Monday, November 16, 2015

16th November

Hi everyone. It’s Lorena. I’m going to talk about what we have studied in today’s lesson. At the beginning we were a little bit nervous about the incident of Paris. Paqui has said that if we had time, we’d talk about it at the end of the lesson, so that’s what we’ve done, but first I prefer to focus on the content of the unit that we’ve studied today.
As always, we’ve started reviewing the content of the last lesson. We have reviewed the USA independence, the ten amendments and the constitution, the date of its creation, which was not in 1776, but in 1787 (we have confused it with the signature of the Declaration of Independence), the organization of the USA (federal states), etc. I think it’s clear, but reviews are never bad for us.

Source: http://www.scottsvalley.org/images/July4.jpg

Source: http://www.archives.gov/espanol/images/constitucion-partial-es-large.jpg

When we have finished the review, we have started with point 4 of the unit: Spain in the 18th century. While Paqui was explaining the points of the history in this part of the history, she was writing everything in the blackboard. It was a kind of scheme, but with more content than a brief summary.

Everything started because Charles II didn’t have any successor. It doesn’t surprise me due to his bad health of him. Anyway… In his testament, he wrote down the people he wanted to be the king of all the Empire. The first one was Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria, but he died, Philip of Anjou was chosen to reign. He was a French prince; Louis XIV’s grandson. The Habsburgs didn’t like the idea. They had an alternative to change Philip for Archduke Charles of Austria, but when Charles II died, the Bourbon ascended to the throne. Great Britain, Austria, Portugal and the Low Countries didn’t like the idea. In the Peninsula, Aragon wasn’t either happy with all this, so for that the war of Spanish succession started in 1700. People from Aragon were scared because they didn’t want Absolutism.

Archduke Charles
Source: http://www.laalcazaba.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Archiduque-Carlos-Palacio-Real-mMdrid.jpg

Philip V
Source: http://quhist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/felipe-v.jpg

Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria
Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/JosephFerdinand.jpg

Louis XIV
Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Louis_XIV_of_France.jpg


In 1707 the Aragonese were defeated by the troops of Philip V in the battle of Almansa, and they occupied Valencia and Aragón. Great Britain occupied Gibraltar and Minorca.
In 1713, the Archduke became the emperor of Austria, so for that his allies started thinking. They didn’t want absolutism, but if the Archduke won, they would have a reenactment of Charles V's Empire and they didn't like this. They ended the war with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

The Battle of Almansa
Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Ligli-Batalla_de_Almansa.jpg

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

Philip V became the king of the Hispanic Monarchy, although some territories of the Empire were distributed among Austria and Savoy. Flanders, Luxembourg, part of Milan, Naples and Sardinia became Austrian territories, and Savoy received Sicily and part of Milan.
Great Britain kept the territories it took and they also broke the Castilian monopoly in the Indies. Due to this, they could sell black slaves there and also their products.

Source: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wggerman/map/images/treatyofutrecht.jpg

The war ended on the 11th September, 1714, when Philip V’s troops finished bombing Barcelona.
This was everything we have studied. After the explanation, we have started a conversation about ISIS, the reaction of France towards the Jihadists attacks, people’s opinion, etc.


I agree with Paqui. I really like the way she explains her view points, perhaps because they’re the same as mines. In my modest opinion, I think all this is going to end up in the same place as every war finishes. It’s sad how people act and it’s even sadder how they think about this: they think that every single Muslim acts in that way, and they offend innocent people just because they’re not educated and they have no information. The trouble with this is that people with close minds have their mouths open. We all try to blame someone when all this is due to everybody, and I don’t know how long this going to last is. The only thing I know is that if this continues like this, we all are going to be dead. Sooner or later.

5 comments:

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

Hello Lorena,

You don't have to be so pessimistic. Change is in our hands. We have a lot to do to avoid intolerance, the destruction of the world, open the minds of narrow-minded people. We need to illuminate the darkness of this world with the lights of Reason and if we are scared or we surrender, they'll win. Before dying, there is much we can do. No surrender!

