Monday, 12th January 2015

Hello everybody! I'm Azahara.

Well, this is my first journal of the year! Today's social science's lesson has been really interesting for me, and we have done many different things.
First of all, Paqui has told me that today it was my turn to do the journal, and tomorrow is Fran's turn.
After that, we have revised the Directory and the Napoleonic Era. We have also corrected the homework. We had to complete the scheme about the Napoleonic Era. The things that we had to complete were the following:

• The territories included in the French Empire, which were France, Savoy, part of Germany, present Croatia and a small territory in Italy.

• The allied territories of the French Empire, which were Denmark, Norway, Austria and Prussia.

We also had to finish the scheme talking about the Continental Blockade, which meant that buying or selling products to Great Britain was forbidden. Napoleon invaded the countries that didn´t follow it: Portugal (after the Treaty of Fontainebleau, fact that led to the Peninsular war in Spain) and Russia.
These invasions were the beginning of the end of the Napoleonic Empire. The Russian Campaign was a disaster. The troops had to retire due to bad conditions. In 1813 a coalition of countries defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Leipzig. He was confined in Elba. In 1815 he came back to France, but he was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo and exiled to Saint Helena, where he died.




Source: http://www.roebuckclasses.com/102/resources/napoleon/napoleon1.htm

This image shows Napoleon's life very well. Paqui has included it on the presentation, but I've liked it a lot and I wanted to include it on my journal.

After correcting all this, Paqui has explained the last point of the french Revolution: The Legacy of the French Revolution. 
This legacy had two main ideas:

1. The French armies spread the ideas of the French Revolution throughout Europe. Although the Napoleonic army was defeated, these ideas remained.
2. All the countries which were invaded by France developed nationalist feelings against the invaders. 

After that Paqui has given us some homework: to complete a scheme about the Congress of Vienna. We have started this in class, and while we where writing, Paqui has showed us some videos from a Social Siences teacher. Her videos were songs that summarized different units about history. We have watched two videos. The first one was about Napoleon and the second one was about the French Revolution. We have had a good time watching this! :)


Here you have the videos!!!

Thursday, 8th January 2015

Hello everybody!
I'm Stefania!
First of all I want to wish to you a happy New Year!
This is my first journal of this new year.
Today we have got Social Sciences lesson at the first period.
First of all, Paqui has told us about a new whiteboard that is in the class, she has said to us that it is to write quotes that we like and we want to share with all our classmates.
Then, Paqui has started revising quickly all the things that we have studied in this unit.
After that we have started to correct the two points that we have to summarize in Christmas holiday. We had to summarize the Directory(1794-1799) and The Napoleonic Era(1800-18015).

• The Directory (1794-1799): About the Directory we have learnt many things: The bourgeoise took the control. There were two types of government: The executive power was formed by five members and two legislative chambers formed by  The Council of the Five Hundred and Council of the Ancients.We have also learnt that they had many problems (attacks from the absolutism and attacks from the population, Serious economic and social crisis,the war against the European Monarchies continued...)
• The end of the Directory arrived when, pretending a threat of Jacobins, Napoleon gave a coup d'État, saying that if the members of the Council of the 500 didn't vote him the people would attack them.
• The Napoleonic Era(1800-1815): It is divided into two stages: 

1. Consulate:1800-1802--Three members Consulate                                                                                          1802-1804--Napoleon was elected first and only Consul for life.                               Main decisions: Reestablishment of public order ( he stopped the absolutists and the popular revolts), concordant with the Pope, he made an Administrative reform,the Napoleonic Code(Code of Civil Law) 
2. Empire: Napoleon crowned himself Emperor in 1804. During the Napoleonic Era France's enemy were Great Britain, Portugal and Russia. Napoleon ordered the Continental Blockade against the Great Britain that consisted of the prohibition to buy or sell products to Great Britain. But Portugal and Russia didn't obey this order, so Napoleon tried the invasion of these two countries that were the beginning of the end of the Napoleonic Era. Paqui has also explained us that Napoleon started his invasion in Russia during the summer ,but when the winter arrived they weren't prepared so many people died because of the low temperature and because the Russians used many tactics, half of the Napoleon's Army died during this invasion.

For homework, we have to complete: Territories included in the French Empire, The allied territories and the end of the Napoleonic Empire.

