La guerra de la independencia

¿Qué supuso el Tratado de Fontainebleau de 1807?
     El tratado de Fontainebleau fue firmado entre Francia y españa, acordando dejar paso a las tropas españolas a través de España para entrar en Portugal. Pero las tropas francesas también invadieron España rompiendo el tratado.


¿Qué bandos se enfrentaron en la Guerra de la Independencia (1808-1814)?
     Se enfrentaron el bando de los patriotas (españoles) contra el bando de los invasores (franceses).

¿Qué dos grupos integraban el bando "patriota"? ¿Qué los caracteriza?
     Dentro del bando patriota había varios grupos: Absolutistas, liberales y afrancesados o carloterceristas. Aunque todos lucharon juntos contra los invasores, los primeros apoyaban la continuidad de la monarqía absoluta mientras que los seguntos deseaban acabar con ella. Y por último el tercer grupo que, enamorados de las nuevas políticas ilustradas, buscaban una transición entre la monquía absoluta y liberalismo siguiendo el modelo del despotismo ilustrado.


¿Qué significa la expresión "Viva Fernando y vamos robando"?
     Por un lado el "Viva al rey" denota esa posición patriótica apoyando el regreso de Felipe VII. Mientras que "vamos robando" muestra esa vida de bandido y vandoleros que tenían que llevar para sobrevivir ya que no recibían paga y vivían de todo o que robaban en las reyertas.

¿Qué eran las guerrillas?
     Las guerrillas eran grupos armados irregulares que atacaban por sorpresa al enemigo y se retiraban amparándose en el control del territorio.


¿Cuál fue el coste de la ayuda de Gran Bretaña?
     Los ingleses intervinieron en la guerra de la independencia española por varias razones; por derrotar a Francia (su principal enemigo en ese momento), y por un interés económico. Mientras ayudaban en la lucha contra los franceses, iban destrozando la débil industria española, que si acaso prosperaba podría hacer peligrar el futuro de las exportaciones de paños y algodones británicas, que tenían en España un futuro prometedor. Además de la gran importancia de poderse beneficiar de las colonias españolas.


¿Qué medidas fueron aprobadas por las Cortes de Cádiz de 1810?
Las cortes de Cádiz acabaron con elabsolutismo y establecieron la división de poderes. Aprobaron también la abolición del régimen señorial y la suspensión de la Inquisición asentando las bases de un Estado Liberal influidas por las ideas ilustradas.


¿Qué batallas provocaron el final de la ocupación francesa en España?
     Napoleón mandó 700.000 hombres a Rusia para intentar invadirla, lo que provocó una disminución del ejército frances en España. situacion que aprovechó el bando patriota junto con las ayudas inglesas y portuguesas para terminar con lainvasión Francesa en España.

     La victoria de la batalla de Arapiles (Salamanca), en Julio, marcó el fin de Napoleón en España. Más tarde, tras las derrotas francesas en las batallas de Vitoria y de San Marcial (Irún) los franceses quedaron acorralados hasta los Pirineos. Entonces, para acabar con la presión bélica peninsular, Napoleón liberó a Fernando VII por el tratado de Valençay, poniendo fin a la ocupación francesa en España.


¿Qué consecuencias tuvo la guerra para España?
     La contienda comportó grandes pérdidas: dejó un país debastado con una hacienda quebrada. Un gobierno inestable y una gran pérdida demográfica.

    Además fue el principio del fin del Antiguo Régimen, del absolutismo y del señorialismo (un sistema económico que limitaba el desarrollo capitalista).

     Y respecto al plano internacional, supuso el inicio de la pérdida del imperio de América y las colonias de ultramar y supuso el ocaso de España como protagonista del primer orden de Europa.

Goya

Essay of the Declaration of Independence

     The Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress, on July 4th, 1776, which declared the Colonies of America to be free and independent from England. It was written following the concepts of both God and the enlightened idea of "Natural Law".

      I agree with Howard Zinn's interpretation of the Declaration of Independence. He explains that the upper-class colonists spread revolution against England using an inspiring and patriotic language that persuaded the lower classes. This document was used to bring together people from the cononies to protect the economic interests of the privileged Bourgeoisie. In adition, he mentions that this document was written to "unite large number of colonists" but some Americans were "omitted" like indians, slaves and women.

