Tuesday, 2nd of June 2015.

Hello everybody!

Sorry for the delay, but my computer didn't work well these days. Now I will tell you the class of Tuesday. Paqui has started the class remembering things about Mussolini. Then she has continued explaining The Matteotti affair, The retirement on the Aventine Mount, Totalitarian State, Totalitarianism, Cult of Mussolini's personality, Lateran pacts (1929), Economic policy and Italian foreign aggressive policy.

THE MATTEOTTI AFFAIR

On the 30th May 1924 the Socialist deputy Matteotti denounced Fascist intimidations. He was kidnapped and killed on the 10th of June. Mussolini assumed the responsibility of this fact.

RETIREMENT ON THE AVENTINE MOUNT

All the opposition parties left the Parliament as a protest against the Fascist. The government didn't fall, because the king supported Mussolini. The Fascists intensified their persecution of the opposition: all the political parties and unions were suppressed. Many opposition leaders were imprisoned and others had to exile.

TOTALITARIAN STATE 

Italy became a totalitarian state: one-single party system; no division of powers; persecution and repression of the opposition and all the aspects of the individuals life are subordinated to the authority of the State.

TOTALITARIANISM

"All within the State, none outside the State, none against the State"

BELIEVE, OBEY, FIGHT.

CULT OF MUSSOLINI'S PERSONALITY

Mussolini had full power and his figure was presented as if he was a hero. Use of propaganda to glorify Mussolini.

LATERAN PACTS(1929)

The Italian State signed peace with the Pope. The Vatican City was created as a State inside Italy and a Concordat was signed to regulate the relations between the Holy See and Italy. 

ECONOMIC POLICY

• AUTARKY: the main objective was to achieve self-sufficiency, increasing internal production and reducing imports.
• INTERVENTION OF THE STATE IN ECONOMY: public works, rearmament, subsidized enterprises.

ITALIAN FOREIGN AGGRESSIVE POLICY

Mussolini wanted to restore the splendor of the Roman Empire and started some wars to conquer territories like Ethiopia and Albania. Italy also supported the rebels during the Spanish Civil War, sending more than 70,000 soldiers and weapons.

During the lesson we have added some new words for the vocabulary like:

-DICTATOR: dictador.

-ENTRANCE: entrada.

-LAY: laico.

-BLINDLY: ciegamente.

-CAUTIOUS: precavido.

-TO TAKE RISKS: correr riesgos.

-LATERAN PACTS: Pacto de Letrán.

-REARMAMENT: rearme

-DRY-LAND CROP: cultivo de secano.

At the end of the lesson she has given to do a scheme about all this from homework. Bye and sorry again for the delay. 

Monday, 20th of April 2015.

Hello everybody!

Today in our Social Sciences lesson, Paqui hasn't come to the class because she was in Madrid on a trip with some students of the high school but she left a sheet of paper with the homework for the on duty teachers we have to do during the lesson.

First the duty teacher who in this case it was Mª Ángeles López, a music teacher, has given us a sheet of paper about the letters of the World War 1 and she has said that we have to look up for the new vocabulary and explain what they tell about WW1.

The fist letter is addressed from a son to a mother and the second letter is addressed from a man to his wife and in both of them the person who write explain the difficulties of every day and the absence of their family.

Finally, for homework the on duty teacher has said us that we have to finish this at home and take it the next day. That's all for today. Bye!

A photo of the sheet about the letters.

Monday, 2nd of March 2015.

Hello everybody!

Today in our Social Sciences lesson, Paqui has started the class adding a brief paragraph about Austrian control to point 1 of the Unit 5 a brief paragraph about the situation of Italy and Germany before the Unifications.

• AUSTRIAN CONTROL: -Lombardy-Venetia. -Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Parma, Modena, Tuscany and Papal states. 38 states, the biggest ones Austria and Prussia.

Then we have started the point 2: Age of Empires. This point is divided into five sections: 

A) Definitions.

B) Causes, justification and attitudes towards imperialism.

C) The scramble for Africa and Berlin Conference.

D) The big colonial empires.

E) Consequences of colonialism.

And when we have finished to copy this we have started the section A) Definitions. First we have copied two basic definitions from the blackboard:

• COLONY: territory controlled by another country or dependent from it.
• EMPIRE: union of territories depending from the same ruler, called mother country. If the empire is formed by colonies, these territories are submitted to the mother country and didn't have an independent existence.

Then Paqui has explained the meaning of Colonialism and the Age of Empires. 

• COLONIALISM: is the establishment of colonies in one territory by people from another place.
• AGE OF EMPIRES: was an era between the last decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century in which the most industrialized countries extended their control and influence to other territories. They took advantage of their technological superiority and created colonies in many cases.

After that we have finished the section A, so we have started the section B) Causes, justification and attitudes towards imperalism. 

• CAUSES OF COLONIALISM: it's divided into three types of reasons: economic, demographic and political. The most important reason is Economic reasons the search for cheap raw materials and workers, markets to sell manufactured products and invest capitals. Demographic reasons: emigration was encouraged by the governments to reduce the excess of population and social conflicts. And Political reasons: control strategic places or gain international prestige.

• JUSTIFICATION TO IMPERIALISM: Europeans tried to justify their ambitions by saying that they had the responsibility of civilizing the least developed territories of the colonies. But this wasn't true: it was an excuse based on racism.

• ATTITUDES TOWARDS COLONIALISM: -Most of the people were indiferent. -Many politicians were in favour of colonialism. -A minority of the politicians, trade unionists and socialists. 

During the lesson we have added some new words for the vocabulary like:

-SCRAMBLE: barullo, tumulto.

