Do you think Alexander honestly felt like he was avenging Persian wrongs?

Alexander's father was killed by the Persians and that made him angry and he wanted to get revenge for that and also revenge for the Persian War. He invaded Persia because he was getting revenge for his father's assassination. But he kept winning battles so he kept going into more battles trying to conquer all of Persia. He was starting to get corrupted by all the power he had and battling wasn't just about getting revenge anymore. He just liked winning the battles and conquering more land. He let all the power get to his head. He thought he could win so many battles and have the whole world.

sources:

"Alexander the Great Bust." Wikimedia. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AlexanderTheGreat_Bust.jpg

"Alexander the Great." Wikipedia. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great

Does Power Corrupt?

Power is a very important thing and people can use their power differently. Power means “ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/power) People with power are usually the president, principle, boss, parents, teachers, etc. They have power over other people and they can use this power in a good way or they can corrupt their power. Corrupt means “guilty of dishonest practices, as bribery; lacking integrity; crooked.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/corrupt). When they corrupt their power they are abusing it and using it in unfair way.

When people get in power it can corrupt them very easily. It makes them think that they are better than everyone else and that they can control what everyone else does. When a person gets in a position with a lot of power it is hard to resist abusing that power and gaining all the extra stuff. Some people are able to have power and not be corrupted but it is hard not to be corrupted.

A big example of power corrupting people could be if there was a natural disaster somewhere in the world, like Haiti, that nation would not have power. All the other nations that have organizations sending money to Haiti have power over that money. They can take that money that they collected from people for Haiti and not send the money to Haiti. They can just keep it for themselves even though they don’t need the money. This is abusing their power in a terrible way. They lied to all the people who gave them money and they are not helping the nation in need. They probably started out as a good organization but once they had all that money in their hand they couldn’t resist but to keep it.

Another example of someone who was corrupted by power is Hitler. He got his power when he joined the Nazi party and started to become the leader of that. Then Hitler became the chancellor. Power started corrupting him and he used his power for evil. He leaded all the Nazis to kill the Jews and he thought his race was the best race. He abused his power because he thought he was the best. (http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/ahitler.html)

There are a lot of examples thought of people who had a lot of power and were not corrupted by it at all. They used all the power they had for good and didn’t start abusing the power. Those people are stronger than people who are corrupted by power. They know that they can get more of what they want and do things unfairly and get more money. But they think of why they are in power in the first place and they just use their power for good and they have a lot of people like them.

Abraham Lincoln was a man with great power but he was not corrupted by it. He became president 1861 and being president comes with a lot of power. He could have easily been corrupted by it with all the money and glory. Also while he was president there was a lot of slavery. Since he had so much power he could have easily gotten many slaves to do things for him since he had so much power. Instead of being corrupted by this power he tried to stop slaves and he was successful. He was a great man who used his power in a great way.( http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln)

So when people ask if power corrupts there really is no real answer. It all depends on who has the power in their hands. The stronger leaders can use their power for good and won’t be corrupted by it. But their also people who are corrupted by the power they have because they want more glory and money. That is why we need to pick our leaders carefully and know which people will not be corrupted by the power.

sources:

"Abraham Lincoln." White house. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln

"A Biography of Adolf Hitler." Second world war. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/ahitler.html

"Corrupt." Dictionary. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/corrupt

"Drawing of Adolf Hitler." Wikimedia. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drawing_of_Adolf_Hitler.jpg

"Power." Dictionary. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/power

What Compels Someone To Lead Others?

A lot of things can compel someone to lead others. To lead means "to go before or with to show the way; conduct or escort". (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lead) The people that lead are called the leaders. Someone might want to lead others because they think the others are doing something wrong and they want to help do it right. Another reason to lead maybe would be to lead people that need help. People lead to feel good about themselves because it makes you feel like you have done something right. Leaders are usually strong people who are not afraid and not shy. Some great leaders in our history were Alexander the Great, Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Lincoln. Martin Luther King Jr. is a great example of a big leader because he led the people to stop prejudice against blacks. He was a strong and fearless man because this put him in great danger. Leaders can be compelled by many things to lead.

sources:

"Lead." Dictionary. Web. 24 Feb. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lead

"Martin Luther King Jr." Nobelprize. Web. 24 Feb. 2010. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html