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

I've just read this and I think you would like to read it too:

http://elpais.com/elpais/2015/11/16/opinion/1447697513_820754.html

Unknown said...

Thanks Paqui. You're a role model. You've inspired me to not giving up with all this. I've always though that humanity has no future and I had no faith on it, but you've taught me several ideas, the ones that have helped me in the recuperation of this lost hope. I'm the kind of person who has an open mind and good ideals and believs, but I can't stand people with a close mind and I tought that if they hadn't an open mind, they wouldn't either understand my point of view, so I five them up for lost. I finally know that this is not the way, and everything thanks to you. I wish one day I could be like you.

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

Hello Lorena. That's a better attitude. We can do many things, even if we see that everything is very complicated. I'm going to offer you two quotes I'm sure you will like:

- This one by Martin Luther King:

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree"

- And this one by Eduardo Galeano:

"Many small people in small places doing small things can change the world"

And I also have a recommendation of a book by Viktor Frankl, a Jewish man who survived Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps. It's called Man's search for Meaning (El hombre en busca de sentido). It's a very inspirational book that teaches important lessons about life and what we can do in this world.

And finally, Lorena, I'm only a human being and I think your goal should be helping improve the world and the lives of people around you and trying to be a better person everyday. That's so much, but I'm sure you will be able to do it ;)

Good night!

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

Hi again,

Here I am for the corrections. Remember that the verb tense to write about close events, like the lesson, is PRESENT PERFECt. I've changed some of the verbs to this tense. There are not many mistakes indeed:

It’s Lorena. I’m going to talk about what we have studied in today’s lesson. At the beginning we were a little bit nervous about the incident of Paris. Paqui has said that if we had time, we’d talk about it at the end of the lesson, so that’s what we’ve done, but first I prefer to focus on the content of the unit that we’ve studied today.

As always, we’ve started reviewing the content of the last lesson. We have reviewed the USA independence, the ten amendments and the constitution, the date of its creation, which was not in 1776, but in 1787 (we have confused it with the signature of the Declaration of Independence),


When we havefinished the review, we have started with point 4 of the unit: Spain in the 18th century. While Paqui was explaining the points of the history in this part of the history, she was writing everything on the blackboard. It was a kind of scheme, but with more content than a brief summary.

Everything started because Charles II didn’t have any successor. It doesn’t surprise me due to his bad health. Anyway… In his testament, he wrote down the people he wanted to be the king of all the Empire. The first one was Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria, but he died, Philip of Anjou was chosen to reign. He was a French prince; Louis XIV’s grandson. The Habsburgs didn’t like the idea. They had an alternative to change Philip for Archduke Charles of Austria, but when Charles II died, the Bourbon ascended the throne.



In 1713, the Archduke became the emperor of Austria, so for that his allies started thinking. They didn’t want absolutism, but if the Archduke won, they would have a reenactment of Charles V’s Empire and they didn’t like this. They ended the war with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.


The war ended on the 11th September, 1714, when Philip V’s troops finished bombing Barcelona.

This was everything we havestudied. After the explanation, we have started a conversation about ISIS, the reaction of France towards the Jihadists attacks, people’s opinion, etc.


I agree with Paqui. I really like the way she explains her view points, perhaps because they’re the same as mine(s). In my modest opinion, I think all this is going to end up in the same place as every war finishes. It’s sad how people act and it’s even sadder how they think about this: they think that every single Muslim acts in that way, and they offend innocentpeople with just because they’re not educated and they have no information. The trouble with this is that people with close minds have their mouths open. We all try to blame someone when all this is due to everybody, and I don’t know how long this isgoing to last. The only thing I know is that if this continues like this, we all are going to be dead.


Finally, here you have another quote by Martin Luther King I never forget:

"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people"

The good people can't surrender neither fall into pessimism. They are needed to stop evil, selfishness, violence, hunger, ignorance...

See you!