-TO SCRAMBLE: salir.

-MOTHER COUNTRY: metrópoli.

-AGE OF EMPIRES: la era del Imperialismo.

-TO SEIZE: ocupar, anexionarse.

-DECOLONIZATION: descolonización.

-SETTLEMENT: asentamiento.

-CIVILIZING MISSION: misión civilizadora.

-JOHN BULL: personification of the UK.

-UNCLE SAM: personification of the US.

At the end of the lesson she has said to us that no one has fail the project and she has given from homework to look for the definition of Social Darwinism (darwinismo social) for homework.

Benjamin Disraeli.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli

                         

Martyrdom of Saint Philip, RIBERA.

The Martyrdom of Saint Philip is a painting made by José de Ribera. This painting was painted in Nápoles, Italia in 1639. It isn't certain but is thought that the painting was commissioned by Philip IV.
The size of the Martyrdom of Saint Philip  is 234cm x 234cm and the material José de Ribera used to do the painting wasoil over canvas. At the moment the painting is in El Prado Museum, Madrid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jusepe_de_Ribera

José de Ribera used the oil as a technique. This painting represent the preparations for the martyrdom of the saint. The saint is hanging on a strong and big piece of wood and around him there are some mans who one of them is holding his legs and the others are pulling the ropes. On the right side there is a group of people who are looking at the scene and talking about it and on the left side there is a group of people who don't undestand what happening.

In this painting the dark colours predominate although there are some light colours. Most of the light is concentrate in the saint and in the upper part of the painting. The Martyrdom of Saint Philip symbolyze the dramatic quality.

Their main features are oil painting, predominance of colour over drawing, contrast of light and realism.

The most outstanding by José de Ribera was that he created a natural style. 

    

http://www.wga.hu/html_m/r/ribera/1/bartholo.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_martirio_de_San_Felipe

https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/galeria-on-line/galeria-on-line/obra/martirio-de-san-felipe/

http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/v2/videos/262.htm

http://arte.laguia2000.com/pintura/el-martirio-de-san-felipe-de-jose-de-ribera

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_Ribera

Monday, 17th of November 2014

 Hello everyone!

Today in Social Sciences lesson, the first thing Paqui has done has been to review if we had the scheme about The Ancien Régime: Main features and changes in the 18th century.

After that we have corrected the scheme and highlighted some important things about it. The scheme was divided into three parts: definition, main facts and changes into the 18th century.

• DEFINITION: expression used by different French revolutioners to describe all they wanted to destroy.
• MAIN FACTS: -Absolute monarchy. -Society divided into estates: population and power. -Low production economy: subsistence agriculture and a lot of limits to the development of economic activities. -Demography: population doubled, high birth rates, high mortality rates, low natural growth.
• CHANGES INTO THE 18th CENTURY: -Less wars. -Less epidemics. -New techniques and crops. -Changes in trade.

Then we have told her the words we didn't understand from the point about Enlightenment. Here are some example:

ENLIGHTENED: ilustrado.
GUARANTOR: garante.
SOCIAL GATHERING: reunión social.
TAX SYSTEM: sistema fiscal, tributario.
DESPITE: a pesar de.
TO COMPILE: recopilar.
DESPOTISM: despotismo.
ELITIST: elitista.
TO TRUST: creen en, confiar.

And so on, and when we finished this she has begun to explain the definition of Enlightenment, the precedents of the 17th century, the main features and the origins of the encyclopedia.

Finally, she has gave to us for homeworks to do a scheme about the point of Enlightenment and to write the definition of Encyclopedia. It has been a very interesting lesson.

IMMANUEL KANT (Philosopher)

http://www.philosophers.co.uk/immanuel-kant.html

Monday, 6th of October 2014

Hello everybody!

Today in our Social Sciences lesson, Paqui has started the class remembering the scheme about Charles I's heritage and the way of ruling of (Charles I's). His heritage belonged to his grandmother Isabella of Castile, grandfather Ferdinand of Aragon, grandmother Mary of Burgundy and grandfather Maximiliam of Habsburg, and his way of ruling was:

• Not unified state: Empire made up of different territories with their own laws, languague. The only thing they had in common was the monarch.
• Itinerant court.
• Castile was the place where the king had more power and most of the money for wars was called there. This wasn't enough and the monarchs had to get loans from bankersguaranteed with the gold and silver from the Indies.

Then we have corrected the second part of the scheme which is divided into:

• Main facts: Iberian kingdoms and Outside the Iberian kingdoms
• Succesion

When we have finished to correct it, Paqui has started explaining the life of Philip II (1556-1598) and at the same time we have copied some things:

• Philip II inherited all the territories his father Charles I had accumulated except for the Holy Roman Empire and Burgundy.
• He added some territories from his empire. In 1565, he annexed the Philippines Islands and in 1580 he added Portugal and its colonies in America, Africa and Asia in 1580.
• Government: the capital city in Madrid, growth of political centralization: the king didn't call the Cortes and personal government.
• Objectives and policy: - Defense of catholicism: religious intolerance caused many problems and wars. -Preservation of the empire: wars against France, the Muslims (Ottoman Turks) and England.

During the class we have added some new words for the vocabulary like:

-Ally: aliado

-Alliance: alianza 

-Policy: política (decisions someone makes)

-Politics: política (science)

-Politician: político (persona)

-Political science: ciencias políticas

-Willing to: deseosos de...

And a lot of more words.

Finally, she has given to finish the scheme about Philip II for homework and in my case to do the journal before 20:00 o'clock.

Here you have a photo about Charles V's Abdication:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abdication_de_charles_quint_Louis_Gallait.jpg