WORLD WAR II

COLONIAL EMPIRES IN 1914

IRON ARCHITECTURE

MODERNISME

GLOSSARY OF TERMS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19WFjTALbUG9GvahqGY7g_c3iqrsoJSUB3Powu9gDim8/edit?usp=sharing

PERSUASIVE TEXT ABOUT THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

I believe the Declaration of Independence was written because there were some ideological bases behind, which originated in the Enlightenment movement.

Colonists believed in values such as liberty and freedom. These ideas had its origin in the Enlightenment movement, which was born in Europe and crossed the Athlantic ocean. They also wanted that liberty within the independence from England because, as we can see in the grievances. they were harassed by the British.

Moreover, they wanted independence because, as they said, the King of England was a selfish tyran who was conspiracing to crush the liberty of America the colonists were looking for. This idea of being slaved by England also sparked the redactation of the Declaration of Independence.

Finally, another ideological base the people and the colonists of America has is the idea of America being meant to be the Great Empire of Liberty. As they believed in liberty and independence (just as many other Enlightment thinker), they wanted to split up from England and build a new well-educated society in America.

As a conclusion, I'd say that the true "sparkers" of the Declaration of Independence were not really soldiers or upper-classes, but mainly educated people and thinkers who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightment. This ideas are clearly reflected in the Declaration of Independence: the values of liberty, freedom, independence, education,  reason and the reformation of an old society.

Declaration of Independence: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

POLITICAL PHYLOSOPHY

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FICTIONAL INTERVIEW TO MARTHIN LUTHER

Today, we are interviewing Marthin Luther, the founder of the Protestant Church. He lived from 1483 to 1546. During that time, he defended the religious freedom. Good morning, Mr. Luther.

-Good morning

1. How was your early and academic life?

Well, I was born in the 10th of November of 1483 in Eisleben, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. I was baptized as a Catholic next morning. In 1484, we moved to Mansfield. My father was very strict and worked as a copper-smelter. He wanted me to study law, but I left and entered the Augustinian order. In 1507, I obtained the priesthood, and in 1508, I entered the University of Wittenberg to study theology.

2. How do you make everyone know your 95 theses?

The 31st of October of 1517, I nailed a paper in which I wrote my 95 theses in the wooden doors of the church of the German town of Wittenberg. The next day, when everyone went to church, they read the theses and, as a consequence, started the Reformation.

3. How did The Church reacted to your theses?

They weren’t happy about my theses. They condemned me as an heretic monk, removed me from priesthood and banned my writings. As a challenge to authority, something, I burned one of the papal bull. This action moved the religious debate on from divine authority imposed from above, and brought into the conversation a sense of protest against that.

4. Are you conscious of the impact of Reformation?

Of course I am. I know that, apart from a social and religious revolution, it also caused a serious damage on religious art. For example, 800 monasteries in England were seized, and lost of books and manuscripts destroyed. However, new and reformatted art was born in Europe.

5. What do you think of the Catholics?

I think they were very blind, as they took their time to see the Protestant movement I was beginning. They had their problems with selling their bulls, as there was corruption in the Church. The Reformation not only made the Church split, but also made the catholics think again about if what they doing was right.

6. Did you ever meet Calvin?

No, but I’ve heard he is one of my followers. His ideas, which are close to mine, were spread in Scotland, France and the Low Countries. He contributed quite well the Reformation, although with another but similar point of view about the one I started. It is said that if it wasn’t because of Calvin, the Protestant movement wouldn’t be as important and revolutionary as it has become nowadays.

7. Have you made up any non-religious riots apart from the Reformation?

It is hard to answer, because in 1524, peasants in Germany, influenced by my Reformation, rise up against feudal lords and other authorities, apart from the ones involved in Religion. However, my prior goal was to face the corruption and control the Catholic Church has, not to fight against nobility. My Reformation movement was just a spark.

8.  What do you think about the Counter-Reformation?

I expected that to happen. The Catholic Church wasn’t happy at all about what I was saying about the religious liberty and the selling of bulls. They had previously removed me from my priesthood, and watching the number of people I was convincing, it was a matter of time that they had to do something about it. However, I never gave up and I didn’t let anyone say what can and can’t do, so we were stronger.

9. How did you organise the Church?

Organising the new Church was not an easy task. For not confusing the people, I avoided extreme changes. I based it on the Saxon Model, and said from the distance to the parish priests of the churches in new territories what were they doing wrong. I also worked closely with the elector John the Streadfast on the break with the Catholic Church.

