The Sacrifice Essay Example for Free

The Sacrifice Essay The notion of sacrifice within most religions acts as not only a show of faith but also as form of tribute to past biblical stories. From Islam to Judaism to western Christianity, various religions, even those in conflict with each other, share the significance of certain sacrifices that are still honored and hold relevance to this day. Of the more prevalent occasions is the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son to show submission to God’s command. Though the details vary from one religion to the next the importance and power of the event remain strong to these communities. Each of these four religions have a different account or play a different part in the story. The Muslim community celebrates Eid al-Adha to honor Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his first born son Ishmael. To commemorate this near sacrifice, Muslims willingly sacrifice their best domestic animals as Ishmael was spared with a goat taking his place. The meat is split into three sections with the family keeping a third and the other two thirds going to friends and family and the less fortunate, respectively. Those taking part dress in their finest clothes and have specific prayers for the event which lasts four days with a total of 23 prayers. The name Eid al-Adha translates to â€Å"festival of the sacrifice.† In Judaism the story is slightly different. The story of the Akedah, or the binding of Isaac, is relatively the same except that instead of Ishmael, the son to be sacrificed is Isaac. This is seen as a test God had placed upon Abraham to measure his faith. As Isaac was about to be sacrificed, God stepped in and stopped Abraham offering a ram in his stead. Christianity agrees with this story but adds that Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son due to his faith that God would then resurrect Isaac. Christianity also says this sacrifice either took place at the Temple Mount or at Calvary,  where Christ was crucified. As mentioned earlier, due to the fact that the Quran does not give a name to the son to be sacrificed, the Muslim religion has speculated that the son was Ishmael. Despite different takes on the episode it is clear that each of these three religions holds powerful meaning and importance for this would be sacrifice or at least for the faith Abraham had in God to be willin g to commit this sacrifice. In addition to these similarities, there is also the question of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem mentioned earlier. As stated before, the Christians believe this site as a possible backdrop to Abraham’s sacrifice as well as the site where Jesus was found as a boy by the Jews. Due to this belief, many Christian pilgrims flocked to this site to worship in the place where â€Å"Jesus walked.† This led to hostility from Muslims which sparked the crusades by the Roman Catholic Church. Christians believe the temple will be rebuilt for the second coming of Christ. The Jewish believe that the Temple Mount is the place where God rested after creating the world and gathered â€Å"dust to create Adam.† They believe this to be holiest place on Earth and all prayers should be focused in its general direction. In Islam the Temple Mount is held as the site where Muhammed made his journey to Jerusalem and ascent to Heaven. He also instructed his followers to face to face the mosqu e during prayer similar to Judaism. Due to the holy significance to so many different religions, the Temple Mount has been the scene for many conflicts throughout the ages. As early as the crusades but more notably in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Both groups see this site as belonging to their religion and are willing to sacrifice themselves in order to retain possession of it. The poem Parable of the Old Man and the Young by Wilfred Owen tells the story of Abraham’s trial. Where the poem differentiates from the story in the Bible is what takes place after God intervenes to spare Isaac. Instead of Abraham sparing the boy for the ram he sacrifices Isaac anyway thus â€Å"half the seed of Europe, one by one.† This implies that anyone with faith in God should possess the willingness to also make sacrifices to show that faith. The actual killing of one’s first born is not exactly what is implied but that one must be willing to sacrifice some important aspect of their life to prove they possess that faith. Works Cited

Analysis of The Time Machine Essay -- essays papers

Analysis of The Time Machine The Time Machine by H.G. Wells is considered a â€Å"classic† in today’s literary community. I also believe that this novel is a good book. It was an interesting story the first time I studied it, and I have found new ideas each time I have read it since. It is amazing that such a simple narrative could have so many complex ideas. Unfortunately, some do not take the same position that I do. They cast it off as a silly little novel that deserves no merit. Obviously I disagree with these critics. The Time Machine follows the criteria that I believe a good novel should have. A good novel should include an element of fantasy and should stimulate ideas in the audience that they never came to realize before. The aspect of good versus evil should also be incorporated into a novel, mainly to capture the reader’s attention. If readers find themselves rooting for a particular character or set of characters against another, they become involved in the novel. The chara cters should also be realistic so the audience can relate to them. The Time Machine follows these criteria with few exceptions. Why should this novel be looked at now, 100 years after it was written? The Time Machine is a science fiction novel that has a much different view of the future than the view that is commonly held today. Modern society foresees the future as a technologically advanced society that would make our present society look primitive. Many movies today portray this view of the future. Wells’s view