had jumped during the industrial revolution, its growth had started to slow. This can be shown through its coal production. In 1914 Great Britains coal output was 292 million tons from 250 million tons in 1900, only a 42 million ton increase. This growth compared to Germany, it had a 156 million ton increase in production. As these statistics show, while Britain was growing it wasnt growing as fast as it was during the Industrial Revolution and could soon be overtaken by any potential competitor. Despite this, London was still the worlds financial and entrepreneurial center for international pay ments and Britain still remained a very large creditor nation, lending funds to other countries. The German economy in 1914 was growing at a phenomenal pace and should be considered as one of the greatest economic powers of the world at the time. During the earlier years of Imperial Germanys existence its economy had lagged far behind its competitors (Great Britain, France and Belgium) due to the fact that it was a new country and had to unify all of its affairs from the countries that were created from it, as a result the social structure was not at all suitable for economic or entrepreneurial development. But by the beginning of the 20th century Germany had become one of the world leaders in industrialization second only to Great Britain (which was in a slow decline after the industrial revolution). An example of this would be Germanys steel production. In 1914 it had produced an estimated 14 million tons compared to Great Britain which only produced 8 million tons. The prosperity of Germanys economy was also reflected in the way its population had exploded during the late 189 0s yet when absorbed into the labor market living standards went on without any drastic decline. By 1914 the countrys NDP (Net Domestic Product) was over 20 billion reichsmarks. This statistic can be disputed though. According to Knut Borchardt, the poor state of the statistical material undermines the reliability of many of the detailed figures (Borchardt, 1954) After Austria-Hungary became a dual monarchy its economy had changed in many ways. It had started to replace its medieval institutions with more modern structures. The technological changes during that time also accelerated the urbanization and industrialization of the country. As a result of the improvements of Austria-Hungarys economy, the GNP grew an estimated 1.76% per year during the time period for 1870-1913. This growth compared very favorably with the other super powers of the time such as Britain (1%), France (1.06%) and Germany (1.51%). But in its early years the economy in general economy still could not compare with the others due to its late start in its sustained modernization. But by the end of the 19th century these differences slowly began to even themselves out. By 1900 Austria-Hungary had a strong food industry and agriculture in the east while the western areas excelled in various manufacturing industries. By 1914 Austria-Hungary had become the 3rd largest economi c and industrial country in Europe after Great Britain and Germany. During 1914 Russias economy was not in such great shape. It had an abundance of resources but most were locked in by the vast size of the country and the extreme climate that they were located in. It would seem that Russia may have been a dying man but historians unanimously agree that its economy did grow. By 1900 it had taken Frances 4th place position in iron production and 5th in steel production. Railway mileage had increased by 87% between 1892 and 1903 and its oil extraction had even tripled between 1892 and 1903. All of this industrialization though, required lots of capital to start up and maintain. This though was capital that Russia did not have at its disposal. As a result, Russias industry ended up being predominately owned by foreigners. A few examples of this would be Russias steel and mining industry; 69% and 85% respectively were owned by foreigners. An interesting fact about other ownership of Russias industries is that the knowledge capital that was utilized in Rus sias industrialization were either foreigners or Russian minorities like Jews, Poles or à Ã‚ ¡Ãƒâ€˜Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ Ã‚ °Ãƒâ€˜Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ Ã‚ ±Ãƒâ€˜Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒâ€˜Ã‚ Ãƒ Ã‚ ´Ãƒâ€˜Ã¢â‚¬  Ãƒâ€˜Ã¢â‚¬ ¹ (Old Believers). Despite all of these improvements on Russias economy there were very few people in the middle class and most were living in close to medieval-like poverty while the nobility were extremely wealthy. This created a giant imbalance in the workforce which in turn drastically lowered industrial efficiency. These were the main hurdles for Russia to become a major economic superpower and also resulted in unrest within the country. Throughout the first half of the 19th century France was the worlds wealthiest nation. During the time when agriculture was the main occupation of the majority of Europe it had the most abundant resources. It also held the 2nd place in the worlds industrial production after Great Britain. But in 1914 the economy was not like it was 50 years ago. France ranked behind the other main superpowers like Great Britain, Germany Austria-Hungary and Russia in