Today we also have copied some words in our glossary:

• Coup d'État:golpe de estado
• Consul for life:cónsul vitalicio
• Concordat:concordato (That is a treaty signed between a State and the Pope)
• Scorched-earth tactic: Tácticas de tierra quemada
• guerilla warfare:guerra de guerrillas

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napole%C3%B3n_Bonaparte#mediaviewer/File:Jacques-Louis_David,_The_Coronation_of_Napoleon_edit.jpg

This painting represents Napoleon crowning himself.

See you the next day!

The four Napoleons

In the background, Napoleon I and his son Napoleon II

In the foreground,  Napoleon III and his son Napoleon IV

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Napol3.jpg

At Enrique Pérez´s request, here you have a post about the four Napoleons:

- As you know, Napoleon I was the Emperor of France  from 1804 to 1814 and he died in Saint Helena, after being definitiveley defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. 

- Napoleon II was the son  of  Napoleon I and his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria's. He was born in 1811 and appointed Prince Imperial and King of Rome. After Napoleon I´s defeat at the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig, he named his son Emperor, but the coalition that had defeated Napoleon didn't accept this fact and he was obliged to withdraw. After Waterloo Napoleon II went to live in Austria, with his mother. He was called "Franz" and received the title of Duke of Reichstadt. He died in  1832 in Vienna. 

- Napoleon III was Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon I´s grandnephew. Louis Napoleon was Luois Bonaparte´s son. Louis Bonaparte was one of Napoleon I´s brothers and was appointed King of Holland by him. He reigned in Holland from 1806 to 1810. After Joseph Bonaparte´s death without any successors, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte became Napoleon I´s heir. 

- Napoleon IV was Napoleon III´s son. He was born in 1856 and was the only child of Napoleon III and Empress Eugenia de Montijo. He was appointed Prince Imperial, but after Napoleon III´s abdication, his early death in 1879 broke up the hopes of a further Napoleonic restoration in France. 

Interactive activities about the French Revolution

A new year is here and  the students bloggers will recover their activity tomorrow. Here you have some interactive activities to review the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era. Click on the picture below to start them. Tomorrow well learn what happened in Spain during that time. 

Napoleon in some cartoons

Napoleon Bonaparte´s image was reproduced many times. He was also the main figure in many cartoons in different countries. Here you have a small sample with cartoons from different periods and countries: 

On this cartoon, Napoleon plays the music, while the other countries dance after the signature of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802: 

Source: http://blog.europeana.eu/2012/08/napoleon-in-cartoons/

The following cartoon dates from 1805, after the battles of Trafalgar and Austerlitz. William Pitt, the British prime minister,  and Napoleon are dividing the world between them: Pitt takes the ocean and Napoleon takes all Europe except Great Britain. This cartoon represents the difficulties each side had to defeat the other one. The British had a strong navy, but couldn´t defeat Napoleon in the continent. Napoleon had a Great Army, but the couldn´t defeat the British at sea.  

Source: http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/france/coalit3.htm

On the following one, Napoleon blinds his soldiers with the smoke of military victories and makes them believe that war is the only way. His hand lies on a book with the revolutionary ideas, but he covers them from people´s view with his body: 

Source: http://www.napoleonguide.com/caric_others4.htm

The next cartoon dates from 1806, when almost all Europe was submitted to Napoleon´s armies. Napoleon is presented as shaver to most of the sovereigns of the continent. His "customers" are bleeding, due to Napoleon´s ruthlesness. Only John Bull, the personification of Great Britain, keeps out of the barber shop and refuses the Austrian Emperor´s invitation to join them. 

Source: http://www.angelfire.com/nb2/drook/napoleon.html

A Spanish cartoon of the Spanish Peninsular War: Napoleon is working for the modernization of Spain and one Spanish patriot thanks his efforts "as he deserves":  

Source: http://nuncasupieron.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/caricaturas-y-comic-relativos-la-guerra.html

The following three cartoons depict Napoleon´s fate. He is represented trapped in a bottle, in a cage and destined to die at the gallows ("at his post of honour"): 

Source: http://blog.europeana.eu/2012/08/napoleon-in-cartoons/

Napoleon´s exile to the island of Elba: his sword is broken and he holds on to the donkey´s tail. The drummers mark the solemn momen.t 

Source: http://espliego.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/napoleon/

Napoleon watching Europe from his exile in Elba: 

Source: http://espliego.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/napoleon/

 Napoleon´s rise and fall on a Prussian caricature: 

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Napoleons_Lebenslauf_-_Aufstieg_und_Fall.jpg

Some more caricatures: 

http://www.napoleonguide.com/cartoons.htm

http://www.napoleon.org/en/special_dossier/caricatures/car-principal.html

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Caricatures_of_Napoleon_I_of_France

http://library.brown.edu/cds/catalog/catalog.php?verb=search&task=run&colid=2&keywords1=napoleon&operand1=AND&field1=ti_all&output=record

Comparison between French and British cartoons: 

http://content.lib.washington.edu/napoleonweb/drawings.html

Russian caricatures: 

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/RussianCaricatures.htm

The Napoleonic wars in some maps

This is a collection of interactive maps related to the Napoleonic wars and the Napoleonic Empire. If you want to play them, click on the images. 

