Maximiliano Nino Mrs. Davis English Expository 3 March 2015 The Downfall of Big Brother The novel 1984, written by George Orwell, leaves the reader with an important question in mind. How did the government of Big Brother come to an end? Many will have theories of how such thing happened, but all theories can easily be narrowed down to four possibilities. In the novel, Emmanuel Goldstein explains with his book that the downfall of a government can be due to either: the takeover by a more powerful force, the inefficiency of the government to rule which causes the masses to revolt, the rising of the middle class which overthrows the higher classes and takes over, or the government losing interest in ruling and leaving power. However, the most ideal theory for how Big Brother came to an end is that the middle class, also known as the Outer Party, overthrew the government themselves and took over the power.
One of the primary causes blamed for the fall of the Ottoman Empire was the decline of the Sultanate. Originally the Sultanate was a strong institution, in which the Sultan would select a competent successor from among his often numerous sons (some Sultans had over 500 sons).1 Over time, however, the Sultanate weakened. This weakening may have begun late in the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent.2 Although his reign marked the height of the Ottoman Empire's Golden Age, in his later years Suleyman became less actively involved in the affairs of state. In addition, his two most qualified successors plotted against him late in his life, and he had them executed. As a result, Selim II (known by some as "Selim the Drunkard"), became the next Sultan, despite the fact that he had lived a relatively secluded life in the palace and did not have experience in running the government.3 He was overly fond of physical pleasures and did not take seriously his governing responsibilities.
Yes, he protected his people, only to expect payment from them in the form of taxes, gifts and tributes. The pacification of the people caused them to work harder in order to expand the Persian empire, and for Darius to eventually convince himself that he was the supreme ruler of the world. The labor of the subjects of the empire was exploited on a large scale through taxation, forced labor, and mandatory military service. The king exercised absolute authority, and rebellions were discouraged through a system of spies known as the “eyes and ears of the king.” Rather than envying the Persians for enjoying hundreds of years of peace, the Greeks pitied the subjects of the Persian
He thought that the veteran mercenaries were a potential threat, so he had them go to the city of Messana to attack the Campanians. While they advanced he had the rest of the army withdraw while they were slaughtered. He led the army to defeat the enemy in the plain of Mylae, capturing their leaders and ending the aggressive behavior of the Mamertines. Hiero went back to Syracruse and was seen by the allies as king. Mamertimes were defeated on their territory, so they appealed to Rome and to the Carthaginians.
Besides the economic damage, Ionian cities suffered from political pressure: in all the cities, ruled by Persians there were tyrants appointed. The failure of The Scythian Campaign of Darius disrupted the prestigious of his army. At last, the fewness of Persian troops located in the western part of Asia Minor made Greeks confident of the fast victory. The history of Fifth century BC deserves special attention. It was an excellent example of how the mistakes in the organization can spoil the results.
In the epic Oedipus the King, Oedipus Rex suffers a major downfall because he does not believe that the gods are in control of his life. Oedipus has the qualities of a tragic hero, starting with him being noble of birth. In the epic, Oedipus was born into royalty, but was given up by his parents because of a horrid prophesy from the gods. Different parents then raised Oedipus, but they were still royalty. When he became king of his birth land, even though he grew up thinking he was not adopted, he thought that he could outrun the predictions of the gods.
Although he taught in the end peaceful and loving ways, the beginning of Asoka’s life was not quite so kind. He came to power in 268BC only after slaying the other claimants to the throne of Magadha- including his own older brothers. He expanded his empire through ways of violence and military conquest rather than peaceful treaties. His domain now covered roughly the territory of modern India except for the extreme south and for the first time in Indian history Asoka united the whole subcontinent under a single leader. However it was Asoka’s campaign against Kalinga that suddenly changed the emperor’s values .
The Roman Empire’s major reason in why it failed politically is that the Empire was never able to find an effective way to pick the proceeding emperor resulting in the empire having crazy, profligate emperors. Because of this, the military stepped in, complicating things even more than they were before. The military would try to sell the throne to the highest bidder. This meant that the throne did not go to a person who could truly run the Empire, but went to a crazy, profligate man who just wanted to party and live an extravagant life. Meanwhile, in China they were suffering from similar political issues.
The Roman Republic influenced democracy by showing that any other way of ruling is very unfair. I think that the Roman Republic was the most influential to the ideas of today’s democracies. Athens had many philosophers to increase the effectiveness of democracy and reform Athens feared a civil war between the aristocrats and the peasants. The peasants far outnumbered the aristocrats, so they needed to come up with a way to protect themselves from the peasants. Draco was appointed in 632 BCE, but failed to do much at all.
Friedlander noted that ironically, Hitler was not victorious in the war and therefore the so called perfect dominance of his master race, which had already cost the lives of millions of people, “seemed to be nothing but an imagination” (316). A similar situation occurred with the British colonists. Despite the fact that they believed their education, morals, dignity and status was above that of all their colonies they could not hold these colonies for long. They wished to share their culture with the colonial states believing that these states wished for their perfect system of rule. Unfortunately the colonies did not believe in this perfect system and most of them eventually revolted until they were granted independence.