"MArtin Luther King Jr." Wikimedia. Web. 24 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Luther_King_Jr_NYWTS_4.jpg

Short Bios of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

Socrates was born in 469 BC in Athens. His father was sculptor and at first Socrates followed this career but then he went into philosophy. He set the standard for Western philosophy. He always talked to the young citizens of Athens. He then was sentenced to death in 399BC for corrupting the youth and interfering wit the religion of the city. ( http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/socr.htm)

Plato began his philosiphical career as a student of Socrates. When Socrated died Plato traveled to Egypt and Italy and studied with other students. When he returned to Athens he started his own philosophy school. One of his most famous dialogues was Plato's Republic. (http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/plat.htm)

Plato was born Stagira in northern Greece. Aristotle spent twenty years being taught by Plato about philosophy. After Plato died he taught Alexander the Great. He wanted to develop a universal method of reasoning that it would be possible to learn everything there is to know about reality. (http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/aris.htm)

source:

"Aristotle Altemps." Wikimedia. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aristotle_Altemps_Inv8575.jpg

"Aristotle." Philosophypages. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/aris.htm

"Plato." Philosophypages. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/plat.htm

"Socrates." Philosophypages. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/socr.htm

Persian War Script

DARIUS- king of the Persians

ANDREAS- his assistant who helps him with the Persian war

Darius: I don't understand why the Athenians have such a big problem with our taxes. I mean do they really think that they can beat us in battle. We have so many more soldiers than them. We will easily be able to beat them.

Andreas: We sure would be able to beat them sir. Let us now go into battle with them.

(after the battle)

Darius: I don't understand how they beat us, it just doesn't make sense to me. We had so much more soldier and bigger ships. We were supposed to easily win.

Andreas: I guess they just figured out some very good tactics and also their ships were a lot smaller and easier to maneuver with. That probably helped them win. I am sure we will beat them next time.

(after the next battle)

Darius: How in the world do they keep winning. I really don't understand this.

Andreas: Well, let's try one more time.

Darius: okay

(after third battle)

Darius: That is it. I am done we can't beat them. They somehow burnt our ships and killed our soldiers. I give up.

Andreas: That is okay they were a very good army.

sources:

"Greek Soldiers of Greco-Persian Wars." Wikimedia. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greek_soldiers_of_Greco%E2%80%93Persian_Wars.png

"The Persian Wars." Wsu. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. http://wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/PERSIAN.HTM

Is history created by the "People" or the "Individuals"?

