mystery of Roanoke island

         This conversation is between a member of the crew who found the deserted island and a person back in England.  The man who found the empty island tells the man in England that they found nothing and the other man responds in shock.  The two men then hypothesis what could have happened to the people.  They use the evidence that was found such as, there were only books left and no cross was found.  They first come up with the theory that the people had just moved away.  But in conclusion their theory is that the people were captured by natives.  The men then discuss how they regret not visiting the island for the past three years and then the conversation ends.

text conversation:

http://www.classtools.net/SMS/27_MdaeWB  

The Printing Press

 The Printing Press

The printing press had a huge effect on communication in Europe.  Before this device was invented, books had to written out one by one.  Only about 30,000 books were created per year.  They were expensive to produce and had many errors.  Since there was not a large amount of books, not many people were literate.  Once the printing press was created everything changed.  About 12 million books were produced each year which made more people literate.  Books were less expensive and easier to  manufacture.  This effective piece of machinery brought ease to Europe and was the start of new creations.

My name is Catherine of Aragon and I am King Henry VIII’s first wife.  For twenty years I lived a good marriage with my husband but when he wanted a son things turned around.  I am a catholic and it is against my religion to divorce.  My husband wants a son that I can’t give him so he’s decided to end our marriage and marry Anne Boleyn, his lover.  The pope will not allow Henry to have an annulment so he is proceeding to start his own religion.  I thought I had a solid marriage with my husband, but since we only have a daughter he can’t live with me anymore.  Henry is going through all this work to start a new religion just so he can divorce me.  Struggling with worshipping the Catholic church and dealing with my husband is frustrating.  I disagree with my husband’s beliefs and I cannot believe that he is just going to leave me.  I am going to be the good citizen I am and follow my religion.  I don’t know how I’ll end up but I won’t turn away from the Catholic church since it is what we are told to do.  

   

Columbus's True Legecy

       Was Christopher Columbus really who we think he was?  This is the man who discovered America on October 12th, 1492.  He believed that the location he landed on was India the whole time he was alive.  Columbus has the impression of being a kind, amazing man, but in reality he was kind of a jerk.  He had many demands called the Book of Privileges.  These consisted of becoming knighted, being appointed Admiral of the Ocean Sea, becoming governor of the new lands and having 10% of the wealth discovered.  Christopher Columbus had accumulated much wealth but soon he began to fear that he would lose it all.  This was because he was arrested for mistreating the Indies.  When Columbus discovered the new world he didn’t treat the natives very pleasantly.  He would order them around, take their gold, and eventually made the slaves.  Columbus looked at the natives as people who were just living, they weren’t really human to him and he considered them irrational.  Columbus may had made a huge discovery, but should we really be celebrating a day for a man who mistreated innocent people?

       No, Cristopher Columbus does not deserve to have a holiday celebrated for him since he wasn’t a good man.  Columbus did make history, which is very important.  Although he also treated people with disrespect and was boastful.  He demanded many privileges and didn’t think of people before he thought of himself.  Besides, does anybody really celebrate this holiday?  We do get the day of and get to sleep in, but there is no ritual performed on this day.  It’s just like having a day off from work, the majority of people probably don’t even think about Columbus on this day.  If this holiday had a major significance then yes it’d be reasonable to celebrate.  Just because America was discovered on this day doesn’t mean it should be celebrated.