JOURNAL 16th November 2012

Hello everybody!!

Today at the beginning  Paqui has reviewed the exercises (18,19,20) about the Treaty of Utrecht and Philip V and Ferdinand VI's Absolute Monarchies. After we have remembered the contents of the last day about the War of Spanish Succession, Raquel has explained the reasons for the War of Spanish Succession to Paqui.
Paqui has showed us an image of a citadel because Laura has asked what's the citadel (the Citadel was a fortress built by Philip V in the center of Barcelona to stop further revolts of the city).
Fernando has corrected the exercise number 18 with Raquel's help, about the Treaty of Utrecht, its main decisions were:

• Philip V was recognized king of the Hispanic Monarchy.
• The European territories of the Hispanic Monarchy were distributed among Austria (they received Flanders, Luxembourg, part of Milan, Naples and Sardinia) and Savoy (they received Sicily and a part of Milan).
• Great Britain preserved Gibraltar and Minorca and they also got two important rights, which broke the Castilian monopoly in the Indies:

                     - The assiento: they could sell black slaves in the Indies.
                     - The ship of permission: once a year they could send a 500 tons ship with their products to be sold in the Indies.

                                                                       Treaty of Utrecht
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/The_Treaty_of_Utrecht.jpg

And then Paloma has corrected the exercise number 19 about the Nueva Planta Decrees:
-The Nueva Planta Decrees were four(one for every kingdom of the Crown of Aragón) so they suppressed all the particular laws and the institutions of the Crown of Aragón and all the territories of the Monarchy were submitted to the laws and institutions of Castile (Audiencias, Corregidors in the municipalities)

        Paqui has shown us a map to explain what territories did the Hispanic Monarchy loss in Europe.

Territories of Philip V and Ferdinand VI

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Western_Europe_Utrecht_Treaty.jpg/250px-Western_Europe_Utrecht_Treaty.jpg

Then Paqui and some people have explained again the reason Philip V's portrait is hanging upside down because Pilar has asked about it, it's because it was a punishment for the king because he burnt the city of Xàtiva in Valencia.
After this, Miguel has corrected exercise number 20, which was about the main features of the Philip V and Ferdinand VI's Centralized Absolutism:

• All the powers lied on the king, so he made the main decisions.
• The Cortes (Cortes of Spain) were not called and they had only consulting functions.
• The king was helped by secretaries, who met in the cabinet.
• The Councils continued to exist, but only with consulting functions.
• All the territories of the Monarchy were under the same laws and institutions.
• The territory was divided into provinces directed, by a captain general.
• The post of intendent, was created to make tax collection more efficient.

 Paqui has said that Philip V and Ferdinand VI had mental problems, so their secretaries had a lot of work, and that Philip V had many depressive episodes and in 1724 Philip abdicated in favour of his son Louis, but he died six months later, so the Philip's secretaries had to rule again.

GLOSSARY

-Heritage-->  herencia
-Treaty--> tratado
-Treatment--> tratamiento
-Fortress--> fortaleza
-Citadel--> ciudadela
-Headquarter--> cuartel general
-Cabinet--> cabinete
-To abdicated--> abdicar
-To dismiss/ to fire--> despedir
-To hire--> contratar.

Bye, bye see you on Monday!!