Fascination in Ancient Egypt - 1100 Words

Fascination in Ancient Egypt (Essay Sample) Content: Name Professor Course Date Fascination in Ancient Egypt Introduction The modern society, particularly the American Society, has a long fascination by the accomplishments of the ancient civilization in Egypt. The fascination was first visible in 1782 when the Congress endorsed the design of the Great Seal. This design is today on the dollar bill. The Great Seal highlights an eye of God watching over the country from the top of the Great Pyramid. Moreover, in the mid-1800s, the United States built the obelisk, an Egyptian-style monument in honor of the first American president George Washington. Currently, this statue stands out as the tallest obelisk in the world, besides, being one of the famous symbols of the United States. These two examples underline the fascination in the Egyptian civilization, in spite of the Egyptian civilization being about five thousand years old. Whereas the presence of this fascination underscores the appreciation of human diversity that ex isted in the primitive ages, some elements of Egyptian civilization attempt to explain this fascination. These elements are their religion, their afterlife, exceptional contribution to architecture, art and sculpture, medicine as well as astronomy and mathematics. For this reason, the essay explains why humans are fascinated with the Ancient Egypt based on Egyptian religion, afterlife, contribution to architecture, art and sculpture, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. The primary elements that explain the current societal fascination by the ancient Egypt are their contribution to architecture, art, and sculpture, medicine, astronomy and mathematics. At the outset, the contemporary society fascination in ancient Egypt attributes to the immense contribution of the ancient Egyptian civilization to architecture. Evidently, architecture is the greatest landmark of the ancient Egyptian civilization to the modern world. The ancient Egyptians during the Middle Ages in the Third Dynasty introduced the planning of the public project, which marked the advent of the modern architecture. The ancient Egyptians engaged in designing and creation of masonry structures, which attributed to their vast knowledge of mathematics. The first recorded architecture and philosopher in human history was Imhotep, who was the designer and creator of the first pyramid. This pyramid was at Sakkara in the reign of King Djoser. The contribution in the modern field of architecture by the ancient Egyptians include planning of the societies and public project, the creation of pyramids, the designing of columns, the vault as well as the artificial pools (Oppenheim, Dorothea, Dieter and Kei 62). These contributions are the basis of modern architecture as well as the current structures such as buildings. The modern society has borrowed immensely from this civilization hence the fascination. Secondly, the contribution of ancient Egyptian civilization in art and sculpture is another reason for the fascination in the ancient Egypt. According to Oppenheim, Dorothea, Dieter and Kei (62), the ancient Egyptian civilization was famous for their expressive art evident in paintings, sculptures, and relief. The ancient Egyptians combined worldly activities and affairs because of having hope in the afterlife. Their art was expressive because of being representational of their deeply held beliefs. To the ancient Egyptians, there was only semblance to death in an instance of life signs ceasing because human still existed. For this reason, mummification, painted images, statues and statuettes, tomb painting, and bas-reliefs perpetuated the afterlife. Moreover, they engaged in creating of scarabs, amulets, seals, decorative objects, and jewelry. These forms of art have had an immense contribution to the modern art, which heavily borrows from the ancient Egyptian culture (Bauval and Thomas 124). Persons interested in art and sculptures are fascinated with the ancient Egypt because of th eir influence on the modern art and sculpture. Another reason explaining the fascination in ancient Egypt is the contribution of the ancient Egyptian civilization to medicine. Medicine contribution is one of the critical early scientific contributions of ancient Egyptian civilization to the history of humans. Kerr (28) states that documented archives such as Ebers Papyrus, the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, and the Berlin Papyrus reveal the existence of titles of Egyptian physicians along with their specialization fields. Moreover, the civilization of classical world and ancient Near East recognized the reputation and ability of Ancient Egyptians in pharmacology and medicine. The Egyptians influenced the Greeks in medicine and pharmacology evident on prescriptions and remedies. This influence in the field of medicine explains the fascination by practitioners in the modern society medicine who understand the defining role that the ancient Egypt played in medicine. The fourth reason explaining the fascination with ancient Egypt attributes to their contribution to mathematics. The success of the massive ancient Egyptian architectural and sculptural monuments depended on mathematics evident in accurate measurements. Two critical mathematical papyri are from the Middle Kingdom, which are Moscow and ÉŒhind papyri. Ancient Egyptian mathematics was under three headings, which were algebra, geometry, and arithmetic. The Greek writers Strabo and Herodotus concurred that geometry was an invention of the Egyptians. This influence forms the basis of the modern day mathematics (Oppenheim, Dorothea, Dieter and Kei 63). The fifth element explaining the fascination in the ancient Egypt attributes to their contribution to astronomy. In spite of the reality that the input of the ancient Egypt to astronomy was minimal, it is observable that their contribution was in the introduction of the Egyptian calendar year with three seasons of four months each. The calendar had 365 days, which is the basis of the modern calendar (Kerr 30). From the time of Napoleonic expedition in Egypt, it was apparent that pyramids had four f...

