Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Switching.
To anybody visiting this site without using the links I post (something I find unlikely, to be perfectly honest, but I thought I should cover all my bases), the location of this blog has changed to wordpress. It still retains all of its top-notch content, so no worries about that. You can find it, in all its glory, here.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Eurothon: 30 Years War
Alright, I know that I missed the last two days. And that's very sad. Prom craziness and life happened. But now it's time to take a good look at what was one of the culminating events of the Reformation, the 30 Year's War.
The origins of the war can be mostly found in the Peace of Augsburg a little more than half a century earlier, which allowed for Catholics and Lutherans in the German principalities to coexist peacefully. At least, that was the idea. In practice, it merely put off conflict for awhile; princes practicing different religions were still hostile to each other, just not openly, and the spread of Calvanism went unacknowledged by the Holy Roman Empire and was considered an illegitimate religion at the beginning of the war. Essentially, this set the stage for a whole lot of people to kill each other over some BS religious crusade. This is one of the events that makes it a bit astonishing to thing that the HRE actually remains in existence for several hundred years after this.
Anyways, in addition to all the crazy religious stuff going on, all the other European powers saw the opportunity in the nation that was basically at war with itself. Protestant nations, such as the Netherlands, Sweden, and England all jumped in on the side of the Protestant German states, along with France which was Catholic but had dynastic ambitions in the country, once civil war became a sure thing.. Sweden was, surprisingly, the biggest player on the Protestant side and had it's one moment of historic bad-assery during this period, conquering a significant portion of the German states at it's peak during the 30 Year's War under the leadership of Gustavus Adolfus II who gets his own day even 500 years after his death. Because he is a total bad ass. More on him later.
The Catholic side was backed by the Hapsburg empire, which at this time included Spain, the majority of the HRE's possessions (Austria and Bavaria were two of the larger players here) and, towards the end of the war, Denmark which became a Spanish territory. Many of these joined the Catholic League in response to the League of Evangelical Union formed by some Protestants, which drew the proverbial line in the sand for the war.
The final straw that started the whole debacle was Ferdinand I's (who is also Ferdinand II because royalty MAKES NO SENSE) ascension to the throne of the HRE. He was a staunch supporter of religious unity in his territory, having been educated by the Jesuits (who were a result of the Counter-Reformation movement, so were fairly anti-Protestant). His clear ill-will against the Protestants caused many of the nobles to reject him, which basically created the exact same shit storm you might imagine when half of a nation rejects its ruler. We go now to the first stage of the war.
Stage 1: Bohemian Revolution
When Ferdinand I/II took over, he sent several councilors to Bohemia in a diplomatic effort to avoid conflict with the Protestant. In one of the most refreshingly straight forward political maneuvers in history, the leaders of Protestant Bohemia threw them out a third story window. Though the fall was a good 50 feet or so, they survived remarkably unharmed.
The conflict spread throughout the western German region, eventually leading to Ferdinand recruiting the aid of some family over in Spain, which at this time was actually a politically significant force. Protestant countries who had been previously too afraid to attack the Hapsburgs because of their immense and entirely baffling family tree were emboldened by the revolt and joined in the fun.
Fredrick V, a protestant, was pleaded to for entrance into the Protestant League by the Bohemians, who desperately needed allies to fight the Catholics. They offered Fredrick the throne in exchange for the admission, but had also apparently made this offer to a fairly large number of other leaders to gain support as well, making them the king offer sluts of the 1600's. This cost them a good amount of support from the countries they had hoped to get support from. Not too surprisingly, the rebellion didn't proceed too well for the protestants then. The Protestant armies were crushed, leaving only a few stray generals wandering about. This was enough to cause trouble, however.
Phase II: Denmark takes off a bit more than it can chew
Denmark saw the Catholic League victory as a threat to it's sovereignty as a Protestant nation. Christian IV, Denmark's king at this time, raised a fairly sizable army to fight the Catholic League, receiving support from some Protestant areas of the HRE and some money from France and Britain, who both had interests in keeping the Habsburgs down. He also received some aid from Sweden in the form of war reparation, which was nice.
But there was still a reason as to why the Habsburgs were the most powerful family in Europe at the time. Despite Christian IV's best efforts, his primary general, Mansfeld, died of tuberculosis and he lost several important battles. He was pushed back to his borders, where he was saved by the fact that Wallenstein decided that an invasion would cost more than any possible benefit. The peace treaty here made Denmark remove itself from the conflict, giving Catholics greater control over the German states.