I think history is created both by people and by individuals. I think history comes most from individuals because somebody has to think of the idea to make something big in history. Some history just comes from an individual just like the people who invented thing like Thomas Edison and Ben Franklin. A lot of the time when you hear about major things in history it happens from a big group of people. But most of the time this big group of people has a leader or someone in control. The individual was the one that had to come with the idea of what they are doing so that individual is the one that caused that major thing in history. An example of that could be Hitler and the holocaust. Also there can be individuals like Abraham Lincoln that do something that really impacts their country for the future and they lead something huge. I think individuals create most of the history.
One great individual in history is Thomas Edison. He invented the light bulb and this was a major part of history showing that an individual makes history. Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847. His great invention was the electrical light bulb. He also set up the first electrical power distribution company. He also helped other people like Henry Ford for giving them ideas with their inventions. He was an individual that made up a huge part of the worlds history. Without him we would be living in a dark world and dark houses. (http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96feb/edison.html)
Another individual that made great history was Ben Franklin. Everyone has heard of Ben Franklin which proves that he has made a lot of history by himself as an individual. Ben Franklin was the man who invented the lighting rod. He was the one that had the famous kite story where he went out during a thunder storm with a kite. He flew a kite and lighting hit it and this helped him learn a lot of things about electricity. Ben Franklin is also on the one hundred dollar bill which is a great honor to him because of all the history he has made. On all the money in the United States of America there is an individual who made great history. You will not find a group of people on the bill because individuals mostly make up history. (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/6881/benjamin_franklins_kite.html?cat=37)
A lot of people have heard about the holocaust. The holocaust is “The genocide of European Jews and others by the Nazis during World War II”( http://www.answers.com/topic/holocaust). When people think of the holocaust they think of a group of Nazis killing all the Jews. So when people hear holocaust they will think that that is people making history. But if you think more about the holocaust then you will realize it is actually history made by an individual. That individual is Adolf Hitler. He was the man that had the idea of killing the Jews and he was the man who organized all the Nazis what to do. Without the individual, Hitler, there would be no Nazis killing Jews and there would be no holocaust. Of course the group of people (Nazis) were a huge part of the holocaust and without the Nazis there would be no holocaust. But the most important person in this history is Hitler. They killed the Jews and other innocent people in horrible and gruesome ways. First they would torture the people by making the work in these horrible camps. They would also starve the people. Then they would kill them in a variety of different ways. One terrible way was the gas tank where they would trick people to go in them and they would suffocate them with some deadly, poisonous gas. A lot of people tried to run from this horrible thing but most of them got caught and then got killed. I don’t understand how Hitler could want this terrible thing to happen but obviously he had no guilt till later when he killed himself. He was the individual that caused the Holocaust even though he had other peoples help.(http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005143)
One important individual that made a lot of history is Abraham Lincoln. He was the sixteenth president of the United States of America and he had a huge impact on the country. While he was president there were a lot of slaves in America. Most of the people in the north didn’t like it but the people in the south had a lot of slaves. Abraham Lincoln was against this slavery and he wanted to stop. He was a lso a very big part of the Civil War and because of him slavery was stopped. Abraham Lincoln is on the penny and the five dollar bill which shows he was a very important man and made a lot of history. Without him we could of still have been slaves and that would have been terrible and extremely not fair to those innocent people. ( http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/AbrahamLincoln/)
I think that individuals are the ones that create history. They are the ones that either do something very historical by themselves or they lead a group and do something historical with them. If you think that people make history those people have to have a leader or someone had to come up with the idea. Thomas Edison was an individual that made a lot of history with the invention of the light bulb. Ben Franklin created a lot of history with the invention of the lightning rod. The holocaust was a big group of people making history but the individual, Hitler, was the one with the idea and who lead the holocaust. Abraham Lincoln also made a lot of history and impacted America today a lot because of freeing the slaves and the civil war. These are all great examples of individuals making history. So next time if you think that it was people who create history first think of whom that individual was who started it or who led the people.

sources:

"Abraham Lincoln." White House. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/AbrahamLincoln/

"Abraham Lincoln." Wikimedia. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abraham_Lincoln_1858.png

"Holocaust." Answers. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. http://www.answers.com/topic/holocaust

"The Holocaust." Ushmm. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005143

"A Story of Lightning and History." Associated Content. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/6881/benjamin_franklins_kite.html?cat=37

"Thomas Edison." Lucidcafe. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96feb/edison.html

Explain how the origins of theatre in Athens are tied to both religion and politics.

Theater in Athens was a big thing. A lot of the people in the city would come and watch the plays. It was a huge tradition. People would really enjoy watching these. The origins of the theater of Athens did tie with politics and religion. Even thought these two things are different they were still able to tie them together in their plays. Sometimes the play would be about a political aspect and have something to do with politics. Also the play a lot of the time was about gods or it was worshiping the gods which showed religious origins.

sources:

"Ancient Greek Theater." Crystalinks. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. http://www.crystalinks.com/greektheater.html

"Theatre of Herodes-Atticus-Athens." Wikimedia. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theatre_of_Herodes_Atticus-Athens.jpg

Was Athens really a "democracy"?

The word democracy means "government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system." (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/democracy). In Athens their democracy came more from the people than elected officials. They didn't elect people for office instead whoever wanted to be in office would put their name forward and then the offices would be picked randomly. This way anyone could be in office. This helped have more of the peoples' views. Also men over the age 18 could go to meetings every ten days where they would talk about government things and vote on laws. Their democracy had more of everyones say on which laws they had. For America the people don't choose the laws, our elected officials vote on the laws. I think Athens was a democracy just not a very professional and organized democracy. But I think it was good that the people got to vote so they had their say in everything.

sources:

"Ancient Agora of Athens." Wikimedia. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_Agora_of_Athens.jpg

"The Beginnings of Democracy." Languages. 14 Sept. 1999. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. http://languages.siuc.edu/classics/Johnson/HTML/L10.html

"Democracy." Dictionary. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/democracy

