Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, was born in Frankfurt-on-the-Main, Germany on the fine morning of 28^th of August 1749. I grew up there in a large house with my younger sister, Cornelia, my mother and father. At the age of sixteen I left my home to study law in Leipzig. During that time I honestly hardly studied law at all. Instead I spent all of my time in poetry classes. Seeing how this didn’t improve my understanding of law I was forced to return to my beautiful home in Frankfurt on Stag-Ditch road. Yes, that’s correct, although I never could find stags or ditches anywhere. After only a short period there my father became made angry about my dedication to literature and I was forced to leave. I left and decided to travel the wonderful country of Germany. In 1774 at the age of 25 I wrote the book that would bring make me famous world wide, The Sorrows of Young Werther. Brilliantly written if I do say so myself. Shortly after I was invited by Carl August the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach himself to come and live with him in Weimar. How could I refuse? This is the place, I have a feeling, I would spend the rest of my life. I also have a good feeling that I will be remembed by all of mankind as one of the key figures of German literature and the movement of Weimar Classicism.

To what degree and in what ways was Peter the Great successful in westernizing Russia?

Peter the Great did westernize Russia by building factories and mills to supply his army and initially improve the defense of his country but he overlooked something. Yes, he did accomplish a great deal towards the creation and strengthening of the national state of landlords and merchants. But he completely ignored the condition of peasants who at that time had become immersed in serfdom. Westernizing Russia had caused serfdom to multiply across the country. Peasants may not have been a huge concern of Peter's but they were still apart of his country and therefore depended on him.

Prompt 1

I think that the initial motivation was glory. Each section of Europe wanted its own claim to the "New World" as soon as Columbus stumbled upon it. But I believe that gold is what caused European countries to keep on exploring and adventuring to it. They wanted the riches that Spain had found there and were willing to put all their resources into finding that gold for themselves.

# 4

Germany was not able to recover from religious wars, specifically the Thirty Years' War, as well as France because it was also in the middle of a civil war. The war initially started between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire and slowly spread throughout most of Europe. During this time the Habsburgs were in control of Germany. Their rulings angered many Germans who took up arms to fight against them. This caused utter chaos and forced the Habsburgs to divide their focus between the Thirty Years' War and their own civil war. Their enemies, one of which being France, were able to give their complete and undivided attention to the Thirty Years' War allowing them to ultimately win. Another reason recovery was difficult was the fact that the war took place in Germany causing them the most destruction.