      A clear evidence that supports his arguments is the tone, language and adjectives used in the list of grievances. A patriotic tone is used to unite colonists against England, giving examples about their brutality and destruction caused in America. However, some of these injustices would affect only the rich and powerful colonists, and that makes me think that the economic is the main reason why they would want to start a revolution.

      On the other hand, according to Bernard Bailyn, the Declaration of Independence was written because the Founding Fathers feared that England would crush liberty in America. Furthermore, they believed that America was chosen by God to “play a special role in history”. I agree with this argument too, but I don’t think that ideological principles of the Enlightment like liberty or happiness were the ones that moved the upper-class colonists to write this document and start a revolution.

      To sum up, I think the abusive taxes and economic problems were the main causes by which the upper-class colonists started a revolution against England. The Founding Fathers used an inspiring and patriotic language to unite large number of colonists only referring to “people” in a generic way and turn them against England, and this started the American Revolution.

La amistad

1. What is the movie about? Summarize the plot of the film mentioning the main characters.
      The movie talks about a group of black people that arrives at United States in a boat with terrible conditions were there has been a slaughter in the middle of the sea. The black people were captured in Africa illegaly and were made slaves. In United States were jailed and if they wanted to be free they needed to prove were they came from. For this option they were helped by lots of people like Mr Baldwin, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Joadson, a traductor and some more. The main character is Joseph Cinque, a black man who was separated from his family. When he is in jail and in court he was who spoke in representation of the rest of the slaves and who talked with all the defenders. Mr Baldwin was a young defender of the rights of the blacks and is the one who fighted for them in the court. John Quincy Adams was an expresident from America that in the last judgement made a speech that gave the slaves to be free by decision of the judges.

2. What was the Triangular Trade? What nations benefited from it?

      What was the Triangular Trade? What nations benefited from it?
It was a type of commerce that took place during the period of the colonialism. It is called "Triangular trade" indicating that shape of a triangle that creates the routes. From Europe, they were exported to Africa: shirts, furniture, manufactured goods. From Africa to America a large number of slaves and from America to Europe they exported raw materials. We can see that with these form of trade the principal benefited countries were; Spain, Great Britain, Portugal and North America while all the African and Central American colonies were heavily exploited.

3. Do some research and explain the conditions in which slaves were captured and transported from Africa to the Americas.

      During the trip from Africa to the Americas that lasted usually for 2 months or even longer a lot of heartless punishments were made to the slaves. They stayed below deck in rooms with hundreds of slaves all packed and without freedom of movement, they even had to be lying in the floor and they were tied with iron chains. They were fed 2 times a day and if they didn´t want to it they were force-fed. Usually 1 of 5 slaves died in the ship and when they died they were throwed overboard. Diseases were very usual things in this boats and for the safety of the crew some gobernments stablished laws for the treat of slaves.


4. What enlightened ideas appear in the movie?

      In the final speech of John Quincy Adams he gives some arguments against enslaving people. He followed some ideas of the ilustrated ideology like the one that says that humans deserve being in his state of nature, but this is not bad. The state of nature was considered by Thomas Hobbes like something negative and he says that people should renounce to some rights giving them to a gobernor to obtain others. John Locke says that people are totally free so they can decide on their possesions and actions, always inside the nature law, and this is what is representated in La Amistad movie.

5. Who was Joseph Cinqué? Did he really exist?

     Joseph Cinqué was a black man known as Sengbe Pieh who lived in a village called Mende in Africa. As in the movie, he was imprisoned along with more people from the village and put on a black boat bound for America.

     During the trip he was able to disengage from the chains and lead a revolt against the crew, taking the control of the ship.


6. What is the role of John Quincy Adams, former US President, in the movie?

     In 1840 Lewis Tappan and Ellis Gray Loring of the Amistad Committee approached the 72-year old Adams to defend the Amistad captives. Initially hesitant, he eventually took the case believing it would be his last great service to the country. In February 1841 he argued the Mende were free men illegally captured and sold into slavery, and as such should be returned to Africa. After the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the captives Adams wrote his co-counsel, Roger Sherman Baldwin, saying, “The decision of the Supreme Court in the case of the Amistad has this moment been delivered by Judge Story. The captives are free...Yours in great haste and great joy.”