population and was struggling with Russia in terms of industrial production as it had already fallen behind in production. An example would be coal output. France lagged behind both Germany and Great Britain with only a 40 million ton output compared to 277 million and 292 million tons respectively and is only able to have competition with Russia which had 36.2 million tons of coal output. Though the general patterns of growth in France had a resemblance to the other Western European nations, the peaks in its periods of prosperity were lo wer and the troughs in its periods of depression were deeper. Military Might During the beginning of the 20th century, Great Britain had the largest empire in the world which covered over 11 million square miles of territory most of which was claimed between 1750 and 1850. By the late 19th century Great Britain also acquired colonies in Africa and in 1914 King George V reigned over 430 million people. The British Empire was protected by its Royal Navy. This included 18 dreadnoughts, 29 pre-dreadnought battleships, 195 assorted cruisers and 146 destroyers. The Royal Navy was the largest navy in the world at the time. In August of 1914 Britain had around 250 thousand soldiers in active service with the remaining 450 thousand in reserve. About 120 thousand soldiers in active duty were in the British Expeditionary Force and the rest of the army was stationed abroad in all of its colonies except for the white countries/dominions of Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Britain already had an undersized army but the fact that they were spread out all over the world me ant that fighting capacity in the event of war would be limited. Even before 1914 Germany was credited with having the most efficient army in the world. Unlike Britain it employed universal mass conscription for all of the men. The German Army (Deutsches Heer) were first put into short term military service and after that was finished they were put into long term reserve should they be needed in the event of a war. By 1914 the German Army in its entirety had 4.2 million soldiers. The Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine)

Education. Why or Why not? Essay

Education, define as the art of systemic learning inspire every one of us, and educated human beings are able to possess the power of influence in academic discourses. If there’s no input, then there will be no output, and believe it or not, education allows people to be creative and innovative in developing our digital world. Generation after generation, the medium of providing education has improved in using interactive technology such as – digital projector, high-speed laboratory camera, multi-function writing board and etc. â€Å"If we can match highly effective educators with great entrepreneurs†, admits Joane Wesis, the author of â€Å" The Innovation Mismatch: â€Å" Smart Capital† and Education Innovation, â€Å"and if we can direct smart capital toward these projects, the market for technological innovation might just spurt from infancy into adolescence. † The author hold similar viewpoints that education behaves as an important source of input for generating prosperous output that motivates to share the benefits of one’s creativity to the community. Understanding the philosophy of becoming educated is crucial, and also important to explore the concept that education drives us to interact with society by finding ways to earn for living. One might wisely pursue the education for the benefits of mankind, but for few some people misleading concept of getting educated, for instance; in the case of nuclear scientists developing nuclear-powered weaponry will bring negative impact to our society, and that’s why there are no limits to pursue education and no limits on manifesting the application of education onto our society. On the other hand, formal education is highly necessary to decode the discourse in our academic community as well as be able to define their specific ideas. Thus, an educated person could award and/or tolerate the aspirations of human being by using the perceived knowledge, and determine their correct or incorrect benefits to the society. To become an elitist in the field of education depends on individual choices, but education will select people into groups of clusters where the professional will stays on top, while normal educated people will share the same spot with majorities in the lower level. Nevertheless, education is vital because not only it supports individual understanding in academic discourses, but also allows oneself to play an important role to help improve the society. Some might argue that one could live sufficiently without burden in his life with a satisfactory income. This point of view shall fit to minorities who retard to pursue education, however; in contrary to preceded viewpoint, Nicholas Lemann, the author of The New Yorker magazine, writes about The Cost Of College, and the following speech extracted from his article remarks, â€Å" In today’s economy â€Å", President Obama claims, â€Å" There’s no greater predictor of individual success than a good education. Right now, the unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. The incomes of folks with a college degree are twice as high as those who don’t have a high-school diploma. † (Nicholas