Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Views of Abdul Hamid II on politics and religion

When Abdul took over power, the European countries had already influenced the Ottoman Empire with secularization taking place in many sectors of the territory including politics and culture of the people. However, he immediately abolished the western culture by advocating for all Muslims and even for non-Muslims to join them into one Islamic state.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Views of Abdul Hamid II on politics and religion specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More He had ambitious objectives by uniting the Muslims because he had planned to them and the religion to enable him gain political powers especially over the European powers such as Russia. For instance, Abdul emphasized on counteraction of Russia’s efforts to influence the Balkans to free themselves from the Ottoman empire and join Christianity. However, his efforts failed as many Balkans were lost to the Europeans. He detested the Europeans and their Christianity such that he gave the Muslim leaders more powers so that they can be able to claim the Muslim population from the Europeans. Under the influence of Abdul, the unconverted Muslims became more reluctant to join Christianity but rather supported Abdul in his political activities. The presence of the European nations in the empire became a driving force for Pan-Islamism making it difficult for the Europeans to secularize the territory. However, the sultan later took over the position of Caliph as he was so determined to counter the secularization process in his empire. This gave him the opportunity to regain the powers of the Muslim leaders that had been lost due to the reforms that had taken place before he took over power. It is clear that sultan Abdul detested secularism n that is why he mobilized all Muslims against it not only to regain their culture but also to gain popularity politically especially in the European nations. Relations between Abdul and the European pow ers The relations between the Ottoman Empire and most European nations was not so easy but rather strained especially between France, Russia and UK. In his own opinion, Abdul demanded that his empire be treated as having equal powers with these European nations especially due to its high numbers of Muslims compared to Christians. Even though the sultan viewed his empire as modern, the Europeans always saw the empire as being uncivilized. However, Abdul had a different opinion of the Germans as he viewed them as possible allies to his empire. Abdul therefore developed a good relationship with the Germans as his empire hosted a number of German political leaders several times and some Germans were employed to help in reorganization of the empire as well with most of them being assigned to reorganize the finance sector of the empire. This made him to distrust his very own ministers and other political leaders as on the other hand, he promoted German’s friends especially with the construction of railways to allow accessibility of the empire and giving loans to the Germans to start operating in the Ottoman Empire. As this friendship continued and intensified, Abdul went to the extremes of giving Germans the Baghdad railway which they had always desired.Advertising Looking for essay on asian? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The result of Abdul’s actions towards Germans was the occurrence of World War I which was facilitated by the accessibility of the railway in question. Despite the fact that the empire had allied with German during the war, they were defeated and this became the cause of the empire’s fall during which time it dismantled (Chouinard, 2009, p. 1). Abdul’s conflicts with the Armenians Ever since sultan Abdul took over power, he always had low opinions of the Armenians as he described them as being from a lesser province which had been accused of many wrong doings. Und er Abdul’s rule, the Armenians were not able to exercise their rights like the other Ottoman civilians and this drove some Armenians especially those who were living in Europe and Russia to form association meant to fight for the right of their brothers back at home. Abdul even hired a military to deal with the Armenians in whatever way they wanted to including killing them. He also used his officials to oppress the Armenians especially in taxation rates. However, the Armenians were successful in their fight against the sultan’s regime which saw Abdul required to sign an agreement meant to terminate the oppression towards the Armenians. Despite all these efforts by the Armenians, the signed agreement was, however, never implemented and this made the Armenians gather to request for its implementation but sultan Abdul could not allow them so he sent Ottoman police to disperse the crowd. Soon after this, the Armenian killings occurred where a large number of Armenians wer e killed. As the empire’s sultan, Abdul II did not put efforts to try and stop the massacre and this failure to take action towards such humanity as well as his opinion towards the Armenians made him a primary suspect in ordering the killings although there was no prove that he did. This made Abdul appear as a dangerous assassin to the Europeans as well as a bloody sultan to the Armenians. Changes in the Ottoman Empire during Abdul’s rule Despite the fact that secularization by the European had already occurred when Abdul took over power as the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, he was able to get back the powers that the Muslim leaders had before the modernization. However, through his reforms, he destroyed the empires financial status leaving no public finances in the treasury something that the Europeans had improved for the better. As a result, national debts increased drastically and this forced him to seek assistance from foreigners in order to settle the debts. With time, the empire’s financial accounts were given over to the foreigners who had large bond shares in the empire’s revenue.