Ancient Greek Olympics

The Ancient Greek Olympics and the Olympics now are different in many ways. Back then one main reason of the Olympics was to make men fit for military training. Also the Greek thought that gods championed a winner. Now the Olympics is more for fun and a way to compete against people from different countries around the world that are very good. It is also a form of entertainment for everyone at home watching it on TV. The Ancient Greek Olympics started with just one event which was a race. This was the only event for a very long time. Then after a while more events were added and now we are where we are today. I think that watching the Olympics would of been much more boring back then then it is now.

source:

Instone, Stephen. "The Olympics: Ancient versus Modern." BBC. 11 May 2009. Web. 17 Feb. 2010.

http://ow.ly/156BA

"Olympic Rings." Wikimedia. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Olympic_rings.svg

Give several examples of monuments in Maryland / DC / PA that might be familiar to folks who live here but which would not be understood by outsiders

In Washington there are a lot of monuments that show something about history. There is the Washington memorial which is a long, tall building that has a point on the top to commemorate George Washington's leadership in the war. To us in America we know what it is for and we know why it is there. To other people that live far away they will have no idea. They will just see a big structure and have no idea why it is there. Also the Lincoln Memorial could really confuse other people. They would see a building with a statue of some man in a chair and some words on the wall. They will have no idea who it is and what it means. We all know that the man is Abraham Lincoln and the words are The Gettysburg Address.

picture from:

"An aerial view as seen from the south side of the Washington Memorial." Wikimedia. 23 Sept. 2003. Web. 5 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Navy_030926-F-2828D-390_An_aerial_view_as_seen_from_the_south_side_of_the_Washington_Memorial,_.jpg

What is "Important"?

A lot of things in life can be important. Some more important than others. Also to different people, different things can be important. One person might think global warming is important and that they should do something about it and another person might not care about global warming and might think it is not important at all. There have been a lot of important moments in history like some of the new technology people made in history. There are a lot of things important in our lives. I think when something is important it has great value and can mean a lot to people. It also can have a big effect on something. The definition of important is “Strongly affecting the course of events or the nature of things; significant; having or suggesting a consciousness of high position or authority; authoritative.” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/important).

The old Egyptians had a lot of things that they made that were important to them. To them mummifying pharaohs was very important. They made a huge deal about it because they thought their spirit would live on in some afterlife and they would be a god of something. This was very important to them and they would make sure this happened by mummifying them. They would take out all their organs and they would make sure they were perfectly preserved so they wouldn’t disintegrate while they were dead. They would then wrap them. After all that they would build a big pyramid or tomb for them so they wouldn’t get hurt. These pyramids were huge and they would take many days and many people to make them. For the pyramids of Giza it took 80 days and about 20,000 or 30,000 people. (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/pyramids.html) To the Egyptians this process was very important. If it wasn’t important why would they put so much time and effort into it? For most people now we would find this insane because most of us don’t believe in the pharaoh going to afterlife and becoming a god. We don’t find that important and we don’t put the time and money into it.

Megaliths were also an important part in the Neolithic times. Megaliths are large stone structures or groups of standing stones which are located at sites in various parts of the world and believed to have religious significance. (http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/m/megaliths.html) They usually were where they buried the dead. They had many religious rituals here and other things. This was a huge step in their technology and this is a very important aspect of history. To the people these days megaliths are important because it helps them find more about what has happened in the past. It gives them lots of clues of what the people were like and how they lived. All of the historical sites there are in the world are important to people who study history. History itself is also very important. It is important because we need to know about our past to also be able to thrive in the future. It also gives us examples from the past so that we can avoid some bad things in the future. Some people might think why do we need to know about our past if it already has happened. Well history helps us in many ways. Without history we wouldn’t be educated as well and we would make a lot more mistakes in the future. For example is a person touched a stove and burnt their hand when they were eight they would know when they were twenty seven that they should not touch the stove because they remember what happened in the past and it hurt.

War can be a very important part of life. For example the civil war was very important. The civil war started in the 1860s. Before the civil war there were slaves in America. A lot of people thought this was wrong. I think having slaves is cruel especially the way the people treated them. It is mean especially since they are doing it against their will. The northern part of America didn’t want the slaves and the southern part did. When Abraham Lincoln became president he also didn’t want slaves. After this the civil war happened. After this war there were no slaves. Even though a lot of people died and got hurt in the war it was still very important because it stopped slavery. If the war didn’t happen there would still have slavery and that would be very cruel. Other war is also important. It helps our country be safe. War begins with a conflict and the reason for war is to try and stop that conflict. I think it is extremely important because it tries to bring us to peace and help us live in this country and be safer.