of the future is the antithesis to the one that is held today. The regression of society is rarely discussed as the future. The idea that human beings have reached their progressive and evolutionary peak could be an actuality. The Time Machine could be a possibility for the future despite the universal belief that humans still have a long way to progress. Neither technology nor peacefulness exists in the future that The Time Machine portrays. Wells apparently has a grim outlook for what society will evolve to in the future. Wells introduces a meta-utopia or a dystopian future, which is, to say the least, a radically unique idea. A meta-utopian society is one that regresses instead of progresses. The protagonist of the book, the Time Traveller, builds a time machine and travels to the year 802,701. The landscape that he relates to the reader is a he... ...he realism of the novel. The one character that is realistic is the Time Traveller. He is an integral character the audience identifies with. He is not portrayed as a crazy scientist performing a maniacal experiment. Readers can see themselves as the Time Traveller. He is a normal guy that happens to travel through time. Without the realism of the Time Traveller Wells loses the audience. The Time Machine still holds the same appeal today as it did 100 years ago. The essential elements for a successful novel are incorporated into Wells’s greatest work. He is able to keep the audience interested and has set the precedent for the science fiction genre. The use of a time machine has been used in movies and other novels throughout the years. The idea that one can travel through time is a concept that appeals to many and to our memories of the past. As children, we would pretend we were some sort of hero that would have great adventures. The Time Machine’s premise is similar to these childhood fantasies. The Time Machine remains popular because of its introduction of new ideas of the future, and the fantasy that it portrays brings the reader to a world quite different than our own.

The current business environment is characterized

The current business environment is characterized by intense competitive rivalry and businesses have to undertake aggressive marketing initiatives in order to counter this threat. The importance of marketing in ensuring that a business organization can develop and maintain a competitive edge is growing exponentially.Corporations are now pouring millions into their promotional campaigns in order to create an image for themselves in the customer mindset. This trend of massive financial resources being thrown into marketing is particularly evident in the area of sports marketing. In this area, massive opportunities exist in terms of public relations events which have global reach.Thus any corporation that can have its logo associated with events like the Olympics which are broadcast throughout the world stand to gain substantially out of investing in the rights to have its logo associated with the event. This is called corporate sponsorship. However the benefits of corporate sponsorship have led to the rise of unethical marketing practices called ambush marketing.Ambush marketing is defined to have taken place when a marketer has its products associated with a sports event without having paid for any of the rights to association (cited in Ironside, 2007). Thus the ambush marketer enjoys all the benefits of being a legitimate corporate sponsor without paying a cent.The trend of ambush marketing has been growing steadily in the last few years as shown in figure 1. As shown in the figure, sports organizers have been experiencing massive revenue losses as result of the phenomenon of ambush marketing which keeps going strong despite efforts to counter the threat.The threat is particularly detrimental because the actual corporate sponsors have hardly anything to gain by seeking recourse to legal means because courts usually rule in favor of ambush marketers.This happens because ambush marketers never engage in any activities that could be defined as infringement of inte llectual property rights (cited in Meenaghan, 1996). Ambush marketers operate through hints and allusions which do not qualify as infringement of rights in legal vernacular.As a result corporate sponsors have to devise pre-emptive strategies on their own and this adds to the cost of buying rights to the sponsorship (cited in Uphoff, 2006).The process of devising counter strategies requires an understanding of the ways and means by which ambush marketers take advantage of their opportunities. However there are so many ways and means in this regard that it is difficult to develop contingency plans for all of them.There are at least six recognized opportunities which ambushers take advantage of from time to time such as purchasing broadcasting rights to an event or broadcasting time around the time of the event broadcast, sponsoring an event other than the organizing body, purchasing advertising space, thematic advertising and counter attraction (cited in Crompton, 2004).What all of th is means is that if the trend of ambush marketing is allowed to go on unmitigated, it will discourage corporate sponsors from sponsorship spending and major sports events will lose an important source of revenue. Therefore sports property owners have the duty of making ambush marketing difficult and expensive for the competitors of official corporate sponsors.ReferencesAaker, David A. (2004). Strategic Market Management. McGraw Hill/Irwin.Crompton, John L. (2004). Sponsorship Ambushing in Sport. Managing Leisure, 9, 1-12.Ironside, Sue. (2007). Combating Ambush Marketing. NZ Marketing Magazine, 26, 26-27.Retrieved March 15, 2008 from Business Source Elite database.Kolah, Ardi. (2005). Essential Law for Marketers. Prentice Hall.Kotler, Philip., and Gary Armstrong. (2005). Principles of Marketing. Prentice Hall.Meenaghan, T. (1996). Ambush Marketing – A Threat to Corporate Sponsorship. SloanManagement Review, 38, 103-13. Retrieved March 