Absolutism in the 17th century Essay Example for Free

Absolutism in the 17th century Essay It is said that Louis XIV proclaimed I am the state! Whether or not he really said it is debatable, but the meaning of such a statement is clear. Through the course of the 17th Century various regimes across Europe began to model their states of off the very theme of I am the state,; that is, the monarch personified and had absolute control over his nation. Prior to the 17th Century such absolute control precluded this absolutism. By the time of the 17th Century, however, the conditions were in place for monarchs to take absolute control to shape their nations. The conditions and forces that made absolutism a desirable form of government were the necessity of centralized control, the political instability of the time, and the rise of single sovereignty over a country. Before one goes into what causes states to adopt absolutism, one must understand it. Absolutism is defined as a form of government where sovereignty is embodied in the person of the ruler. The Monarch felt that he had a Divine Right, that is he was responsible to only God, and though he may respect the natural law of where he governed, generally the Monarch attempted to place his realm under absolute control. Measures included elimination of certain freedoms, centralization of power, and the creation of a bureaucracy loyal to the Monarch to help oversee the country. Through these measures, the Monarch was able to control the nobility that always threatened. The Monarch became more and more powerful as he or she began to assert power and institute absolutism. The first reason why absolutism seemed to be a desirable government form was the necessity of centralized power. War was a constant threat to a nation and its people. In a country divided into kingdoms and realms ruled by individual nobles and dukes, mobilization for war was a difficult and lengthy task. To better prepare a state for war a country needed a single ruler with the absolute power. Another cause was the need for efficiently raising revenue. A monarch needed absolute control to effectively raise revenue for the cost of maintaining the state. The nation-state became more and more expensive to run during this time due to the increasing frequency of wars, the costs of trade and exploration, and to support the burgeoning bureaucracy. A country divided and ruled by many different people would be  unable to raise sufficient revenue. On the other hand, a country ruled a by a single strong ruler could more easily control and manage finances. In addition, because of the nature of the time, warfare and politics became very personal. Monarchs considered countries an extension of themselves, as exemplified by Louis XIVs supposed remark I am the state! To achieve this, Monarchs effectively eliminated all competition to their power, that is the nobles and the church. In the era of the Post-Reformation, it was all too easy for Monarchs to seize power from church and nobility, and this further contributed to their power. Another force at play that made absolutism seem desirable was the political instability of the time, both internal and external. France is a paragon example for this. There were many peasant revolts between 1624 and 1648, and Nobles and Parlements took advantage of peasant revolts and the Regency to protest their loss of ancient privileges and levels of taxation. Barricades set up in Paris and the mob burst into the Kings bedroom. King Louis XIII was powerless to stop these insurrections against his rule. Louis XIV soon came to power, and began to assert his royal authority. He put down these peasant revolts, reorganized government, and placed himself at its head. Loyal advisors were installed, and a deal with nobility which surrendered their authority in relation to the Crown in return for authority over their lands. In addition, the size of the military increased, and France began to engage in wars to help solve domestic problems. These wars were generally successful and contributed to an even higher growth in Royal authority. The successes of Louis XIV encouraged other European Monarchs to follow his example. The problems of instability seemed to be only able to fixed with a steady, but iron fist. Absolutism seemed to offer this, as the king would have authority to maintain control without interference from a constitution or a law making body. Finally, the political instability forced Monarchs to take measures that otherwise they would not wanted to take, i.e. levying heavy taxes. When the benefits of these measures came in, Monarchs often looked beyond their ideals to permanently install absolutism. To sum up, the basic political instability of the 17th Century, i.e. wars, peasant revolts, etc. paved the way for Monarchs seizing absolute control to stabilize their nations. The final cause for absolutism was the rise of single sovereignty over a country. In the times of feudalism, more than one person could have sovereignty over an area of a country. Dukes, Counts, and others may claim title to a land in addition to the Monarchs. However the decline of feudalism brought an end to this. Kings began to assert that there could be only one sovereign to a land, and that was the King. Many new political and legal theories supported the Monarchs absolute control over land. Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (1627-1704) adapted the medieval concept of kingship in his theory of the Divine Right of Kings, which argued that the king ruled absolutely by will of God, and that to oppose the king in effect constituted rebellion against God. Although people should be excluded from power, Gods purpose in instituting absolute monarchy was to protect and guide society. Coming from a moral approach, Thomas Hobbes argued that a strong ruler could best control and protect a society. Further justifying absolutism, Monarchs pointed out that it seemed to end Europes religious wars and had brought social and political peace. King Louis XIV believed that such absolute rule over a people was the duty of a Monarch, and anything else was failing the people. Essentially, Monarchs based their absolute sovereignty on moral and political justifications. In conclusion, the conditions of the 17th Century made Absolutism seem to be a desirable choice for government, and rightly so. Following the example of France, many countries tried to centralize power. Yet, not all were to be as successful as France. For example, Oliver Cromwell instituted a dictatorship with many absolutist qualities, but this failed as soon as he died. But it is difficult to deny that absolutism was a powerful force in the 17th Century. Absolutism may seem harsh to people of the 21st Century, but for the many of those who experienced it, it was at least beneficial. The political instability of the time, the need to centralize, and the increasing sovereignty of Monarchs all were driving forces in making Absolutism popular and helpful. Despite its problems, absolutism eventually led Europe down the right path.

