Summer of 1789

Today in Social Sciences, we have started checking the exercises about the beginning of the French Revolution. Yolanda Rubio has checked the exercise 2 and Paqui has continued explaining it. She has said that the reason which King Louis XVI decided to call the Estate General was because the privileged demanded the call of Estate to discuss the tax reform. The exercise 3 has been corrected by Laura Muñoz, while she has been saying that the main discussions in the initial meetings of the Estates General were that every estate had to meet separately, had to have similar number of representatives and had to have a vote, Paqui has had to move from seat to Manuel and Juan Carlos, because they were talking. After that, Yolanda Rubio has explained that, she had an argument with her mother, and Paqui has compared their parents with the privileged and she with someone of the Third Estate (hahahaha). To finally check the exercises, Silvia has corrected the last exercise, that it was about what did the members of the Third Estate do when the king closed the Estates General meeting room. Paqui has explained us that they looked for an alternative meeting place, the Tennis Court Oath and they formed a National Assembly where they declared themselves as the legitimate representatives of the French people and they promised to stay there until France had a Constitution.

When we have finished to check the exercises, we have continued reading the beginning of the revolution. First, Paqui has explained us what was tithe (diezno), it means the people who had to pay to the Church (10%) and she has also translated us some words as:

· seigneurial -> señoral

· in force -> vigente

· manor -> casa solariega/casa de campo

· to storm -> asaltar en grupo

Later, Paqui has started writing on the blackboard what had we read about the Summer of 1789 to copy it in our notebooks and then, she has explained it comparing the situation with us. There were two important events where took place in this summer: Storming of the Bastille and Great Fear.

- Storming of the Bastille, the people of Paris attacked the prison of the Bastille and they decided to fight to defend the reforms. (14th July 1789)

- Great Fear: in the countryside many peasants attacked castles and manors and destroyed the property titles of the lands. Paqui has explained it comparing Laura Muñoz with a peasant.

Then we have seen that on the 4th of August of 1789 the National Constituent Assembly made two important decisions: the declaration of the Rights of Men and the Citizen and the Abolition of feudalism, seigneurial rights and tithe were abolished. It means that everybody had to be equal, everybody had to pay taxes and the peasants became happy. To understand it we have started acting the action in the class. Paqui has said that in her opinion it is a very important event in history, a big progress. After that, we have started the different stages can be divided the revolution, and we have seen a little bit of the Constitutional Monarchy (1789-1792). To explain it, Paqui has divided the class into 3 groups as the last day, one of them was the nobles, other the clergy and the last one the peasants and she has been the king. The situation has been do:

· King: "What do you prefer in your country? I want an Absolute Monarchy"

> Clergy: "We want a monarchy!"- except one of them (Isabel) who wanted a revolution.

* Nobles: "We want an Absolute Monarchy!" - except one of them (Alejandro) who wanted a limited monarchy.

# Peasants: "We want the voting per person!!!"

[IT WILL CONTINUE...]

At the end of the class Paqui has given us two exercises to do at home, on page 22 (5 and 6) and the last two minutes has been dedicated to see the videos about the French Revolution.