1783 Volcano fun.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Hello, long time no post (it's so slow these days on a non-Intel Mac!). Dunno if this news has travelled worldwide, but European airspace is currently unusable because of the dust cloud from an Icelandic volcano. If the eruption goes on much longer it's going to cause imported food shortages here and severe hardship for - for example - African farmers who depend on air freight to the European market. Hundreds of skeletons from a medieval mass grave were recently dug up near my friend's workplace in Spitalfields, London, dead from starvation after a volcano caused failed harvests, and I heard discussion of the 1783 eruption today, and found this in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/15/iceland-volcano-weather-french-revolution

Comments

[celine-carol.livejournal.com]

"I don't quite understand what you are getting at here. Are you suggesting that if there's an option to change leadership in a peacable and orderly fashion people usually take it rather than revolt?"
*btw, can you tell me how to make things show up in italics? Technology and myself don't get along well...*

Not exactly.. What I'm saying is that, most governments that appear after power-turnover aren't what you could call a 'people's revolution' by any means, regardless of whether the turnover is peaceful or not. Sort of like American Civil war compared to the American Revolution (sorry about the American reference; I'm not up on my European history enough to really talk about it without sounding like an idiot 8P); in both instances the civilians expected armed conflict and serious loss of life, and both were caused by serious economic issues and anger over representation (or lack thereof). But the difference was that, during the Revolution, there was a dramatic overhaul, and an entirely new governmental system was created, with most of the major players not having had a big part in the old government (similar to the French Revolution). During the Civil War, the Confederacy was structured very much like the Union government, and most of the leaders were former members of the old government. And that seems to have happened much more often than Revolutions. I was just wondering what factors have to come together to cause a revolution rather than just a hostile takeover/split, because both are caused by similar factors, and in most cases they have similar consequences.

"Well yes, although I wonder what they would make of us flying stawberries to another continent to be chopped up and then flown back just so we don't have to chop our fruit ourselves"
This is why we should all follow Robespierre's example and eat fruit that does not require chopping (er... Nevermind that people in 3rd world countries are selling them for like 13 cents a day). Good point though... I suppose that it's easy to forget about the 'unseen' consequences of consumption, especially living in a country where the vast majority are middle-class, and there are systems in place so that even people who are homeless have food and shelter.

[maelipstick.livejournal.com]

*btw, can you tell me how to make things show up in italics? Technology and myself don't get along well...*

[i]italic text[/i] Replace the [ ] brackets with < > brackets.

I'm not technical in any way either, but a good basic guide to HTML for text effects at livejournal is here. (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=72)

ut the difference was that, during the Revolution, there was a dramatic overhaul, and an entirely new governmental system was created, with most of the major players not having had a big part in the old government (similar to the French Revolution). During the Civil War, the Confederacy was structured very much like the Union government, and most of the leaders were former members of the old government

I'm no expert on American history, at all. I assume the fact that most people in the British colonies were profoundly unhappy with the political system ie, pay a loy of taxes, get nothing in return, be subject to a distant monarch who treated them with disdain etc. When the monarch went, the whole political system went and had to be started over. Plus I'm guessing a fair amount of previous leaders had to get the boat home.

In the Civil War the confederaes were largely happy with the political system they just wanted to keep slavery. So the confederates could just copy/paste the American constitution onto their own states.

[celine-carol.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link :)

I see what you mean, though I do sort of have an issue with the Civil War thing...
The primary reason for the Civil War was actually a lack of Southern representation in national government (it started due to Lincoln's election, because he got less than 40% of the popular vote) and was spurred on by the fact that there was a pretty big North/South economic divide to begin with; with the North having built all their industry on Southern agriculture, while the South as a whole was still economically disadvantaged. The whole thing was about money, and the Union didn't really use slavery as a plank until it was thrown out as a hail-Mary to get other free countries to shut down the South's cotton trade, effectively bankrupting them (not that it was that hard; most southerners actually manufactured their own weaponry). In fact, Robert E. Lee was actually against slavery, though fought for the South. Also, the Confederacy had a very different take on states' rights, with each state behaving almost as a separate country (for lack of a better description) rather than being as subject to federal control. (This isn't to say that there weren't lots of ardent abolitionists around; just that it certainly wasn't the main political reason for the war).

Haha..It's really interesting how differently history is taught in areas that are historically considered 'the bad guys' (er, or 'the losers' I suppose? Kind of synonymous...) :P

[celine-carol.livejournal.com]

Also, I apologize that every conversation I get involved in seems to take one hell of a left turn! I need to practice staying on topic... :)