The Thirty Years War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Thirty Years War - Essay Example Later, the war turned into a rather general conflict involving France and the Hapsburg poweri. As mentioned earlier, the war was spread in phases over the period from the year 1618 to 1648. Initially, there was a treaty called Peace of Augsburg signed in 1555 which brought temporary peace in regards to religious competition in the state of Germany. However, the treaty only recognized the Lutherans and Roman Catholic. Despite this, the Cal-vines had made gains in a number of states and consequently began to demand recognition of their rights and acceptance of their ways of life. In 1617, Ferdinand of Styria was the king of the Bohemian Kingdom and was an ardent supporter of numerous Catholic missions. This did not go well with the Calvinists because they feared that under Ferdinand rule they would be oppressed and their rights would not be recognized. The Calvinists went ahead and threw two Catholics from a building, seventy feet tall, as a show of their dissatisfaction with the king. Fortunately, the two Catholics just sustained minor injuries as they fell on a pile of manure. But this action led to the Catholics invading Bohemia which was a Calvinist strong hold. The conflict resulted into war ending with Catholics winning and Calvinists losing and sustaining heavy and multiple casualties1. Another significant period of the war was between 1625 and 1629 in Denmark where the Protestants went into battle with the Catholics. During this phase, the war claimed many casualties and a significant destruction of property from both sides. In the end, the Catholics claimed victory and installed their king who continued the unpopular policies directed towards oppressing non-Catholics. This alarmed those Christians who viewed this as sheer absurdity and ways of oppressing fellow man. As a result, the Protestants cooperated came together all over Europe with an aim of championing their rights and revolting against the dominant Catholic majority ii. The entire period of the thirty years war was characterized by many religious conflicts in many European countries and empires. However, the saddest thing was that, besides causing psychological harm, it also claimed many lives and led to massive destruction of property and infrastructure. Therefore, the war considerably affected the lives of many Europeans. According to statistics, it reduced the population of German states by about 25% with the male population being reduced to half. The destruction was also aided by diseases and famines in different regions all over Europe. It was hard to feed the masses as there was no time to cultivate hence significantly reducing the food supplies. Diseases were also hard to treat as there were no properly organized supplies of medicine and medical personnel. Furthermore, the hostility between different groups resulted in blocking of supply routes as rivals did all they could to cut supply to opposing sides. The destruction was also catalyzed by the expulsion of oppos ing religious groups from the regions where they were the minority. For instance, Protestants were expelled from Czech land; an action which reduced the population of the land by a third. The destruction was quite severe that the regions that were hard hit by the war took centuries to recover. Despite the thirty years war largely being religious inclined, it also involved political supremacy and conquest. This is because many rulers looked forward to taking advantage of the weakened regions to conquered them and spread their dominance.

Eating Habits Among Teenagers Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Eating Habits Among Teenagers - Research Paper Example These two programs bring into the consciousness of the American public the fact that childhood obesity has become quite a problem. Statement of the Problem According to the American Heart Association (2012) childhood obesity is still a problem in the United States. One in six children, ages two to 19 are obese and one in three are considered overweight. Further, children who are obese have a 70% of becoming obese adults. Unfortunately, these statistics are higher for this age group than they were in the 1970s. Part of the challenge is that children are exposed to more fast food choices and junk food than in other generations (Salvy, de la Haye, Bowker, and Hermans, 2012). Obese children also have a tendency to associate with other obese children which makes it difficult for obese children to understand that they are obese (Salvy et al., 2012). Dorfman and Wootan (2012) add that children are exposed to a variety of adds for fast foods and other unhealthy foods, which contributes to th e problem. Also, children generally eat what their parents eat, and if parents have poor eating habits, their children also have poor eating habits (Dorman & Wootan, 2012). What is clear, is that there must be something that changes the way that Americans think about food and how they teach about food to their children. Also, the entire community must be involved in order to understand how to curb this problem (â€Å"Let’s Move†, 2012). Literature Review Much of the literature has studied childhood obesity as a whole and has not specifically separated teen eating habits from the rest of the literature. Several studies have also been done regarding the specific causes of obesity without providing an idea of interventions. Some of the literature shows the relationship between the parents’ attitudes about food and how they influence the way that the teen eats. Honisett, Woolcock, Porter, & Hughes (2009) reported on a program in Australia called, Kids - 'Go for your life', in which the creators of the program brought together primary school, early childhood services, family daycare programs and kindergartens to teach them about healthy eating and physical activity. The way the program brought these agencies together was to provide a membership (free) that provided resources, training, and a reward program. When the organization goes through the program and makes a commitment to promoting healthier schools, they also receive a sign to place at their front door to show they are committed to healthy eating and physical activity so that the community will also know. Sealy (2010) points out that children begin to understand eating habits from their parents, and often, parents rely on fast food when they have little money or when they are rushed. Backett-Milburn, Wills, Roberts, and Lawton (2010) also interviewed teens and found that parents controlled what children ate at home. Coppinger, Jeanes, Hardwick, & Reeves (2012) found that teenagerâ€℠¢s eating habits varied between genders. For example, the authors found that boys are more prone to eat junk food or other unhealthy food than girls. The authors also found a connection between BMI and a child’s breakfast consumption. If the child ate breakfast regularly, they had â€Å"significantly lower BMI Z scores† (p. 46) than those who did not. Older boys were less likely to eat breakfast than other children. The literature on eating habits of teenagers is not restricted to the United States. In fact, much of the