Sunday, November 24, 2019

A Comparison of Imperial Systems in the 16th and 17th Centuries essays

A Comparison of Imperial Systems in the 16th and 17th Centuries essays Though they were all designed for the purpose of establishing and controlling massive colonization, the imperial systems of France, Spain, and England in the 16th and 17th centuries were vastly different. There were many reasons for these differences. These reasons range from the philosophy of the countrys rulers to purely geographic purposes to the personalities of the settlers themselves. The colonial systems also had different reasons for their existence, based on the political situation in the countries. Like most other things in life, the push towards colonial empires was powered by a greed for wealth. During the timeframe of this paper, mercantilism was the predominant economic theory. This theory states that the power of a country is directly proportional to the amount of wealth stored within its treasury. This wealth was acquired through trade. Towards the end of the 15th century, Spain was searching for a way to replentish its treasury, which had been wiped out by war. In an attempt to recover this wealth through expanded trade, Spain sent an expedition to find a fast trade route to the far east, where Marco Polo had encountered miraculous items of wealth one hundred years before. Unlike previous explorers who had searched for faster trade routes, the leader of this expedition would head West. In the process, he would stumble upon what would become the Americas, and lay the groundwork for permanent European settlement. It is important to keep in mind that the Spanish did not see the American Colonies as the future home for many of its citizens, they were simply there to extract wealth and ship it home to fill the Spanish treasuries. This fact is what allowed the Spanish to get along with the locals. They had no desire to flush the natives out to clear room for more settlers from Europe. In fact, the Spanish practiced Encomienda, in which all natives in their colonies were considered full and equal citizens of th...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

The Art of Skill Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Art of Skill - Essay Example The camera claimed supreme ability to recreate reality, and accordingly art took different direction. Taking cues from Duchamp and Warhol, the artist Jeffrey Koons developed a style of art that was completely unreliant upon personal skill and instead relied upon reproduction and appropriation. Several reasons for the devaluing of skill in art include the rise of such artists as Koons who intentionally create art that is made without skill. Beech also states that contemporary art itself is involved in taking skills way from artists. While Beech does not view Koons in such a way of devaluing skills, I wish to argue to the contrary in part of my overall argument. Beyond Beech’s argument, I would also like to state that it is part the mass production of various artists in universities that is devaluing skill to an extent. In discussing an exhibit by Jeffrey Koons, the reviewer Lynne Cooke notes that Koons sculptures were â€Å"executed by highly skilled craftsmen in small factories in Italy working, under the supervision of the artist, to two dimensional images which Koons provided as models† (246). Notice that the reviewer states that the craftsmen were â€Å"highly skilled.† This is interesting to note, especially when considering that an artist can achieve fame without being able to create the artwork himself. The people who actually put the physical labor into creating the pieces were simply called craftsmen. In considering this, we can see how actual skill in art is held at no value. The people with the skill who were involved with the project were not artists. They simply handled the technical aspects of the creation of the pieces. Ideologically speaking, it is not necessary in any way for the artist to be skilled in any way in order to be successful. Perhaps it is because Koons i s unskilled that he is has the success to the extent that he does. Koons is by far one of the most