Tuesday, April 7, 2020

History and Heritage

The Importance of the Past Human beings inhabit a very unpredictable world. The human environment is a product of the interaction between millions of forces. In order to chart their course through an unpredictable world, human individuals and societies need some sort of guide to determine what possible consequence they take face, upon taking a certain step. The study of the past is therefore important because it is an important factor in determining present and future conduct (Lowenthal, 1998).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on History and Heritage specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Another aspect of the past is its role in determining the self-image of a human individual or society. Societies cite the real or imagined beliefs and actions of their real or imagined ancestors as evidence that they are a brave, generous and just people, similarly stories about the history of rival societies are told to show them in a b ad light as compared to one’s own society (Lowenthal, 1998). History is also a tool used to establish the validity of the current beliefs or ideas held by an individual, society or section of a society and the invalidity of the ideas and beliefs held by their ideological enemies (Lowenthal, 1998). The Reason for Disagreement in the Views and Interpretations of the Past Because the past is used as a tool to determine the present and future course of a society, it’s self image and the validity of its beliefs. It becomes a device in the hands of people who wish to chart a particular course for their society, present a particular self-image of the society and establish the validity of certain beliefs (Lowenthal, 1998). An example of this can be seen in the Enola Gay exhibit controversy at the Smithsonian Institution. The historians at the Smithsonian were came up with what they thought was an objective position on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The exhibit depicted the horrible destruction caused by the bombing however the establishment view that the bombing of two Japanese cities was necessary in order to force the Japanese government to surrender unconditionally, was presented in the exhibit (Bird Sherwin, 1995). Other historians objected to the exhibit on the grounds that it adopted an essentially nationalist position justifying American atrocities, tried to minimize the depiction of horrible destruction and the immense loss of civilian life caused by the bombing and suppressed other facts which would reflect badly on the United States (Bird Sherwin, 1995). However, according to politicians espousing a hyper nationalistic and militaristic agenda, the exhibit was an exercise in anti-Americanism. These politicians were outraged that the museum would exhibit something that would show even the slightest criticism of the United States or the military forces of the United States. Such an exhibit might convince the population to oppose their po litical agenda (Trescott, 1995).Advertising Looking for report on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The exhibit was also opposed by World War II veterans. They believed firmly that their side in the World War II had been purely good while their enemies were purely evil. They believed that any action undertaken by their side against the enemy was justified. The veterans also belonged to a generation in which it was not considered offensive to assert that the lives of American soldiers were worth more than those of Japanese civilians (Ringle, 1994). Suggestions that the United States may not have been purely a force of good and may have performed actions comparable to the barbarities committed by the German and Japanese enemies caused an explosive emotional reaction in the veterans. In contrast to the veterans and the nationalistic politicians, the historians belonged to an era in which intellectuals adopted distaste for American militarism following defeat in the Vietnam War. They also possessed a wider view of the world and enough knowledge of history to know that patriotism and nationalism are often rhetorical devices used disingenuously by rulers whose actions are often motivated purely by self-interest. Instead of believing, as the politicians and the veterans did, that the United States was a purely benevolent power, they recognized that the United States has often caused immense destruction in other countries (Ringle, 1994). The controversy over the Kennewick Man was another example of an historical issue which caused passionate disagreement between ideologically opposed partisans. To the leader of the Umatillas tribe, the Kennewick Man was evidence that their tribe had always lived in the Washington area and that the scientific belief that they had crossed over to the Americas from Northern Asia was not true (Geranion, 1997). The Difference between ‘Heritage History’ and Objecti ve Studies of the Past In the past, history was primarily written for the purpose of inducing internal solidarity and enhancing the well being of a particular nation. The writing of histories was part of the nation-building efforts of states. Histories were a selection of facts and myths designed to give a positive image to a particular nation and to vilify its enemies. The history books written in earlier centuries were often commissioned by kings and emperors for the expressed purpose of glorifying their ancestors and providing ideological support for their rule. The purpose of history was to encourage an existing population and to secure its future. History was a socially constructed narrative that Lowenthal terms ‘Heritage History’ (Lowenthal, 1998). Gradually historians have tried to increase the objectivity of history and to distinguish it from ‘heritage history’. History and heritage differ in their purposes. The purpose of history is to explore and explain the past, recognizing its complexities and unknown aspects (Lowenthal, 1998).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on History and Heritage specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The purpose of heritage on the other hand, is to simplify the past and to come up with an interpretation of the past that may be useful in the achievement of present purposes. According to Lowenthal, the public is only interested in heritage, if narrative espoused by ‘heritage history’ departs from the facts known through objective history; it only bothers some intellectuals (Lowenthal, 1998). History and heritage also differ in the methodology employed to come up with a narrative. History depends on the use of the scientific method and the use of objective criteria to judge historical sources. Objective methodologies employed by historians in order to judge sources may include textual criticism, fingerprint matching, DNA testing , and carbon dating etc. Heritage pre-selects those historical sources which can be used to establish a particular narrative, regardless of their authenticity, and dismisses all other sources. Source criticism and other objective methodologies may be employed in the composition of heritage history, but only for the purpose of abandoning inconvenient sources (Lowenthal, 1998). According to Lowenthal, heritage and history are separate but linked phenomenon. Historians attempt to be impartial however it may be impossible for a historical researcher to be utterly unbiased. Therefore, it is possible that historians may come up with a narrative that includes elements of heritage, despite having an intention to come up with an authentic and impartial history. References Bird, K., Sherwin, M. (1995, July 31). Enola Gay Exhibit: The Historians’ Letter To The Smithsonian. Retrieved from doug-long.com: http://www.doug-long.com/letter.htm Geranion, N. (1997, September 21). The Kennewick Man crisis Archeologists and Indians clash over a 9,300-year-old skull that could rewrite New World history. The Toronto Star . Lowenthal, D. (1998). The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Advertising Looking for report on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Ringle, K. (1994, September 26). At Ground Zero; 2 Views of History Collide Over Smithsonian A-Bomb Exhibit. The Washington Post , p. a.01. Trescott, J. (1995, May 19). Senator Warns Smithsonian on Controversies. The Washington Post , p. D.06. This report on History and Heritage was written and submitted by user Jayce Finley to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Monday, March 9, 2020

