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Power. To most people, being in complete and total control is not a vital necessity in their everyday lives. Having some influence is gladly welcomed, but having absolute power over millions and millions of people is not the top priority on their “to do” list.
Sadly enough, there are those who believe that having authority is as essential to their lives as oxygen is to the human body. These power-crazed maniacs often rule nations and command armies, unlike your everyday Joe. Plans to take over the world are accompanied with undying persistence and determination to do anything it takes to put them into domination.
The 19th century Russian Tsars would be considered the type of person that loves to have power. During what was the beginning of the Russian Revolution, nearly any measure was taken to maintain authority over the people of Russia. Alexander III became Tsar in 1881 and upheld the principles of autocracy, a government in which he ruled with absolute power. His main goal was to strengthen the “autocracy, orthodoxy and nationality” in Russia. To make sure his policy was enforced, any person that didn’t give Alexander III total control, didn’t go to the Russian Orthodox church or spoke of any country that wasn’t Russia, was considered a threat to the Tsar’s rule.
Several actions were taken to insure every man, woman, and child in Russia would follow Alexander III’s objective of “autocracy, orthodoxy and nationality.” Censorship codes were placed on any published material and secret police kept careful watch on every educational facility in Russia to make sure instructors weren’t teaching material that was against Alexander III’s goal. Russian became the official language of his empire and the use of any foreign tongue was forbidden. Alexander III created laws that encouraged prejudice among all minorities, especially Jews.
Nicholas II, who proceeded Alexander III, also believed in the principle of autocracy but maintained control in a different way. During his rule the number of factories in Russia doubled along with the new development of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The economy grew and in the 1900s Russia became the world’s fourth-ranking producer of steel, putting power into Tsar Nicholas II’s hands.
Another of the power-obsessed was a man by the name of Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin. Claiming to be a faith healer and a holy man he slithered his way into the Russian royal family hoping to gain political power. In 1915, Nicholas II had moved his World War I headquarters to the war front in Europe, and left his wife, Tsarina Alexandra in charge of governing Russia. Little did he know she was presently under the strong influence of her advisor Rasputin, the self proclaimed “holy man.”
Alexandra’s son, Alexis suffered from hemophilia. Seeing his chance to gain control, Rasputin offered his healing powers to the boy, gradually easing his suffering. Believing Rasputin was a man of God, Alexandra allowed him the power to designate ministers of the government and even the head of the church. During this time, reform ideas were opposed and very powerful positions were occupied by many of Rasputin’s friends.
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Jonathan Thibodeau Government under the Articles of confederation could not deal effectively with many issues that arose during the 1780's. Despite it's many weaknesses, the new government accomplished a great deal. The western lands became the prize and treasure of the new government. Since the Articles of Confederation could only request financial support form the states instead of demanding taxes, these western lands replaced taxes. The so called public domain or unsettled land were larger than all the established states put together. Therefore, by selling the land, the weak new government received money that it couldn't find in any other way. Instead of using this vast area like the European did with the thirteen colonies we made an Empire for Liberty. The Empire was built by adding new states. This was an extremely unique idea among people during the time. The charting of the vast western public domain was one way the government under the Articles of Confederation was praiseworthy. It was the greatest single achievement in domestic policy for the Confederation Under the Articles of Confederation each state was given the power to regulate their own currency. Each state issued it's own money. As a result nobody knew exactly how much a New York dollar was worth compared to a one from New Jersey or Virginia. The more money there was in circulation, the less a dollar was worth. Finally, there was just a financial collapse and a paper money was considered worthless. For five long years the colonies experienced the worst business depression. This inefficiency to deal with the regulation of currency not only caused one of the worst depressions the colonists had ever seen but also set the groundwork for a major rebellion called Shay's Rebellion. People were so angry that their paper money had become worthless because of the initial problem of each state creating it's own currency, that a rebellion was organized by Daniel Shay to make banks and other money collectors accept cheap paper money. Men participating in Shay's Rebellion considered cheap paper money as bad as taxation without representation. As you can see government under the Articles of Confederation lacked the ability to effectively regulate currency because it caused a depression and a rebellion. The U.S constitution attempted to solve the currency problem by making one standard currency for the entire country. This made it much easier to facilitate money between the different states. Now the states didn't have to transpose the value of for example New York dollar to a Virginia dollar. The standard currency throughout the country immediately solved many problems. The value of a dollar was raised and there was less money in circulation. It was a solution that cleared up many problems somewhat quickly. Another major problem of the Articles of Confederation was the government had no President. When the people created the Articles of Confederation, they purposely did not want a President because they were afraid of giving any person too much power. This decision caused many problems such as lacking the power to raise and maintain a proper army and navy. Also other countries didn't respect us as much and therefore it was hard for us to negotiate treaties. This problem was obvious when Adams couldn't get the commercial treaty. This caused national security problems because we didn't have a President to act as Chief Diplomat; therefore other countries didn't respect us. In order to solve this problem of national leadership, under the U.S. constitution the role of President was created. The President was made Commander-in-Chief of all the nation's armed forces. The President also had the power to negotiate treaties and appoint officials. This solution helped the country because one single person did not posses too much power but at the same time had enough power to make smart important decisions and run a country efficiently. The military was another Major problem, because they had no experience they made it so that any person below the rank of coronal had to be chosen to be placed in that position by the state legislator. So in battle this would take way to long to replace someone. As you can see the Articles of Confederation had some successes and many failures. The U.S. Constitution attempted to resolve those failures, and in many cases it was successful.
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