Some videos about absolutism, Louis XIV and Versailles Palace

- Here you have a short overview on absolutism, focused on Louis XIV's example. At the end there are some other absolute monarchs, like Frederick II the Great of Prussia, Peter I of Russia and some late absolute monarch, like Emperor Franz Ferdinand II of Austria and tsar Nicholas II of Russia. 

   

 - This is another short video that explains the origins and use of the divine right of kings, which means that kings' power came from God and made them untouchable:

 

- And this is a BBC documentary about Louis XIV and his use of the Royal Palace of Versailles. This period of France's history is really well explained: 

- Finally you can have a look on Versailles dance parties with two scenes of the film Le roi danse and another one from the film Vatel: : 

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 18^th 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 11^th 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.