Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great of Macedonia
By Rachel
1/27/10

Alexander the Great was born in the year 356 BC. His father was King Phillip of Macedonia, and when Phillip was murdered, twenty year old Alexander became king. Alexander was a brilliant king. He began studying under Aristotle at the age of thirteen and Alexander kept up his studies until the age of eighteen, when he is proclaimed a general by his father. When Phillip dies, Alexander was proclaimed king, and he set off to conquer Persia, which was ruled by king Darius. Alexander never lost a single battle in combat in his life. He suffered along with his troops through everything they went through. After only three years of war with Persia, Darius is killed and Alexander is crowned king of all Persia. After winning Persia, Alexander traveled to Egypt, which used to belong to Persia, and was crowned Pharaoh by the Egyptians. While he was in Egypt, Alexander started believing that he was the son of Zeus, not Phillip. Alexander grew so haughty that his men almost rebelled against him. But, when he threatened to replace his Greek and Macedonian army with one of Persians, Alexander’s men immediately repented and begged his forgiveness. After Alexander’s crowning in Egypt, he set off to take Babylonia and India. Once he had taken control of Babylonia, he was going to go home, but when he glimpsed the forests of India, he forced his men to go with him to conquer it. After the first battle, Alexander’s men forced him to allow him to let them go home, because they had not seen their wives or their children in many years. So, Alexander turned his army around and they started journeying back to Macedonia. However, along the way, Alexander, the mighty warrior king and ruler of the known world, sickened and died. Alexander was the most skilled general in war that we know of, and his conquests will always be remembered.

Hysteric History

Marie Antoinette
By Rachel Donka

Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna, Austria in 1755.
She was the youngest girl in her family and was the favorite of the Emperor Francis I and his wife Maria Theresa.
When she was 15, Marie Antoinette married the French dauphin. 4 years later, in 1774, Lois XVI became king of France and Marie queen.
Marie Antoinette was bored with court life. To amuse herself, she would gamble, go to masked parades, and attend balls every night. She bought diamond necklaces and Jewelry quite often and spent a lot of money on every outing she made.
Lois XVI was constantly getting complaints from the people about her reckless money spending, because it was paid for from France’s treasury, but when he asked her to stop, she said “Don’t you want me to be happy?” and flounced off in an offended way.
Meanwhile, France’s people were becoming even unhappier. Marie Antoinette realized the threat to Lois XVI reign, so she convinced him to try to flee to her home land of Austria with her.
In the middle of the night, Marie and Lois stole away in a carriage headed for Austria, but the driver recognized Lois XVI and they had to go back to the palace.
When Marie Antoinette got back to the palace, she started sending letters to enemy countries of France with important military info in them hoping that she would get help in return to flee. The people suspected Marie of treason, and on August 10, they threw the royal family in prison. On January 21, 1793, Lois XVI was beheaded. Just 10 months later, on October 10, 1793, Marie Antoinette was tried, found guilty, and beheaded. This was the end of the French monarchy

Hysteric History

The Salem Witch Trials
By Rachel

The Salem Witch Trials caused a lot of hysteria in Salem Town and Salem Village. Innocent people were accused of being witches every day. The jails were always full of innocent men, women, and even children.
The Salem Witch trials were a time in history when everyone was in hysterics. Many things contributed to this terrible event. Puritan culture was very strict at the time and girls were only to do their chores and never play and have fun. For Anne Putnam and her friends, this was very true.
They had fun listening to Anne’s servant Tituba tell them stories and show them future telling games. This was against the puritan laws. When the girls started going in to fits, they screamed out three names and Tituba was one of them. When she was tried for witch craft, she faked a confession saying she did it and that there were other witches in Salem. This is one of the reasons.
The witch hysteria was used by the church to control the people and get them to do what the church wanted. They said that if you did certain things, you wouldn’t fall ill.
When people did fall ill, mostly they blamed the Quakers. Quakers don’t go to church and puritans believed that that was a sin. Puritans never learned to accept the Quakers, and when someone fell ill, it was easiest to blame someone who no one liked, so Quakers were blamed for no reason.
The Salem witch trials caused a lot of hysteria and no one was safe from being accused. Innocent people were accused of being witches just because either they were not liked, or they had a low social standard. The Salem Witch trials condemned many people to death.

Catastrophic Colonies

Rhode Island
By Rachel
The Rhode Island colony was founded in 1636 by a man named Roger Williams. He was a prime minister for the Massachusetts colony, but he didn’t like the strict laws the Puritans had and if you didn’t follow the Puritan religion exactly, they through you out of the colony. Roger Williams and five of his followers tried to start a colony what he thought was outside the Plymouth colony’s boundaries, but when he found out that it wasn’t, Roger had to move again. They moved to what is now Rhode Island and purchased the land from the Indians. Once the colony was set up, many settlers started arriving. They came for religious freedom, and in 1644, Rhode Island gained a Royal Charter saying that it was its own colony.