10. How long it took you to translate the Bible?

Around 14 years. It took me a really long time translating the New Testament from Latin to German, despite the fact that the printing press helped. I published it in 1522, and the complete Bible in 1534. My intention was to make it accessible to more Germans, as not everyone knew Latin. However, most people in the Catholic Church didn’t like it, and burned some copies which were made with the printing press.

11. What do you think about our Pope Francis I?
Well, I think he is a really revolucionary person. He breaks the stablishmets of the Catholic Church. However, his efforts of reconnecting both Churches will be useless. It's impossible to forgive each other and respect each other, although we pray to the same god.


Mr. Luther, thank you so much for your time
Thank you. It is a pleasure.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/29/reformation-luther-pope-francis-catholics

FICTIONAL INTERVIEW TO A PIKEMAN FROM THE "TERCIOS OF FLANDES"

Today, we are interviewing Juan Carlos del Valle del Ágape, a pikeman from the Tercios of Flanders, an army created by Charles V to battle in Flanders, and that proved to be one of the best military units of the 16th and 17th centuries. Good morning.

Good morning

1. What are the Tercios?

The tercios a combination of different military units in Spain. The soldiers are honor men loyal to the King that want to fight for the Catholicism in Flanders, and most of them are professional volunteers.

We have a both close range and fire weapons prepared for the fighting, as a consequence of the combination of the military units. These weapons are basically pikes and carabiners, and this combination makes a really good job on the battlefield.

2. How were the Tercios of Flanders born?

When our king Charles V governed, he found problems in maintaining the territories of Milan, Napoli and Sicily. For defending and keeping them, the king had to reorganise his armies. As a consequence, the first three Tercios were founded: the Napoli, Sicily and Lombardy ones. Later on, new Tercios were created due to the huge success this military units had.

3. What are your strategies?

As I mentioned in the first question, the combination of knives and guns proved to be very effective. We first open up the battle with the muskets at quite a big range. After approaching half the distance, it was the arquebuses turn, and finally, the pikes. The pikes easily smash the enemy’s infantry, and are a defense against horses. If the horse riders tries to assault us, he will find a lot of spikes that will knock his horse.

4. What would you say the most important weapon of the Tercios is?

Undoubtedly, the pike, because of its huge effectiveness against the horses. Me and all the pikemen line up in two different groups, the “armadas”, which consists on pikeman with armor; and the “secas”, which pikemen have almost no gear. With this two lines of pikes from four to six meters long, the horsemen have no chance against this incredible weapon.

5. How is the life of a pikeman?

It is worse, compared to the other soldiers of the Tercios. When you are a “soldado biñoso”, that is to say, when you first enter the Tercio, unless you have experience with fire weapons, you are given just enough money to buy yourself a pike. Moreover, if you have no money to buy some armor or extra equipment, you are named “pica seca”, which as I mentioned before, this pikemen lack from gear.

However, regardless of the role or equipment we have, we all seem to be proud of fighting for the Spanish crown and to be part of such unrivaled teams the Tercios are.

6. What white weapons do you use in the Tercios?

Mainly daggers and swords. They are used for our defense, and the dagger seems to be really useful in this task. It gives us an advantage on the battlefield, because this little knife, combined with the sword, are used mainly to stop enemy’s melee assaults and attack them by surprise on the back when the opportunity presents.

7. What guns do you use in the Tercios?

They are divided into muskets and arquebusiers. The gunmen stay at distance to attack the enemy at range and protect the pikemen. They use a total of twelve loads of gunpowder in tubes of wood that they call “the twelve apostles”.

At first, there was a quite big difference between the muskets and the arquebusiers in terms of usage on the battlefield: the muskets were only fired from the walls as a defensive, sniping weapon. However, this changed. Nowadays, the arquebusiers, which used to fight on foot, now are on horse; and the soldiers with the muskets are struggling on foot.

8. What uniform do you wear?

We don’t wear any, we just wear what we could afford, and only can decorate or improve our clothing after payday or looting a city. The only clothe we have in common is a red sash in our arms, and also in our pikes.

In addition, the pikemen don’t use a dress coat, while the soldiers with the muskets wear a small variety of hats and helmets.

9. Have you discard any weapon?

Actually some of them. At first, there were what we called “rodeleros”, a unit armed with a tipped sword and a small, metal shield. They were also protected by an armor that only covered the upper part of the body. Although they were very good in melee, the time ended up removing this military unit, as we sometimes have to reorganise the Tercios.