There are many important things in this world. If nothing was important than there would be no point of even living. Even human life is very important. Without humans there would be no civilization and it would just be a world with land and animals. Also people can be important like the most important person in America is the president and the most important person in a school is the principle. I think these people are important because they keep things in order and we always need someone in control or else everything would fall apart.

There are many things to prove importance. Like the pyramids in Egypt show what importance can make people do and how things that are important can help us live in our lives and have a better future. Also parts that might be dangerous and scary like war can be important because they can end up making us safe and bring us closer to other countries. Also people of different positions can be important because without them the world would be chaos and nothing would be in order. All these things have a lot of significance and they strongly affect the course of events or nature.

sources:

Fortuna, Matthew. "About The Importance of War." EHow. Web. 4 Feb. 2010. http://www.ehow.com/about_4565874_importance-civil-war.html

"Important." The Free Dictionary. Web. 4 Feb. 2010. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/important

"Introduction to Pyramids." National geographic. Web. 4 Feb. 2010. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/pyramids.html

"Megaliths." They Mystica. Web. 4 Feb. 2010. http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/m/megaliths.html

picture from "Civil War Reenactors." Wikimedia. Web. 5 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Civil_War_Reenactors.JPG

Why do you think so many conspiracy theories surround the pyramids and the megaliths?

There are many conspiracy theories about the pyramids and megaliths. One conspiracy theory about the pyramid of Giza is that there might be evidence of a lost civilization in the pyramid. The people that thought this thought that since they closed down the pyramid for a year to clean it up, that they were actually trying to revel more information about a lost civilization. Also another one is when camera found a door in the pyramid and behind that door was a second door a lot of conspiracy theories came up. There was what’s behind the second door, why did the show end so abruptly, and what are they hiding from us. Megaliths also had some strange conspiracy theories. Since the megaliths are made from such large heavy stones it brought people to thinking about how they were able to move those stones and carry them. Some thought that people used knowledge and math to figure it out. Others thought that civilizations that knew how to carry them told other people from distant lands. There was also they used large labor groups to carry them. The weirdest one would be that the people knew the magic of how to levitate thing. I think that the reason for a lot of conspiracy theories is because it is so easy to think of one and since we don’t have too much information about these structures that we will not know how they were made so there is only room for ideas and theories.

sources:

Ancient Megaliths." Blogspot. 11 Feb. 2009. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. http://unmyst3.blogspot.com/2009/02/ancient-megalith.html

Conspiracy Theories Revealed." Nekhebet. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. http://www.nekhebet.com/m_conspiracies.html

picture from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Megaliths_Aswan_Nubia_museum.JPG

explore the pyramids summary

In the old Egyptian times, when pharaohs died they would try very hard to preserve his body and make tombs and pyramids for their body to lay in. They did this because they believed that when a pharaoh died they became a god of something. They believed that some part of the pharaohs spirit, called the ka, would remain in his body. This was what helped them do their duties of the dead. They thought that if this was damaged then there would be disaster in Egypt. Because of this they would mummify the dead pharaoh and put him safely in a tomb or pyramid.To keep the dead pharaoh safe they would build large tombs for them. This was before the pyramids. They made these tombs out of bedrock and topped these structures with flat-roofed structures called mastabas. The pyramids they built were not built by slaves. They were actually built by people in the village. For the pyramids in Giza it took 20,000 to 30,000 people and 80 years to build the pyramids. They would use limestone blocks to build the pyramids. It took a lot of work to build those pyramids and not just manual work. There were a lot of other parts to it.

source:
"Introduction to Pyramids." National geographic. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. .

picture from:
Liberat0, Ricardo. "All Gizah Pyramids." Commons.wikimedia. 19 June 2006. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. .

Mummification comic

sources:

"Mymmy maker." Bbchttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/launch_gms_mummy_maker.shtml>.

Tyldesey, Joyce. "Ancient egypt and the modern world." Bbchttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/egypt_importance_01.shtml>.