Animal Farm Analysis

Comparison of spanish's constitutions

1) In the constitution of 1931 the form of government was as republic and the head of the state was a president while in the 1978 one, the form of government is a parliamentary monarchy where the head of the state is the king but he hasn't almost any decision of power. 

2) The sovereignty of the state comes from the people on both constitutions.

3) The symbol of the first constitution is the republican flag, of purple, red an yellow colours against the red, yellow and red of the second.

4) In the Republican constitution (1931) the state had the same laws for all the communities, it was only recognized the Catalonia statute because of historical and cultural reasons. Nowadays (1978) each community has it´s own statute apart from the laws from the government.

5) In the first constitution (1931) the official language is Spanish and there was not other recognized language, while in the current one (1978) the official language is Spanish but there are other idioms recognized like Gallego, Vasco and Catalán.

6) Refering to religion, the 1931 constitution had no official religion and there was not a lot of liberty to chose whilst the constitution of 1978 gave Spanish people the freedom of choosing their ideology, religion or beliefs and the state had a special colaboration with the Catholic church because it was the main religion in the country.

7) In the constitution of 1978 the courts are divided in congress and senate, but the previous one (1931) was only a congress.

8) In the constitution of 1931 the state was divided in municipalities that are joint in provinces that at the same time they were divided in communities, and with permission of the gobern they could have their own statute. In the 1978 constitution  the state was divided in autonomous communities and at the same time they are divided in provinces with municipalities.

10) In the first constitution (1931) as well as in the second (1978) all spanish people were equal in the law without differentiating of religion or gender. All spanish citizen has must know the spanish language and has the right of using it. All spanish has the right and the duty of defending Spain.

Pop art

McCarthy and McCarthism

1 Who was Joshep McCarthy?
He was a republican senator born in Wisconsin.

2 What were his politics?
McCarthy had anti-communist politics.

3 What were the first accusations he made?
In 1950 he showed a piece of paper during a speech, that paper was a list of 205 supposed active communists.

4 Why do you think the American public believed him?
Because during the cold war, the suspicion and paranoia, mixed with the fear to communist infiltration in the society grew, and with the idea McCarthy had, americans wanted communists out of power.

5 What other people did he go on acuse? What were the foundations of his accusations?
Joseph accused government employees, trade union activists and people in the entertainment industry aswell as members of the army.

6 How and why did the raction of the American public change?
When McCarthy accused officers of the US army and the public was able to see his interrogation methods his support became to decrease quickly. The americans realized the McCarthy was abusing his power and was accusing mainly with no sense even though some of the accusations were true

Civil Rights Movement

The Cold War

REPORT ABOUT THE CUBAN CRISIS TO MR.JFK

Mr. president,

At first we noticed lot´s of movements in the island of Cuba so the decision to investigate was taken and we have some evidences and photographs that our spy planes have taken in USSR bases of Cuba. In the picture we can see lot´s of tracks with missiles and fuel tanks to manke the missile erector work. This is very dangerous because only by pressing the "Red Button" this missiles would  be launched and get to south US in 10 min or to north in 20 min. That means that in less of 30 min 8 million of americans could die.

We have several choices to offer you, in our opinion we should try to negotiate with the USSR and try to make them remove the bases. If the don´t agree with us we could put a blockade around Cuba to make the missiles return by force. In the extreme case they attack the blockade and try to break it our answer would be very clear, invade Cuba.

The consequences of the blockade would be:

• An upset of Russians, this may create a more tensioned situation.
• The soviets could try to break the blockade producing a big conflict.
• The blockade is perfect and soviets return, leaving Cuba and removing their bases without creating any conflict.

The consequences of the invasion would be:

• Another upset of the Ruusians, which would create for sure an enormous armed conflict.
• The soviets would see our power and fear and they decide not to start another war.
• Cuba island is so well defended that our invasion fails, this is not what we want in any case because we wouldn´t win anything, only another conflict.