Why Marijuana Should be Legalized

Why Marijuana Should be Legalized Free Online Research Papers Marijuana should be legal; it is as simple as that. Almost the entire population smokes or has smoked this drug, and people will get it no matter what the cost so why not make it legal. There are a lot or reasons why Marijuana should be legalized, and here the most important ones. First, there would be a lower drug rate, and less drug dealers on the streets. Secondly, the government will get more money from taxing the drug, and thirdly it will help people whom use it for medical reasons need obtain it more efficiently. Marijuana should be legalized because it would lower the drug rate and help keep drug dealers off the streets. If we made Marijuana legal there would be less drug dealers in the United States because less people will be arrested for crimes like this. There would still be drug dealers and illegal drugs but that is just one thing that will always be around. We cannot make ever drug legal-only the important ones. In the past 20 years, I believe that the drug rate has risen substantially, all because of Marijuana. I also believe that if marijuana becomes legal that the drug rate will decrease by at least half, maybe more; but this is just my hypothesis. Another reason why I think Marijuana should be legalized is money issues. The government loses billions and billions of dollars buy people buying illegal drugs on the streets. Now, if we legalize those drugs and tax them, the government will get what they want and so will the people who want the drug. This is a win-win situation for everyone. Even though people who are being taxed for it will not be that happy, they get what they want. They will be buying marijuana in the tobacco stores just as if they would buy camel menthols. The last and most important reason why Marijuana should be legalized is for medical reasons. People with terminal illnesses or any illness are usually prescribed some sort of Marijuana for help. I am not saying that it is prescribed for the common cold like Tylenol. It is more for like Cancer patients of people with brain tumors. When they are prescribed this however, it is hard to obtain it because it is illegal and all. However, if the government legalizes the marijuana then the patients can get it more efficiently. This is not a cure for cancer or tumors, but it helps ease the pain that comes along with the illness. People say that Marijuana should stay illegal for many reasons. They say more people will get addicted to it, or if we legalize this drug then we should legalize all drugs; but that is not the case. It does not matter what drugs we legalize or keep illegal people are going to try getting it. So why not make it easier for them. Personally, I think that it is safer to give people legalize drugs than having them find drug dealers and causing a whole bunch of mess with drug busts and such. There is no scientific proof that marijuana kills brain cells are has any negative affects. In my opinion, it actually helps. I am not saying that I have personally done drugs but I have friends that have and they said that it helps them with test, studying, and stress. It is like a cigarette. The drugs that we legalize are not just any drugs. They are drugs that actually have proof to helping people. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) would not go around legalizing ecstasy or heroin because they have no proven positive side effects. I think we are a little bit smarter than that. If not, then all the potheads should just move to Columbia and become addicted to Cocaine. Probably, there is a process goes along with legalizing a drug. We would have to weigh the options on why or why not to legalize a drug and go through all of the side effects. Overall, Legalizing Marijuana is more effective than keeping it illegal. I hope that you agree, too. Research Papers on Why Marijuana Should be LegalizedThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)Hip-Hop is ArtCapital PunishmentMind TravelPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyQuebec and Canada

