Throughout the 16th and 17th Centuries, riots were a popular occurrence in many countries in early modern Europe, particularly in England and France. Unsurprisingly, both the underlying and immediate causes of these revolts are debated by historians, however there seems to be a degree of universal agreement that the majority of revolts were instigated by people who had little or no political power. Essentially, this referred to those in society who were politically inferior and in England and France it was the majority of the population who lacked this voice in decision-making. There were many different types of revolt and their frequency and variation means that it is difficult to critically analyse the causes of all popular protests. Therefore, …show more content…
Sharpe argues that ‘rioting was an endemic feature of English life in the early modern era’ and that the root of this was a combination of a generally low quality of life and the attitudes shared by society at the time. He states that riots were a ‘common phenomenon, as characteristic of the pre-industrial world as the strike is of the industrial one’ . Sharpe also comments on the way riots offer important insights into the popular mentality of people at the time. He discusses an apparent level of understanding between the ‘mob’ and the political authorities in early modern England. He highlights how even when crowd action defied the local authorities, the mob ‘rarely lost respect for all forms of hierarchy and order’. Despite the somewhat chaotic nature of riots, there seemed to be a general preference to resolve social grievances, rather than to simply wreak havoc. This suggests that people revolted to achieve specific aims, and the rioters’ apparent ‘sense …show more content…
This pressure in turn led to increased migration into towns due to people searching for work. This meant that the workers in towns were no longer the previously well-settled and specialised labourers, instead, there were more and more wage dependent, unsettled, unskilled workers which led to an overall fall in wages. Merry Wiesner-Hanks states that the increase in population also led to an increase in tenants, which meant that landowners could raise fees, fines and rents accordingly. She estimates that rent in England ‘may have increased as much as ninefold between 1510 and 1640, while grain prices went up fourfold.’ This combination of rising rent and grain prices as well as fewer available jobs led to increased poverty in urban and rural areas, making society much more vulnerable to a fluctuating economy. It is therefore unsurprising that the toll on employment and markets (and therefore the food supply) led to mass hunger and
While the rest of Europe was engaging in violent revolutions for independence in the late 18th century, early 19th, Britain was busy industrializing and resolving social and political problems through reform, not war. The last time Britain experienced such agitation, the Stuarts reigned supreme and the newly created United Kingdom vowed to stave off any hint of rebellion or civil war [1642-1651 English civil war] OR (as it was the English civil war, 1642-1651) at any cost. Yet, in the Modern Era, nearly every other state in Europe has, by now, experienced at least one forcible takeover of government only to be replaced by another. From la Terreur in 1789 France to the Russian rise of “Hooligans” in 1917, it seemed no nation was immune to the
Mob violence was a persuasive feature of the Revolutionary War in every port city, particularly Boston. These mobs, which were often described as motley crews, were central to protests and ultimately played a dominant role in significant events leading up to the American Revolution. Throughout the years, leading up to the American Revolution, many Americans were growing tired of British rule and thus begun to want to break free from Britain and earn their own independence. Some of these Americans, out of anger, madness, and in defense of their rights, began terrorizing towns, sometimes even to the point of paralysis highlighting grievances and concerns that the common man couldn’t say with mere words. These groups would then be absorbed into a greater organization called the Sons of Liberty. With the use of violence and political strategy , these radicals defending their rights, struck terror into anyone opposing them but also carried out communal objectives ultimately pushing for change which was a central theme for the American Revolution. It will be proved that these men through their actions not only were the driving force behind resistance but also proved to be the men who steered America toward revolution.
The England riots first began as a peaceful protest in Tottenham in response to the death of Mark Duggan, a local man who was shot by a policeman in August 6 2011. This soon escalated into full on riots, quickly spreading to other parts of the country. During the aftermath of the riots, many theories were made to the different factors that sparked and led to the quick escalation of the riots. David Starkey, a famous British historian was invited to BBC’s Newsnight along with Owen Jones and Dreda Say Mitchell to speak about these factors. David Starkey through the use of allusion, generalization and biased language, in this interview, depicts black culture as the violent influence that instigated the riots in England in 2011.
The seventeenth century was a time of great chaos and struggle. So much so that many historians have called this time period the “General Crisis.” This century saw conflicts as never seen before, not in magnitude, scale, or number. Europe at this time saw the 30 Years War, the Fronde, a large scale French peasant revolt, and the English Civil War, an altercation which involved the overthrow of an established monarch and regicide. As if that was not enough, several catastrophes were running in the background, even while the blood was spilling.
This rural collapse eventually led to food shortages in towns and cities.
Assignment 1: Reflective Summary In The Politics of Hunger, Paul Collier attributed the food crisis faced by the world today to rising income and climatic volatility. To increase the world’s supply of food, Collier proposed three supply-side solutions to boost food supply – the promotion of commercial agriculture over peasant farming, the lifting of the Genetically Modified food ban to increase crop productivity, and the removal of biofuel subsidies to channel more food for consumption instead. Collier advocates for the commercial production of food over small-scale farming as he argues that large-scale farming is more efficient in food production.
