DBQ

       World War I, as it came to be known, was fraught with peril and the deaths of many soldiers. The events that led up to the beginning of the war are great and include many different countries from all over Europe. Europe, at the time, was getting larger in the sense of military, naval, and industrial power. Every country was becoming a great power, and if the imminent war was to break out, it would surely be a great war. Prior to the actual start of the war, countries formed alliances with one another, preparing to fight against one another as soon as one country in one alliance wronged another country. Countries allied for religious reasons and because they had a hatred for another country. Each country in Europe thought itself to be the best country, and this sense of patriotism also contributed to the events that started the War. World War I was started because countries such as Germany and Austria-Hungary found themselves aligned with and standing against other allied powers such as Serbia and Russia for reasons relating to patriotism and religion; and because each country had a superiority complex that made them think that they were the greatest European power, they went to war. 
       The alliances that began to form in the late 19th century eventually sparked the first world war. The alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary is outlined in Document 1 by stating in the documents second article, "Should one of the High Contracting Parties be attacked by another Power, the other High Contracting Party binds itself hereby, not only not to support the aggressor against its high Ally, but to observe at least a benevolent neutral attitude towards its fellow Contracting Party" (Doc 1). This treaty binds Germany and Austria-Hungary to one another in the event of a war. Europe was preparing for a war even before any country showed any sign of acting out against another country. Germany was preparing itself by forming an alliance with the great power, Austria-Hungary. Germany was preparing to fight against Russia, as evidenced by the first article of the document. This is evidenced more clearly in the second document, the formation of the Triple Alliance. It states that, " In case Italy, without direct provocation on her part, should be attacked by France for any reason whatsoever, the two other Contracting Parties shall be bound to lend help and assistance" (Doc 2). The Triple Alliance was preparing itself to fight against two powers: those of Russia and now France. Even though wars were not being declared when the alliances were made, they were in the backs of peoples' minds, and that will eventually lead to the Great War. 
       In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Germany was emulating the rest of Europe with great success. As the rest of Europe gained military, naval, and industrial power, Germany was rising in the ranks very quickly and steadily.  The reason for Germany's overnight success was their patriotism and arrogant nature. As mentioned in the book, Foundations of the Nineteenth Century: Racism, Germany is shown to have been racist and self-proclaimed superior. It reads, "the Germanic races belong to the most highly gifted group, the group usually termed Aryan….Physically and mentally the Aryans are pre-eminent among all peoples" (Doc 3). The people of Germany think of themselves as the greatest race, the most superior race. This is why they are able to advance so rapidly. This maturation of the country frightened Britain, and will eventually force Britain to enter into an alliance against Germany. Britain had to admit that Germany was becoming a great force, and had to take immediate action, lest their country be ravaged. Germany wanted more power, as outlined by Eyre Crowne's writing that proclaims, "the transition is easy to the belief that the 'good German sword,' which plays so large a part in patriotic speech, is there to solve any difficulties" (Doc 4). Eyre Crowne was most likely a Germany patriot, who wanted to profess the idea of how great his nation was, and how well they would be able to destroy any nation who opposed them. Germany was growing, and this would cause other nations to wanted to quell them. 
       The war began over a discrepancy between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. They were not friendly nations to begin with, and each nation was allying with nations with the direct intent of going to war with their opposition. The Black Hand, a terrorist organization, was the initial spark that caused the Great War to begin officially. They directly killed Franz Ferdinand. The outlines of the organization state that, "To fulfill its purpose, the organization will do the following:..2. Organize revolutionary action in all territories inhabited by Serbs; 3. Beyond the frontiers of Serbia, fight with all means the enemies of the Serbian national idea…" (Doc  6). Without directly mentioning the name, Serbia was ready to go to war against Austria-Hungary because they did not accept Serbia in its entirety. Then the declaration of war became official in the document written by Count Berchtold. It stated, "The Royal Serbian Government not having answered in a satisfactory manner the note of July 23, 1914, presented by the Austro-Hungarian Minister of Belgrade...Austria-Hungary consequently considers herself henceforward in state of war with Serbia" (Doc 7).  Austria-Hungary found the opportunity to declare war that they had been looking for for years.
       The World War began because of discrepancies that had arisen between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. Germany and Britain were also not friendly with one another. The two former countries allied themselves with one another, if not just for the reason to fight against the latter countries. 

