Friday, May 11, 2012

Adolf Hitler, Proclamation to the German Nation, February 1, 1933

      The theme of this reading starts with Adolf Hitler with his speech on Feb 1, 1933. He was speaking about Germany's freedom from unemployment, meaning of the country, and leadership. He went on saying that Germany  was losing their spirit and freedom from the war. Since Germany was in the middle of the chaos with different countries it had ended up paying the damages of the war. Hitler came in to power speaking about how Germany can be revived from the tragic loses that they had. As the reading went on it was mentioning Hitler's oh so great plan to bring back the true meaning of Germany. He wanted the freedom of his country, but to keep in mind that he wanted to be the leader of the new journey for the country. This time period was part of the great depression, and with the depression it had led into the war of WWII.
        Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 and died on April 30, 1945. He formed a party called the Nazi's which had sacred supreme political power without winning support from the majority of Germans. Hitler had used media to control his propaganda over Germany, he was then able to persuade most Germans that he would be their savior from their depression, the communist that was occurring, the Versailles Treaty and the Jews. While in power of dictator ship the Holocaust started coming in.  Which was the start of WWII and it was the time when Jews were to be put into concentration camps and be ruled by the Nazi party. The Holocaust was a tragic time for the Jews because, many were hiding the best they can, they would hide away for months sometimes years, but it would get to a point when they would be captured. Hitler was behind majority of the starting of the Holocaust, and it was a time when million of lives of Jews were lost. It had seemed that even though it seemed that Germany was beginning to get their power back it seemed to be achieved in a negative way.
          Ideas that stood out was just Hitler speaking, I felt like I could hear his speech. I kept in mind what he had done in past history, but there was no doubt in my mind that he was a powerful speaker. I could see why most Germans actually wanted to have the power. I understood that they were suffering a lot from the depression that they had. It sort of sounded like they had no choice but to choose him. They were so depressed and began to lose hope, then Hitler came into power. Then even though he made some Germans happy the country did seem to go down hill, because of the choices that were being made. The laws that he wanted had pros and cons to them, but some of them just seemed truly unfair to me.
         The ideas I started to generate was thinking about all of the lives of the Jews, it was a very sad time for them to go through. Families were lost and they began to lost hope in life. I like learning about the Holocaust, because it is a really eye opener to truly stand what was being fought. This reminded me of the story of Ann Frank of how her family hid away for months at a time with different people with them and in the end all that was left was her father. Learning what she or what any Jew went though was sad and depressing. I have seen a movie called The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas saddest story ever, about a boy who lived by one of the concentration camps and befriended a Jewish boy. He would play games and bring him food, his father was a Nazi and part of Hitler's army, but the little boy had no clue what that camp was and how his father was as a general. His father was a very strict and bad person, he believed in what Hitler thought. Worst thing of all he was in charge of the camp. One day he could not find his son, and the little crossed over to the camp and dressed as one of Jews and ended up being killed in the gas chambers. The day was when his father learned of his hatred ways, was when he lost his son at the camp he was running. Even though that little boy brought so much joy to his friend he ended up dying with his friend. I loved this movie, because it made me realize how little time for the people was precious. They barely had a chance to live their life to the fullest, because of the Holocaust so many lives were lost.
              This relates the text book in chapter 25, which mentions how Hitler was ruling and at the end of his ruling ended up going into trial for all that he done to Germany along with the citizens. It had discussed when his Nazi Revolution was starting to take over the Jews and his rise of power. It was time for Germany's history of their depression and the time of when WWII started to come to take place. It will be something that will carry on through out history and be remembered through out time.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Thorstein Veblen Conspicuous Consumption, 1902