15, 2008 from Business SourceElite databas e.Uphoff, Boris., et al. (2006). Kick-off to Ambush Marketing at World Cup. ManagingIntellectual Property, 156, 91-92. Retrieved March 15, 2008 from Business Source The current business environment is characterized The current business environment is characterized by a considerable level of uncertainty and therefore businesses have to continuously reengineer their internal processes in order to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.In this respect, the critical success factor is to build an organizational culture that is built to change. This is a critical consideration because, given the high level of uncertainty, the management in a business organization is no longer in a position to forecast future changes meaningfully.Therefore the organizational structure must be flexible enough to absorb unexpected changes. The question that should be answered is how this flexibility can be built into the organizational structure. In this respect, it is the duty of the management to build the right performance management system.Through this system the management can communicate with the employees regarding which aspects of their work are vital to the strategic focus of the organization. T he right performance management system is a critical consideration in terms of addressing issues related to employee motivation and empowerment.Capital One is empowering its employees through dissemination of information and by maximizing the surface area. This enables the employees to link their work to the strategic focus of the organization (cited in Zairi, 2005).The fact of the matter is that the management at all levels in Capital One is implementing strategic human resource management. In this manner it is addressing the issues of motivation and empowerment. According to the post-modern theory, business organizations need to maintain the continuous improvement process in order to build a sustainable competitive advantage (cited in Hill & Jones, 2007).However the development of a sustainable competitive advantage depends on access to human capital. Capital One has devised its human resource management policies in order to develop human capital. Even through it is not directly a ddressing the issues of motivation and empowerment, its policies are designed to make these issues the top priorities on the management agenda. Job rotation is one of the examples.According to post-modernism, job descriptions are no longer effective because they create a static organizational structure and therefore do not equip the organization with the abilities to adapt to fast-paced change in the external environment (cited in Besterfield, 2002).According to the post-modern theory, employees have to be groomed to assume a wide variety of positions so that changing organizational structures will not be a problem for them. We see Capital One addressing this issue through creating leadership capabilities throughout the organization. The company’s recruitment and selection strategies are implemented accordingly.For example, during the recruitment process, the most important qualification for the candidate is considered to be his ability to lead a change effort. Because of car efully implemented recruitment and selection strategies, the company minimizes the costs associated with training and development (cited in Ross & Perry, 2002).However the management does communicate with the employees in terms of the extent to which formal training and development programs can be arranged for the employees.A built-to-change organizational structure cannot be built without addressing the issues of motivation and empowerment. According to post-modernism, employees must be involved in the change management process (cited in Brigham & Ehrhardt, 2007). This facilitates the process of addressing employee resistance to change. The management at Capital One addresses this issue through building an effective communications structure which facilitates the dissemination of mission-critical information.As mentioned before, this maximizes the level of surface area. Strategy implementation in this regard has been facilitated through the creation of a flat management structure wh ich enables most employees to work in direct touch with the customers. This enables the employees to make the link between their work and the strategic focus of the company because working in direct touch with the customers means that the employees can see in which direction the organization should proceed in terms of customer relationship management (cited in Dess, 2007).Employee motivation and empowerment is the most critical factor in the post-modernist theory. This is because post-modernism as associated with a sustainable competitive advantage in business emphasizes employee motivation and empowerment.According to Michael Porter’s theory for strategy formulation, a business organization has three strategies at its disposal in building a competitive advantage: differentiation, cost minimization and quick response (cited in Baschab, 2005).However, according to the post-modernist theory none of these strategies will lead to the development of a sustainable competitive advan tage because they can be easily copied by competitor organizations in a fast-changing external environment.Therefore, post-modernism in business focuses on the building of a strategically aligned organizational culture as the source of a sustainable competitive advantage. A strategically aligned organizational culture cannot be built without effectively addressing the issues of employee motivation and empowerment.Employees must be involved in the change management process. In this organizational structure, the issues of employee motivation and empowerment are addressed effectively because they are directly involved in building the strategic focus of the company. This is an example of what we see in Capital One.This is one of the few American companies to have been able to weather the current crisis because of