Lemann). Not all people have certain interest of becoming graduates, and indeed they don’t want to invest their time to study, either. Generally speaking, high school dropouts have more chances of becoming low socio-economic status, yet can be easily employed because their job requires no background education, but, in contrast, graduates earn multiple times more than high school dropouts, so it takes more time for them to get into work force since they are very costly for an employer. The downside of becoming educated is the fact that the price of paying to graduate is seriously inflated. Building a career with education is nevertheless highly necessary and due to the budget constraints; it becomes more challenging to get on top of the education ladder. During the year 2009, The College Board in Princeton, NJ, has calculated the cost of pursuing education that â€Å" College education expenses have climbed over 5% annually during the past 10 years, more than double our nation’s inflation rate. That means a child born today could need over $220,000 to attend a four-year public college in 2028, more than triple today’s college costs. † (The College Board (2010)) As a matter of a fact, the educated parent knows and understands their responsibilities to provide education for their young generations. However, since they pertain the thought of raising their children’s intellectual skills, they are trying to invest their capital, no matter what it takes them to graduate: the hierarchy in society trigger parents to train their kids to understand the discourses that prevails among them. To clarify, see the community of lawyers and professional workers for example, selective parents privileged in wealth of knowledge will motive themselves to push their children to pursue formal education like they have done it before. Moreover, the perceived concept in education define the roles that people take in the society, which helps to provide society needs and wants; such that, the more educated people a society has, the higher the standard of living. Elitism in education creates humiliation and dispute between dominant groups based on race, culture, intellectual, and gender. Very sadly, the demand of elite students in society can promote uncertain consequences, which in this case, promotes the unethical issue to expand market for institution. Danny Dorling, the author of â€Å"The return to elitism in education†, explains the behavior of education system that creates competition in institution for students and money. Danny Dorling mentions about grades and intellectual responsiveness on education such that: â€Å" People who have taught the children of the affluent classes at the universities they go to have seen the result of this growth in elitism. These children have been educationally force-fed enough facts to obtains strings of A grades, but they are no more geniuses than anyone else. There is a tragedy in making young people pretend to super-human mental abilities which neither they nor anyone else possess. To justify their situation they have to swallow and repeat the lie being told more and more often, that only a few are especially able and that those few are disproportionately found amongst the higher social classes. † (Danny Dorling) When parents are not satisfy with their child’s grades in academics, they will try to push their limits by giving close attention, and sometimes punishments are highly likely. Institutions, on the their hand, will raise the academic requirements for student admission in order to search for elite students – which turns out to be a marketing strategy for competition, not exactly an emphasis for student’s education. Not to mention the fact that doing so (raising standards in admission) can easily motivates and challenges each and every student intellectual understanding in the course of education for improving not only the quality of academic discourse, but also benefits sophisticated level of education, perhaps. Education shapes the society, meaning; educated people are gaining not only credible reputation towards a society but also participate to involve as major role-player, and for instance; A kind-hearted lawyer would offer a pro bono service to his friends, and etc. Moreover, The number of crimes in a country with high-uneducated people is certainly, skyrocketing. The following data conducted by The Campaign for Educational Equality claims, â€Å" A one-year increase in average years of schooling for dropouts would reduce murder and assault by almost 30 percent motor vehicle theft by 20 percent, arson by 13 percent, and burglary and larceny by about 6 percent† (2). Plus, the above data clearly distinguishes the chances of uneducated people doing bad things unconsciously without being able to correct oneself. â€Å" Educated girls and women are less vulnerable to HIV infection†, an article from GlobalCitizenCorps says, â€Å" human trafficking and other forms of exploitation, are more likely to marry later, raise fewer children who are more likely to go to school, and make important contributions to family income. † Women nowadays are of course taking serious role in society because the freedom of people rights give the society fair and square chances to pursue education; the academic discourse will influence and change their thoughts