     The theme of this reading is that it is describing how people look towards leisure, they have spending patterns that they are able to achieve status that they want. They are defining themselves on things that they have. The industrial revolution was increasing and what I researched it became be part of the " Second Industrial Revolution". It was able to form classes to show how leisure was being used. It began showing the leisure time of the working class and middle class. The industrialization was beginning to increase more and more people were working, but those who were rich  have more leisure time to buy expensive things to achieve a certain status. It started to involve economic theories such as men who are rich drink alcohol, but men who constantly drink, but it becomes an addiction. Together it involves on what people own by the goods it simply shows how people actually live their lives. 
          Thorstein Veblen was born in  Manitowoc County, Wisconsin and his parents were immigrants who were Norwegian, he then grew up in rural Minnesota. Where he graduated from Carleton College in Northfield. Thorstein did not learn English until he went to school. But he was able to go to the University of Chicago where he had taught political economy. He ended up becoming one of the first Academics to really examine the relationship between consumption and the wealth in the society. He also ended up writing The Theory of Leisure Class (1899). While going through his education he became an economist and sociologist. He attended John Hopkins to study philosophy and while going to Yale University he received a Ph.D from Yale in 1884. He was a well educated man that went to school to teach and learn. Though he had all the education he needed it had made several conflicts for him to receive a descent job and he was fired from one of them. Knowing all of the education that he had as a man of knowledge of economics, he ended up dying in 1929 at Melno Park in California after the time the New York stock market crashed.
            Ideas that stood out to me was that it was mentioning the leisure that a person has as being rich and the working class. I thought it was interesting that it was mentioning this idea, because it was mentioning that the people who are rich have more leisure time then those who constantly work. This is really true, because those who are rich are able to live a life without worries when people who work they have worries about jobs and caring for families. This is a concept to show how rich truly do have more leisure time then some people. I like how they mentioned how status is achieved and just by having certain kinds of goods such as expensive shows a persons status and how they live. I think that that you can tell how a person acts or dresses with the goods and it made me think about stereotyping.
          Generating ideas that I have formed from this idea is that it made me think about the men and women during this time period. It had mentioned that woman did not have more leisure time then men had, because even though men worked the women stayed home cleaned, took care of children, and cooked. It really made me think about their lives, because the article mentioned the use of alcohol that men used. The working men had stressed over work which led to drinking and having addiction. Since they were addicted to the substance they became violent and aggressive, which made me think about the how the children and the wives lived their lives. It led to me thinking that for those who were working class how many children or even wives went through pain because of the men, and for the rich it just seemed to me that they were just happy. They had happy families and the men in those families just really drink, because of their status. They did it for fun such as parties etc... but it truly shows the differences between the two classes.
           Parallels that I could make from this is comparing how we use goods to show status. Believe it or not we still buy the most expensive things to achieve some kind of status. It has been around for years it seems like. It is true the more things people have tends to be the case of how they live or as a person. We end up seeing how people dress and we form judgement such as are they rich, snobby, a good person etc... we have developed stereotyping against each other. This concept has been around for years it feels like. It just seems like nothing is really new, the history of leisure and economics still caries on. When this idea caries on it feels like we are against people who have more things then others, but we do not accept the concept of being happy with what we have. This concept can be for the working class and the rich. The working class can accept to have a family and be alive, but the rich can not spend money constantly. They can learn to be happy without the material things in life that is provided for them, but for some buying something new always makes them happy. Another idea came to me and it was the use of alcohol, because I knew some men were aggressive from it and it carries on also. Men who work are addicted and rich they do it for fun still, it is another concept that carries on today. Alcohol is still abusive in our society, but it had affected men, women and for people who are underage. It is very shocking to know alcohol had a long history that carried on back in 1902 to 2012. It just surprising it carried so long and that it is still abusive for those who are at risk of violence or health issues from it.    



















            
     