Friday, February 21, 2020

Health record structures in computer-driven formats Essay

Health record structures in computer-driven formats - Essay Example In addition, this structure enables me to perceive of the likely effect of reorganizing health records and any associated medical narrative. Many healthcare institutes, particularly public ones, cannot meet the expense of lowering open medical language to mere postscripts in the strategy of EHRs. EHRs with computer-driven formats is an essential movement towards information system structure that employ natural language dispensation as a major innovation for translating it from unorganized to organized representations (Davis and LaCour, 2014). Health record structures in computer-driven formats are applicable in my work area, systems science, in terms of standardization, organization, and easy control. For electronic health records to exhaust all their potentials and purposes, this data has to be made uniform, structured, and simple to control. This data often includes patients’ symptoms, diseases, allergies, clinical histories, family backdrops, and even billing information (Davis and LaCour, 2014). If this type of data is unstructured and unstandardized, treating these patients with utmost efficiency and economy becomes difficult. Additionally, my work area facilitates paperless offices, a factor that computers today are greatly attributing to. Computer-driven formats will enable me to save time while at work while sharing confidential data regarding a given patient at any given time. Computer-driven formats process workflow in my field at a high rate in contrast to manual, paper formats. The benefits of health record structures in computer-driven formats are more efficiency, lower medication and nursing errors, structured data, and effective medical decision-making processes (Davis and LaCour, 2014). There is a significant drive in the course of doing away with conventional medical transcript and converting the clinical documentation

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

How to Merge Two Companies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

How to Merge Two Companies - Essay Example If the merger does not result in increasing the value of the new company, then there is no presence of synergy and the merger will be ineffective. A strategic merger can reduce the tax burden by benefiting the statutes and loopholes in the law. As there is cash outflow in the merger, the taxable amount of profit will come down. Another chance of tax saving is that if a company running in losses merges with a profit-making company, there will be set off of losses and ultimately it will result in tax saving for the profit-making company. Diversification helps in improving the operations of the organization. Sometimes the company may be interested in diversifying its operation to be more profitable and competitive in a highly competitive marketplace. Some mergers happen only out of the sole discretion of the managers. In most of the cases, the merger can result in increasing the value of the new company. That may result in increasing the salary of higher-level managers. If they think that they will be monetarily or non-monetarily benefited if the merger happens then they will implement the merger. If the company a and company b is going to merge into company c then the value of company A and company B if they are taken separately is known as break-up value. If the break-up value is more than market value the merger or acquisition will have a better result. Horizontal Merger: If the two companies doing the same business or deal with similar or complementary products, merge to form a new company, then the merger is called horizontal merger. A soft drink company may merge with a sugar manufacturer for increasing synergy.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Credit Card Fraud Detection through Data Mining

