INVENIRE

In enshrining values such as the consent of the governed, the American constitution is commonly associated with the Whig political tradition. Despite the fact that the American constitution owes more to the ideas of Whigs than those of royalists, the Constitution’s repeated insurance against treason and its framework for the foundation of a strong federal government indicates its mixed ideological heritage. Moreover, the Constitution’s blend of Whig and royalist ideas, girded by its own historical context, demonstrates that these political philosophies are not diametrically opposed; the Whigs of the 17th and 18th centuries supported the notion of monarchy, albeit a constitutional one. While the Constitution draws much from whiggish thought, evidence of royalist inspiration abounds. The American constitution’s emphasis on the consent of the governed is drawn from whiggism. The idea that “the People of the United States” are the sole arbiters of government legitimacy recurs. The fact tha...

Despite the fall of the Western Roman Empire to invading tribes, the Eastern Roman Empire, later called the Byzantine Empire, flourished for nearly a millennium after. The longevity of the Byzantine Empire can be attributed to Constantinople, and the reforms of the Emperor Justinian. The city of Constantinople gave the Byzantine Empire stable rule, made the Empire a formidable military power, and created immense wealth; moreover, the city’s architecture imparted an invaluable Greco-Roman identity onto the Byzantine Empire, uniting its citizens, and enabling the empire to survive on. On the other hand, the reforms of Justinian created a fair, orderly society that discouraged separatism and increased contentment amongst the people of the Byzantine Empire. The foremost reason that the Byzantine Empire survived so long was the physical situation of its capital. As a result of the imminent collapse of Rome, Constantine decided to move the seat of Roman power to a new city. He identified th...

In Australia, debate is raging over the status of Australia Day, the country's national day. Celebrated on the 26th of January, Australia Day marks the anniversary of the arrival of Admiral Arthur Phillip on the continent, and the beginning of British colonialism in Australia. Given the inherently colonial flavour of the holiday, the celebration has garnered opposition, with many Aboriginal Australians advocating that the Australian government "Change the Date". Although it represents the interests of a historically marginalised group (Aboriginal Australians), the Change the Date movement now exercises a notable amount of power over Australian cultural institutions. Earlier this week, Cricket Australia announced that they would no longer be referring to cricket matches happening on Australia Day as "Australia Day" games. Although Australians still  largely favour celebrating Australia Day on the 26th of January , the decision of Australian cultural institutions ...

Prolonged wars, although often criticised, can act as the origin of a nation's empire. As a result of failed Western intervention operations in Asia and the Middle East, the idea of long wars has become even more unpopular. Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese military general, made the claim, in his renowned The Art of War, that there "is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare." While it is true that long wars often hurt countries, I disagree with Sun Tzu’s summary. His assertion  was the culmination of a long description of the various costs associated with war. Among other things, Sun Tzu cites the cost of weaponry, the strength expended while laying siege to a town and the cost of providing for soldiers; “if the campaign is protracted [prolonged], the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.” While I accept that prolonged warfare discourage political stability in a nation, typically dampens national morale and has long-reaching human costs...

Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of British history is familiar with the Magna Carta. First signed by King John in 1215, it is the birth of constitutionalism in England. However, there is another equally important document that receives much less attention, both from general society and from our schools. Although it failed to respect the inherent right of Catholics to worship as they saw fit, it was a strong message in forcing monarchs to accept that they were not divinely chosen and could therefore not act executively without the consent of Parliament. Its relatives? The Magna Carta, the Provisions of Oxford and the far more famous US Bill of Rights. The document is the English Bill of Rights. The English Bill of Rights was presented to William and Mary at their coronation, after King James II, the previous King, was forced to abdicate the throne after the Glorious Revolution. The document addressed their grievances with the former monarch and clearly outlined that the civ...

William I, King of England, is most commonly known for successfully invading England in 1066. By doing so, he not only introduced a new royal house, he also changed the English language by introducing French elements to it. This article will look at the resistance to William I, and his response.  Three months after the Battle of Hastings, on Christmas Day 1066, William I was coronated at Westminster Abbey, as King of England. His crown, however, did not grant him social acceptance by the English people. He spent the first few years of his reign asserting dominance all over the country. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the most comprehensive record of Anglo-Saxon history available to us, the citizens of London wanted Edgar the Aetheling to be king, “as was his proper due by birth.” Support for Edgar also grew amongst the Church, with the Archbishop of York also supporting the 17-year-old, prompting William I to launch a wave of military campaigns to subdue England. The An...