on lifestyle, completely. Besides, the market of human trafficking is relatively large in South-East Asian countries, and poor families are often allured with money incentives to sell their teenage children to work across other countries, which in reality are forced to do nasty jobs under extremely poor condition. These sufferings from naive victims will provide a clear picture to motivate people in advocating for education, so people needs education in order to maintain their positive personalities in the society. People in general belief that education fights to reduce segregation and inequality in a society. This; however, happens to be true for some instance, until the author of this article â€Å" Segregation Prominent in Schools, Study Finds â€Å" in the New York Time magazine, convincingly reports about segregation that; â€Å"Segregation of Latino students is most pronounced in California, New York and Texas. The most segregated cities for blacks include Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Philadelphia and Washington†, Motoko Rich asserts, â€Å"Mr. Orfield said that schools with mostly minority and poor students were likely to have fewer resources, less assertive parent groups and less experienced teacher. The author share his viewpoint that segregation exists, not because of education, but because of low-funds and resources in institution which tends to concentrate high amount of low socio-economic status students, and this will cause racial indifferences between low and high income status. Meanwhile, similar to Motoko Rich viewpoint, Klaus Walde, furthermore supports the idea about resource allocation in education that â€Å" While it is difficult to define and measure the quality of education one reason for relative quality differences across education levels might lie in the allocation of educational resources (as teachers and equipment). † (446) Now, the idea boils down to the fact that resources quality and allocation is more important in contributing better education system in our society. Broadly speaking, being educated in this modern world allows people to contribute their benefits to a society, by means of the intellectual support provided by the manner of learning experiences. Every country are relying on the technology and driving the market to substitute manual workers with machines, so educated workers are important for operating those machines. Since starting from the era of industrial revolution, education was introduced to our society in order to acknowledge in understanding and defining their roles in the society. Therefore, the improvement in education overtime will also improve innovation in technology, which increases the quality of living standards. In fact, education is always needed for various sectors in our society, and will always require for having credibility in sharing the message within the society. Furthermore, education functions as a multi-purpose assistance for training not only intellectual skills, but also providing ways to survive in earning for a living in a society. More importantly, some critics would assume that there are some disadvantages in society such as segregation in education between income status, but the issue can be settle if every individuals successfully pursue education because the way the educated person conceive mature in every aspect of his life and society. Work Cited Dorling, D. (2010). The return to elitism in education. Eurozine . GLOBALCORPORATIONCORPS. (n. d. ). 11 Facts About Education Around the World. Retrieved February 10, 2013, from DoSomething. org: http://www. dosomething. org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-education-around-world Lemann, N.(2012, May 28). The Cost Of College. (T. Bachtell, Ed. ) The New Yorker . RICH, M. (2012, September 19). Segregation Prominent in Schools, Study Finds. The NewYork Times , A16 . Walde, K. (1998). Egalitarian and elitist education systems as the basis for international differences in wage inequality. European Journal of Political Economy , Vol. 16 (2000 ), 445–468. Weiss, J. (2011, March 31). HBR Blog Network / Innovations in Education. Retrieved February 10, 2013, from Harvard Business Review: http://blogs. hbr. org/innovations-in-education/2011/03/the-innovation-mismatch-smart. html.

Gender Roles Edgar Allen Poe Essay

In the 1800s there was a widely accepted ideology of what characteristics made up a woman and a man. The man was supposed to be reasonable, rational, and unaffected by his emotions. Women, on the other hand, were the exact opposite: irrational and completely taken over by emotion. Poe did not necessarily reverse these roles in all of his works, but he definitely toyed with them, giving the majority of his characters the characteristics of both men and women of the time. In Poe’s â€Å"Annabel Lee† both the persona and his lover seem womanly, â€Å"But we loved with a love that was more than a love- I and my Annabel Lee† (lines 9-10). They are both overtaken by such an intense affection and love for one another that it is more than a love. This could mean that they worshipped or were even obsessed with each other. Such an immense passion was typically only seen in woman during this time. Also, the narrator blames the death of Annabel Lee on the angels, who were, â€Å"†¦not half so happy in