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Views of Abdul Hamid II on politics and religion specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Abdul could be said to be selfish because during his succession as the sultan, he got to a point where he reduced the powers of his ministers to low levels such as secretary positions and took the administration of the Ottoman Empire all to himself so that he could control the every aspect of the empire. As a result, general disagreements within the empire increased especially with the Armenians and Greeks who lived in the Empire not satisfied with Abdul’s rule and decisions. Due to his desire to have authority over the empire and to bring in a new constitution made him loose trust in the supporters of reforms on the Ottoman navy and he ended up locking the l argest fleet in the Ottoman empire something which made his territory lose its territories overseas not only during his time as the sultan but even afterwards. Basically, the economy as well as the social life of the Ottoman people was destroyed during Abdul II’s rule as the sultan of the empire (Ahmed, 2010, p. 1). Reference List Ahmed, N. (2010). Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Retrieved from https://historyofislam.com/contents/resistance-and-reform/sultan-abdul-hamid-ii/ Chouinard, A. (2009). A response to Tanzimat: Sultan Abdul Hamid II and Pan-Islamism. Retrieved from http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/252/a-response-to-tanzimat-sultan-abdul-hamid-ii-and-pan-islamism This essay on Views of Abdul Hamid II on politics and religion was written and submitted by user Keith Ashley to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Friday, March 6, 2020

United States and Taiwan Education System Reform †Education Essay

United States and Taiwan Education System Reform – Education Essay Free Online Research Papers United States and Taiwan Education System Reform Education Essay In both United States, and Taiwan, education accounts a large portion of public government expenditure and gross domestic product. In Taiwan, the education spending was 19.76 percent of government spending and 4.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2002. Table 1 and table 2 show the public expenditures on education as a percentage of total public expenditure or of GDP in U.S., and Taiwan. The government investment in education is important, because the education is the way that ensures the national global comparativeness, and nation performance. The investment in education does not mean throwing as much money as government can. Government should invest money in education wisely, which means the government should spend money on education in term to improve its weaknesses. Charter school was an innovative education practice that was brought up to the education reform in U.S., where government can spend its education expenditure wisely. Overall, the charter school program is beneficial to the education system in United States. Learning the charter school in U.S. could bring some knowledge to education reform in Taiwan. Background of Charter Schools as School Choice in U.S. Education Reform The education expenditure is primarily a State and local responsibility in the United States. This structure of education finance in U.S. reflects the predominant State and local role, where States and communities can establish schools and colleges, develop all courses, and determine requirements for enrollment and graduation. For the school year 2004 to 2005, of an estimated 909 billion dollars being spent nationwide on education at all levels, and about 90 percent came from State, local, and other private sources. Even the Federal contribution to nation education expenditure only counts a small portion; it still plays a role in the education system. The Federal role in education as a kind of emergency response system, which means it fills gaps in State and local support for education when critical national needs arise. As the analysis states in the introduction that U.S. has spent an increased portion of government expenditure in education from year to year in the past decade. This increased portion did not accompany with an increased education performance. Some researches have showed that student’s education achievement in U.S. was placed at the bottom compared to other OECD countries and non-OECD countries. Table 3 and tables 4 show the education achievements in different academic area by country. Also, the research had showed that student global comparativeness in U.S. was place in bottom third in an international study. Under this spending more and lower performance situation, school choice was created as an education reform. School choice is part of the strategy to give every child an excellent education with wisely spending money on education. Somehow school choice can be defined as empowering parents to select the educational environment they feel is best for their children, and in o ther words, school choice is parental choice. Also, school choice program is primarily comprised of tools that allow students to attend any public schools within or outside of their local school district. Hence, a lot of tools had developed in the charter school program to achieve those goals, and one of them is the charter school. Charter schools, initiated in 1992 and was firstly introduced by