Living in mid 18^th century Britain, Mary Wollstonecraft promoted women’s rights heavily, even writing several books on the subject. One of her major qualms was the education of women. Her belief was that women would be respected more if they had a better education. In her era, the common woman had no education available, and the education of ladies was poor and humiliating compared with that of a man. Historically, women were always treated inferiorly to men because males, physically stronger than women (obviously), insisted on subjugating their weaker counterparts unnecessarily. Mary wanted women to be respected not only for their beauty but for their their intelligence. Notably, ladies were known to be fanciful, pretty, and dumb. Mary Wollstonecraft, who did not enjoy the reputation of women at her time, compared the minds of women to flowers to prove her point that the average woman’s mind was rather feeble. “The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like the flowers which are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed for beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long before the season when they ought to have arrived at maturity,” (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman). Mary Wollstonecraft strongly supported the rights of women and believed that a better education would greatly improve their position in society.

Friedrich Gentz was a German political writer who lived at the turn of the 18^th century. Gentz wrote about the differences between the American and French Revolutions. According to Gentz, the American Revolution was a revolution to hang on to old traditions while the French Revolution was intended to install a new way of life for the common man. He penned that the Americans had a logical stopping point to their revolution with the securing of their old rights, while the French Revolution did not. Wanting something completely new, the French did not really know when to stop. The governing bodies in the American Colonies encouraged, and even sanctioned, the American Revolution. Contrastingly, the French king and state government attempted to quell the revolutionaries. The French also experienced the Reign of Terror, to which there was no American counterpart. Friedrich Gentz compared and contrasted the two revolutions of the late 18^th century and concluded that the Americans wanted to keep their old rights while the French wanted something entirely new.

The Standard of Living Debate was an argument between historians during the 20^th century about how the Industrial Revolution affected the standard of living. We know now that the question is when did the standard of living begin to rise rather than did the standard of living rise. Clearly, the standard did rise in food, clothing, living space, income, and life expectancy compared with what people did before the Industrial Revolution. Agriculture was back breaking labor that was so hard that some people died from it.

Unlike in the United States of America, Great Britain was able to ban slavery without violence. This horrendous practice was removed with help from logic. The prior era of the Enlightenment reasoned that all men have equal rights, and seeing that slaves are humans too, they should share our rights and not be enslaved. Unfortunately, this argument convinced few. A better argument against slavery was efficiency. Slaves required food and housing year round, even if their product was seasonal. Additionally, someone who is being forced against their will to do something will be decidedly unmotivated, lazy when possible, and cut corners often. The worker doing the same job for money will strive to do his best, be as efficient as possible, and produce higher quality products. Also, the paid worker needs no food or shelter and can be hired when desired. The common thought about slave ships was that the sailors working them were being trained and could be pulled into the service of the monarch as a navy sailor. This was, however, disproved by abolitionists. The truth was that the conditions on the slave ships were actually killing the sailors. Combine those facts with the rise of the machine and factory and the corresponding decrease in necessary labor, and no wonder slavery was banned in Britain. The British slave trade disappeared without violence because of Enlightenment ideas and simple logic.

The Industrial Revolution was a period extending from the mid 18th century to the mid 19th century, which featured many improvements in farming and manufacturing, allowing the quality of life for the average European to increase dramatically. This revolution originated on the island of Great Britain because the government there was much less regulatory there. Because wool was the dominate product for England, people thought about how they could make textiles with less labor and cost and more revenue. Cotton was deemed to be a better product, but machines were required to spin the material because it was so tough. The only question is, how do the machines receive power. Somebody noticed that mills were often powered by streams or running water. However, to have a water powered machine, flowing water must be nearby, but what if the water was brought to the machine. By evaporating the water into steam, powerful engines could be built and used for such things as automatically weaving cloth, grinding grain into flour, or pulling many carts of goods and people as a locomotive train. Such incredible inventions as these decreased the number of people necessary for agricultural work while increasing the food produced from the efforts of these few. The men and women who were no longer required to farm moved to the cities and began to work in factories. These monstrous factories produced, with the aid of machines, products to make everybody’s lives better and prices decrease. The Industrial Revolution, considered to be one of the greatest revolutions of all time, drastically increased the quality of life for the average human being throughout Europe.