Friday, April 27, 2012

Chartist Petition of 1838

     The theme of the Chartist of 1838 is that they were declaring to have Parliament which is known to be a legislation body of any various country. It was said to have points that would cover six different points: manhood suffrage, the ballot, abolition on property qualifications for MPS, Payment of MPS, equal electoral districts, and annual elections. These were several issues that I have researched and that relates to the description of the Chartist. It was mentioning that the people who were trying to make a living that were considered to be skillful, providable for an industry. Who work day to day that tend to struggle tho have stress and have trouble with paying for taxes. I considered to be the concept of the rich are getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. They demand to have parliament to be signed to help pass through the suffrage of trying to have equal rights. In Great Britain and Ireland was in the reading was declaring from this parliament to be part of and have demands for the different acts to be solved. 
       Some of the background information that I have found is that William Lovett was the one to create this document that had a long established of demands. There was the reform of 183-2 that lend into a crisis that was considering that that the middle class, not the working class to be admitted to the Parliament System. This was considered to be a betrayal of a large section of the society, and because of this it had led into the Chartism. Another law was mentioned and it was The Dracarrian New Poor Law of 1834, this was an attack on the working class, and it ended up helping the new movement of protesting to gain massive support of the northern part of England. It was also said that Lovett had found that the Chatism was a peaceful persuasion by respectable working men. Just by using moral force to win the charter. I also found that O' Connor was a charismatic demagogue that was using mass meetings and read the forces of " Norther Star" to unite forces of the working class for support. When he untied the forces of the working class he had become popular and that the chartists had named their children after him. The had also left him with the name as the "Lion Of Freedom".
            While reading the Chartist the phrase that had said: " That we, your petitioners, dwell in a land whose merchants are noted for enterprise, whose manufactures are very skillful, and whose workman are proverbial for their industry". This had stood out to me, because it made me think that people back in this time frame worked so hard to live their lives, but the more they had worked they were always loosing to some battle of a certain problem that they had. They were dwelling through the suffrage of being poor, taxes being high to pay for. They wanted to be part of the parliament to have more rights to be equal out, they wanted to make a difference in their world.They demanded this right, and they had to fight their way until it was accomplished even if it had led into conflicts.
            Ideas that I have got from the reading is thinking about " The Great Depression". People were working and trying to live their own lives through this suffrage. They had demanded rights for better working conditions and if they did not get their demands answered then they were going to protest. The depression  last for several years, and it ended up spreading even more conflicts through the years. People have struggled to live, stress, and be taking care of families. Some were not able to do that jobs were becoming low, taxes were higher and the depression had started from industries starting out very high to crashing instantly.
          In our society we seemed to have trouble living out our lives. We pay high amounts of taxes and we tend to follow out the government of what they tell us to do even though a lot of us think it is corrupt. We have people who are poor and can not afford to live a descent life to be happy. We have middle classes, working classes etc....But our lives are better, we have a say on what happens to our society economically and how employment truly is. Even though we have this ability it is not a lot compare to today to the 1830's, both ended up to have troubles to live a life and try to survive. 2012 has come a very long way from the past history and it is very amazing that we have come this far, and have some struggles.
            This can be related in the text by the different parliaments of different countries such as Paris. The European parliament have had different problems to take control of. In chapter 22 I believe it can relate to " The Great Depression".  When  Europe was starting to expand among  different countries it had also led to declining which had led into the several different conflicts. It led into working conditions, rights of different people, and industries crashing instantly. With the parliament people wanted to have a say into wanting rights that they should have. It had become something that ended up to be complex. It led to war among people, and it was something that had lasted for so long. But it had ended up for people to stand up for what they believed in and that was the biggest step for several people in this part of time.
 

Friday, April 20, 2012

Women Miners in the English Coal Pits

       A)  The theme of the reading of this week is that women, children and  men working in the coal mines in England. It had mentioned that girls would be dressing as men and doing work as men would do in the coal mines. Even little girls who were dressed as little boys that you had a hard time telling them a part. The working conditions were very harsh for both the women, men and children. Women were treated worst then men at times, the coal mines had work that was distributed to all of them and it had  been put into danger situations. The coal mines seemed like that they were not supervised to the safety of the employees. Women working in the mines had the almost the same jobs as men carried,but some struggled because they were not as strong as the men in the mines. 
      B) In the 1800's  was the time when conflicts began with the industrialization along with the rights of women. There were several views about woman, one was that they were considered to be the weaker sex, and to be treated like delicate creatures. The request or demands that there should be done for them. There were several different opinions about how woman are to be treated and that they have little power. With the factories coming in to production they were being formed by Arkwright and with the development of the steam engine was known as Watt. While more and more production was happening the coal mines were coming in to the revolution. They had children working in the mines that were called trappers which were young children for assistance, they would sit underground opening and shutting the doors that went across the mine. Since in the coal mines had a very high risk of explosive, Sir. Humphrey Davy invented a safety lamp in 1815, that was told to miners that if they went underground they would have to take this lamp with to see their way through the mines. Even though this was a way to help them through the mines they still were unsafe on so many levels. When woman began to work during this time, in 1910 they were starting to to make up almost one third of the workplace. This had began the argument that if woman had the vote of the Parliament it would be force to pass legislation that would protect women workers, because a lot of the work was temporary or part time. In 1865 group of women for a society called Kensington Society, this was part of the National Union of Suffrage Union, this was founded by Alice Westlake, they discuss women's rights and other discussions about what is happening in their society.
           C) Ideas that stood out to me was that it had mentioned that women who were pregnant and had their baby and went back to work in a couple of days. It surprised me that they went back so soon into work to do that harsh labor. During this time it did not surprise me that it would mention the working conditions or the kinds of workers that would be working there such as children or women. It stood out thinking about women's rights to me a lot, I knew during this time women were considered to be weaker then men back in this time men had the power to rule not women. Not a lot of them cared about any of the employee's rights about the working conditions, I believe this time period was a harsh time of working in the factories and coal mines ect..... 
          D) Ideas that I began to generate is think about the conditions of women and children. I did not think children should be working in such conditions. But with woman made me think about our society about how women carries out manly jobs today such as going into the army, being doctors, police officers ect.. so many jobs that are carried out. With children carrying jobs, I think they should work in little shops, paper routes, but never in mines. So I have mentioned the different type of jobs that women and children could have. But those jobs that I have mentioned is that they actually care about the safety of their employees other then back in the 1800's.
           E) Modern parallels comparing how employees being treated today then back in the 1800's. Today conditions are fairly rather good a lot of company's care about their employees safety and hours that they work. Though there are a lot of hours in companies that are harsh on some standards, but at least they can be monitor. In the 1800's conditions of working did not really matter to that particular business, because they really cared about making the money other then their workers who were trying to make a living. Jobs today has an age set to when children can start working and its usually at 16 or older, back then they had little girls and little working on dangerous job sites that adults could be working at.
        F)  Relating to the text book in chapter 20 is The Industrial Revolution, they mention the conditions of the work sites for all of the workers such as men, women and the children. It also mentions how it had effected Britain's society and how population growth was increasing and how globally it was working to form colonies to spread the trading for each of the colonies. They started to make money, but then again the conditions of the factories were again harsh, so knowing all of the dangers that were occurring the companies begin to loose number of workers depending on the accident of the situation. 

