Presentations of Unit 2

These are the two presentations we'll use in this unit. You can use them to have an idea of the contents and start looking for inspiration, just in case you want to participate in the songs' project: 

Monday, 1st of December

Good afternoon everybody!
Today in Social Sciences we have done a lot of things and we have learnt a lot.
As always, at first, we have started speaking until Paqui has said: Stop talking please!!
Then, the lesson has started. Firstly Paqui has started speaking us about the scheme of the Bourbons and she has remembered us the content about Philip V and Ferdinand VI.
Paqui has remembered us also Philip V's main decisions and his political system:
- Nueva Planta Decrees.
- The Catilian institutions were extended to all the territory.
- Kings were helped by secretaries and councils.
- The division of the territory into provinces.
- The creation of intendants to collect taxes. They were an institution imported from France.
Paqui has said that he was married twice, and we have spoken also about his personal crises. Due to these crises he abdicated and his son Louis I became king, who reigned only for six months because he died of smallpox.

Philip V                                                                                                                          Ferdinand VI

Paqui has explained us what the cadastre was.

- The cadastre: it was a tax imposed in Catalonia related to the properties everybody had. Everybody had to pay for their properties, including the privileged. It had different names inside the Crown of Aragón. For example, in Valencia it was called "equivalente". But the privileged people of Castile didn't want to pay this tax.

There was another type of cadastre:

- The Marquis of Ensenada, Ferdinand VI's minister, wanted to impose this tax also in Castile and he prepared a big survey to know the properties of the population with the purpose of establishing a unique tax in Castile. Finally the tax wasn't imposed due to the protests of the privileged.

After this, we have started to speak about the TV programm Isabel. Paqui has told us that in today's chapter, Isabelle dies. And she has said that the next TV programm is about Charles I.

Later we have started with the Enlightened despotism. Paqui has started saying us that Aranda, Floridablanca were enlightened ministers and Charles III was an enlightened despot. Paqui has also explained us also the Esquilache riots, which appeared at the beginning of Charles III's reign. The privileged instigated the people's revolt using the new hygiene and public order ordinances as as a pretext. 

Charles made some reforms in order to prevent crime and illnesses.

- In order to prevent crime: they ordered to cut brims and cloaks.

- In order to prevent illnesses: they established very strict hygiene rules:

     - Price of wheat had been liberalized damaging speculators.

     - Privileged were afraid of Esquilache's reforms.

Charles III expelled the Jesuits because he accused them of having participated in the riots.

Absolute monarchs didn't like the Jesuits because they didn't obey them. They only obeid the Pope and the Church.

After this, we have started to speak about the reforms of the Enlightened monarchs:

- Educational.

- Administrative.

- Economic.

Finally, Paqui has written a scheme on the blackboard about the second part about the Enlightened despotism scheme.

During our lesson, today we have copied a lot of things in our glossary:

- Navy: armada

- Half brother: hermanastro

- Schillaci: Esquilache

- Wheat: trigo

- Brim: ala del sombrero

- Long cloak: capa larga

- Esquilache riots: motín de Esquilache

- To dimiss/ to fire: echar, despedir

- Jesuits/ Society of Jesus: jesuitas o compañía de Jesús

- To instigate: instigar, empujar a alguien a hacer algo

Pictures' sources:

Philip V 

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

Ferdinand VI 

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

Brims and cloacks

http://todayinsocialsciences.blogspot.com.es/2012_11_01_archive.html

25th November (Tuesday)

Hi everyone! I am Cristina.

I'm going to tell you what we have done today in Social Sciences class:
First of all, we have waved the teacher as everyday, but the difference today is that José Luis has called the teacher "Paquita" (I don't know why).

Then, we have summarized what we learnt last day about Enlightened Despotism: the last years of the 18th century, there were some revolutions due to de Enlightened Despotism, which consisted in some European monarchs who adopted ideas of the Enlightenment for introducing changes in their kingdoms and for trying to preserve their absolute power. The made changes without asking for the population's permission. The administrative, educational and economic changes some monarchs made didn't satisfy most of the population, because they reformed only what they wanted to. They said "Everything for the people, but without the people".

We have established the date of the exam: we will take it on Thursday, 11th of December.

After that, we have spent nearly the whole lesson talking about the part B of the third point of the unit: The Independence of the British colonies of North America.
In the second half of the 18th century, there were 13 British colonies in North America. There were many protests against the metropolis, such as the reaction against the increase of the tea tax. This revolt caused the assault to a British ship by some colonists, who threw away all the tea cargo to the sea: the Boston Tea Party.