Phase III: It's Gustavus Adolfus time, biznatches!
So, after two Protestant groups have failed to win the acknowledgement of their religion, the natural thing to do would be to try again. But this time, it was a total badass leading the Protestant armies instead of those pansies who died of things like tuberculosis and beheading.
The precise reason as to why Adolfus entered into the war is unknown, but it was clear that he wanted to limit the power of the HRE, as well as prevent the subjugation of Protestant nations. He received funds from France in their continuing effort to fight a proxy war against the HRE and Spain. In a relatively short amount of time, Adolfus pushed the Catholic League back until he controlled almost half of the HRE's territory. Needless to say, he was quite pleased with himself.
France, now confident enough that things were going smoothly, formally allied with Sweden in 1631 and stopped being such pansies. Swedish armies continued pushing through German lands, killing a prominent Catholic general in the process and gaining a definitive upper hand. Unfortunately, Wallenstein pulled a clever maneuver and moved in behind the Swedish force and threatened the supply lines, forcing Adolfus into a battle that was severely disadvantageous for the Protestant armies. Adolfus went boldly into the trap and was killed in action, being way more manly than those other people who had just pansied out. Despite Adolfus' death, the Swedish army was momentarily victorious. After this, the Swedish armies became less successful and Protestant Germany sued for peace with the Peace of Prague, ending the civil war in Germany and limiting the power of Protestant princes.
Part IV: More or less the end
The end part of the war includes a lot of back and forth, eventually resulting in Sweden having gained a fair amount of ground in the HRE once again, leaving only Austria firmly under Habsburg rule. France invaded Spain, meeting with initial disaster and then ending up with more or less the same borders. Eventually, a series of peace agreements were reached known collectively as the Peace of Westphalia was reached by the nations of Europe, which was the first example of a big peace talk and was very exciting.
The terms of the treaty were as follows: The imperial domain was reset to pre-war terms, meaning each individual territory had its own religious determination and semi-autonomy. In addition, Calvinism was acknowledged as a legitimate religion.
In response, the pope had a hissy fit in which he declared the agreement "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time", which was actually just part of his effort to expand his vocabulary for verbally smiting the heathens.
Some various territorial disputes were settled, which were relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, and:
Religious wars were prohibited, saying that the religious sovereignty of every nation was guaranteed. It would be, in theory, a good idea.
Well, that's basically all there is to that. It was very exciting. Tomorrow will most likely be the 7 Years War, which was largely covered in the short history of imperialism but will be rehashed in a more educational fashion.
I was going to post a few panels with this, but there were extenuating circumstances. Maybe tomorrow.
The origins of the war can be mostly found in the Peace of Augsburg a little more than half a century earlier, which allowed for Catholics and Lutherans in the German principalities to coexist peacefully. At least, that was the idea. In practice, it merely put off conflict for awhile; princes practicing different religions were still hostile to each other, just not openly, and the spread of Calvanism went unacknowledged by the Holy Roman Empire and was considered an illegitimate religion at the beginning of the war. Essentially, this set the stage for a whole lot of people to kill each other over some BS religious crusade. This is one of the events that makes it a bit astonishing to thing that the HRE actually remains in existence for several hundred years after this.
Anyways, in addition to all the crazy religious stuff going on, all the other European powers saw the opportunity in the nation that was basically at war with itself. Protestant nations, such as the Netherlands, Sweden, and England all jumped in on the side of the Protestant German states, along with France which was Catholic but had dynastic ambitions in the country, once civil war became a sure thing.. Sweden was, surprisingly, the biggest player on the Protestant side and had it's one moment of historic bad-assery during this period, conquering a significant portion of the German states at it's peak during the 30 Year's War under the leadership of Gustavus Adolfus II who gets his own day even 500 years after his death. Because he is a total bad ass. More on him later.
The Catholic side was backed by the Hapsburg empire, which at this time included Spain, the majority of the HRE's possessions (Austria and Bavaria were two of the larger players here) and, towards the end of the war, Denmark which became a Spanish territory. Many of these joined the Catholic League in response to the League of Evangelical Union formed by some Protestants, which drew the proverbial line in the sand for the war.