its focus on the built-to-change organizational structure based in employee motivation and empowerment. The company is not consciously addressing these issues as such.However b ecause of its strategies in recruitment, selection, job rotation and training and development, it has been able to involve the employees in the constant process of managing change. This has only maximized their productivity as employees are motivated to work for the company because they are empowered to act on behalf of the company.This has created an organizational structure based in motivation and empowerment which aligns employee interests to organizational interests. This is an example of post-modernism in business.ReferencesBaschab, John., et al. (2005). The Executive Guide to Information Technology. McGraw Hill/Irwin.Besterfield, Dale H., et al. (2002). Total Quality Management. McGraw Hill/Irwin.Brigham, Eugene F., and Michael C. Ehrhardt. (2007). Financial Management: Theory & Practice. South western college pub.Dess, Gregory G., et al. (2007). Strategic Management: Creating Competitive Advantage.McGraw Hill/Irwin. Hill, Charles., and Gareth Jones. (2007). Strategic Manageme nt Theory: An Integrated Approach. McGraw Hill/Irwin.Ross, Joel E. and Susan Perry. (2002). Total Quality Management: Text, Cases, Readings. Wiley.Zairi, Mohamed. (2005). Excellence Toolkit: Delivering Sustainable Performance. eTQM College Publishing House. The current business environment is characterized The current business environment is characterized by a considerable level of competitive rivalry and as a result, businesses have to maintain a continuous improvement process in order to build and maintain a competitive advantage. In this respect, the development of a sustainable competitive advantage is the critical success factor.However sustainability cannot be achieved unless the company determines the strategic focus.This is why developing a system for adopting goals becomes a critical consideration. In this respect, the management has to build the right organizational culture in which group dynamics can become facilitated.Employees are the most important assets of an organization and therefore the management has to create the right working conditions which maximize employee satisfaction. For this reason, the management might have to manage change on a continuous basis. In managing change, alignment with the strategic focus has to be maintained. In this respect adopting the righ t goals becomes the critical consideration.The question whether group dynamics are better at adopting goals than individual decision making can be answered depending on the situation that the company is in. There is no doubt that when it comes to managing change a cross-functional project management team must be built in order to adopt the right goals.This is because all the departments that are going to be affected by the change must be represented in the project management team. However the problem with group dynamics is that the process delays decision making (http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/old/15703015.htm).One of the reasons for this delay can be groupthink in which the participants withhold views that may not conform in order to maintain membership (cited in Robbins & DeCenzo, 2003). Outside of change management, in the situation in which the decision making process has to be fast, individual decision making is undoubtedly the better option. Individually, the decision maker can speed up the process of decision making because fewer issues are considered.The problem with facilitating group dynamics in decision making is that the decision making process has to be based upon consensus. This has the advantage that the suggestions that are taken into consideration are diverse. As a result, the same problem is viewed from many different perspectives.The result is a process of brainstorming that can generate a lot of valuable ideas. However, in the situation in which the question is one of adopting goals, diversity of ideas can be a hindrance because it delays the process of decision making in adopting goals. In the event that the complexity of the situation is high then group decision making can be advantageous because too many issues will be considered, thus delaying the process.Therefore in the situation in which adopting goals does not have to take too many issues into consideration, group decision making may be the best option. However in the event that the situation is complex, then the individual decision maker will be in a position to do a better job because he can exercise intuition in arriving at a decision.From the above, it is made clear that there is no specific answer as to whether group dynamics or the individual decision maker will do a better job. The effectiveness of either of the tools depends on the complexity of the situation. The current business environment is characterized by a fast state of change.Therefore the decision making process has to be speeded up. In this respect, even in the situation which calls for many issues to be taken into consideration, the individual decision maker can do the best job. However in the event that the management of the company can afford to spend time on considering all the relevant issues, then group dynamics create the best infrastructure in which to conduct the decision making process (http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/pdf/efop/efo38561.pdf).However when facilitating group dynamics, the management must ensure that the decision making process is not affected by the need to reach a consensus. In such a situation, the participants are afraid of creating a conflict and therefore all the relevant issues are not taken into consideration.ReferencesSchwartz, Andrew E. (1994, August). Group decision-making. The CPA Journal Online.Retrieved February 19, 2009 from http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/old/15703015.htm.Barlow, Jeff. (2005, October). Strategic planning for the Bloomington, Indiana, firedepartment. Retrieved February 19, 2009 from http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/pdf/efop/efo38561.pdf.Robbins, Stephen P., and DeCenzo, David. (2003). Fundamentals of Management. Prentice Hall. Â  

