What do Marxism and Corn have in common? this blogpost

*my reaction when Mr. Yarnall started the class with Marx again*

Why did Marx not like Nationalism and Religion? 

• The main reason is because nationalism and religion were distractions from and threatened work, and work is the one thing that unites all people. 
• Other points that aid Marx's dislike of nationalism and religion but aren't the primary one include:
• nationalism and religion tend to create a society where classes and superiority exist. the rich have different traditions, languages, and practices within the same country than the poor peasants. 
• both are tools leaders can use to convince people to follow their rule blindly. for example, convincing people to go to war 

Romanticism 

• ALL about emotion and imagination  

(everyone during Romanticism) 

• Delacroix was a French painter who displayed emotion in his work through the contrast of dark and light. He also made a political statement through his works. 
• for example the painting on page 771 shows the Turks invading and killing the Greeks. 
• his most famous is Liberty Leading the People which shows the July Revolution of 1830 that ended King Charles X rule of France 
• 

• since this time period was centered around emotion, most people made decisions based on their emotions; for example support during the Greek Revolution  

• Greek Revolution was fought between the Orthodox Greeks and the Islamic Turks 
• The Turks had been ruling over Greece for quite a while when the Greeks had had enough and revolted 
• the main cause was of this altercation was because the Islamic Turks were trying to suppress the Greek Orthodox culture and demolish the birthplace of democracy 
• it was like a crusade 
• French English people wanted to help out because they were like yea no this cannot happen because we have emotional ties to the birthplace of western civilization; this culture cannot be destroyed
• Russians wanted to help out because they are close with the Greeks because of the Orthodox religious ties 
• Austria is a different story. Metternich was in charge of Austria and the Congress of Vienna and he said no to sending in troops because it went against what he advocated for, which was:
• stability is necessary (he didn't support the revolutionaries in Sicily and Spain prior to this) 
• the legitimate ruler (aka the hereditary monarchy) is to be in charge of a nation (this was true for Greece at the time bc the Turkish leader was born into his title and the Turks had been in charge of Greece for many years) 

*In less than a generation Greece wrecked the peace that Metternich made in Europe*

Britain

So, what's the deal with the British and Representative government ?

• the Brits didn't have a true representative government
• "rotten boroughs" plagued the land---- aka electoral districts that had very few voters yet were represented in Parliament 
• this happened with the Industrial Revolution and urbanization. people moved into urban areas and out of the rural areas. the rural areas still had the same representation in Parliament despite its true loss of voters 
• the rotten boroughs were eliminated to try to help the system
• Gerrymandering → rewriting districts so that one person of one party gets the district vote -- it was a good thing
• only about 8% of the population could vote for its reps in Parliament 
• Parliament was manipulated by the King 
•  the Chartist movement had a problem with undemocratic Britain and demanded universal male suffrage  

What's up with the Corn Laws of 1815? 

• they were laws that prohibited the importation of foreign gain unless the price at home rose to improbable levels 
• the people weren't huge fans of it 
• Ireland was part of Britain so the Brits were able to import (*cough cough more like rob*) the Irish grown grain without paying a tariff and breaking the Corn Laws 
• since all the corn was given to GB the Irish were left to eat potatoes but then there was a famine and the English weren't any help to the suffering people