Oliver Cromwell - Hero!
Feb. 13th, 1998
     In England during the 1700's, there was a revolution of immense proportions.  The commoners and lower class nobles (members of parliament, etc.) overthrew the monarchy and changed the whole system of governement.  Their leader was Oliver Cromwell, a man of determination and high moral standards, as well as a man of action.  He worked towards what he thought was best for his country, sometimes at the risk of his own life, in the metaphorical and literal sense.  In short, he was a hero.

     Cromwell saw a problem in his country and wanted to fix it for the betterment of all residents.  Not only did he see a solution to this problem, he took action to achieve that solution.  When he saw that the king was a tyrant, stubbron and concerned more with what was good for himself than what was good for his people, Cromwell decided that the king's power needed to be restricted.  Better yet, getting rid of the monarchy altogether would prevent the country from being ruled by a tyrant ever again, in Cromwell's opinion. So, he took the hero's role and led the English revolt against the monarchy.

     After this revolution, Cromwell led the country.  During his leadership, he continued to do what he thought was best for the country.  He saw England as a nation divided between Puritans and regular Anglicans.  In order to try to bring them together and create peace among the English people, he supported the Enlightenment idea of religious toleration.  But after awhile, he saw that this was not having any effect on the situation, no positive effect anyway, and decided there was no point in bothering with it any longer.

      By this time, the country was so divided that there wasn't much he could do.  Ultimately, the new system of government under Cromwell's leadership failed.  Yet, this failure was benficiary to many countries afterwards.  Cromwell's was the first government ever to run without a monarch, and it was created with the country's best interests in mind.  It served as a model to improve upon for other countries wanting and/or needing a new government system.

     Through this, it is evident that Cromwell achieved many great things in his lifetime, and was one of the few men in history to take action to solve the problems he saw, instead of just wishing, watching and waiting.  In this way, the man was a hero.
Written for Social Studies 20 class
Mark:  9/10
Handwritten legnth: almost 2 pages