At the time of the Industrial Revolution, an incredible rise in prosperity that had never before been seen occurred. Only in the western world has a sustained rise in wealth ever developed. Many reasons have been given to explain why this happened, but only one is the key ingredient. Failing to explain the sudden rise in prosperity, the traditional reasons are natural resources, private property rights, imperialism, and less discriminatory laws. Many countries, which have vast quantities of natural resources are very poor while some countries void of resources are very rich, so natural resources is not the answer. Private property also cannot be the one crucial factor because it had been heavily protected in England for centuries prior to the amazing gain in wealth. Imperialism did not greatly enrich the masses because one cannot become rich by stealing from a poor country. Similarly to the protection of private property, England and the Netherlands had been very non-discriminating in their laws. The one key ingredient was the middle class. The nobles had looked down upon them while the poor had envied them, but this changed during the Industrial Revolution. The middle class operated factories, oversaw production, and owned expansive enterprises. Because of this change in view of the middle class, the west oversaw the greatest rise in prosperity in history.

Mandatory education has not been around forever. In the Middle Ages, Universities and Cathedral Schools taught those who came of their own will. Compulsory education arrived in the 16^th century because of the Protestants. Demanding mandatory education first, Martin Luther pushed for this practice in his Letter to the German Nobility. In the late 1550s, forced education rose. Luther did not desire education to expand the bounds of the mind, but to effectively enforce the ideas of Lutheranism. Similarly, but on a much more international scale, John Calvin enthusiastically backed education. Because of him, schools began in France, Switzerland, and Scotland (and the US for Puritans), for much the same reason. Prussia’s Frederic William I and Frederic the Great instituted education to force public compliance. Even Napoleon followed suit. All of the European countries and America lawfully dictated mandatory education by the late 1800s. The government does not care about the well being of your mind, but only wants its citizens to obey every word it says.

After the French Revolution and the era of Napoleon ended, the great powers of Europe met. This meeting was known as the Congress of Vienna and included Russia, Britain, Austria, and Prussia (France was to join later). Because they wanted to keep with traditional European institutions, such as the Church and Monarchies, these countries eagerly agreed to repress any revolutions and revolutionary ideas. Instituted in 1819 after a German university student killed a conservative, the Carlsbad Decrees were intended to persecute and bury liberal ideas. Revolutionary ideas had been rapidly spreading throughout fraternities in German universities. Under the guidance of the Austrian Minister of State, a man called Metternich, the Carlsbad Decrees shut down many schools hosting these revolutionary fraternities and liberal professors. The Decrees were divided into three parts: one concerning education, another for the press, and one for the construction of an investigation service. These decrees were the direct result of of Europe a crack-down on revolutionary ideas.

In the story of Robinson Crusoe, Robinson must retrieve all of the supplies that he can carry off the wreck. His first priority is food and other survival supplies. But, in his very limited time to remove all that he can from the wreck, Robinson takes some coins. On the island, these are absolutely worthless. The coins cannot be used as currency because nobody else is on the island; and they cannot be melted down into tools because Crusoe cannot construct a furnace; and gold and silver are flimsy metals. So the question is, why did he take them? Robinson Crusoe took these small and worthless pieces of metal because he had hope. If he was rescued, the coins would come in handy.

The storm that caused Robinson Crusoe to be shipwrecked was immensely important. In the story (and in Castaway, a modern movie version of Robinson Crusoe), the storm gave the book a decent plot. Without a storm the plane or ship would have been found and the survivors could have been rescued fast. With the storm, the plane was forced to move off course and lose radio contact so that the survivors could not be easily rescued. The ship, too, was blown far off course so that any survivors would end up far from the intended course. Without a storm, the plot would have been unbelievable.