Charlemagne's Quest to restore the Roman Empire Essay

Charlemagne's Quest to restore the Roman Empire - Essay Example It is the purpose of this essay to discuss the efforts made by Charlemagne during his reign, to restore the former glory of the Roman Empire. Charlemagne was involved in numerous wars that he started himself, or those started by his late father. It was Charlemagne’s mission to expand the territory of the Franks and gain control over vast territories. Accordingly, Charlemagne was involved in wars with people such as the Danish, Saxons, Spanish, Huns, Slavs, among other tribes2. In all these wars, Charlemagne and his army emerged victorious and forced the other tribes to surrender. These newly acquired territories increased the size of Charlemagne’s empire to almost three times that ruled by his father3. By the end of his rule, Charlemagne had expanded the Frankish Empire to be the largest in Europe, coming second only to the ancient Roman Empire. Charlemagne’s many accomplishments in war won him as much accolades. He became the most revered king in Europe and ever y ruler, ranging from the Greeks to the Persians wanted to befriend him. Friendship with Charlemagne meant being well protected from one’s enemies, in addition to trade benefits. Charlemagne ruled Western Europe from Aachen, the center of his empire. Accordingly, the royal palace was stationed at Aachen. Charlemagne enlisted the services of Christian clerics to work for him at the palace. From Aachen, Charlemagne ruled most of present day Europe including: France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Austria4. Aachen was strategically positioned such that Charlemagne was able to govern both the western and eastern sides of the Frankish empire effectively. Charlemagne believed in bringing services closer to people, thus he decentralized the administration of his empire, gave more rights to the subjects and relieved the clergy and nobles of some of their powers. As a religious man and specifically a Christian, Charlemagne was keen to ensure that people had proper places of worship. The â€Å"Holy Mother of God† basilica was built at Aix-la-Chapelle for religious practices5. This basilica was a great work of architecture that symbolized the architectural prowess of the people of Western Europe. The basilica was adorned with gold, silver, brass and marbles. Charlemagne was also very concerned about the appearance of sacred places and would routinely order priests and fathers to repair any damaged edifices. During his reign, Charlemagne insisted on the importance of the parish church by encouraging every village to have a church and a priest. Charlemagne forged a strong friendship with Pope Leo III. This ensured that Charlemagne’s empire had strong connections with Rome, thus the strengthening of the Christian faith. It was this close association with the pope that led to Charlemagne being crowned â€Å"emperor† by the pope. During Charlemagne’s period of influence, trade and commerce flourished due to var ious changes introduced in the monetary system. One of the most important changes that Charlemagne introduced was the use of silver as the medium of exchange in Europe. Prior to this, gold was the only form of currency used to transact business all over Europe. Since silver was more available, business transaction became easier and more people were able to participate in commerce6. In addition to the introduction of silver as

Field Experience Observation Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Field Experience Observation Report - Essay Example I believe that my teacher is dealing with student differences due to the readings and aspects that we have learned and the way class learning takes place. Such as the concept of self takes into account gender and racial identities and their differences. Even William James’s explanation of self-concept relates to all groups because everyone has multiple selves and an aspiration of where they want to be, and everyone becomes more aware of themselves and how they act as they grow older. However, this time span of middle adolescence or early adolescence traits may differ from culture to culture; in some cultures, awareness comes before others due to the conditions in their society or their familial upbringing and these aspects should also be covered and be taken into account in the classroom while reacting to the behavior of the students or grading them Self-esteem is also a relative concept; therefore, diverse or not diverse, it is an individualistic character that cannot be gene ralized even for a race, so it is difficult to encompass and generalize for races; however, the basic trend of high esteem is correlated to positive trends. Global esteem is also considered in the text therefore I think that the teacher addresses the issue in text but practically does not build up that esteem in the classroom for students of different races. (Tesser, Felson, & Suls, 2000) The building of identity reading also takes into account the difference between men and women in the building of identity; the basic steps are the same, but what is more important for women is interpersonal factors, and as recent study shows, both inter and intra personal factors. Even in gender roles, the reading explored that for females there is greater flexibility in the world, and so is there flexibility for adolescents. In the classroom however I haven’t observed this, in fact there is greater flexibility for males. However, these gender roles are not universal, and they differ from cu lture to culture. Some cultures believe in the equality of men and women, and some societies are entirely male dominated. Another weakness of the reading is that there is a comparison between the West and the rest. In the rest there is a wide variety of races and cultures which are worlds apart and cannot simply be combined in the ‘rest’ and which are not taken into account in the classroom. Different communities also have different problem solving strategies, whereas only Berke’s social problem solving steps are outlined and followed in the class. However, the universal belief is that one must not only understand their own needs, but as they develop, they should be able to take into account the perspectives of others and thus develop ‘multiple perspectives.’ The teacher herself should also have this view. Piaget and Kohlberg are also renowned psychologists not just in the western society but all over the world; and, even though deviations exist with in an individual who may even be in the western society, generally their principles are universally accepted. In the classroom they are followed to the book and practicality seems to be missing. Teen problems may also be different for different cultures. In the west, the problems may be teen pregnancy and unhealthy sexual behavior, whereas in other societies, such as more conservative ones, the problems may be that girls are too modern, they wish to do what they like, and in poor countries it may that teens do not get