28th of November 2011

Today in Social Sciences we have seen a power point when we just arrived to class. The power point was about the Napoleonic empire and, then Paqui told me to write the journal. Then she ask about the home work and she said that always the same people answers to it, so Alejandro was the one to correct the first exercise nº 12 about explaining th role of the Continental Blocksale and the of the Napoleonic Empire, Paqui has explained what it was in the power point, and she has told us about the French invasion to Russia, and Paqui has explained about how the soildiers were wearing the summer uniform and how a lot of them died because of the cold temperatures of the winter in Russia, the started attacking Russia in summer but while they were going to Moscow the winter and the cold temperatures started so as I´ve said before many people died, then Paqui has writed in the blackboard an scheme about the invasion of Russia by the Napoleonic empire.

After the winter, the Napoleonic army retired because a lot of people died and while they were comming back the Russians attacked them so at the end from the Great Army which had 1.000.000, only came back 500.000 so half of the army died on this campaing.

Then Napoleon after the Battle of Leipzig where Napoleon was defeated he was confined in the island of Elba, then he came back to France for only 100 days (The Hundred Days Empire) but when he was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo he was esiled to the island of Saint Helena, in the Atlantic Ocean, whre he died.

After we have corrected the exercise nº 13 about the effects of the Napoleonic occupation in Europe, that exercise is the one Paqui has corrected in the blackboard and she has told us that the French army spread the ideas of the revolution and the people revolted against them becouse they used the force to impose this ideas.

After this we have read about Spain during the French Revolution, in which Charles IV was the king and he vas strongly influenced by the events in France. In 1793 Spain declared the war to France but they loose in 1795 so Manuel Godoy who was the prime minister of Charles IV subordinated the Spanish foreing policy to the French interest because Great Britain was the main enemy of both countries, France and Spain.

To explain this part better, Paqui has told to some of us to be some of the characters of this period: so Daniel Pintado was Charles IV, Mari Luz was his wife Maria luisa, Ángel was Manuel de Godoy, Isabel was his wife Maria Teresa, and finaly I was Ferdinad VII, so Paqui told us the story of this period, Charles IV was the king and his wife who was the lover of Manuel de Godoy told Charles to put him as prime minister, then Paqui told us that Maria Teresa was a very sad woman becouse she knew that Manuel de Godoy was with other women, later Ferdinand VII prepared a conspirancy against his father and he fired Manuel de Godoy and Charles IV abdicates and that´s how Ferdinand VII became the king of Spain.

Finally Paqui has given us the exercise 14 from the page 22 which is about the foreing policy during Charles IV´s reign, so that´s all for today.

See you in the next class!

Sources: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_VII_de_Espa%C3%B1a

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