We have also discarded the crossbow, which were also used in the first years of the Tercios, but it was proved that replacing them by fire guns was a more intelligent idea.

10. What kind of missions do you do?

The most common missions are exploration, ambushing and catching the enemy off-guard. These three missions are important for knowing the opponent and fainting it when we surprise them with sudden, unpredictable attacks.

One strategy we have related to this operations is the “encamisada”, which were some men that, with only a knife and a shirt, introduce in the enemy’s territory at nighttime to make some damage. This strategy is very effective and most of the times the “encamisados” came back to our base untouched and successful.

http://www.abc.es/historia-militar/20130727/abci-tercios-espanoles-europa-201307261535.html

SPANISH ARMADA

Task 1:

How useful do you think this information would be to the English government?

This information was really useful for the English government, because without this information, the English army wouldn’t have been prepared enough for the Spanish invasion

Why were there more soldiers than sailors?

Because thanks to the information received by the letter, the English government knew the number of sailors of the Spanish Armada, and could answer with more men.

Task 2:

How do you think the news that the Spanish Armada had been sighted was able to reach Lord Howard so quickly when he was at Plymouth, over a hundred miles away?

The kings had a private message service, in which delivery courier where distributed in a ordinated kilometer patron so that it can go from courier to courier and cross the map faster that with only one.

Why do you think Howard complained to Walsingham about the wind?

Because his ship took more time because of the wind blowing in the not-wished direction

Howard says that the Spanish fleet was ‘soe strong’. What made it strong?

The impressive galleons, which were big and modern, with a lot of sailors and provisions in it.

Task 3:
According to Hawkins, what was the main problem for the English fleet in the battle near Portland?

Why was the ‘fyring of ships’ a turning point in the fighting?

Because it really hindered the spaniards

Does Hawkins think that the English have a chance to beat the Spanish Armada?
Yes, he thinks that the English showed a great courage and discipline in the fight. He also believes that god is in their favour.

What is causing the biggest problem to the Spanish ships?

A great ship from the galleons of Portugal.

Does Hawkins seem confident that the Spanish have been defeated?

No. Although he counts the numerous losses of the spaniards, he also tells with a little fear their back up.

Why did the English chase the Spanish as they sailed towards Scotland?

They want to see their landing and powder usage.

Task 4:
The Spanish Armada fought the English fleet for two days without losing any ships. What happened next that changed this?

6 of their ships were set on fired because of a cable friction the spaniards caused themselves.

Why was it a good thing that the Spanish plans were stopped?

Because if not, they would probably land in England and attack the cities, apart from the damage they are already dealing to the british ships.

If you could change one thing to give the Spanish a better chance of winning what would it be and why?

I would change the weather into a calm one. The Spanish dealt a lot of damage to the English when the weather was good. They have enough sources to fight incredibly well, but the just got bodied by the bad conditions.

The English celebrated their victory with a medal saying ‘God Blew and they were Scattered’ – how would the Spanish have explained their defeat?

They would probably blame it to the weather and to their partners for being, in some cases, really unconscious and silly on the ship.

Task 5:

• Santa Cruz, the Spanish admiral who was to lead the Armada, died and the man who took over, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, had very little experience: English benefit
• The Armada set sail on 28 May but bad weather forced the ships to go back into port for repairs: God help
• The Armada kept a very strong crescent shaped formation which protected the smaller ships as they sailed up the Channel and the English were unable to make a proper attack: English benefit
• The Armada was supposed to sail up the channel to the Netherlands and collect the Duke of Parma with an army to invade England. However, the Spanish army was attacked and could not get to the ships in time: English benefit
• The weather was very bad during the Battle of Gravelines and the storms got worse as the Spanish sailed towards the North Sea: God help
• The English were constantly complaining that they were short of gunpowder, cannon balls, food etc.: No success-cause reason
• Bad weather continued as the Spanish ships sailed up around the coast of Scotland and down the coast of Ireland on their way home, so that only half the Armada actually got back to Spain: God help

Task 6:

First of all, this was a religious battle, so some events of the fighting, specially the ones that human can’t control, can be interpreted as God acts. The English had a handicap, and the Spanish were fighting quite well and with a lot of powder. However, the weather got worse and made the Spanish lost all of their advantage. As a consequence, God helped the English people defend their religious ideas.

CHARLES V