How does revolutions transform societies?

Revolutions transform societies by reforming it’s political structure and fundamentally changing people’s lifestyles, this is my answer to the driving question of this project. In this project we learned about revolutions, we studied crane Brinton’s theory on revolutions and had to build three different Rube Goldberg machines to represent his theory, the French Revolution, and the American Revolution by using metaphors.

On the first couple days we launched the project, studied crane Briton’s theory on revolutions, and started working on our first machine. There were four people in my group, logan, me, Nathan, and Indira. First We made a story mountain. We planned to have a plain marble representing the society, and the old regime, where everything is working and government in power, represented by dominoes falling in a straight line, then the government falling and the financial crisis, represented by a pulley with money on the top quickly falling down. For the climax, we had the radical regime represented by a bunch of red marbles(radical)rolling into dominoes(buildings). Lastly we had recovery stage represented by a bumpy road. after it was approved we then started working on the storyboard. The next day we would bring materials that we planned yesterday and start building. Me and logan were the builders, Indira was the painter, and Nathan would work on the script while us three working on the machine. After our machine was done building, me and Logan would then start filming and editing. This was basically a cycle for all four of our products, and it worked really well in a grouped project. 

Here is a video that the teacher showed us:

  We studied the American Revolution after crane Brinton’s theory and it was awesome. We then made another Rube Goldberg machine represented the American Revolution by using metaphors. We planned to have dominoes labeled Quebec act, supplies seized, Ohio ban, and the annoyed American people represented by a red finger for the incubation phase. For the rising action we had king started taxing people represented by rising side of the pulley that says taxes and the down side of the pulley that has a smiling face on it. For climax we had people stoped paying taxes and the king sent the redcoat over to fight, but lost, represented by an American marble and a British marble rolling down a funnel but the British marble gets stuck in the funnel meaning they’ve lost. For falling action we had the winning Americans creating their own country, represented by the American marble rolling into one side of the pulley and the flag rises. As alway we used the “learning cycle” for this machine, then we filmed a video. 

 

We studied the historical significance of the revolutions in this project, and to know if something is historical significance, you will need to check each of these boxes below

  • what and who should be remembered, researched, and taught.
  • Was the event recognized as being important as it was happening.
  • How widespread and lasting were the consequences after the event.
  • Has the event become symbolic or representative of key historical issues or trends.

American Revolution was a great example to show the historical significance, because it had a lot of important events in the history, such as the Boston tea party, the first shot heard around the world, etc. A lot of events happened during the American Revolution were recognized as important events and still does. The American Revolution was symbolic, because they had defeated the Great Britain, and formed their own country. It was super widespread, it even spread to France and caused the French Revolution to happen.

The American revolution is one of the most significant event in history, and it all started off with tax raise from the Great Britain. During the seven years war(1756-1763), British government spent almost £75 million, and when the war was over they were broke. They claimed that they protect their colonies from the franchise, so it was time for them to pay back. Obviously the Americans weren’t stupid so they grouped together all 13 colonies and thought of a plan. They first asked the king to stop, but it didn’t work. Then the minutemen prepared for the beginning of the American revolutionary war.(the minutemen were led by George  Washington) In the war the British army and the minutemen were facing against each other, and someone shot first. “The shot heard around the world” marked the beginning of the American war of independence. After a long time of fighting, George Washington had his first victory of the war. Thomas Jefferson was selected to write up an official Declaration of Independence, like all men are created equal. Although Jefferson had over a hundred of slaves, but we don’t need to talk about that. On the second of July the United States was born! Everyone were happy other then the British. The British didn’t just give up just yet, they continued attacking until they ran out of money, eventually they surrendered, left the American soil, and recognized US independence. On the other hand the American payed the debt that was owned to Britain, and gave fair treatment to those colonists who still remained loyal to the king. At the end George Washington was selected as the first president in United States. The American revolution is a symbolic event of independency, and we should all remember those who fought for freedom.

 

We studied the French Revolution, and then we used our “learning cycle” to build our machine. We came up with a few metaphors to represent the French Revolution, we first had dominoes labeled clergy, nobility, and bourgeoisie, representing the great divide. Then the dominoes would knock the marble into the crown, which is one side of the pulley. The crown would fall into a box that says debts, and the other side of the pulley that says tax would rise. When the crown hit the box the marbles on that foundation would roll and know down the king and pawns, representing the radical regime. The radicals will keep rolling until it hits the box, a bunch of heads (including Maximilien) would roll out, and go into a one side of the pulley that says death. It represents the falling of the radicals and lead to the recovery stage. The marbles will go into one side of the pulley and nationalism rises on the other side.

We also studied the causes and consequences of the revolutions and here is a paragraph that I wrote:

   Revolutions could be caused by people that are unhappy with their life situations, which is either economically, politically, or socially. The French Revolution was a great example of causes and consequences, because they were very significant. The revolution was caused by many things, and one of the causes was a economic crisis. King Louis the 16th was in charge at that time, and he barely had the wisdom to rule a nation! He not just couldn’t make any good decisions but he was also easily manipulated by those around him. After the seven years war, France was already in debt, but king Louis the 16th still donated so much money to the Americans, sadly the Americans didn’t pay back and France was kind of screwed. The french men didn’t just come back with nothing though, they also brought back the idea of revolution. The king only raised the tax for the poor, the nobility and the clergy barely had to pay any taxes at all, and the people really hated how inconsistent the taxation rules were across the nation. Another event that caused the revolution to happen was the natural disaster, which led to a bad harvest. People were starving so badly and the king did not give them any food, so they started rioting. The consequences here were the destruction of the feudal document, and social destabilizing. The main cause of French Revolution was actually the enlightenment of the new idea spreads, France sent many troops to America during their revolution, and the french soldiers brought back the revolutionary idea. The consequences here were the moderate taking control and reforming their new government. In the early stage, if the king did do a good job and people(98% of the franchise)weren’t living harshly, then they wouldn’t WANT a revolution even if they knew this idea. The great divide also caused the revolution to happen because when people are treated differently, unfairly, or unequally, they would always seek a way to make things equal, which in this case, a revolution. The consequences here were the civil unrest, and the rise of republic of France. Of course none of that could’ve happened if they didn’t know what freedom or a revolution was, and when all of that comes together, a new government was formed.

we then finished off our project with a video that answers our driving question: how do revolutions transform societies. And our answer was: revolutions transform societies by reforming it’s political structure and fundamentally changing people’s lifestyles. We used PuppetPals2, and some clips from the previous videos, to explain how our made up character’s life had changed during a revolution.

In this project I learned the most in “the causes and consequences of a revolution” section because knowing what could cause a revolution is really important and interesting to know, and I really enjoy the time when my group were working hard together and towards one sharing goal.

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