There are many problems confronting our global food system. One of them is that the food is not distributed fairly or evenly in the world. According “The Last Bite Is The World’s Food System Collapsing?” by Bee Wilson, “we are producing more food—more grain, more meat, more fruits and vegetables—than ever before, more cheaply than ever before” (Wilson, 2008). Here we are, producing more and more affordable food. However, the World Bank recently announced that thirty-three countries are still famine and hungers as the food price are climbing. Wilson stated, “despite the current food crisis, last year’s worldwide grain harvest was colossal, five per cent above the previous year’s” (Wilson, 2008). This statement support that the food is not distributed evenly. The food production actually increased but people are still in hunger and malnutrition. If the food were evenly distributed, this famine problem would’ve been not a problem. Wilson added, “the food economy has created a system in w...
In 2020, a massive problem known as food shortage will show up, this will in turn affect food security (Metro, 2011). Food security defined as “Everybody having a sufficient access to food for a healthy diet and efficiently not having anxiety about where their next meal is coming from.” (Global Food Security A, ND). Over the last decade, food crisis has become a real issue facing the world. In fact, world population is expected to rise by 15% by 2050(Global Food Security A, ND). This will negatively affect food security. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast food security in the developed and the developing world.
But it is also critical that we push ahead with more medium term actions to make agriculture a priority. Based on a rough analysis, we estimate that a doubling of food prices over the last 3 years could potentially push 100 million people in low income countries deeper into poverty. This is not just a question about short term needs, as important as those are. This is about ensuring that future generations don’t pay a price too” (Zoellick, April, 13, 2008). Poor countries are not able to pay their debts because their economy will affected by its inability to repay those debts.
Thousands of young people began looting, rioting, committing arson and causing general disruption, starting in Tottenham but spreading to other boroughs in London and other cities and towns around England. Mass deployment of police also occurred to attempt to prevent any further damage. Fiona Bawdon writes in her article for The Guardian that the “sentencing rulebook was torn up and thrown away” (‘Riot sentencing put ‘nice kids’ behind bars, lawyers say’, Fiona Bawdon and Owen Bowcott, The Guardian, 03/07/2012), declaring that offenders were given much harsher and tougher sentences than a similar offence committed in a different situation the previous year. Magistrates claim that the severity of the sentences was due to the exceptional circumstances of the riots, and also because of the general consensus that crimes committed during the riots should draw harsher punishments than would otherwise be the case. The focus of the aforementioned article was to highlight the fact that punishments were perhaps out of proportion to the crimes committed, especially in regards to juvenile sentences; however, this exposes the underlying consequentialist idea that using punishment as a form of deterrent is a morally acceptable justification for punishing someone who did not commit that crime, as the harsher sentences discouraged other individuals from becoming involved in the chaos of the riots.
Mustafa and associates cover a multitude of perspectives on urban/local food systems and hunger/income insecurities that highly impact the present and future of global wellbeing, as approximately one third of the population of the world lives in cities of one million or more people. The book and the papers inside address how current food practices are not sustainable long term, because of skyrocketing gas prices and an increase in the destruction of natural habitats that balance our delicate ecosystem. First the book covers Southern countries, secondly sub-Saharan African nations, and finally North American, all pertaining to food systems and food security. Another portion of this book discusses economic follies and how they impact food security
During the night of Nov. 20th, 1797, there was a most outrageous riot at Beeston, near Leeds, and a numerous body of workmen indulged their enmity towards machinery, by completely destroying a mill used for raising cloth, by Messrs. Johnson, of Holbeck near Leeds. None of the rioters could afterwards be identified, as the night was dark, and they would not permit lights to be brought to the spot.
Danielle Knight stated that “The true source of world hunger is not scarcity but policy; not inevitability but politics, the real culprits are economies that fail to offer everyone opportunities, and societies that place economic efficiency over compassion.” The author is trying to say that, basically, world hunger is mainly caused by us humans. The world is providing more than enough food for each and every one of us on earth according to the report - 'World Hunger: Twelve Myths'. The problem is that there are so many people living in the third world countries who do not have the money to pay for readily available food. Even if their country has excess food, they still go hungry because of poverty. Since people are mistaken by “scarcity is the real cause of this problem”, governments and institutions are starting to solve food shortage problems by increasing food production, while there really is an excess of food in some countries. Although the green revolution was a big success globally, hunger still exists in some countries. The author stated, “Large farms, free-markets, free trade, and more aid from industrialized countries, have all been falsely touted as the ‘cure’ to end hunger”. All of those are used to promote exports and food production, it doesn’t increase the poor’s ability to buy food he says. What the government really should do is to balance out the economy, and let more people earn more money to buy more foods.
As more and more people go hungry, conjointly more and more food gets thrown away. Extreme ends of the scale should solve each other but due to politics between countries, and between corporations and governments, and lack of investment this does not occur.
There were several causes which led to this riot and the immediate cause was racial tension. Racism tends to persist most readily when there are obvious physical differences among groups e.g. “Black” and “white” differences. This no doubt results in attempts to limit economic opportunities, to preserve status, to deny equal protection under law and to maintain cheap labor. Discrimination was represented ...