The final straw that started the whole debacle was Ferdinand I's (who is also Ferdinand II because royalty MAKES NO SENSE) ascension to the throne of the HRE. He was a staunch supporter of religious unity in his territory, having been educated by the Jesuits (who were a result of the Counter-Reformation movement, so were fairly anti-Protestant). His clear ill-will against the Protestants caused many of the nobles to reject him, which basically created the exact same shit storm you might imagine when half of a nation rejects its ruler. We go now to the first stage of the war.
Stage 1: Bohemian Revolution
When Ferdinand I/II took over, he sent several councilors to Bohemia in a diplomatic effort to avoid conflict with the Protestant. In one of the most refreshingly straight forward political maneuvers in history, the leaders of Protestant Bohemia threw them out a third story window. Though the fall was a good 50 feet or so, they survived remarkably unharmed.
The conflict spread throughout the western German region, eventually leading to Ferdinand recruiting the aid of some family over in Spain, which at this time was actually a politically significant force. Protestant countries who had been previously too afraid to attack the Hapsburgs because of their immense and entirely baffling family tree were emboldened by the revolt and joined in the fun.
Fredrick V, a protestant, was pleaded to for entrance into the Protestant League by the Bohemians, who desperately needed allies to fight the Catholics. They offered Fredrick the throne in exchange for the admission, but had also apparently made this offer to a fairly large number of other leaders to gain support as well, making them the king offer sluts of the 1600's. This cost them a good amount of support from the countries they had hoped to get support from. Not too surprisingly, the rebellion didn't proceed too well for the protestants then. The Protestant armies were crushed, leaving only a few stray generals wandering about. This was enough to cause trouble, however.
Phase II: Denmark takes off a bit more than it can chew
Denmark saw the Catholic League victory as a threat to it's sovereignty as a Protestant nation. Christian IV, Denmark's king at this time, raised a fairly sizable army to fight the Catholic League, receiving support from some Protestant areas of the HRE and some money from France and Britain, who both had interests in keeping the Habsburgs down. He also received some aid from Sweden in the form of war reparation, which was nice.
But there was still a reason as to why the Habsburgs were the most powerful family in Europe at the time. Despite Christian IV's best efforts, his primary general, Mansfeld, died of tuberculosis and he lost several important battles. He was pushed back to his borders, where he was saved by the fact that Wallenstein decided that an invasion would cost more than any possible benefit. The peace treaty here made Denmark remove itself from the conflict, giving Catholics greater control over the German states.
Phase III: It's Gustavus Adolfus time, biznatches!
So, after two Protestant groups have failed to win the acknowledgement of their religion, the natural thing to do would be to try again. But this time, it was a total badass leading the Protestant armies instead of those pansies who died of things like tuberculosis and beheading.
The precise reason as to why Adolfus entered into the war is unknown, but it was clear that he wanted to limit the power of the HRE, as well as prevent the subjugation of Protestant nations. He received funds from France in their continuing effort to fight a proxy war against the HRE and Spain. In a relatively short amount of time, Adolfus pushed the Catholic League back until he controlled almost half of the HRE's territory. Needless to say, he was quite pleased with himself.
France, now confident enough that things were going smoothly, formally allied with Sweden in 1631 and stopped being such pansies. Swedish armies continued pushing through German lands, killing a prominent Catholic general in the process and gaining a definitive upper hand. Unfortunately, Wallenstein pulled a clever maneuver and moved in behind the Swedish force and threatened the supply lines, forcing Adolfus into a battle that was severely disadvantageous for the Protestant armies. Adolfus went boldly into the trap and was killed in action, being way more manly than those other people who had just pansied out. Despite Adolfus' death, the Swedish army was momentarily victorious. After this, the Swedish armies became less successful and Protestant Germany sued for peace with the Peace of Prague, ending the civil war in Germany and limiting the power of Protestant princes.
Part IV: More or less the end
The end part of the war includes a lot of back and forth, eventually resulting in Sweden having gained a fair amount of ground in the HRE once again, leaving only Austria firmly under Habsburg rule. France invaded Spain, meeting with initial disaster and then ending up with more or less the same borders. Eventually, a series of peace agreements were reached known collectively as the Peace of Westphalia was reached by the nations of Europe, which was the first example of a big peace talk and was very exciting.
The terms of the treaty were as follows: The imperial domain was reset to pre-war terms, meaning each individual territory had its own religious determination and semi-autonomy. In addition, Calvinism was acknowledged as a legitimate religion.
