Monday, 2nd November 2015

Hi, mates, I'm Irene, let's see what we' ve studied today in class:

First, we' ve reviewed about what did we studied last day in class, Ancien Régime and we have drawn this pyramid:

It's about the Ancien Régime society and explains the differences between the three estates: Nobility (divided into high and low) had lands and rents and they charged taxes to peasants; Clergy (divided into high: cardinals and bishops, and low: divided into monks and priests) had also land and charged the tithe; and finally the Third Estate (which included peasants, bougeois, servants, manual workers, merchants and craftsmen), formed by 90% of population, they worked to survive, paid taxes, didn't have participation in politics and didn't have rights.

Then, we have continued with the scheme but we have studied Changes in production: peasants continued using fallow technique and that was the reason for low production. Peasants had to pay taxes and the tithe to the privileged people, 10% of their production was destined to clergy. Guilds controlled production.

After that we've seen the Power Pyramid and what the French revolutionaries wanted to obtain:

-representative government, elected by citizens

                              - a society based on equality of all the citizens, without priviledges

                                              -a productive economy, where those who had initiative could make business without limitations

Power Pyramid in Ancien Règime

Finally, we have started with Enlightenment which was an intellectual movement during 18th century in Europe which questioned all Ancien Règime principles and was based on Reason. We have copied this in class about Enlightenment:

     -15th-16th century: HUMANISM-> human being, center of interest and reduction of the influence of religion

    -17th century: SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION-> Rationalism and Empiricism. It was a reason and experience where the best mean to learn

        -18th century: ENLIGHTENMENT-> use of Reason (intelligence) to learn, understand the world and improve it

Remember, for homework we must do a scheme about Enlightenment in which we have to include definition of Enlightenment and its features.

-Glossary
  Rents-> rentas
  Gallicanism-> Galicanismo
  Fallow-> barbecho
  Drought-> sequía
  Double-> duplicar, doblar
  Claim-> reivindicar
  Culmination-> culminación
  Enlightened-> ilustrado
  Elitist-> elitista

See you tomorrow!

This day in history: Martin Luther and the 95 Wittenberg Theses: beggining of Lutheranism and Protestant Reformation

Hi mates! Do you remember two years ago when we studied Lutheranism and the Protestant Reformation?
Well, today, but 498 years ago, Martin Luther pinned the 95 Theses on the doors of the Wittenberg Church as a protest of what the Dominicans were doing.
One of the things which the Dominicans did to collect money to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica, in Rome, was selling indulgences to the sinners in order to eliminate their sins; the unique incentive of Luther to write the '95 Theses' was to observe how the Dominicans abused of the people.

In the '95 Theses' he rejected the intermediaries between people and God, and expressed his opinion about the equality of the people to God, the unique who could saved or absolve our sins. The Clergy and the court tried to avoid the spreading of the '95 Theses' but they were copied and diffused before it..
In 1521 the Protestant Reformation started when Luther rejected to recant 41 of his thesis


This link will redirect you to Martin Luther's page, where you could found the 95 Theses, and I invite you to watch the film about this,'Luther' it's very interesting and entertaining and you will be able to understand better all this information.

See you!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ninety-Five_Theses
A replica of the 95 Theses, in Wittenberg                                                     

http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/l/lutero.htm
Martin Luther's portrait

Monday, 22th of June

Hi everybody !

Today in the class of Social Sciences, Paqui has showed us a documentary broadcasted by "La 2" in 2000 called: "Mauthausen, el deber de recordar". As we were only 5 in class (Minerva, Clara, Marta, María and me) we have taken the class of Social Sciences and the next period to finish the documentary. But María had to leave at the middle of the documentary, so she said that she was going to watch it at her home.

 "Mauthausen, el deber de recordar" is a historical documentary that shows us the experience of some republican Spaniards who were in Mauthausen until their liberation by the US army on the 5th of May of 1945. The documentary collects the testimony of  eight Mauthausen's survivors: Joan de Diego, Francisco Batiste, Ramón Milá, Francisco Comellas...

                                                             The Mauthausen camp

                                                   http://imageshack.com/f/834/mauthausengates.jpg

The documentary starts telling us that when the Civil War in Spain finished, the republicans were obliged to go into exile. So most of these republicans went to France and when WW2 started they joined the French army. But when Hitler took the control of a part of France in 1940, he ordered to arrest the soldiers, including the republican Spaniards. Then, he asked Franco what he should do with theSspaniards and as Franco said to him that these republicans were no considered to be Spaniads, Hitlet decided to send them to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.

         Meeting of Franco and Hitler                                       

http://www.internationalschoolhistory.net/western_europe/spain/1939-45.htm        

  

           Exile of the republicans

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/488992472011949871/

There, they were obliged to wear a stripped uniform with a number (as a way of identification) and a distinctive. To knew that these prisioners were Spaniards, they wore this symbol on their uniforms:

              Uniform of Mauthausen                                  Distinctive of the republican Saniards

                                                                                    
Sources
- http://cuestionatelotodo.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/hoy-se-cumplen-67-anos-de-la-liberacion.html
- http://www.heraldo.es/noticias/comunicacion/adios_vida_rescata_los_recuerdos_los_presos_aragoneses_mauthausen.html

They were forced to wake up at a very early hour to work on the quarries to break the rocks (then they had to carry them through a very long stair), they didn't eat much and they were constantly suffering the humiliations, tortures... of the SS soldiers. Facing that situation many people comitted suicide by touching the wire fence (it was electrified all the day) and then, their bodies were brought to the crematorium to burn them and finally, the soldiers threw the ashes of the deceased even to the ground.

 

                                                             A way of commiting suicide
                                  http://ctxt.es/es/20150611/culturas/1412/Mauthausen-maneras-de-matar-Holocausto-Benito-Bermejo.htm


But even in this situation there were brave Spanish people who, for example, kept the photos they took and they waited fot the oportunity to bring the photos outside to show to the world the reality of the Mauthausen camp. The mother of Leopoldine Drexler helped a lot in this fact (she hid the photos behind a wall)

Finally, the long yearned liberation took place, on the 5th of May of the year 1945 the US army took the control of the concentration camp (this year was also marked by the suicide of Hitler). Even if the Spanish prisioners were released they couldn't come back to Spain, so the survivors are living in a foreign country.

For me, the worst part has been the scene in which the soldiers are moving the bodies with a machine. Another strong scene has been the one in which the camera has focused on the dead and ill-fed bodies. I don't understand how humans can do things like that, I'll never understand. Paqui is totally right, humans don't learn from their own mistakes and that's very sad because the same mistakes are been repeated now. For example with the radical Islamism, it's a different way of doing the same thing. The executioners should suffer the same as they have made suffer the victims. I know this doesn't solve anything and that revenge is a bad feeling but I think that these executioners should suffer this only for a period short of time, I think many of them would reflect on it.The documentary has been very sad and even Paqui has cried a little, I like it but it makes me think how cruel the world is.


Have a happy summer !