Credit Card Fraud Detection through Data Mining Abstract With the increasing fraudsters day to day, the fallacious transaction is rapidly growing thus making the frauds in this scenario a matter of high importance. Huge database patterns are identified by various data mining models assisting to strengthen and detect the credit card fraud. This research primarily focusses on Credit Card Fraud Detection analyzing two different methods used to detect fraudulent systems and implement the new technologies to the system to minimize frauds in credit card transactions Keywords- Data Mining, Methods, Credit Card, Fraud Detection, Hybrid Technology, Neural Network, Support Vector System Data Mining is filled with application growth opportunities and research which are reliable and usable from the data. Rapid development of e-commerce, usage of credit card has become well known mode for online and regular transactions, increasing the credit card fraud simultaneously. Fraud detection is a complicated problem as unwanted transactions are hidden in the authoriosed transaction. Due to security reasons and also to gain trust of users credit card fraud detection has now become important to companies. Neural Networks [1], Bayesian Network [2], Hidden NaÃÆ' ¯ve Bayes Network [12], Dempster Shafer [10] are few methods to be justified in detecting the credit card fraudulent system. With the new technologies, it has now become easy for the companies and banks to detect the fraudulent system. With the growing credit card fraud problem in the industry this literature review will help us to understand and detect the techniques involved in detecting the fraudulent system. We will be describing two different approaches Neural Network and Support vector machine approach thus learning a new method to minimize the fraudulent system. This paper helps us to analyze data mining methods with respect to credit card fraud system. A. Neural Network Approach Neural network fraud detection method is primarily based on working of a human brain. Just as the human brain is capable of learning things from the previous experiences and uses the knowledge to decide things occurring in day to day problems the same strategy is used while detecting a credit card fraud with Neural Network system. Neural Network can reflect a small part of complexity and regulation Banks use this kind of network method to detect the credit card fraud. The moment a transaction takes place there are a set of attributes attached to it characterizing the account holder, the amount and the merchant. Considering an example, for the Mellow Bank Fraud Detection Feasibility Study a particular archived amount of data was used for model development as the authorized data wasnt easily available due to security reasons. P-RCE [3] neural network technique is used. P-RCE is used for pattern recognition as it helps to describe what exactly the human brain is thinking about. P-RCE has a single cell layer which outputs a numeric response called as Fraud score. The lower the threshold the more no. of credit card fraud is detected. Higher the credit card detection threshold less no. of fraud is detected. With 2000000 transactions of Mellon Banks data from Oct-Nov 1991, nearly measuring 50 accounts per day 40% of the fraudulent transaction was observed but prior to use of P-RCE method in Mellon Banks feasibility study the result came out to be 1 fraudulent transaction per week on reviewing 750 account per day. The improvement in the fraud detection performance was undeniably considerable. The p attern recognition method can actually help the banks to reduce 20-40% (in total) credit card fraud losses. B. Support Virtual Machine Approach An online transaction has four entities: credit card holder, credit card, the seller and the buyer. There is an independent history of transactions with each set of entities in the data set. Each entity keeps almost a consistent behavior pattern in authorized transactions. The risk of a transaction can be estimated by calculating the inconsistency of a transaction from the history of authorized transactions. Let us define Xe(t) {a1, a2, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, an) as the transactional set in the entitys history is equivalent to f(t) beingF(t) {seller, buyer, holder, card) set of entities. We calculate the score of transactions, by defining l = (l1 , l19) [3] with c as value of a feature, as SC(l,e,t) = count(c,Xe(t)) The idea to calculate how near a transaction is related to past authorized transactions therefore we consider only those transactions that are proved legitimate from Xe(t). To train and test a classifier (weight and score) we have a vector in conjunction with the classification: SVM (Support Vector Machines). They are essentially supervised learning models used for analyzing data and recognition of patterns. Using the traditional methods, raw data was classified with SVM to check the impact of general weight in the outcomes and reduce SVM complexity as well. SVM classifier was used in classifying the transactions as fraud or authorized resulting in 40-50% in most months with false alarm rate 10-12%. The online credit card fraud system can be detected and improvised with the Big Data Technologies framework. The main aim is to achieve the goal of fusing various detection methods to enhance the accuracy. A workflow was proposed [13] containing common designs