From you advisors team we hope you decide the best option.

Welcome again

Hi, after the summer nothing more relaxing that starting again with the classes.😃
This year I expect to be more interesant than the last one. See you in our next proyect.

The political organization of Spain

AMARÁS AL LÍDER SOBRE TODAS LAS COSAS - QUESTIONNAIRE DOCUMENTARY

1. Do some research and explain the origin of the north-korean communist regime.
    Kim Il-sung was a kind of urban legend known for a daring assault in the town of Pochonbo in 1937 when, at the age of 24, he is said to have commanded a military unit that captured a population controlled by Japan on the Korean border. This was seen as an important military achievement, even though it only lasted a few hours.
     The Soviets placed him at the center of a strange coalition that became the Workers' Party of North Korea. This included Chinese-Korean activists, members of the Korean diaspora of Russia, communists from South Korea who emigrated to the north and militiamen from Kim's guerrillas.
In the years after 1945, other people nominally held key positions in the communist structure of North Korea, but Kim Il-sung remained his main figure.

    With Kim Il-sung firmly established in power in 1950, reunification with South Korea occupied a prominent place on the agenda of North Korea and then the Korean War took place. Kim began to consolidate his power by eliminating communists who had ties to South Korea, many of whom were accused of espionage. Then, those Russians and Sino-Koreans who had been part of the party's beginnings were taken out of the way through exiles, prison and disappearances. It is well known that party officials linked to Russia and China who organized a plot against Kim Il-sung were eliminated after a dramatic confrontation at a congress in 1956. Some of their descendants still live in political detention centers.

   
A political bloodbath took place between 1967 and 1971, when 17 senior officials were killed. The men were members of Kim Il-sung's original guerrilla. After the fifth Party Congress in 1970, it completed its transformation from a typical Marxist-Leninist political party to one that worshiped Kim Il-sung and that was responsible for fulfilling his will.


The next step was to ensure that his son would be in a position to inherit him. Kim Jong-il was elevated to leadership positions in the party in 1973 and 1974, most importantly his appointment as head of the Guidance Department. From these positions, Kim Jong-il was promoted to many of his supporters. He also punished those who dared to challenge him, such as his stepmother Kim So'ng-a'e who, who pushed for his son Kim Pyong-il's position as successor. Using his control over the North Korean media and his links to internal security agencies, Kim Jong-il effectively managed to push aside his stepmother and half-brothers. In the 1990s, Kim Jong-il purged dozens of senior officers, thus taking control of the military.

After the death of Kim Il-sung in 1994 and the broader social impact of the famine that North Korea suffered, known as The Shameful March, the party became somewhat moribund. Its Central Committee did not meet between 1993 and 2010 and vacant key positions were left unfilled. He still had administrative functions, but as a political entity he was diminished. In 2010, Kim Jong-il revived the party as a political institution to cope with the worsening of his health and boost the succession of his son Kim Jong-un.
 Under Kim Jong-un, the party has prospered as a political institution.
The North Korean leader has been involved in the revival of the party since 2007 and, as supreme leader, like his grandfather, has used the party's Political Bureau to publicly dismiss unruly officials as he did with the former chief of staff, Ri Yong -ho, and even with his own uncle Jang Song-thaek.
Kim Jong-un is also building his power base through the Central Military Commission of the party. This holds the family legacy of staying within the party.
 
 

2. Find 3 recent news about North Korea from different digital newspapers and include the links to them.
1- http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44335230?intlink_from_url=http://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cywd23g0gz5t/north-korea&link_location=live-reporting-story

2- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/01/kim-jong-un-complains-to-russia-over-us-hegemonism

3- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/world/asia/trump-north-korea-economic-aid.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FNorth%20Korea&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

4- https://www.nytimes.com/topic/destination/north-korea


3. What are the names of the north-korean leaders mentioned in the documentary? Who is the current leader of the country?
Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. The current leader of the country is Kim Jong-un.

            Kim Il-sung                                                Kim Jong-il                                           Kim Jong-un


4. What are the instruments used by these leaders to mantain this dictatorial regime?
   They use weapons and threats to maintain other countries far away, like the athomic bomb, but they have also the power by controlling peoples mind.
    All the communication methods are controlled by them, so they have the control to say the population the things they want, or inculcating ideas of adoration to the lider.