Heaven† and â€Å"went envying her and me† (21-22). Angels do not get jealous. This statement shows the immaturity of the narrator who, as a man, should be sophisticated in all of his ways. Towards the end of the poem another womanly characteristic arises in him, irrationality. Even after the death of Annabel Lee their souls are inseparable. His inability to let go leads the narrator to venture out each night and sleep next to the woman he loves so dearly. In reality, no person of sound mind would ever choose to sleep next to a rotting corpse night after night. In â€Å"Ligeia† Poe did indeed flip the roles of men and women. Although Ligeia does have a â€Å"†¦placid cast of beauty† and a certain eloquence in her voice, these seem to be her only womanly characteristics (pg. 644). She is not very emotional; in fact she is even described in the first paragraph as having â€Å"adapted to deaden impressions of the outside world.† The only time she does show some sort of emotion is towards the end of her life, when she would â€Å"†¦pour out before me the overflowings of a heart whose more than passionate devotion amounted to idolatry† (648). Up until now the only feelings that were evident were those of the narrator. Poe also makes clear Ligeia’s obvious intellectual dominance over her husband in the following line, â€Å"I was sufficiently aware of her infinite supremacy to resign myself, with a childlike confidence, to her guidance through the chaotic world†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (pg. 647). This line is very important when discussing gender roles because not only does the narrator admire Ligeia’s immeasurable intelligence, but he looks up to her for guidance through life and the acquisition of knowledge, which is the opposite of a stereotypical marriage during the nineteenth century. He also describes himself as childish which carries along with it the connotation of immaturity and naivety, characteristics typical of women according to the society Poe lived in. Although this paper only discusses two of Poe’s numerous literary works it is evident that his idea of what differentiates a woman from a man was skewed from that of society during the time period in which he lived. Women in Poe’s mind were sagacious, rational, and strong willed. Men, on the other hand, tended to be more womanly than the women, allowing themselves to be engulfed by their emotions and showing little to no rationality. Works Cited Poe, Edgar Allan. â€Å"Annabel Lee.† The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th edition. Nina Baym, Robert S. Levine, Julia Reidhead, Carly Frasier Doria. Crawfordsville, IL: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc, 2012. Print. Poe, Edgar Allan. â€Å"Ligeia.† The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th edition. Nina Baym, Robert S. Levine, Julia Reidhead, Carly Frasier Doria. Crawfordsville, IL: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc, 2012. Print.

The Presidents Cabinet - Agencies and Secretaries

Clearly one of the most popular homework assignments in America -- Name the presidents Cabinet. The Cabinet-level departments are listed here in order of presidential succession. Department of State Secretary of State:  Mike PompeoWeb Address: http://www.state.gov/ Department of Treasury Secretary of the Treasury:  Steven MnuchinWeb Address: http://www.ustreas.gov/ Department of Defense Secretary of Defense: Dr. Mark T. EsperWeb Address: http://www.defenselink.mil/ Department of Justice Attorney General  William P. BarrWeb Address: http://www.usdoj.gov/ Department of Interior Acting Secretary of the Interior David BernhardtWeb Address: http://www.doi.gov/ Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary of Agriculture:  Sonny  Perdue IIIWeb Address: http://www.usda.gov/ Department of Commerce Secretary of Commerce:  Wilbur L. Ross, Jr.Web Address: http://www.commerce.gov/ Department of Labor Secretary of Labor:  Deputy Secretary of Labor Patrick PizzellaWeb Address: http://www.dol.gov/ Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary of Health and Human Services:  Alex AzarWeb Address: http://www.hhs.gov/ Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development:Ben CarsonWeb Address: http://www.hud.gov/ Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary of Transportation:  Elaine ChaoWeb Address: http://www.dot.gov/ Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary of Energy:  Rick PerryWeb Address: http://www.doe.gov/ Department of Education Secretary of Education: Betsy DeVosWeb Address: http://www.ed.gov/ Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Acting VA Secretary Robert WilkieWeb Address: http://www.va.gov/ Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad F. WolfWeb Address: http://www.dhs.gov/ Note: While not officially part of the Cabinet, the following positions currently have Cabinet-rank status:White House Chief of StaffAdministrator of the Environmental Protection AgencyDirector of the Office of Management BudgetUnited States Trade RepresentativeUnited States Ambassador to the United NationsChairman of the Council of Economic AdvisersAdministrator of the Small Business Administration More About the Cabinet Why is it called cabinet? When did it first meet? How much do the secretaries make, who picks them and how long do they serve?