of fraudulent system thus making it easier to integrate identification of fraud system. In recent years, big data platforms were released to process and operate data including MapReduce and Apache Hadoop frameworks (open source for MapReduce). Two components are primarily considered: spouts and bolts. The source of streams is referred to as spout which reads and sends tuples from external source into topology. The data processing is done by Bolt. With the reference, the paper proposes a hybrid structure with Big data efficient in solving challenges related to performance and integration. The basic workflow is defined [13] in the figure. QF- Quick filter, DSA Demper Shafer Adder (combining different fraud scores and generating a merged result), EF- Explicit filter. This workflow is designed by combining different algorithms together for a higher accuracy like two DSAs are combined so that we can aggregate their fraud score to get better accuracy; 2) Another aspect can be considered by combining supervised unsupervised fraud approaches to examine a good cover of types of fraud; 3) The filters used: QF detects only the behavior of card holder whereas EF detects the historical data in the whole model. So, to achieve faster filter we can combine QF and EF as well as to get better efficiency the combination is good to go. In this paper, we have reviewed two data mining detection methods of credit card fraud. The research papers which arent considered here might have comprehensive methods to research and implementations of new detection techniques. This research paper describes: The Neural Network can be implemented in banks to reduce the credit card fraudulent system with it P-RCE algorithm. 2) Support Vector machine can detect the frauds in ecommerce system real time but isnt much reliable for complex frauds. 3) Hybrid technology framework, the workflow is essential to detect frauds in offline system as the method but can improve accuracy, performance and efficiency. To develop a credit card fraud system, the neural network method is best suited according to my understanding as it is efficient, accurate and cost effective thus implemented in Mellon Bank. Neural Network method has some failures as well but gradually with new technology it can overcome. But to develop a strong fraud detection system using credit card we need to combine few more complex detecting methods. References [1] S. Ghosh and D. L. Reilly, Credit card fraud detection with a neural network, in System Sciences, 1994. Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh Hawaii International Conference on, vol. 3, Jan 1994, pp. 621-630. [2] G. F. Cooper and E. Herskovits. A Bayesian Method for the Induction of Probabilistic Networks from Data. Machine Learning, 9(4):309-347, 1992. Santiago, Gabriel Preti, Adriano Pereira, and Roberto Hirata Jr. A modeling approach for credit card fraud detection in electronic payment services. In Proceedings of the 30th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, pp. 2328-2331. ACM, 2015. Online Credit Card Fraud Detection: A Hybrid Framework with Big Data Technologies You Daià ¢Ã‹â€ -, Jin Yanà ¢Ã‹â€ -, Xiaoxin Tangà ¢Ã‹â€ -, Han Zhaoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   and Minyi Guoà ¢Ã‹â€ - à ¢Ã‹â€ -Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  School of Computer Science Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China Philip K. Chan, Wei Fan, Andreas 1. Prodromidir, and Salvotore 1. Stalfo, Distributed Data Mining in Credit Card Fraud Detection 2016 IEEE TrustCom/BigDataSE/ISPA H. Michael Chung Fredric C. Gey Data Mining, Knowledge Discovery, and Information Retrieval, Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2001 Agrawal, Ayushi, Shiv Kumar, and Amit Kumar Mishra. Implementation of Novel Approach for Credit Card Fraud Detection. In Computing for Sustainable Global Development (INDIACom), 2015 2nd International Conference on, pp. 1-4. IEEE, 2015. [2008] Abhinav Srivastava, Amlan Kundu, Shamik Sural and Arun K. Majumdar, CreditCard Fraud Detection Using Hidden Markov Model IEEE, Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Vol. 5, No 1., January-March D. L. Reilly and L. N. Cooper, An overview ofneural networks: early models to real worldsystems, in An Introduction to Neural and Electronic Networks, ed. S. F. Zometzer, J. L. Davis and C. Lau, 227-248, Academic Press, (1990). S. Panigrahi, A. Kundu, S. Sural, and A. Majumdar, Credit card fraud detection: A fusion approach using dempstershafer theory and Bayesian learning, Information Fusion, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 354 363, 2009. Z. D. Zhao and M. s. Shang, User-based collaborative-filtering recommendation algorithms on hadoop, in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, 2010. WKDD 10. Third International Conference on, Jan 2010,pp. 478-481. [12] Jiang, Liangxiao, Harry Zhang, and Zhihua Cai. A novel Bayes model: Hidden naive Bayes. IEEE Transactions on knowledge and data engineering 21, no. 10 (2009): 1361-1371. [13] Dai, You, Jin Yan, Xiaoxin Tang, Han Zhao, and Minyi Guo. Online Credit Card Fraud Detection: A Hybrid Framework with Big Data Technologies. In Trustcom/BigDataSE/Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹ SPA, 2016 IEEE, pp. 1644-1651.IEEE, 2016.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Oskar Schindler: A Hero Study Essay -- essays research papers