Discuss the Impact of Data Quality Problems

(Databases behind MySpace, CH-6) Discuss the impact of data quality problems on MySpace as described in this case study. How did they solve their data problems? What management, organization, and technology issues had to be addressed? 1) – Discuss the impact of data quality problems on MySpace as described in this case study. Since the Site was launched in 2003, the social network site â€Å"MySpace† has become the world’s leading social portal for connecting people who relate in connection with its content, and culture. MySpace projects an idea to its global community to experience the Internet through a social lens by integrating individual’s personal profiles, photo sharing, professional and entertainment videos, blogs, instant messaging, as well as one of the largest music community. MySpace. com has been one of the fastest growing sites on the Internet with 65 million subscribers and 260,000 new users registering each day. Yet with their unexpected growth along came the growth of other popular social networking sites such â€Å"Face book† and few other competitors which seemed to have gained ground, do to â€Å"MySpace† criticized performance. In its initial phases, MySpace operated with two Web servers communicating with one database server and a Microsoft SQL Server database. The site continued adding Web servers to handle increased user requests and demands, once the number of accounts exceeded 500,000 the site added more SQL Server databases; one served as a master database, and the others focused on retrieving data for user’s page requests. After two million accounts were activated, MySpace switched to a vertical partitioning model in which separate databases supported distinct functions of the Web site, such as the log-in screen, user profiles, and blogs. Yet at some point the separated functions will still share data which will create another problem to their list! After three million accounts were reached, rather than investing in more sophisticated types of servers that could eventually solve their problems, the site scaled out by adding many cheaper servers to share the database workload which became just another shortcut option and not a long term solution for the company. 2) How did they solve their data problems? The Company eventually switched to a virtualized storage architecture in which databases write data into any available disk, therefore eliminating he possibility of an application’s dedicated disk becoming overloaded. MySpace later installed a layer of servers between the database servers and the Web servers to store and serve copies of frequently accessed data objects so that the site’s Web servers wouldn’t have to query the database servers with lookups as frequently. Unfortunately, MySpace still overloads more frequently than other major Web sites. With a log-in error rate of (20 to 40%) on some days, the site is not effectively organizing or storing data at all, reason for which the site may have been losing subscribers. After the review of this case study, we can see the Importance of Database Technology and the Impact Data Quality provides to Websites and Social network sites and it can be determined that their existence depend on it.. (Information based on, MySpace Case study and www. forbes. com) 3) What management, organization, and technology issues had to be addressed? Some of the problems MySpace has encountered are the inadequate storage space on their database servers, slow access or no access through its log-in application, and the users’ inabilities to access data when requested. Over the years, MySpace has attempted to fix these problems by adding more Web/Database servers. Yet the main problem seems to be, adding the servers without restructuring the entire system in order to use their hardware and software more effectively. Another major problem â€Å"The MySpace Organization† has faced it’s been their management and personnel, It’s well known that they’ve had too many changes in personnel they were constantly hiring NET developers and losing them just as fast, which can create a definite unbalance for the company. In Jan, 2011 they announced a staff reduction by 47%. On the other hand they have dealt with numerous changes in management as well; many of the important people who helped create â€Å"The MySpace empire† are now gone. Few to mention are, former President â€Å"Tom Anderson who stepped down† while CEO â€Å"Chris DeWolfe was replaced† by former Facebook COO â€Å"Owen Van Natta†. The company’s most recent plan is to reinvigorate itself in the (social networking space) by going back to what made them popular in the first place â€Å"entertainment†. ith hopes that a new focus on the entertainment media including television, movies, & music will help in making the social networking site reclaim its place on the web. Despite efforts of redesigning the site their users have decreased, as well as their popularity. In November 2010, the company fully integrated with Facebook Connect calling it â€Å"Mash Up with Facebook† in an announcement widely seen, which in reality I believe is just the way of acknowledging Facebook is their # 1 competitor and is currently dominating the social networking industry. In my Opinion their main weakness was with strategy implementation, they concentrated in what came up day to day, like the additions of servers to support their users demand but they never really focused on priorities such as a solution to their Technical problems and the whole structural change it required. As time progresses business competitors will copy your product or service and a lot of times they won’t just copy, they’ll Innovate and overpass the quality of what’s already available therefore taking the place of # 1 and not a competitor.