In response, the pope had a hissy fit in which he declared the agreement "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time", which was actually just part of his effort to expand his vocabulary for verbally smiting the heathens.
Some various territorial disputes were settled, which were relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, and:
Religious wars were prohibited, saying that the religious sovereignty of every nation was guaranteed. It would be, in theory, a good idea.
Well, that's basically all there is to that. It was very exciting. Tomorrow will most likely be the 7 Years War, which was largely covered in the short history of imperialism but will be rehashed in a more educational fashion.
I was going to post a few panels with this, but there were extenuating circumstances. Maybe tomorrow.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Eurothon: Europe's decent into craziness through cultural movements.
Alright, I'm no art historian. But this should be able to provide a broad overview of the major cultural movements which got us to where we are today. Along with in-depth looks at the movements I find amusing (Like Dada).
200 CE - 1430 CE Medieval and Christian art
This time was mostly defined by the flat, religious imagery of the medieval period. Lots of stuff to do with the plague, since it was killing so many people during this time. Other pieces of art were mostly of biblical scenes and figures. Fairly unrealistic, majestic, and God-oriented in terms of style to distract the peasants from their fairly crappy lives.
This style eventually led to the Gothic style, famous for it's architecture that involved pointed arches and flying buttresses. Pieces of art like The Danse Macabre are iconic of Gothic art.
1300 CE - 1600 CE Renaissance
The Renaissance is sort of a massive movement, so I'll do my best to sum up the important stuff here. Most people agree that it started in Florence, mostly as a result of the Medici family and others who took up the practice of becoming patrons of the arts (making the Medici family a group of patrons, Mrs. Brown. I totally won that question). The movement came out of humanist ideas and the study of antiquity, such as the philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and other old dead white guys, as well as the new ways of viewing life and death. Artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and other teenage mutant ninja turtles came to embod the spirit of the renaissance by engaging in a variety of different art styles and writing. New art techniques focused on a realistic portrayal of the human form as well as things like shading.
While many of the art in this period was religious in nature, there was a much greater occurrence of secular art during this time than during the earlier art periods. The Italian renaissance especially showed this trend, with artists like da Vinci making art purely to celebrate the human form with works like the Vitruvian Man.
The Northern renaissance which took place in the majority of the rest of Europe was still very much entrenched in religious imagery, however, and was slightly less dramatic than the Italian renaissance.
A refresher on humanism: Humanism is a learning style that branches off from the scholastic learning style of the medieval period. It focuses on the ancients and their writings and scientific ideas, analyzing them with a combination of discussion, philosophy, and empirical data to produce such gems of scientific achievement as bleeding people to balance the humors and such like things. Ok, it wasn't a perfect system. But it did lead to a greater focus on human perfection and having a good life as well as an afterlife, which lead to some good things.
1520 CE - 1600 Mannerism
Mostly a continuation on the trends of the Renaissance, mannerism was a highly intellectual art style which focused on artificial rather than natural themes and stylized poses. Perspective was messed with, and the shading was more dramatic than the previous eras. Tintorreto's Last Supper was an example of this style.
1600 CE - 1780 CE Baroque to Rococo
Both the Baroque and Rococo periods were focused on being as pompous, large, and rich looking as possible. It was pushed by the Catholic church as part of the Counter-Reformation, since it went against the more austere protestants. While the pompous Baroque style achieved large-scale popularity with the aristocracy of Europe, the brighter and apparently "more French" Rococo was mostly shunned in England.
1750 CE - 1830 CE Neoclassicism
200 CE - 1430 CE Medieval and Christian art
This time was mostly defined by the flat, religious imagery of the medieval period. Lots of stuff to do with the plague, since it was killing so many people during this time. Other pieces of art were mostly of biblical scenes and figures. Fairly unrealistic, majestic, and God-oriented in terms of style to distract the peasants from their fairly crappy lives.
This style eventually led to the Gothic style, famous for it's architecture that involved pointed arches and flying buttresses. Pieces of art like The Danse Macabre are iconic of Gothic art.