CONFLICT AND RELEVANT BACKGROUND Oskar Schindler faced many conflicts in his life. The main conflict he faced was overcoming the Nazis and saving over one thousand Jewish People. Schindler, with out a job at the time, joined the Nazi Party and followed on the heels of the SS when the Germans invaded Poland. This is when Schindler took over two previously Jewish owned companies that dealt with the manufacture and sales of enamel kitchenware products and opened up his own enamel shop right outside of Krakow near the Jewish ghetto. There, he employed mostly Jewish workers, which saved them from being deported to labor camps. Though twice the Gestapo arrested him, he got released because of his many connections and with many bribes. Most importantly, he helped save an entire race of human beings. CHRONICLER AND MEDIA We know of Oskar Schindler through many different types of the media. We know of him through the television, newspapers, books, and by word of mouth through the Jewish people he had saved. There was even a movie based on Oskar Schindler called Schindler’s List. There are several books about him, many were even written by some of the Jews he saved themselves. EPIC HERO ELEMENTS IN THE LIFE OF OSCAR SCHINDLER Oskar Schindler was born on April 28, 1908 in Zwitlau, which is now part of the present day Czech Republic, to his father and mother, Hans and Louisa Schindler. They were a deeply religious family, which resulted in a strong catholic household for Oskar and his younger sister Elfriede. The Schindler family was one of the richest and most prominent in Zwitlau and elsewhere. Mostly due to the success of their family owned machinery business. Oskar Schindler wasn’t necessarily born of noble birth. He was basically an ordinary guy, especially when his father lost his business, who did extraordinary deeds for people who he has never even met. One can also see how Schindler was a hero in is character traits. Schindler was always thoughtful and humane in dealing with Jews. He saved the most Jewish people during World War II. The society at that point of time was going downhill and almost came to a big crash. Hitler could have destroyed a whole race of people if it wasn’t for the help of Oskar Schindler. Although he did join the Nazi’s, Schindler still had a heart and a mind to know what Adolf Hitler was doing was wrong and immoral and to try and he... ...ers. Further more, there is a universal theme, such as good and evil. The good would definitely be Oskar Schindler who helped the Jewish people and didn’t need, nor want any type of reward for it. The evil side would be Adolf Hitler who was trying to kill an entire race just because of their religion, believing that they were the evil ones. He only thought this way because he was ignorant of the Jewish religion, and other types of people, and therefore feared them, which caused him to hate and want to kill them all. At the end though, as it is most commonly believed to be the evil should die and the good should live. Though most of the Jews died, a few thousand still lived while the evil side, Adolf Hitler, died by committing suicide. DEATH OF OSKAR SCHINDLER Oskar Schindler died in October 1974, and is buried in the Latin cemetery on Mount Zion, Jerusalem. Over one thousand Jews owe their lives to this singular man. On his grave, there lie many stones, each from many Jews who he saved and many other Jews who think of him as hero. I do not know he died how he died exactly but it is basically from natural causes. Schindler is still adored as a hero from many of the Jewish people.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Demise of the Weimar Republic