The Postwar World After World War II

The Postwar World After World War II The most transformative conflict in history, World War II impacted the entire globe and set the stage for the Cold War. As the war raged, the leaders of the Allies met several times to direct the course of the fighting and to begin planning for the postwar world. With the defeat of Germany and Japan, their plans were put into action. The Atlantic Charter: Laying the Groundwork Planning for the post-World War II world began before the United States even entered the conflict. On August 9, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill first met aboard the cruiser USS Augusta. The meeting took place while the ship was anchored at US Naval Station Argentia (Newfoundland), which had recently been acquired from Britain as part of the Bases for Destroyers Agreement. Meeting over two days, the leaders produced the Atlantic Charter, which called for self-determination of peoples, freedom of the seas, global economic cooperation, disarmament of aggressor nations, reduced trade barriers, and freedom from want and fear. In addition, the United States and Britain stated that they sought no territorial gains from the conflict and called for the defeat of Germany. Announced on August 14, it was soon adopted by the other Allied nations as well as the Soviet Union. The charter was met with suspicion by the Axis powers, who interpreted it as a budding alliance against them. The Arcadia Conference: Europe First Shortly after the US entrance into the war, the two leaders met again in Washington DC. Codenamed the Arcadia Conference, Roosevelt and Churchill held meetings between December 22, 1941, and January 14, 1942. The key decision from this conference was agreement on a Europe First strategy for winning the war. Due to the proximity of many of the Allied nations to Germany, it was felt that the Nazis offered a greater threat. While the majority of resources would be devoted to Europe, the Allies planned on fighting a holding battle with Japan. This decision met with some resistance in the United States as public sentiment favored exacting revenge on the Japanese for the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Arcadia Conference also produced the Declaration by the United Nations. Devised by Roosevelt, the term United Nations became the official name for the Allies. Initially signed by 26 nations, the declaration called for the signatories to uphold the Atlantic Charter, employ all their resources against the Axis, and forbade nations from signing a separate peace with Germany or Japan. The tenets set forth in the declaration became the basis for the modern United Nations, which was created after the war. Wartime Conferences While Churchill and Roosevelt met again in Washington in June 1942 to discuss strategy, it was their January 1943 conference in Casablanca that would affect the wars prosecution. Meeting with Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud, Roosevelt and Churchill recognized the two men as the joint leaders of the Free French. At the end of the conference, the Casablanca Declaration was announced, which called for the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers as well as aid for the Soviets and the invasion of Italy. That summer, Churchill again crossed the Atlantic to confer with Roosevelt. Convening in Quebec, the two set the date of D-Day for May 1944 and drafted the secret Quebec Agreement. This called for a sharing of atomic research and outlined the basis of nuclear nonproliferation between their two nations. In November 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill traveled to Cairo to meet with Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek. The first conference to primarily focus on the Pacific war, the meeting resulted in the Allies promising to seek the unconditional surrender of Japan, the return of Japanese-occupied Chinese lands, and Korean independence. The Tehran Conference and the Big Three On November 28, 1943, the two western leaders traveled to Tehran, Iran to meet with Joseph Stalin. The first meeting of the Big Three (United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union), the Tehran Conference was one of only two wartime meetings between the three leaders. Initial conversations saw Roosevelt and Churchill receive Soviet support for their war policies in exchange for backing the communist Partisans in Yugoslavia and allowing Stalin to manipulate the Soviet-Polish border. Subsequent discussions centered on the opening of a second front in Western Europe. The meeting confirmed that this attack would come through France rather than through the Mediterranean as Churchill desired. Stalin also promised to declare war on Japan following the defeat of Germany. Before the conference concluded, the Big Three reaffirmed their demand for unconditional surrender and laid out the initial plans for occupying Axis territory after the war. Bretton Woods and Dumbarton Oaks While the Big Three leaders were directing the war, other efforts were moving forward to build the framework for the postwar world. In July 1944, representatives of 45 Allied nations gathered at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, NH to design the postwar international monetary system. Officially dubbed the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, the meeting produced the agreements that formed the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and the International Monetary Fund. In addition, the meeting created the Bretton Woods system of exchange rate management which was used until 1971. The following month, delegates met at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC to begin formulating the United Nations. Key discussions included the make-up of the organization as well as the design of the Security Council. The agreements from Dumbarton Oaks were reviewed April-June 1945, at the United Nations Conference on International Organization. This meeting produced the United Nations Charter which gave birth to the modern United Nations. The Yalta Conference As the war was