Peasants Dbq Essay Example

wanted to make the revolts more action and may have not told m but this is a reliable source because he was actually at the city and saw what happened (P. O. V). Not every person during this time period had positive responses to the revolts.

Many leaders like Martin Luther, Leonhard von Eck, Caspar Nutzel, and many town councils saw that these revolts were very bad. One writer says that the peasants are going against the gospel and are acting like devils (doc 7). This document is bias because Martin Luther was protected by the princes and not killed so he is always going to support the prince no matter what he believes (POV). Another writer says the same thing about the peasants; that they are unchristian and unreasonable for revolting (doc 9).

One writer says that he did not want to join the peasant revolt but had to because no help was sent to the nobles and they did not want to be killed (doc10). This is a plea for leniency which means he is trying to prove that what he did was not bad and that could cause him to stretch the truth so this document is not reliable (POV). This writer explains how the peasants have no reason to revolt and they relate there revolts to the Word of God (doc 1). A cause of these Peasant Revolts was greed. Many people during this time wanted more money and wealth.

From a town council’s view, the peasants were asking freedom from serfdom but they did not want to give it to them because serfdom earned the town council money; however, they did say that

if they wanted to be free, they had to pay a reasonable amount of money which most likely was a lot of money (doc 4). This document is reliable because it is a reply from the town council which most likely shows that they are higher than peasants in social class and it shows how the only thing they cared about was money (POV).

Also in another writing, a report was given saying that the peasants wanted the rich to share the wealth to the poor and wanted to revolt to get that (doc 8). This document is reliable because it was a secret report and in secret reports a person would be honest (POV). One writer states that because of unawareness and uncaring of the nobility, peasants are now robbing them and burning houses down because they want wealth and since the peasants eaten all that was in the monasteries and drank up all that was available, they begin to attack the nobility (doc 11).

Documents 2,3,5,6 illustrate the positive responses. Documents 1, 7,9,10 illustrate negative responses. Documents 4, 8, and 11 show that cause of the revolts were about money and greed. Toward the final stages of the revolts, Emperor Charles V’s officials gave a Diet about how they are going to stop these revolts and create peace once again in Germany (doc 12).