United States Policy Towards Vietnam Between 1954 - 1965 - 825 Words

Development Of United States Policy Towards Vietnam Between 1954 - 1965 (Research Paper Sample) Content: Americas War Policy: Vietnam between 1954 and 1965.NameInstitutional AffiliationThe Vietnam War was a fight of ideology rather than a show of a countrys might. The northern part had a communist ideology. The southern part was initially supported by France, but later France paved the way for the United States and had a capitalist ideology (Walker, 2014). This is because of the subsequent defeat of French by the Viet Minh. By 1954, many leaders were killed by the French or had joined the Communists in the North. Ngo Dinh Diem was the ablest candidate that could handle the leadership role. He was made Prime Minister of South Vietnam in June 1954. The United States had different perspectives of the Vietnam struggle. Firstly in their point of view, it was the North against the French, then the North against the South (Walker, 2014). And finally they saw it had the further spread of communism, so they had to stop it. The following events signify the development of the unite d States policy towards Vietnam between 1954 and 1965.The Agroville or Strategic Hamlet Program. This policy was initiated when the leadership of Diem deteriorated. Diem was a Catholic. In most instances he favored the Catholics over the Buddhists. He went against the Geneva Convention and embraced the guidance and advice of the United States. Diem was keen though not to be made a puppet of the United States. He was more monarchical than democratic and believed in own ideology known as Personalism (Wiest, 2006).In this ideology, he concentrated more on family and social groups. By appointing his brother and sister to be leaders and favoring only one religion, mainly the population was alienated. The only control he had was Central Vietnam and fellow Catholics. America saw this being a very small region for their mega plan. To win more people, they went for Strategic Hamlet Plan, which was successful with the British in Malaysia. In this policy, the peasants were relocated to a certa in village where there would be limited entry and exit of communists for influence. The policy, however, failed because of incompetence and extensive use of force (Dunbabin, 2014).The boost of the South Vietnamese army. Just before the elections in 1956, the north had just fought the French and were arming up again. They had anticipated a fall of Diem because of his unpopularity. Americans could not wait for this to happen. Thus, they decided to give military aid to the South and conducted some campaigns contrary to Vietminh cells to make sure the anticipated elections do not take place. That plan was a success to the United States.The coup to remove Diem. During Buddhas birthday, some monks and Catholics flew flags in celebration. Diem killed the Buddhist monks and spared the Catholics. This action was not received well by the then American President John Kennedy, who was angered by the decision by Diem. He saw this as an enhancement to separation rather than the integration they s ought. President Kennedy, therefore, ordered the removal of Diem to power. On first November 1963, the coup succeeded, and Diem was replaced by Saigon's Special Forces commander. However, this led to the assassination of President Kennedy three weeks later (Senauth, 2012).Further increase of troops in the region and conducting operations. Lyndon B Johnson succeeded President Kennedy following his assassination. Despite his domestic nature, he was also provoked by the Gulf of Tonkin incident that challenged him. He was not to be seen as going soft  on the communists. He, therefore, increased the number of the American army on the ground to 15000. He further got the congressional green light to protect all American troops in Vietnam by any means possible following the incident. An action by the North that led to the killing of 8 Americans was enough challenge to Johnson, who ordered the kick-off of Operation Flaming Dart that later changed to Operation Rolling Thunder. Later on, he increased the number of troops to 200000 (Walker, 2014).Persuasion for the adoption of the pacification program. Due to drafting a constitution by Khanh in 1964, South Vietnamese were angered. This led to a series of coups that took place making General Nguyen Van Thieu the eventual President of South Vietnam. During and before Thieus time, there was rampant corruption. This was an advantage to the Viet Cong as they could replace government officials in the rural with their loyalists.Following this, the Americans tried to convince Thieu and his vice Ky to adopt the Pacification Program. This was so as to win the people of South Vietnam. Under this program, the United States would offer security and also develop the rural South Vietnam. However, this did not take place immediately because America was at war by that time (Daddis, 2014).The strategy of attrition. The methodology was to weaken the North by a series of attack on their bases adopted by General Westmoreland. In 1965, the United States had put all they could in the war from the army to the air force. All this was an affirmation that communism was not to win at all cost and also to defend the South Vietnamese government. North Vietnam received military support from the Soviet Union and China.On the other hand, South Vietnam received major support from the Unite...