winding down, the Big Three met again at the Black Sea resort of Yalta from February 4-11, 1945. Each arrived at the conference with their own agenda, with Roosevelt seeking Soviet aid against Japan, Churchill demanding free elections in Eastern Europe, and Stalin desiring to create a Soviet sphere of influence. Also to be discussed were plans for the occupation of Germany. Roosevelt was able to obtain Stalins promise to enter the war with Japan within 90 days of Germanys defeat in exchange for Mongolian independence, the Kurile Islands, and part of Sakhalin Island. On the issue of Poland, Stalin demanded that the Soviet Union receive territory from their neighbor in order to create a defensive buffer zone. This was reluctantly agreed to, with Poland being compensated by moving its western border into Germany and receiving part of East Prussia. In addition, Stalin promised free elections after the war; however, this was not fulfilled. As the meeting concluded, a final plan for the occupation of Germany was agreed upon and Roosevelt obtained Stalins word that the Soviet Union would participate in the new United Nations. The Potsdam Conference The final meeting of the Big Three took place at Potsdam, Germany between July 17 and August 2, 1945. Representing the United States was new president Harry S. Truman,  who had succeeded to the office following Roosevelts death in April. Britain was initially represented by Churchill, however, he was replaced by new Prime Minister Clement Attlee following Labors victory in the 1945 general election. As before, Stalin represented the Soviet Union. The principal goals of the conference were to begin designing the postwar world, negotiating treaties, and dealing with other issues raised by the defeat of Germany. The conference largely ratified many of the decisions agreed to at Yalta and stated that the goals of the occupation of Germany would be demilitarization, denazification, democratization, and decartelization. In regards to Poland, the conference confirmed the territorial changes and gave recognition to the Soviet-backed provisional government. These decisions were made public in the Potsdam Agreement, which stipulated that all other issues would be dealt with in the final peace treaty (this was not signed until 1990). On July 26, while the conference was ongoing, Truman, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-Shek issued the Potsdam Declaration which outlined the terms  for  Japans surrender. Occupation of the Axis Powers With the end to the war, the Allied powers began occupations of both Japan and Germany. In the Far East, US troops took possession of Japan and were aided by British Commonwealth forces in the reconstruction and demilitarization of the country. In Southeast Asia, the colonial powers returned to their former possessions, while Korea was divided at the 38th Parallel, with the Soviets in the north and the US in the south. Commanding the occupation of Japan was  General Douglas MacArthur. A gifted administrator, MacArthur oversaw the nations transition to a constitutional monarchy and the rebuilding of the Japanese economy. With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, MacArthurs attention was diverted to the new conflict and increasingly more power was returned to the Japanese government. The occupation ended following the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty (Treaty of Peace with Japan) on September 8, 1951, which officially concluded World War II in the Pacific. In Europe, both Germany and Austria were divided into four occupation zones under American, British, French, and Soviet control. Also, the capital at Berlin was divided along similar lines. While the original occupation plan called for Germany to be ruled as a single unit through the Allied Control Council, this soon broke down as tensions rose between the Soviets and the Western Allies. As the occupation progressed the US, British, and French zones were merged into one uniformly governed area. The Cold War On June 24, 1948, the Soviets initiated the first action of the  Cold War  by shutting down all access to Western-occupied West Berlin. To combat the Berlin Blockade, the Western Allies began the  Berlin Airlift,  which transported desperately needed food and fuel to the beleaguered city. Flying for almost a year, Allied aircraft kept the city supplied until the Soviets relented in May 1949. That same month, the Western-controlled sectors were formed into the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). This was countered by the Soviets that October ​when they reconstituted their sector into the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). This coincided with their increasing control over governments in Eastern Europe. Angered by the Western Allies lack of action to prevent the Soviets from taking control, these nations referred to their abandonment as the Western Betrayal. Rebuilding As the politics of postwar Europe were taking shape, efforts were made to rebuild the continents shattered economy. In an attempt to expedite economic regrowth and ensure the survival of democratic governments, the United States allocated $13 billion to the rebuilding of Western Europe. Beginning in 1947, and known as the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan), the program ran until 1952. In both Germany and Japan, efforts were made to locate and prosecute war criminals. In Germany, the accused were tried at  Nuremberg  while in Japan the trials were held in Tokyo. As tensions rose and the Cold War began, the issue of Germany remained unresolved. Though two nations had been created from pre-war Germany, Berlin technically remained occupied and no final settlement had been concluded. For the next 45 years, Germany was on the front lines of the Cold War. It was only with the fall of the  Berlin Wall  in 1989, and the collapse of Soviet control in Eastern Europe that the final issues of the war could be resolved. In 1990, the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany was signed, reunifying Germany and officially ending World War II in Europe.