Friday, April 6, 2012

Modern History Sourcebook: The Crime of Galileo: Indictment and Abjuration of 1633

      The Theme of the reading is that Galileo who is the son of the late Vancenzio Galilei, Flornece. He was arrested for the crime that the sun is immovable in the center of the world, and that Earth moves around the sun. The other proposition that he had mentioned is that the Earth is not movable. Theses propositions that were mentioned had ended up being against the Holy Scriptures. During this time it was the time when Theological comes in the views of science and what it means for Holy Scripture. The Theological was the view of how the sun and Earth truly means of the motion for the both of them. This became the concept between what the real explanation was, either it was through Theological sense or from what scriptures sense. Galileo had the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome against him at this time because of the beliefs that he had made based on his discoveries.
       I have found several background information about Galileo, and a lot of it were things I never knew about him. Galileo was a fascinating and intelligent human being, and his history will carry on. He was born in Pisa, Italy on Feb 15, 1564. His parents had seven children and he was the eldest out of all of them. His father was a musician and also a wool trader, he wanted Galileo to go into medicine because there was more money in that area. But when Galileo turned eleven he studied Jesuit Monastery. When four years came to him he wanted to become a monk, and his father was not very pleased with this idea. Galileo had dropped out of the Monastery to carry on his father wish and went to study medicine at the University of Pisa there he had studied mathematics and medicine. During college he had preferred studying mathematics over medicine, and he left the University when he turned 21. He left without a degree and he ended up spending his four years giving private lessons in mathematics in Florence and Siena. Galileo then got a teaching job at the Univeristy of Pisa, but he had denied wearing the robes and he then ended up with fines. After this chaos of education his father had died in 1591 and he was now the main financial provider of his family. After his father's death he was the chair of mathematics department at the University of Padua in the Republic of Venice. There he had lectured on Geometry, Astronomy and he gave additional lessons on Euclid, Cosmography and along with other subjects. Galileo did have a relationship with a 22 year old whose name was Marin Gamba in 1599 he was 36 at this time. In 1600 they had their first daughter Virgina who was born out of wedlock, and in 1601 they had their second child. In 1607 they had a son named Vincenzio, now keep in mind that the couple were never married they had all three children out of wedlock and I thought this was very interesting. After the birth of his children in 1609 Galileo learns about the telescopic lens in the Netherlands and on Nov 30 to Dec 19, he started to observe the moon through the telescope. 1610 he discovered two stars that was close to Jupiter and figured out that they were satellites. While his discoveries were coming to him he loses Marin Gamba, and they were never married nor did they live under the same roof. Soon after she had passed his mother died at the age of 82. Galileo had an incredible life even though he went through a lot during his life. During his discoveries he had lost several people in his life. He was on house arrest because of his discoveries and he ended up losing his eyesight. He also ended up putting out petitions for him to be let go because of his medical condition, but unfortunately he was not. In 1642 he died in Arcentrion January 8.
        Something that stood out to me was that it did not surprise me that Galileo's discoveries or propositions did not pass from the  Catholic or the Apostolic Church of Rome. At the time both of the churches focused on what the scriptures said about how the Earth moves or even how life should be. Since they both were too focused on the Holy Scriptures they had a hard time accepting the discoveries from Galileo, and they did not want to believe so they were against him. I love Galileo he was such an intelligent person, but I felt terrible that no body believed him. But I kept in mind that the time period was religion and what should be accepted and what was unacceptable. People had to follow the scriptures and not those who found discoveries and their ideas.
           Ideas came to mind that Galileo stuck to his discoveries, I felt like he didn't care about what people thought of him based on his discoveries. He was an intelligent man and based on the research that I have made I learned even more about him. He ended up loosing many people in his life, but he still never gave up on his research. He is one of best famous historical figure that I love learning about, that still today we still continue to learn from him.
            Modern parallels that I can make from this is that I believe that we are using Galileo's discoveries today, we have drawn from his discoveries and just gone beyond them. Today, there are some issues with Theological perspective and the Holy Scriptures perspective, but it has gotten better over the years of history and we have learned that each person has different beliefs. So comparing that time to ours today is still astonishing on some cases. Galileo's research changed the world and it carried on after his death, and today we use his research to carry on his work. I think of it that if Galileo did not discover the astronomy part of the universe then we might have been lost, but thanks to him we are not.
         Relating to the text book his trial was mentioned in Chapter 16, with his propositions he pleaded guilty. Based on the books of The Assayer (1632) and Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1623). These were mentioned during the trials they did not save him from being arrested, but he had support to testify on his behalf. The court did not agree on his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, because it seemed it was against the faith of the Catholic Church. The pope sent him back to Arcetri near Florence, where he was under house arrest until his death in 1642.