Amidst the political and social division in the United Kingdom, many believe that the system is incapable of dealing with as great a constitutional crisis as Brexit. The issue has stoked debate as to whether true power is vested in Parliament or the people. To someone who thinks in purely theoretical terms, the answer is obvious: Parliament is representative of the people, therefore power is vested in both parties. However, to everyone else, the answer is not so clear. Despite MPs being sent to Westminster as representatives of their constituents, they have betrayed the people they supposedly serve, by disobeying the democratic mandate. While I am not a fan of tyranny by majority, representative democracies cannot choose when they would rather not carry out the demands of the people. I'll attempt to answer the question "Is Parliament efficient enough for modern Britain?". In this article, I will attempt to answer this question and compare the Britsh system of government ...

Human attempts to measure human intelligence have been prevalent since the beginning of humanity. Initially, this was not done numerically; people were simply given jobs as scribes based on qualitative measures, such as lineage. However, in the early 20th century, psychologists began to measure mental faculty numerically, devising what would eventually evolve into the IQ test. French psychologist Alfred Binet, alongside Théodore Simon, devised the IQ's test most notable ancestor: the Simon-Binet test. It was published in 1905 and was initially created to identify mental retardation in schoolchildren. For that reason, the skills tested were incredibly specific to schoolchildren; one of the skills tested was paper-cutting. Binet believed that his test would correctly identify children who needed medical care for their cognitive development; however, he stressed that he believed that intelligence could not be described simply numerically. Alfred Binet believed that intelligence shou...

In 220 BC China, Qin Shi Huang became the first emperor, after uniting all the other the Warring States. In order to deceive those after him that he was the alpha of Chinese history, he, in 213 BC, burned hundreds of scholarly works, ranging from literature to history to philosophy. He created the illusion that only records produced by him and his administration were factual. In addition to this, he persecuted many intellectuals and writers, allegedly killing many of them. In 1258, the House of Wisdom, a prominent library in Baghdad, was destroyed by the Mongols in the Siege of Baghdad. The books from the House were thrown into the River Tigris; so many books were destroyed this way that the river ran black with the ink from the books. The effect of this was the end of the Islamic Golden Age, a period which had seen great advancement in scholarship by Muslim intellectuals. In the 1930s, Hitler and the Nazis burned all literature and art deemed degenerate. This included books that w...

There a wide range of ramifications that are the product of teaching history in schools. These consequences are particularly obvious when history is taught to young children. One product of teaching history at schools that is important to note is the impression that children gain as a result of certain historical events. Children are particularly limited, in comparison to adults, in their critical thinking and reasoning skills. The notable disparity in reasoning skills between children and adults is the reason that children are legally prohibited from gambling; children are, in most cases, incapable of making rational decisions in important situations. Moreover, the cognitive development difference between adults and children has been documented in science. Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, noted that children between the ages of 7 and 11 had developed logical reasoning skills, but were unable to apply these principles to unseen events. He named this stage the "concrete oper...

The Bible is undoubtedly more important than any other book produced. Even those who deny its divine nature must concede that no other book is comparable in its literary styles, impact or detail. No other text has had such a lasting effect on the world with Western Civilisation in particular.  The Bible contains a total of 66 books written in a plethora of literary styles and genres. This ranges from books of poetry inspired by joy and beauty, like the Song of Solomon to epistles outlining moral instructions like St Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. No other book, secular or religious, encompasses as many topics and styles as the Bible. Biblical poetry exemplifies the best of ancient literature with lines, "As the lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters." The Bible is a book that does well in illustrating its author's emotions. We find that biblical authors often describe their emotion towards both God and man, whether those emotions are posit...

A nation is not a plot of land with settlements upon it. In fact, I believe that a nation has little to do with any aspect of its geographical location. A nation is constituted of its people, its values and its traditions. When describing a nation, it is important we comment on its traditions rather than its geographical location. If we were to treat the geographical location as more important, then in a case when the people are exiled from their land, the nation ceases to exist. Historic accounts of exile prove that a nation is made up by its people. When the Israelites were exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem, Israel remained a nation; its people were still unified, its values were still upheld, and its traditions were observed. For this reason, I believe that any group of people worth calling a nation could be placed in any other environment and that there would be no reason to say that the nation had changed. The history of a nation is equally as important as its people; the histo...

Born to a merchant and a shopkeeper's daughter, circa to the year 1400, in Mainz, Germany, Johannes Gutenberg is known as the man who developed Europe's first movable-type printing press. His invention led to changes in attitudes toward religion and philosophy, ushered in a scientific revolution and, some might argue, laid the foundation for a society in which everyone had access to information and literature.  Gutenberg managed to achieve such a feat, as a result of his innovation, perseverance and entrepreneurial spirit.  His story is proof that great inventions are born from repeated failure, as opposed to success; he invented the printing press to offset the losses from a failed business venture selling mirrors. The purpose of this article is not to re-tell the story of Gutenberg's invention (although it must be the duty of historians to remind us of pioneers like Gutenberg). It is to examine both the immediate effect of his genius on the continent of Europe, and th...