1300 CE - 1600 CE Renaissance
The Renaissance is sort of a massive movement, so I'll do my best to sum up the important stuff here. Most people agree that it started in Florence, mostly as a result of the Medici family and others who took up the practice of becoming patrons of the arts (making the Medici family a group of patrons, Mrs. Brown. I totally won that question). The movement came out of humanist ideas and the study of antiquity, such as the philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and other old dead white guys, as well as the new ways of viewing life and death. Artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and other teenage mutant ninja turtles came to embod the spirit of the renaissance by engaging in a variety of different art styles and writing. New art techniques focused on a realistic portrayal of the human form as well as things like shading.
While many of the art in this period was religious in nature, there was a much greater occurrence of secular art during this time than during the earlier art periods. The Italian renaissance especially showed this trend, with artists like da Vinci making art purely to celebrate the human form with works like the Vitruvian Man.
The Northern renaissance which took place in the majority of the rest of Europe was still very much entrenched in religious imagery, however, and was slightly less dramatic than the Italian renaissance.
A refresher on humanism: Humanism is a learning style that branches off from the scholastic learning style of the medieval period. It focuses on the ancients and their writings and scientific ideas, analyzing them with a combination of discussion, philosophy, and empirical data to produce such gems of scientific achievement as bleeding people to balance the humors and such like things. Ok, it wasn't a perfect system. But it did lead to a greater focus on human perfection and having a good life as well as an afterlife, which lead to some good things.
1520 CE - 1600 Mannerism
Mostly a continuation on the trends of the Renaissance, mannerism was a highly intellectual art style which focused on artificial rather than natural themes and stylized poses. Perspective was messed with, and the shading was more dramatic than the previous eras. Tintorreto's Last Supper was an example of this style.
1600 CE - 1780 CE Baroque to Rococo
Both the Baroque and Rococo periods were focused on being as pompous, large, and rich looking as possible. It was pushed by the Catholic church as part of the Counter-Reformation, since it went against the more austere protestants. While the pompous Baroque style achieved large-scale popularity with the aristocracy of Europe, the brighter and apparently "more French" Rococo was mostly shunned in England.
1750 CE - 1830 CE Neoclassicism
Basically a bunch of nostalgia which wanted people to get involved with the more "pure" and "noble" art forms of antiquity. Sort of similar to renaissance art in style and running counter to the Baroque and Rococo movements which it thought of as silly.
1790 CE - 1880 CE Romanticism
More along the lines of Rococo art, Romantic art was sort of an escapist movement that went against the increasingly scientific thought of the 19th century. It celebrated the stylized and aesthetic pieces rather than the more empirical realist movement which sought to accurately portray human experiences and form.
1863 CE -1890 CE Impressionism
Like Romanticism, it didn't seek to create an entirely realistic representation of people and nature. It focused mainly on lighting and the movement of things. The main difference with impressionists was that they painted outside rather than in a studio in order to capture the lighting of a moment. There was no single event that really inspired the impressionist movement, but it did provide a counter to photography since it was far more stylized and pretty looking.
1890 CE - 1910 CE-ish Lots of stuff
The pre-war time period was filled with a huge number of different art movements as the Belle Epoch came to a close. Cubism, futurism, and Art Nouveau were fairly large movements that defined the culture of pre-war Europe, showing a trend towards the "batshit crazy" art that was well on its way. Changes in society during this time had been mildly dramatic, involving demographic shifts and new ideas as a result of the industrial revolution. The reconciliation with the many ideas in the so called "market place of ideas" was what mostly drove these changes, involving everything from Marx to Spencer who attempted to make complete systems for explaining the world.
Post WWI
This is pretty much the last period we covered in terms of art, so I'm going to assume we don't need to look at much else past this. Also, I'm really done with looking at all these different wikipedia and note pages.
THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!
Dadaism is, of course, the idea that if you take a small badger and combine it with a three-quarter limeade beverage, you achieve what is known as the "Urnial cake singularity", which is as dangerous as it sounds. Contrary to popular belief, pulling this badger does not result in an unpleasant oder, but rather an extravagant tortoise.
That was an exercise in teaching by example. Dadaism was totally crazy and based on the idea that the world as we know it is absurd. It's a movement we can all get behind, I think. Movements like Dadaism were a result of the post-war changes in society and general craziness following the first world war. It was a precursor to surrealism, which was also based off of general weirdness but was actually intended to have a meaning behind it rather than the intentionally meaningless Dada art.
The important thing to remember about post war art was that it was based off of the strangeness of post-war Europe and the rapidly changing ideas which populated society.
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