- This map comes from the BBC history website and it reproduces the Battle of Trafalgar, the sea battle that confronted the Hispano-French fleet with the British fleet commanded by Admiral Nelson: 

- This maps shows the extension of the Napoleonic Empire, including the allied States and its main enemies. It includes an animation of the Russian Campaign as well: 

- The following website explains all the details of the Russian Campaign (1812): 

- The last two links are two games about the Battle of Waterloo from the BBC and PBS websites. You can learn what happened, playing as Napoleon or the Duke of Wellington.

Yesterday I played the Battle of Waterloo as Napoleon and I won ;)

Napoleonic quotes

Portrait of Napoleon I in his office, Hyppolite Delaroche

Source: http://now.uiowa.edu/2012/09/napol%C3%A9on-too-big-one-venue

Last year I wrote a post including some of Napoleon Bonaparte´s best quotes. If you want to read them and give your opinion about the one you prefer, click on the following link: 

http://todayinsocialsciences.blogspot.com.es/2011/11/make-your-choice.html

You can add your comments to the ones the students of the last year chose or you can leave them on this post. Here you have my choice: 

The only victories which leave no regret are those which are gained over ignorance

You can have an idea about why I prefer this quote ;)

The Russian Campaign explained from a grave

In 1812, by Illarion Prianishnikov

Source: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Prianishnikov_1812.jpg

Here you have some interesting links about the extreme suffering of the Napoleonic army in their retreat from Russia. The following articles explain the discovery of a mass grave in Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2002 some bulldozers, removing the remains of an old housing development, discovered the tomb where more than 2,000 soldiers of the Grande Armée had been buried during their retreat from Russia. This immense grave has been excavated for some years and the archaeologists have found a lot of interesting data to determine the causes of death of the soldiers and many other aspects about the Napoleonic Army in Russia. 

The following links explain the discovery of the grave in 2002: 

http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1099422.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2230656.stm

And this one is in Spanish: 

http://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2002/343/1021277145.html

And here you have a complete report with the conclusions of the study of the grave: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/archaeology/napoleon_army_01.shtml

Make your choice!

Source: http://www.gunclassics.com/napoleon.html

Napoleon Bonaparte left a lot of quotes that summarized his thoughts about many different topics. There are many referred to war and fighting, such as "Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them" or "One must change one´s tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one´s superiority". Others were related to government, such as "Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues" or "The man fitted for affairs and authority never considers individuals, but things and their consequences". He also thought about revolution and wrote "A revolution is an idea, taken up by bayonets" and "A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories". He also expressed his opinion about religion, for example when he said "Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich", "Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet" or "If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god". His thoughts about human nature are very interesting as well: " A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights", "The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man" or "Men are moved by two levers only: fear and interest". His reflection on history was "History is a set of lies agreed upon". But his opinion about women was more negative and controversial: "Women are nothing but machines for producing children". And this is what he said about the Spanish people: "Of all the peoples of Europe, Spaniards disgust me the least". 


There are a lot of interesting Napoleon´s quotes. Here you have a selection of the ones I most like. Which one do you prefer? Leave your opinions on the comments´ section.

What is your favourite Napoleon Bonaparte´s quote?

• A true man hates no one
• The only conquests that are permanent and leave no regrets are our conquests over ourselves
• There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit
• Courage isn't having the strength to go on - it is going on when you don't have strength.
• Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in
• The only victories which leave no regret are those which are gained over ignorance
• To listen to the interests of all, marks an ordinary government; to foresee them, marks a great government.
• Truth fears no question
• Show me a family of readers and I will show you the people who move the world.
• The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.
• The greatness of a man is not measured from his feet to his head, but from his head to the sky
• A leader is a dealer in hope
• It requires more courage to suffer than to die.
• Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
• War is the business of barbarians