 

    

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

From The Dutie of a King in His Royal Office

The Theme of the reading is that the kings such as Sir Walter Raleigh, 1599 were considered to be Gods. They had believed that they had the same powers that God has now. Some of the powers that would be included is that if they can create some one and destroy them, another power is that the subjects  they  will have affection and service of his subjects, and the last power is that the people should praise and follow what ever he says. It is to believed that they have power on Earth just like God has on us. In this time frame Kings or even fathers were called Gods.
Additional background that I have found was about Sir Walter Raleigh. What I have found is that when he was younger he had served as a volunteer of the army in France in 1569. In 1577 he became an undergraduate at Oxford. He also served In Ireland in 1580, he also became an author of many political essays. He had ended up creating many bodies of poetry and in the 1600 he was governor of Jersey, but his fortunes had ended up declining when he had apart from his own ally who was know as Robert Cecil.
The part that stood out to me was the kings were considered to be  a God, but I really did not think about that the father or even husbands were actually also considered to be a God. No sooner then I read this it actually kinda refreshed my memory, because I sort of knew that this was true through out this history. Even though the fathers have had heirs to pass down any inheritance that he had  considered to give it to the eldest and not the youngest. I thought it was strange how they would favor over the young just by seeing if they like them. While keeping this in mind I thought about that this idea have led into conflict with several different families such conflict that I would expect would be that if the youngest child ever got the inheritance then the older brother would be jealous. This made me think that just maybe in this time there were times when brothers would fight or even kill each other over such inheritance that their father has left after he passes.
Ideas that really generated made me ask questions such as, is there still conflict over inheritance between family members today, and if so is it resolved in a civil matter or is solved by fighting who gets what? This made me think about family issues today and family issues back then, but in that history the father had ideas or even willing to kill off a son in order to keep his inheritance or even have the eldest get the inheritance. This was another idea that I thought was some what strange, I got the idea that some people back then were greedy or even selfish. It just surprised me that people back then killed off their own child line over their own fortunes to be taken care of.
Parallels would be comparing the lives of families back then and families today. Today some families share out their fortunes through out the family equally through wills to where no body is left out, but back in this time frame it was the youngest who would get the inheritance of some kind instead of a different person. It was continued to be more complex conflict for them, because they were afraid who they can trust with such fortunate and they preferred the youngest of them all. We have some families who are close to each other that want to make sure people are well taken care within the family, but in this time of history it just seemed like it was important for the fortunate was safe among the person who gets the inheritance.
Related to the text, would be that in Chapter 14 it actually discuss that the father's discipline matters, and this relates by the fathers of the household who believe have absolute power as God to run things his way just like God would. It had seemed that from the textbook and context of the reading it seemed that it was really controlling both ways between the different types of families back in history. The idea seemed to have been around I would say since the 1550-1618, this relates to how men or fathers have the power over households and the Royal family.

