Martin Guerre's Return

The middle ages was a difficult time period that resulted in famine, death, and poverty. During this time period a new system of government rose called the feudal system. The feudal system was a system of government that had social classes with kings being at the top and the peasants at the bottom with the nobles and knights in the middle. In the system the nobles/knights offered protection to the peasants in return for manual labor. All the different social classes had different standards of life but they were all crucial to the organization of the feudal system.. It consists of the peasants, lords, nobles, and kings.

In the novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Remarque retells the story of World War One from the viewpoint of the German soldier, Paul Baumer. Throughout the novel, Paul experiences the atrocities of this war, but unfortunately the effects of the war were worse than he had imagined. The war took a toll on the life of every single soldier, affecting their futures and families. However, the camaraderie the boys had formed allowed them to survive and ultimately was the only positive outcome of the war. Remarque includes sections throughout the novel that emphasize this deep bond that the soldiers share with one another.

I learnt through a presentation performed by 2 people on Medieval day about the social structure of Medieval European society.

For them, hell and the devil were very real realities. It did not help that Gd was quick to punish his creations, regardless of whether they were dead or alive. Religion had three crucial tasks that shaped the lives of the people: providence , salvation and community. Providence was God’s will on Earth; to the people living in this time period, everything was God’s will. In a society where death was common, but the causes not, God was the one who caused it. Whether an event was good or bad, it was God’s will and the person deserved it. God’s will came also from Mary and other saints, churches held holy objects and were wanted by the people due to their providential power. Church and religious rituals were also important to the people because they offered Salvation. Going to Mass and praying were a big part of life, it was necessary lest they wanted eternal damnation. People prayed not only for themselves, but their family, for their loved ones so they could go to heaven. The Church also held a lot of power, due to the land it owned--be it monasteries, schools, or something else--it also held the power as it controlled time and ethics. The Church made the week, created the calendar and the days it held holy days, it could even ring bells to signal the hour. The Church was one of the governing forces in medieval times. The moral code was set up by the Church and people obeyed it; the Church

Japan’s rich history of power, wealth, and influence had many remarkable eras. One of the more notable periods in Japanese history was that of the Tokugawa Period (1600-1868). The Tokugawa Period was talked about in Musui’s Story, an autobiographical book, written by Kokichi Katsu. (Katsu ix) Katsu wrote Musui’s Story for three main reasons: to share how he had transformed from a low-ranking samurai to a well-known hero, to show his sense of self, and to serve as a cautionary tale for his descendants. He showed his sense of self when he became his own person with spirits, shrewdness, and imagination. (xviii) His transformation was proven in his journey of risk taking, danger, family, and friendships that can be told the next generation as well

The Middle Ages led to the Age of Exploration.The Middle Ages (500 CE-1500 CE) was a time in history after the Roman Empire collapsed (476 CE). The Age of Exploration was when people traveled off to foreign lands and explored or traded. The Middle Ages had a lot of important events that led to the Age of Exploration. Here are some examples the fall of the Roman Empire, Feudalism,The Crusades, the Black Death, the Commercial Revolution, the Renaissance, and the Vikings.

Despite the fact that German Peasant Revolt killed countless people, it strengthened the German authority. Although German Peasant Revolt failed, like Thomas Muntzer stated on his letter to the people of Allstead (Document 7), Germany, France, and Italy gave their full attention to this revolt. There are social, religious, and economic causes that led to this revolt, including, but not limited to humanism, Lutheranism, and inflation, but responses were simple. People either decided that they approve it, disapprove it or it doesn’t matter to them.

The societies of Tokugawa Japan (c.1603-1867C.E.) and medieval Europe (c.1000-1500C.E.) had two things in common; a feudal system. A feudal system is something that features hierarchies or social structures. The feudal system normally starts with a religion, which is at the very top of the social pyramid, then it’s the King or monarch for Europe and the shogun for Japan, then there are the nobles for Europe and the daimyos for Japan. As we go down the pyramid there are the warriors, like the knight in Europe and the samurai in Japan, then there are the peasants. The peasants were included in both eras and are at the lowest part of the pyramid.

The French Revolution was caused by the French government’s inability to unite their people as one nation and address the people’s demand for reformation of unjust taxation and citizen equality causing uprisings and revolts among middle and lower class people. The French government was already unstable after their assistance in the United States with their fight for independence, which put France in tremendous debt. Since the nobles and the clergymen were favored by the government, taxes were forced upon the Third Estate resulting in even more unrest. All citizens were not equal under the law, and the government was too occupied by their financial situation to focus on fixing the inequality and lack of representation among their own citizens.

The tribes and especially the Cherokee people built a governmental system based on that of the United States, with an elected principal chief, a senate, and a house of representatives but Jackson still referred to them as “savages” (Foner, 302). The Cherokees suffered the greatest loss during the Trail of Tears of all the Five Civilized Tribes. While there are no exact figures, but it is estimated that 4,000 Cherokees died on the Trail of Tears. The Five Civilized Tribes made up the majority of the 60,000 Indians driven westward to their new homes. These tribes were distinguished from the other Native American populations because of their organization and leadership. They had social systems based on ownership of property, schools and governmental

(MIP-1) After the fall of rome there were issues (SIP-A) Poverty was common throughout europe (STEWE-1) A lot of the people were poor- without the good roads the trade fell apart so people survived by farming for themselves and if the weather was bad then they would starve without the food

How did the life of a Serf differ from that of a slave or a peasant?

Hawaii and its inhabitants changed tremendously after the arrival of Captain Cook in 1778 during his third voyage into the Pacific. About 1,300 years earlier, the Polynesians first settled on the island of Hawaii. The rest of the Hawaiian islands- Kahoolawe, Maui, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau- were then settled into 300 years later at about 900 A.D. It was not until the Tahitians arrived that the islands were individually ruled by a high priest and the Hawaiians began to believe in gods and demigods. During this time, social class, the art of hula, and the sport of surfing were created as well as conflicts concerning land division between the ruling chieftains. Their diet consisted of mainly vegetables, poi, fish, and the 30 varieties

Finlay’s book, The Refashioning of Martin Guerre corrects Davis’s errors when in her book, The Return of Martin Guerre because it has many incorrect facts that were not shared when Coras wrote his book, Arrest Memorable in the sixteenth century.

For macro-approach, I use the Immanuel Wallerstein famous theory of the Modern world system. His idea offers a good framework for better understanding of the historical changes and making of the capitalist economy. Basically, Modern world system is the synthesis of Marxist and Braudelien economic history based on the “longue durée” processes. With an emphasis on the Marxist idea of accumulation and labor process, this theory provides a decent context for the conceptualizing the peasant revolts both on the local and national scales. At the end, I take into account the basis of this transition as the main ground of all changes. The smallest unit in this process is related to the economic life of peasants.