Then we have talked about the Declaration of Independence, written by Tomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin to achieve the independence of the United States.

Finally, as most of the days, we have learnt something curious: we saw few days ago in the news that the president of the United States of America has issued a decree that legalizes 5,000,000 illegal inmigrants living in the USA. We have also talked about people who obtain visas to stay in the USA in exchange for having a stable job. This has reminded me a good example of what we have said: I saw that in a chapter of a TV series I like, one of the main characters has to look for a new job because if she doesn't find it in two months, they will deport her back to Canada.

In my opinion, today's lesson has been interesting and a bit different, because in stead of giving us a scheme to complete it, Paqui has given us some exercises to do from the Review.

I'd like to share with you a nice video about the Declaration of Independence:

 

Charles III´s colonies in Andalusia

The new populations in Andalusia and Sierra Morena

Source: http://www.cosasdeandalucia.com/web/index.php/identidad-topmenu-48/sede-identidad-topmenu-50/1064.html 

The colonization of new lands was one of the reforms made during Charles III´s rule. Charles III decided to repopulate some sparsely populated regions of Spain, such as Sierra Morena and the Guadalquivir Valley. He wanted to enlarge the cultivated areas and end with banditry. New settlements were created and the consequences of this repopulation are still evident in these places even today.

Pablo de Olavide, Charles III´s intendant for Andalusia, was in charge of this project. Villages such as La Carolina in Jaén, La Carlota in Córdoba, La Luisiana in Seville were created and around 6,000 colonists from Austria, Germany and France settled down there. Many of them were blond and blue-eyed. Every family of colonists received 50 fanegas of land, 5 hens, 5 goats, 5 sheep, two cows and a sow, were tax-exempt for ten years and protected by a special law until 1835.  The remains of this colonization are still evident at present: some of the people of these towns have blond hair, blue eyes, names such as Smith, Aufhinger, Ruff, Neff, Alpert and preserve some German traditions, such as the Fasnachto Karnevales in La Carolina or the painted eggs day in Cañada Rosal 

Painted Easter eggs, a German tradition in Cañada Rosal

Source: http://www.canadarosal.es/opencms/opencms/canadarosal/turismo/cultura/fiestas_canada_rosal.html

Esquilache, the scapegoat

Marquis of Esquilache

Source: http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/L/A-Robert.R.Lauer-1/Buero.html

Yesterday we studied a little bit the program of enlightened reforms Charles III started when he became king of Spain, after 20 years of experience as king of Naples. Charles III brought some Italian ministers, who were in charge of putting the reforms into practice. Leopoldo di Gregorio, Marquis of Esquilache, was one of Charles III´s most trusted secretaries. Firts he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury and later he became Secretary of War and Navy and finally Secretary of State, the highest rank post in the Bourbons´ bureaucracy. In this post he implemented several reforms on Charles III´s behalf: 

- He reduced the privileges of the Church (revision of the decisions of the ecclesiastical courts of justice by the Royal Courts of Justice)

- He created the first lottery in Spain

- He created a fund for widows and orphans of the members of the Army

- He modernized the city of Madrid, one of the dirtiest capital cities in Europe: some municipal ordinances prohibited throwing garbage of dirty water to the streets, many streets were paved and 5,000 lampposts were installed in Madrid. 

- He liberalized the prices of wheat and some other basic products, in order to stop hoarders´ speculation

But the most unpopular decision was the one related to clothes and public order: Esquilache ordered replacing long cloaks and broad- brimmed hats (chambergos) for short cloaks and three-cornered hats, because many criminals took advantage of the usual Spanish clothes to hide their faces and escape justice.

Sheriffs cutting cloaks and brims in the street

Source: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:El_mot%C3%ADn_de_Esquilache.png

 The privileged, who didn´t like Esquilache´s power, used popular discontent by this public order ordinance and the increase of prices of bread and other staple food to instigate the revolt against the hated secretary. The riot started on the 23th March 1766 in different cities of Spain, but was more serious in Madrid: the rioters destroyed the 5,000 streetlights, burnt Esquilache´s residence, the House of the Seven Chimneys (a very curious building, with several legends behind), and demanded Esquilache´s dismissal to the king. Charles III gave up and dismissed Esquilache, who was appointed ambassador in Venice. The revolt finished after three days. Apparently the rioters got what they wanted, but the enlightened reforms didn´t stop. Charles III continued his reform program in some fields (economy, administration and education) and went on with the idea of imposing the royal authority over the Church. The last consequence of the Esquilache Riots was the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767. The king accused them of having been responsible for the riots, but the truth was that the Jesuits were an important power in the kingdom and the king wanted to take control over their possessions.