Many people sometimes have a hard time distinguishing who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. It is a matter of the act they perform and how they perform it. The good guys are always the hero and the bad guys are always well, the bad guy. The bad guy may think the act he is doing is good, but to everyone else it is bad. In history, there are many, many good and bad guys that have either helped their country or ruined their city.
Charlemagne was one of the good guys. He inherited Western Europe from his brother who had just died ("Historical"). Charlemagne inherited the kingdom when the kingdom was falling. Everyone had forgotten about education and the arts ("Historical"). Charlemagne decided to conquer barbarians and restore the culture of the kingdom ("Historical"). To strengthen the kingdom, he decided to go on a thirty-year campaign to conquer people and convert them to Christianity ("Historical"). Charlemagne’s campaigns were very peaceful and he avoided fighting as much as possible unless the victims were resisting ("Historical"). After all of his campaigns, Charlemagne’s kingdom reached France, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, half of present-day Italy and Germany, some of Austria, and the Spanish March ("Historical"). By conquering all of these places he created a central government in Western Europe and revived most of the Roman Empire ("Historical"). Because Charlemagne was such a great leader, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III ("Historical"). After he became emperor, he made sure he helped the peasants and one's who weren't as wealthy ("Historical"). Two of Charlemagne's major achievements were spreading Christianity and education to everyone and not just the wealthy people ("Historical"). Charlemagne also brought back the arts by bringing art pieces from Italy and putting them in his Cathedral that he built ("Historical").
Vikings were considered the bad guys who went around killing everyone that they wanted. Everyone hated the Vikings because they just went around killing people. To the Vikings, the raids were normal and were usually done when there were problems in their society ("Hurstwic"). The Vikings also thought that the raids they performed were honorable and made them to be more wealthy and famous ("Hurstwic"). To obtain the items they wanted from the people they might burn down their house to take the goods they had that were reasonable to take on their ships ("Hurstwic"). The Vikings also took people has "loot" when they went on raids ("Hurstwic"). The first major Viking raid was against a monastery in Lindisfarne ("Hurstwic"). The Vikings knew that the people of the monastery could not defend themselves, so they attacked it. The monastery had a lot of money and valuable items, so the Vikings attacked them to get the wealth. ("Hurstwic"). Most of the attacks made by the Vikings were on the victims who could not really defend themselves ("Hurstwic"). The only real reasons that the Vikings raided was for fame, fortune, and revenge ("Hurstwic"). The raids left many people killed and places in ruins. The Vikings only raided for their pure pleasure to obtain the three achievements of fame, fortune, and revenge.
History is formed by all the good people and the bad people of the world. They have all shaped history to be how it is today. The good guys help most everyone around them to better, like Charlemagne giving everyone a chance to excel at learning. The bad guys, like the Vikings, have their stretch, but then it eventualy ends. The bad guys, however, do bad things to change the world, but there are always good guys to help balance it out.
"The Historical Charlemagne." UCLA Humanities Web Server. Web. 19 Mar. 2010. http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/Santiago/histchrl.html
"Hurstwic: Viking Raids." Hurstwic, a Viking Age Living History Society. Web. 19 Mar. 2010. http://www.hurstwic.org/history/text/history.htm
"File:Charlemagne.jpg -." Wikimedia Commons. Web. 19 Mar. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlemagne.jpg
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