Scopes Trial

The 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial

The Scopes Trial, also referred to as; The Scopes Monkey Trial or The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, was a legal case that occurred in 1925 that was judged by Judge John Raulston. The case revolved around a high school teacher named John Scopes, being accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it illegal to teach of human evolution in a state school. Shortly after the Butler Act was passed in 1925, The ACLU(American Civil Liberties Union) put an add in the newspaper saying they were looking for a teacher to challenge the Butler Act and John Scopes agreed to do so. The trial was staged on purpose in order to bring publicity to the town of Dayton, Tennessee and to provide a defendant for the case. The whole idea behind John Scopes incriminating himself was that by creating a controversial case involving education and government and also having big name lawyers; William Jennings Bryan, being the prosecutor and Clarence Darrow being the defense attorney for Scopes, awareness regarding the Fundamentalist-modernist controversy would be publicized. The Fundamentalist- modernist controversy was between Modernists, who believed that evolution is not inconsistent with religion and Fundamentalists, who believed the word of God triumphed over all human knowledge and were strictly opposed to Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution. A ton of attention was brought upon the town of Dayton, Tennessee because many reporters came to the town to cover the event because of the well-known lawyers working the case. William J. Bryan who was a Fundamentalist was trying to persecute Scopes and Clarence Darrow, a Modernist was defending Scopes. During the trial Darrow pointed out that The Tennessee Butler Act was Unconstitutional because it violated Freedom of religion. Judge Raulston still overruled the attempt made by Darrow to declare the Butler Act as unconstitutional, Raulston stated that "the government does not favor one religion or another and that American schools were not developed as areas for worship but were developed as places of Moral and mental development and discipline."Eventually Scopes was found guilty and fined 100$ but the verdict was overturned because the trial was seen as a "theological contest and a trial of whether evolution should be taught in schools or not." John Scopes was successful in drawing attention to the aspect of religious politics intervening with the education of modern science beliefs and The Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy and how Modernists and Fundamentalists were in a battle of educating people of their beliefs.





sources-
http://www.npr.org/2005/07/05/4723956/timeline-remembering-the-scopes-monkey-trial
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/evolut.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/08/2/l_082_01.html
http://frogmailblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/2nd-scopes-monkey-trial-is-coming.html

Triple alliance/ Central powers

The triple alliance was a military alliance formed in 1882 between Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy. This alliance was formed to ensure that if one of the countries were attacked the other countries would back them up. The formation of this alliance alerted other countries and caused the triple entente to form, an alliance between Russia, franc and Britain this alliance was similar to the triple alliance. The formation of these alliances along with Militarism, nationalism, imperialism and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand sparked WW1. France and Italy came to the agreement that in the case that one of the powers attacked the other, France or Italy would remain neutral with eachother. When Austria-Hungary attacked the triple entente countries, Italy refused to join because the would not participate in an offensive alliance because the triple alliance was designed to be a defensive alliance.  Later on Italy switched sides, to the triple entente, this changed the original formation of the alliance making it so they were no longer alliances consisting of only 3 countries and the triple entente was referred to as the allied powers and the triple alliance was referred to as the central powers from then on. The Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria eventually joined the central powers, many other countries including the US joined the Allied powers. Eventually the Allied powers won WW1.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/605722/Triple-Alliance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Alliance_(1882)