Second Rough Draft

Advances in Medicine from the Scientific Revolution Onwards until the 19^th Century

            The Scientific Revolution was a time when many branches of science developed and became more modernized in a relatively short amount of time. While many of these ideas had been changing and developing for centuries beforehand and only saw a rapid evolution in the Scientific Revolution, medicine had been static almost since its creation. Many ideas that had been established early on in the field of medicine had been accepted as fact and nothing was ever done to prove these notions as either correct or incorrect. The collective teachings of Aristotle and Galen comprised the basics of the human knowledge on the subject of medicine. Much of what they taught relied on their limited understanding of logic, physics, and ethics. The four elements and the planets were thought to control the inner workings of the human body. This type of inability and unwillingness to change the established philosophies made it difficult for advances to come about in the field of medicine. Things did not begin to change until the Scientific Revolution. There were quite a few catalysts that called for the need for advances to be made. New diseases were arising, and since older medicinal properties did not have any information on these illnesses, medicine had to change to accommodate for the new ideas. The reason that medical theory in the Scientific Revolution advanced rapidly was because it broke away from its ancient roots of simply maintaining overall health in the body and became more focused on the prevention and curing of diseases. 

            Aelius “Galen” Galenus was a Greek physician, anatomist, and physiologist. Many of his ideas were presented into the medical community and remained intact for centuries after him. Many of his ideas were based off of Aristotelian methods and his natural philosophy. Both scientists believed that the body’s overall health could be gauged by knowing the levels of four of the humours that were thought to be present in every living human being. These humours were black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. If a person’s levels were off, they were said to have been sick and given the basic medicine that was given to everyone at the time. Galen and Aristotle analyzed the body and the world around them in terms of four basic elements, those of air, earth, fire, and water. Aristotle declared that only four elements existed: “Fire, air, water and earth. All matter is made up of these four elements and matter had four properties: hot, cold, dry and wet" (“History of Chemistry”). These ideas were still being relied on up until the Scientific Revolution. It is terribly difficult to achieve much in medicine when only four elements are thought to exist. A great change had to come about in order to make medicine more modernized.

            In the past, overall health was maintained by keeping the humours of the body at regulation levels. This practice all but ceased to exist as soon as new diseases began to arise. One of the first of such new diseases was syphilis. None of the ancient texts on which the medical community had been basing their knowledge off of had any information of such a disease as syphilis. The types of medicines that were available to people in those times did nothing to combat syphilis. Something new had to be created if the human population was not to be decimated by an outbreak of a terrible disease. The name for syphilis was made in a poem by Girolamo Francastoro. This shows how little the medical community knew about what caused diseases. There were no scientific classifications for diseases. With the Scientific Revolution came the advent of a revolution in medical thought and practice.

            The arrival to the New World brought with it even more new disease. But there were also plants that had medicinal properties and were used to make new medicines. Diseases were given to explorers from people who were native to the New World, and when the explorers returned to Europe, their disease was transferred to the rest of the populous. These new diseases screamed for new ideas to arise in medicine because if they did not, an entire population may have been wiped out by a single virus. Specialized doctors were needed; doctors who learned specific information of one disease. This was the beginning of structured medicine, one of the key factors to modern medicine.  

            As the ideas of medicine evolved and changed from the Scientific Revolution and onwards, so did many practices. One of the main areas in which medicine changed was with sterilization. While early forms of sterilization existed with the Egyptians, there was no set form of what to do in order to sterilize all equipment. It was not known what, or even if, diseases could be contracted if dirty instruments made contact with open wounds, but it was a practice that was generally avoided. Practicing physicians did not operate using dirty equipment because they thought it to be unsanitary. The main method of sterilization was cauterization. In the practice of cauterization blood vessels are heated so that they are, in essence, burned shut. This prevents harmful bacteria from making their way into the bloodstream. There will be an image for use in this area, but it cannot be located at the moment. Once sterilization was achieved, other advancements in the operating rooms and relating to surgery occurred in quick succession. Sterilization of equipment led to other great advances in medicine, such as aseptic and antiseptic techniques for sterilization, regulations being made for all medical personnel, etc. Sterilization was a very important part of the medical advances of the Scientific Revolution and onwards.