Friday, March 23, 2012

The 12 Articles of the German Peasants, 1524

The theme for this weeks reading is about the 12 Articles and it shows of how the German Peasants were actually being treated during 1524. The peasants were being treated unfairly, and when ever they did their jobs as slaves they never received anything back. They did not have peace , living conditions were very harsh for them because of the taxes that were being raised and they wanted to be treated fairly and have peace. They also wanted to have a better life and serve God. During this time they did serve God they followed based on what was meant for them to do based on the what God believed was true. This was also about Martin Luther preaching about what is to come to peasant's and what is going to effect him along with the peasant's reaction towards Martin Luther.
Some background information that I have found based on this reading was that the Peasant's war took place during the 15 century of 1524-1526. The Peasant's were a poorer class towns particularly in Franconia,Swabis, and Thuringia. The peasants had demands they wanted economic and political power than to have religious power. Another research that I have found was about Martin Luther, he was born into the peasant stock on Nov 10,1483 in Eisleben which was a in the Holy Roman Empire. He also had two brothers who had died from the out breaks of the plague, and he had one that have lived up to his adulthood. Martin Luther then started to want to reform the the church and home to be turned into schools, he wanted to establish education for which this came to be his first reformation. His last reformation took place in Eisleben, and it ha was the place where he had died in 1546. After Luther had died Melanchthon, Zwingli, Bucer, Bullinger and Calvin had promoted in writings and their works. They had continue of what Luther had started and now they wanted to continue it.
There was a lot of things that have stood out to me and they were the articles. The articles that stood out were the Third, Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth articles. The third article I thought was interesting because it mentions that slaves were under authority of some kind. It is said that we should be absolutely free under no authority, that it mentions that God does not teach us that we should have an authority, that he teaches us to love him and love others around us. If we have an authority of some kind then we should be humble. I thought about this for just a few minutes and thought this is actually true in life today. We serve God and love one another, but then again we would have authority from bosses of jobs, or even in politics. Weather we like the authority we have to learn to accept and be humble or we choose another job to do. The next article is Fifth this one mentions if a man who is poor and needs wood he should pay to have it. This it led me to think that if the peasants wanted to have wood or any needs to survive on they must pay some kind of tax for it. When this came into mind it led me to think that the more they payed for taxes the poorer they were. The peasants believe that if when getting wood it should be free to all man and not treated unequally to one another. The Seventh article mentions that the peasants shall not be forced to work with out any kind of payments for them to have. They should also have peace and quiet for themselves to a holding place, but they should still help their lord at proper times when they are needed and it should not have no disadvantages for them when doing the work. This was also interesting to me, it made me think of today people work for a living and people also work freely to help those in need. Back then they were not getting the rights that they wanted economically and politically, it became  something that had lasted for a long time for them and they wanted freedom from the horrible things that were happening to them.
Ideas that had generated for me was slavery and it made me really think of how long slavery has been through our history which seems like centuries to me. They were the peasants that were the lower class people who became to be treated unequally on several different levels to working, threatening, or even killed if they did not obey some of the rules. They wanted to be treated fairly and during this time they revolved and went into war to have freedom. While they were serving their masters of some kind they also served God by loving him and those around them. This was interesting because all of the pain that they have suffered through they still believed in God that he will take care of them. This was really something good that they never gave up hope in anything weather it was a good or even bad situations they still have love of God in their lives.
Modern parallels that I made of this would be to compare it to other countries that are being treated today. They were not necessarily slaves, but they had to follow certain kinds of laws. Such countries that I would compare to is some countries in Africa and Iraq. Some of them who live there are treated unfairly, they do not have rights or even peace in their own lives and a lot conflicts is war in their lives. They are being ruled by different authority that control them, and different governments that wants them to things that they do not want to do. They are being controlled constantly, in ways that need to end some how. 
Relation to the context is that it relates to Martin Luther's reformation or even known as his preaching. He had a fear to the lower class because he as afraid of what he would expect from the situation of the peasants. His position was social and the economic issues, with his authority the peasants felt betrayal from him. Martin Luther went on to have support of the upper class or the princes, he ordered for the peasants to be killed in any way. The war went out and the peasants revolved against Martin Luther.