The demise of the Weimar Republic did not occur due to one sole reason, but because of a number of short and long term factors. The economic, political and international pressure placed on the people of Germany ensured the loathing of the forced governmental rule. The immediate impact of the Great Depression of 1929, which has been debated and considered by most historians to be the dominant factor in the downfall of the ‘democratic experiment’ which subsequently led to continuous political instability ultimately saw the collapse of the first democratic government of Germany.Some historians generally blame the fall of the Republic on president von Hindenburg’s abuse of constitutional powers. Historian David Martin states that the â€Å"survival of democracy depended on his (Hindenburg’s) integrity and decisions. Unfortunately, his actions made a major contribution to its destruction†. More deadlocks within the Reichstag and civil unrest gave Hindenbu rg no choice but to give the people what they wanted, which was a strong leader in Adolf Hitler. The Weimar republic was not welcomed by Germany after her defeat in world war one in 1919.Germany had never had a democracy before and felt that the Allies had forced this treaty upon them. Even Prince Max of Beden did not want a democracy for Germany. Because this new government had signed the treaty they were now known as the ‘November Criminals’ and were loathed by everyone. According to Henig, ‘It was the acknowledgement of defeat.. which they found so hard to accept. ’ The historian Friedrich Meinecke observed that, for true Germans, loyalty to the ‘Fatherland required disloyalty to the republic’.In a sense the Weimar Republic was a â€Å"democracy without democrats† Treaty of Versailles The military defeat of Germany in November 1918 came as a genuine shock to most Germans, who had believed that Germany would be victorious in the war. W hen seeking armistice in the same month, Germans expected the peace settlement to be based on President Wilson’s 14 points and although they also did not expect a soft treaty, it was greater then imagined. The Treaty was a complete humiliation for Germany and was a dent to national pride.It had to be accepted however as the allies threatened To resume war again and still maintained a naval blockade so consequently on the 28th of June, 1919, the Treaty was signed. As a result of the Treaty, Germany lost all of its colonies including Alsace and Lorraine. The army was reduced to 100,000 men, with further restrictions placed on naval and air force. 33 million dollars of reparations had to be paid and these economic provisions of the treaty effectively weakened Germany’s capacity to pay by 1924.The Weimar Republic and the democracy were weakened because both were always associated with the Treaty of Versailles. This was a constant theme used by those who opposed the republi c and the democratic system. Because this new government had signed the treaty they were now known as the ‘November Criminals’ and were loathed by everyone. According to Henig, ‘It was the acknowledgement of defeat.. which they found so hard to accept. ’ Period of Hyperinflation Hyperinflation gave the people of Germany another reason to find fault in the democratic Weimar Government.Louis Snyder wrote that it was â€Å"these people who later turned to Adolf Hitler as the messiah to lead them out of financial chaos†. Immediately after the war, Germany had little capacity for economic recovery as key industrial resources had been lost in the Treaty and had little export trade and consequently unable to attract any major foreign investment loans. To get more finance, the German government’s response was to print more money so the value of German currency continued to fall. Before the US dollar has been 4. 2 marks, by 1920 it was worth 64. marks thus German taxation increased. Anyone with access to even a few pounds became a trillionaires over night. The losers of the hyperinflation were those with a fixed income, the working class, people living off their savings and wage earners. By June 1923, the government had lost control of the economy, as strikes swepped the country as workers protested about the rising unemployment and the failure of their wages to keep up with the cost of living. In August, the govenment finally fell, with President Ebert called or the leader of the German people party, Streseman, to form a new party. He formed the ‘great coalition’ which brought together left and right wing. In the next six years, German society picked up with the induction into the League of Nations, the Dawes plan of 1924 which provided foreign loans to Germany and the Young Plan which saw the reduction in Germany’s reparation figure by 95 million. The downside of Germany’s new economic prosperity mean t that society was living off borrowed money and was over-dependant on foreign loans and investment.The economic power was concentrated in the hands of influential industrialists and bankers and employment was still on the rise. Within these six years, the Weimar republic surprisingly enjoyed a period of relative political stability. President Ebert’s sudden death in 1925 followed President Hindenburg into the role. He’s election reconciled many in the army to support the republic goldern years– that â€Å"this was merely nothing more than depictive stability† d. packart. The Depression Historian W.M Simon wrote, â€Å"The depression had created a situation in which parliamentary government broke down, opening the way to presidential government by decree†¦The more openly the political parties became parliamentary pressure groups, the more the parliamentary process (and the democratic process) as a whole fell into discredit†. The great depressi on of 1929 occurred very suddenly and ended the period of relative affluence for Germany. The depression was the result of substantial amounts of investment from overseas and the high interest rates of 1928 which consequently left the economy with a reduction in economic activity and employment.Consequently social spending reduced and people were left without food and shelter which created overall bitterness. In response the government chose to follow a policy of deflation in which they cut expenditure and attempted to balance the budget. Throughout this extremely stressful time, the fear of communism had increased enormously. Membership of the Communist Party grew enormously and most feared that if a revolution occurred, German people would have their private property confiscated.Therefore, most were heartened by the strongly anti communist position taken by Hitler and his Nazi Party. â€Å"dependent on the American economy, made Germany vulnerable to the instabilities of the worl d markets† W. link 1970. Rise of the Extremists and Hitler/National Socialists – Failure of the German Democracy 1930-33 By 1930 Mullers government had failed to deal with the Depression. Bruning was appointed chancellor and in July his budget passed the Reichstag using article 48. At the same time the Nazi’s attacked the republic, critizing its weak parliamentary system.They promised to revitalize Germany with determination and conviction, offering hope to the middle class, small business operators and rural/farming population â€Å"The Depression put the wind into Hitler’s sails† (Taylor). In September 1930, the Reichstag Elections saw the Nazi’s win 107 seats in the Reichstag in which they previously held 12. the Reichstag became virtually unworkable as the Nazi’s, communists and Nationalist all opposed Bruning. Another critiscm of the Weimar constitution was Article 48 where in an emergency the president could override any laws, th e opinions of the Reichstag and the people.He could also have total control of the army to ‘restore order’. With the army on his side and the republic disregarded, the President would have total control. Evidently from the above paragraphs one can conclude that the Weimar Republic did not collapse due to one reason but was a process consisting of a number of long and short term events. The Republic was flawed and weak from its beginning in 1919 and it was a miracle that it survived until 1933 in a country that opposed the Republic as a whole.