Power, What is it?

The main purpose of the Humanities eight class was to understand the meaning of Power. According to Dictionary.com, “Power is the ability and strength to order, accomplish or change.” I agree with this statement because power can be seen in different ways, one can have the ability to accomplish any day to day task, but he can also be at a level where he has the strength to order a major task that can be done by others. From studies throughout the year, major topics such as the Industrial Revolution, Imperialism, World War II, The Russian Revolution, and the "Animal Farm" demonstrate major examples that relate to my generalization of what power is.


Starting off with The Industrial Revolution, The industrial Revolution was the time of early development in technology, it was when machines such as the Spinning Jenny, and the Water Frame began to take the place of man-made products. The Wealthier Cast however, heavily benefited from these machines, and had the power to let these happenings happen. Since the rich had more power, they were at a much higher political levels than the poor, they had the "strength" to "order" more out of the machines. Another Example of power in the industrial revolution comes from the machines itself. By the mid industrial Revolution, the machines had gained so much value over the economy of England and America, that they had the power to alter it's economy depending on it's income. This type of power is quite similar to my first generalization of power, the machines had the "strength" to "change".

Moving onto my second point,Imperialism. The time of imperialism was shortly after the industrial revolution, it was when the Europeans soon began to feel short of natural resources. Considering that Africa is like a bank for natural resources, a conference was held in Berlin where all the countries in Europe would gather to divide the countries in Africa according to how much POWER each country had, taking Great Britain for example,due to the industrial revolution, great Britain gained tremendous power, they had the "ability" to "order". And where capable to obtain the most nourished countries. Another example of power during the time of imperialism was the dehumanization of the slaves. The book, "To Be A Slave", shows many various points of views of how the slaves felt while having to work under another. This follows my second interpretation of the definition from dictionary.com,another master has the "strength" to "order" his slave to an extent where people may not classify the slave as human any more.

Another way to look at power may be with World War II. Shortly after the WW1, the Germans were in terrible conditions having lost a significant amount of money to the allied forces.To support the loss they signed a peace treaty, called the treaty of Versailles.To over throw the government, Adolf Hitler, a strong general in the German army showed up having three goals in mind, uniting all German speaking countries, secretly building the German army, and dominating Germany, all of which succeeded. Adolf Hitler had the power to accomplish all three of his goals,he had the "ability" to "change". After Hitler succeeded on his last goal, he set out on other tasks. In 1934, Hitler built up the power to invade the USSR, and in 1939, he could even disrupt Austria and Czechoslovakia. This uses another form of my generalization of power. Hitler had the "strength" to "order". Another form in which Hitler showed great power was in the midst of forming his supporting "party" called the Nazi's, the Nazi party supported and raised even more power to Hitler,in Hitler's case, he had the "strength" to "change". In my opinion, Hitler was the real reason for happening of the World War 2.

Lastly, the Russian Revolution,and a common novel called "Animal Farm",the events in the book "Animal Farm" run quite parallel to the events in the Russian Revolution. The Russian Revolution started during the turn of the 19th Century, around 1905, when riots broke out in Russia due to a poor monarchy. Tsar Nicholas the second, a greedy king of Russia during the time of the Revolution, only cared for him and his family. However, the power rested in him to deny reforms when the time was right. Tsar nIcholas the second had the "ability" to "order" the denies of reforms so that his family could benefit from it. The book "Animal Farm" showed 2 main sources of power. One, like stated before runs parallel to the Russian Revolution, it is where the owner of the farm, Mr. Jones, treats the Animals in the Farm much like Tsar Nicholas did in the Russian Revolution. He too had the "ability" to "order". Moving onto the other source of power which came from Napoleon, the "unequal" leader later on. Being a pig himself, Napoleon thought that pigs were far more superior than all other animals in the farm. However, many other animals in the book such as Boxer, the hard working horse, worked much harder than all the other pigs put together. And once again, the power rested in him to deny the change. He had the "strength" to deny "change". This source of power follow one of the main theme's of the book too, " Individuals in society aren't treated equally."

To Conclude, power can be seen in many ways, in the case of the Industrial Era, power was found in the wealthier class as well as the machines. In the Age of Imperialism, power was in the rich countries and masters. In the WW2 and the Russian Revolution, the power lay in the wealthier monarchs of the time. To look over the points, power can most commonly be found near the wealthier class, this is because they are at a higher level with which they can "order", "accomplish", or "change".