Acepolls

The French Revolutionary Calendar

Source: http://shtukoviny.ru/calendar/info.html

As we studied yesterday, the Jacobin Convention adopted a new calendar in October 1793. The French revolutionaries changed the names of months, divided them into décades and gave name to all the days of the year. The twelve months of the year had 30 days. The five/six lasting days were called complementary or sansculottide days, reserved for holidays. The Revolutionary Calendar was in force until the 1st January 1806, when Napoleon Bonaparte decided to abolish it and come back to the Gregorian calendar, the one we use in the Western world nowadays. If you want to read more about this curious calendar, here you have some interesting links: 

- A little bit of history about the calendar: 

http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2011/09/0922revolutionary-calendar/

- The names of the days: 

http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/calendar/THE%20NAMES%20OF%20THE%20DAYS%20OF%20THE%20REPUBLICAN%20CALENDAR.pdf

- Converter: first you have to choose the century (21th) in the civil era and after this the current day, month and year and you will have the date in the French Revolutionary calendar: 

http://stevemorse.org/jcal/french.html

2011-2012 Challenges. Number 10

This week´s challenge includes some questions related to the French national anthem and Napoleon Bonaparte.

QUESTION 1

What is the name of the French National anthem and where does its name come from? Who was his author? In what context was the anthem composed?

QUESTION 2

Napoleon Bonaparte studied in the Military School in Paris. In his graduation exam to become an artillery officer, he was examined by a prominent mathematician and astronomer. Who was this scientist?

QUESTION 3

Napoleon´s campaign in Egypt in 1798 had an important cultural side. The French army was accompanied by numerous scientist and  scholars. Many of the Egyptian  antiques in the Louvre Museum were collected during this campaign. But the most important result of this expeditions was the discovery of a decisive object for the history of languages. What was this object and why was it so important?

QUESTION 4

In 1803 Napoleon decided to sell an important territory in the Americas, because he thought it would be very difficult to defend. What was this territory? What was the total price of this commercial operation?

QUESTION 5
When Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor, a very famous musician scratched out the dedication he had written to Napoleon in one of the symphonies he composed. Who was this musician? What was the symphony he had dedicated to Napoleon?

Napoleon in his study, Jacques-Louis David, 1812

Source: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/david/napoleon-study.jpg

QUESTION 6

What was Napoleon´s contribution to the treatment to Jews in Europe? 

QUESTION 7

Where did Napoleon die? Where is he buried?  How did his corpse arrive to this place?

This challenge is very easy. You don´t have any excuse!

23rd November 2011

Napoleon's portrait

The guillotine was very famous

Today in Social Sciences at the beginning of the class Laura’s sister and his friend were talking with Paqui, and when we were all sitting in our places, some people have come late to the class because they were doing the computing exam and Laura’s sister and his friend have come also into the class. Paqui has said to them that they have to be in silence. 

After that we have check exercise ten on the book about the Age of Terror and about the Jacobins. Daniel has checked this exercise. Paqui has written the correct answer in the blackboard: this period was called the Age of Terror due to the Law of Suspects. In July 1794 some conservative deputies took control of the Convention, amonested the Jacobins leaders and executed them by guillotine.

Them, we have continued with the class. We have continued reading point C on the book about The Directory (1794-1799), the Directory was the new government that was established during 5 years. We have copied some notes about that. We were talking about the guillotine and about the death penalties in this period and Paqui has said that Laura’s sister was in favour of the death penalty. In this period they were very radical, they killed every one and the people went to see that! They had a different mentality.

A very curious thing we have talked has been the new calendar that was established in France after the Thermidorian Reaction. There were 12 month and every one with 30 days and the month was divided into three periods of ten days (not weeks) and the names were established following the type of weather in Paris during every month:

·         Vendémiaire September  Grape harvest

·         Brumaire  October  Fog

·         Frimaire  November  Frost

·         Nivôse December  Snowy

·         Pluviôse January  Rainy

·         Ventôse February Windy

·         Germinal March  Germination

·         Floréal April  Flower

·         Prairial May Pasture

·         Messidor June Harvest

·         Thermidor  July Summer heat

·         Fructidor August Fruit

The Directory had some problems from two sides; the counter-revolutionaries and the popular protests, and some internals problems also: huge inflation, corruption and less prestige to the Republic.

After that, we have talk about the beginning of the Napoleonic era. Paqui has made a small representation with us about the problems that had Napoleon to take the power and to do the “coup d’Etat”. Paqui has said to us a Napoleon’s quote because we have said to Paqui that Napoleon was very small: “The stature of the men should be not measure from feet to the head, but from the head to the sky”. That’s a good quote!

Today, we have not homework! That’s great thank you Paqui!

Bye Bye

Cu2 morrow