Ap Euro Sports Dbq

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One of the most prevalent views about sports during the late 18th and early 19 century was that sports promoted unity. The African delegate clearly depicted this argument when he said in his speech “a Sound Mind and A Sound Body”, that sports like Rugby promote a sense of unity and camaraderie. He is most likely saying this because he believes that his country needs to unite similar to a Rugby team (Document 4). Another person that said this was Sir Robert Baden-Powell said that sports teach its players to not think of themselves but of the people around them. Mr. Powell, the founder of Scouting for boys, most likely said this because he is most likely a sports enthusiast who won’t say anything negative about sports in general. This argument is also cynically stated in Myroslavs Tyr’s commemorative speech where he says the “new race” they are creating will unite the “dovelike meekness” of the Slavs (Document 1). Mr. Tyr, a member of the Czech national gymnastics association, most likely said this because he is patriotic and a nationalist who wanted to believe that making this new race would help unify his country. Another prime example of somebody who supported this view was M. Faure- Dujarric who said that whether people mean to or not, they will become internally connected as a result of sports (Document 7). He most likely said this because he knew that many of the sports enthusiasts who were reading his work in The Paris encyclopedia Of Sports will be comforted by that statement in a time where there was a lot of uncertainty . These are examples that prove that many people during the late 18th century and early 19th century believed that sports could help unify nations. Another chief argument made about sports during this time period was that sports promoted a sense of war among its participants, but without bloodshed. One of the finest examples of this was
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