5. What's the meaning of the word Gulag? Where does it come from? Is there anything similar in North Korea?

A gulag is a term that originally refered to the organization that controlled the Soviet forced-labor camp system during Joseph Stalin's rule. However, as time has passed by the term derived so as to refer to the camp itself. In Korea there are forced-labor camps as well, where people who have commited a crime or disrespected the leader work. Most of these camps consist of cultivated lands that these prisioners have to take care of.

6. According to the video, what are the main characteristics of a dictatorship?
A dictatorship is a type of gobern where humans rights are altered, where the liders are not choose by the country habitants, it´s imposible to have a private property and the lider is a worshiped figure that all people has to worship.

7. Compare the life of a north-korean family with your own. In addition, try to describe the life of a north-korean teenager of your same age.
A family there don't have rights or private property, and the have acces to a monthly quantity of food. If I were a north-korean teenager my life would be very different, I wouldn't have the choices that I have now, like studing optatives or extraschools subjets. Also I would have a radicalizated mind due to the lies that those type of dictatorships teel to it's inhabitants.

Population pyramids

Click here to access the rest of the data

    A population pyramid is a traditional way of visualizing and explaining the age structure of a society. It is a graph that shows the structure of a society by sex and age at a given time and place.

    First of all, we can observe that there  are born more boys (7.9) than girls (7.4). Also we can appreciate that in the in the age of 40-44, both sexs equilibrates (6.9). Finally we can see that the women live longer than the men, they have more life-expentacy, this is due to the works of the men, because ussually they are harder than the one's women do.

    The age structure in the piramid have a form similar to the pagoda and bell ones. So the country is in ways of development or growing. The bumps and notches are in simillar parts of the pyramid, there is a great notch on the ages of 15-19 and 20-24, with they can be produced by a crisis or a migration of people, or even an illness. At the age of 0-4 it could be also a notch, but I think that it's part of the pyramid, of the form of bell, and in the 25-29, the same.

    Finally, describing the transition model of the pyramid of this country, we can say that it's located in the final phase of the second stage, the natality is going to be less and the death rate will maintain how it is, and creating a  gerontocratic society and going into the final stage in where our country is now. To resolve the problems of natality, the goverment should propose incentives, like lower taxes for parents or more days to spend with the baby after the birth.

Southeast Migration Asian Route

Life expectancy map

Spain migrations

Para acceder a todos los datos: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1leoeOrXSCwoPNKfnEwNhKTbz2iSqmLLnXrcSLHj6mWc/edit?usp=sharing

I'm going to analyze the graphics of migration in Spain. In Spain, the most of immigrants came from Moroco and Romania, and the most emmigrants go to France and Germany.

The causes that make immigrants go or to another country are wars, like the one we are having in Siria; crisis, like the one we are having here, in Spain; or  dictatorships. The causes can be also that there is too much people there and it's to difficult to get a work, so people goes to countries were the laboral conditions are better, the salaries are higher or there are more jobs.


 

A lomos de la bestia

1. Summarize in a few lines the documentary.
A periodist starts a journey by the lines the immigrants go from Central America to EEUU, using the train that they call "the Beast".

2. Why is the train called the Beast?

Because it has produced the dead of thousands of immigrants, directly or indirectly.

3. What countries are the immigrants from? Where do they go?
From el Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala

4. What is the academic profesional experience of the immigrants?

The majority are proffesionals in their cities.
5. What dangers do immigrants face during the journey?

The narcos, the robbers, fall off of the train...

6. What type of migratory routes are described in the documentary?

Routes to go from Mexico to the EEUU.

7. Explain the consequences of migrations for both the countries that send the emigrants away and
the countries that receive immigrants?

The consecuences for the countries that receive imigrants are the accumulation of population and the reduction of jobs.

8. Give your personal opinion.
It isn't fair that people have to go to other countries to work in that conditions,
threatened by the people that want to get money of them, or sometimes, only kill them.

Sustainable house

 Website used: www.tinkercad.com