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Psalm 25:9: "The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way." Good evening ladies and gentlemen, faculty and staff, family, honored guests, and fellow students. Thank you for coming to our graduation services this evening. My name is Rebekah Hoad and I am the Valedictorian for the graduating class of 2006. I am honored and blessed to be the messenger of years gone by and the inspiration of years to come. This is not only a time to receive a diploma but it is an opportunity to celebrate our lives. A time that represents our past childhood and passage into adulthood. As we embark on life's journey, remember to build on the foundation laid by our parents and teachers. Apply what we have learned and embrace God's love to strive for spiritual maturity. For me, the years have gone by faster than I could ever have imagined. I can still remember walking into my first grade classroom, my very first day at Caleb Christian School. Mrs. Cusic was my teacher and I recall her telling me several times that I was not the teacher. Over the years our school has changed. Teach...

East-Midland English

A project in theoretical phonetics of English Shcherbakova Natalia, group 01 Contents: 1. Introduction 2. English in East Midlands 1. Vowels 2. Consonants 3. Word Stress 4. Sentence rhythm and intonation 3. Conclusion 4. List of references Introduction East Midlands, general facts The East Midlands, in its broadest sense, is the eastern part of central England (and therefore part of the United Kingdom as well).The East Midlands covers three major landscape areas: The relatively flat coastal plain of Lincolnshire, the river valley of the Trent, the third largest (and longest) river in England, and the southern end of the Pennine range of hills in Derbyshire. The second of these contains several large cities: Nottingham, Leicester, Derby and Doncaster, historically centres based around coal mining and heavy industry. This is one of the drier regions of England. ?The East-Midland dialect is very interesting. The northern parts of its dialect area were also an area of heavy Scandinavian settlement, so that northern East-Midland Middle English shows the same kinds of rapid development as its Northern neighbor. But the subdialect boundaries within East-Midland were far from static: the more northerly variety spread steadily southward, extending the influence of Scandinavianized English long after the Scandinavian population had been totally assimilated.In the 13th century this part of England, especially Norfolk and Suffolk, began to outstrip the rest of the country in prosperity and population because of the excellence of its agriculture, and — crucially — increasing numbers of well-to-do speakers of East-Midland began to move to London, bringing their dialect with them. ? By the second half of the 14th century the dialect of London and the area immediately to the northeast, which had once been Kentish, was thoroughly East-Midland, and a rather Scandinavianized East Midland at that.Since the London dialect steadily gained in prestige from that time on and began to develop into a literary standard, the northern, Scandinavianized variety of East-Midland became the basis of standard Modern English. For that reason, East-Midland is by far the most important dialect of Middle English for the subsequent development of the language. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? The English written and spoken today owes its origins to a mix of the East Midlands and London dialects. The East Midlands dialect was important because it came from the centre of the country and was intelligible to most people.Great numbers of traders, pilgrims and others passed through towns such as Leicester and Nottingham. During the 13th and 14th centuries, large numbers of East Midlanders migrated to London, in turn influencing the standard form of English The East Midlands dialect was a mixture of English and Scandinavian, with a smattering of French. The impact of the Vikings can still be seen today in our version of English that was born on the borders of Mercia and Danelaw. As Dr Elai ne Treharne from Leicester University points out, â€Å"It is fair to say that the Queen's English has its roots in the towns of the Midlands as much as the palaces of Whitehall! 1) Fading of old traditions and huge shiftsin how we. communicate globally. Much of the dialect developed in rural communities and in the industrial heartlands of the region. Mining communities in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire were renowned for their use of dialect. At a time when regions are losing some of their traditional dialect, the East Midlands is keen to retain its cultural identity and linguistic style. Although some words are dying out, East Midlanders are keen to celebrate their local language 2) 3) ? ? Examples of pronunciation: ? ? ? ? In Leicester, words with short vowels such as up and last have a northern pronunciation, whereas words with vowels such as down and road sound rather more like a south-eastern accent. The vowel sound at the end of words like border (and the name of the city) is also a distinctive feature. [ In north Nottinghamshire ee found in short words is pronounced as two syllables, for example feet being , sounding like â€Å"fee-yut† (and also in this case ending with a glottal stop). Lincolnshire also has a marked north south split in terms of accent.The north shares many features with Yorkshire, such as the open a sound in â€Å"car† and â€Å"park† or the replacement of take and make with tek and mek. The south of Lincolnshire is close to Received Pronunciation, although it still has a short Northern a in words such as bath. In Northamptonshire, crossed by the North-South isogloss, residents of the north of the county have