Minnesota State, have played an immerse role in U.S. education reform. As of October 2005, there had been authorized in 40 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, and nearly 3,600 charter schools are operating across the United States, serving close to one million students in these locations. Charter school is the new pioneering work under the U.S. education system, and it is the product under the education reform that emphasizes on deregulation and flexibility. Charter schools are independent public schools, privately management and publicly government funded, designed to encourage innovative education practice, and provide choices for parents and greater accountability for results. Charter schools, which have no difference from public schools, can not deny admission of any student as long as seats are available. Charter schools allow parents, community leaders, educational entrepreneurs, and others the fle xibility to innovate and provide students with increased educational options within the public system. Under this phenomenon, charter schools are freed from many state statutory and regulatory requirements of public schools, and state legislations give charter schools a high degree of autonomy over the system of charter school. In exchange for this increased autonomy, charter schools are held accountable for improving students’ academic achievement. In other words, the objective of charter schools is to replace rules-based governance with performance-based accountability. Again, charter school is primarily funded by State and local, where teachers, parents, community groups or private organizations want to apply a charter school should write the proposal that includes the organization and management of the school and standards, assessments and curriculums to state education department. Once get approved and granted, they receive up to 3 to 5 years of assistance, in period tha t the charter schools have to achieve the terms of their charter. Under several years operating, there are a growing number of people find interesting, and researches show positives confirmation of charter school program. First one is that researchers found charter school could help State meet budget challenges. Charter school program is one of the education reforms that could save money and provide improved education service. Due to the flexibility of the charter schools, schools can be established at any existing capital units, like factories, offices, and grocery stores. The usage of the existing capital as charter school, can save the expense of building additional school spaces, though reduce the spending on charter school plans. According to recent surveys of the nation’s charter schools, the average per pupil cost is $4,507, which is significantly less than the $7,000 average in traditional public schools, and charters are forced to use that money to underwrite facilities costs not included in traditional public schools’ opera ting budgets. From the study of school finance in Dayton, the research showed that the ten charter schools included in this analysis received $7,510 per pupil in 2001 to 2002 while the Dayton public school system received $10,802, not counting capital funds for the construction and renovation of building, funds now showering down in vast sums upon the system, though not on charter schools. Another positive affirmation for charter school is that the existing of charter schools can induce the competition with public schools. From my point of view, the competition situation is based on the greater achievements of charter school which will attract more students to enroll, and the money flows away from public schools. Decreasing enrollments in public schools is accompanied with losing funds. Thus most likely, public schools will respond to competition from charter schools by raising their pupil’s achievement. In the form of competition, public schools will improve its productivity and quality, and this improvement benefits to students. Small class size is another positive factor of charter school. Research had showed that public schools usually have higher student to teacher ratio compared with charter schools. Table 5 shows the students to teachers ratio for charter schools and public schools. From the table, the outcome is that class sizes at charter schools were likely to be smaller when compared to other public schools at schools that served younger students. Charter schools that served high-school students tended to have class sizes that were the same or larger than other public schools. Overall, the lower students to teachers ratio is a positive factor of students to academic achievement. Education Reform Proposal in Taiwan Summary Charter school is an innovative education practice, which has some significant specialties. First, charter school’s role in the education reform is independent public school, which qualified with pubic school characters as equitable and low tuition fee, and qualified with private school character as emphasized on management outcomes. Second, charter school works under great autonomy, and flexibilities that are accountable with education. Third, the competition induced by the charter school motivates public schools on improving its productivity and quality. The education spending on charter school is lower compared to public school. Research Papers on United States and Taiwan Education System Reform - Education EssayStandardized TestingInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationResearch Process Part OnePETSTEL analysis of IndiaPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyHip-Hop is ArtBringing Democracy to AfricaRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andQuebec and Canada