The relationship between the Chinese and foreigners Essay

The relationship between the Chinese and foreigners - Essay Example In 1234, the Mongols joined forces with the song dynasty as allies and fought the Jurchen Ji dynasty. The Mongols emerged victorious and conquered the Jurchens. Though the Jurchens had conquered the song dynasty, they helped the Mongols fight the Jurchens (p 460). The song dynasty engaged in some skilful diplomacy to settle any border disputes that arose. The Song dynasty chose famous statesmen to act as ambassadors. During the song dynasty era, the interactions with foreigners had some positive impact to the Chinese. They were able to involve themselves in maritime trade. The Chinese also started to start a very strong and booming ship-building industry. The interactions enabled china to experience the economic revolution. Many foreign powers sent missions to china during the song dynasty era. However, the foreigners began to plan to acquire china. In 1279, the southern Song dynasty was attacked and destroyed. The foreigners captured and settled in the Chinese territory and later led to the establishment of the Yuan dynasty (p 464). The Yuan dynasty existed between 1271 and 1368. The Yuan dynasty maintained strong trade ties with the Mongols who helped capture the Song dynasty. They engaged in foreign trade with the Persians, Syrians and the Arabs. During the rule of Yuan dynasty the first Europeans to reach china, the Chinese were visited by envoys such as the Franciscan mission of Pope Nicholas in the mid-13th century, the Ordonic of Pordenone in 1320 and Marco Polo. There was also a visit by the Muslim advisors of the Mongol court. These were mainly engineers, cartographers and astronomers. All these envoys visited the Leaders in the Yuan dynasties. The dynasty was also visited by a Venetian merchant who visited China between 1275 and 1292. He wrote the Travels of Marco Polo when he returned to Italy from China (p 468). The Yuan dynasty helped to launch the age of exploration in china. Many European Foreigners had a keen interest in discovering china. The

Compare the great depression and to the great recession Essay

Compare the great depression and to the great recession - Essay Example After the speculative boom of the 1920’s, Americans invested great amounts in the stock market. However, these were primarily financed through loans and almost two-third of the nominal value of stocks was represented by loans in 1929. Accelerated share prices motivated greater investment as people speculated that share prices would continue to escalate. Consequently, an economic bubble developed and the margin buying meant that investors would incur great losses if the market took a downturn. Similarly, the Great Recession resulted from speculation about mortgages and securities. It was a consequence of providing loans for homeownership to uncredit-worthy people. Mortgage loans were secured with mortgaged securities; so because of margin buying, banks were on the verge of bankruptcy when the market went into recession. Milton Friedman in his book, A Monetary History of the United States advocates that the Great depression was not a consequence of the economic cycles, tariffs o r the Wall Street Crash (Friedman and Schwartz). In fact, what thrust the country into depression was the collapse of banks and financial institutes. Apparently, the same can be said for the Great Recession. More than the actual effects of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the psychological effects deterred investment in the capital markets. In turn, business security affects job certainty so that is why a decrease in capital investment led to a decrease in consumption. However, the Wall Street Crashes did cause bankruptcies, restriction on credit, failing businesses, rising unemployment, decreased money supply and the like. Likewise, the Great Recession led to a decline in international trade, increased unemployment, and dropping commodity prices. The chain of events from significant federal spending to tax increases only aggravated both the crises. Thus, the leaders targeted the scapegoats such as the Wall Street Bankers for the crises.