an accent similar to that of Leicestershire and those in the south an accent similar to rural Oxfordshire. The town of Corby in northern Northamptonshire has an accent with some originally Scottish features, apparently due to immigration of Scottish steelworkers.It is common in Corby for the GOAT set of words to be pronounced with . This pronunciation is used across Scotland and most of Northern England, but Corby is alone in the Midlands in using it ? East Midlands accents are generally non-rhotic, instead drawing out their vowels, resulting in the Midlands Drawl, which can to non-natives be mistaken for dry sarcasm. Old and cold may be pronounced as â€Å"owd† and â€Å"cowd† (rhyming with â€Å"loud† in the West Midlands and â€Å"ode† in the East Midlands), and in the northern Midlands home can become â€Å"wom†.The West Midlands accent is often described as having a pronounced nasal quality, the East Midlands accent much less so. ? ? Next ? As in the North, Midlands accents generally do not use a broad A, so that cast is pronounced rather than the pronunciation of most southern accents. The northern limit of the in many words crosses England from mid-Shropshire to The Wash, passing just south of Birmingham. ? Midlands speech also generally uses the northern short U, so putt is pronounced the same as put.The southern limit of this pronunciation also crosses from mid-Shropshire to the Wash, but dipping further south to the northern part of Oxfordshire. Next Other features of Derbyshire dialect are: 1) the use of words like â€Å"thee† and â€Å"thou†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ 2) the shortening of words for more economical speech 3) the use of very unusual words like â€Å"scratin'† (crying) deriving from old Norse or Viking The dialect of the East Midlands has been investigated in notable texts such as the affectionately titled Ey Up Mi Duck series of books by Richard Scollins and John Titford.These books were originally intended as a study of Derbyshire Dialect, particularly the distinctive speech of Ilkeston and the Erewash valley, but later editions acknowledge similarities in vocabulary and grammar which unite the East Midlands dialects and broadened their appeal to the region as a whole. â€Å"Ey Upâ €  (often spelt ayup / eyup) is a greeting thought to be of Old Norse origin (se upp) used widely throughout the North Midlands and South Yorkshire, and â€Å"Mi Duck† is thought to be derived from a respectful Anglo Saxon form of address, â€Å"Duka† (Literally â€Å"Duke†), and is unrelated to waterfowl.Nonnatives of the East Midlands are often surprised to hear men greet each other as ‘Mi Duck. ‘ I, the man with the red scarf, Will give thee what I have, this last week's earnings. Take them and buy thee a silver ring And wed me, to ease my yearnings. For the rest when thou art wedded I'll wet my brow for thee With sweat, I'll enter a house for thy sake, Thou shalt shut doors on me. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Ay (or ey) up mi duck – hello there! Aya gorra weeya? – is the wife with you?It's black uvver Bill's mother's – it looks like rain Coggie – swimming costume Croaker – doctor Duck's necks – bottle of lemonade Gorra bag on – in a bad mood Laropped – drunk Nesh – cold Old cock – friend or mate Page owl – single woman out alone at night Skants – pants The rally – the railway line Thiz summat up wee im – I think he may be ill Who's mashing? – who's making the cups of tea CONCLUSION East Midlands English is a dialect traditionally spoken in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and Northamptonshire.It came from the centre of the country and was intelligible to most people. It includes special pronunciation, grammatical rules and has variations within the political region. East Midlands takes great pride in its distinctive dialect. In Lincolnshire local people are going back to the classroom to reclaim their linguistic roots. The English written and spoken today owes its origins to a mix of the East Midlands and London dialects. They have a lot of common and it is really hard to distinctive one dialect from another without knowing peculiarities of both dialects.LIST OF REFERENCES & EXTERNAL LINKS Wiki Travel (2012) – England, East Midlands (http://wikitravel. org/en/East_Midlands) Penn Department of Linguistics – Dialects of Middle English (http://www. ling. upenn. edu/) Peter Gill (2009) – Dialect Poems (http://dspace. dial. pipex. com/) BBC Inside Out (2005) – Dialects and accents (http://www. bbc. co. uk/) Bell M. (1996). Teaching pronunciation and intonation to E. F. L. learners in Korea. Retrieved on 14 October, 2004. – p. 255 Tutorgipedia – English language in England (http://www. tutorgigpedia. com)

Designing An Effective Business Message - 1476 Words

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One of key concepts throughout the reading that Bovee and Thill continually addressed was the, â€Å"Audience centered approach or ‘You’ attitude† (p. 9). This is vital in communications to understanding the audience. If one can relate to others and concentrate on their needs, then it will be easier to have the message heard. Once the â€Å"You† attitude is addressed, one can move onto other areas of a business communication to make it effective. Some common ideas are addressed by George Root’s article, â€Å"7 C’s of Effective Business Communication†. He suggests that a business communication should be;Show MoreRelatedCorporate Communication : Organizational Vision And Mission And Its Objectives1670 Words   |  7 Pagesfunction mainly have a high objective of delivering the corporate message to the stakeholders in more efficient and clear method, such process exist for the reason of the need to explain the organization vision and mission and its objectives. 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