The Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War has a very interesting background. It began because of Otto von Bismarck’s intentions of unifying all the German States. Otto von Bismarck was an influential Prussian diplomat, and he had a great idea to unify Germany: He would begin a war in order to get all German States to fight together against their most hated nemesis, France. However, nobody had to know what his plan was, so he made France began the war instead. To achieve this he did something very clever: he wrote a letter that would make France feel mad about it and France would begin a war against Prussia. So it happened.

After the war, Prussia had defeated France, and Bismarck had got what he wanted, German States Unification. The French Third Republic and the  German Empire were consolidated. Germany’s Military forces became bigger and German nationalism spread. However, a feeling of revenge amongst French began when Germany took over Alsace-Lorraine. This would cause World War I in a not so far away future.

Paraguayan Independence

When Napoleon invaded Spain, It became weak and couldn’t control its colonies as it used, so many of its colonies saw this as an opportunity for them to call for independence.

Paraguay’s independence began when an army commanded by Manuel Belgrano was sent to Paraguay in order to take Bernardo Velasco, a Spanish governor, as a prisoner. However, Velasco was establishing his own army. Belgrano invaded Paraguay; Velasco retreated. The Paraguayans decided that they should take car of all the injured soldiers at first, and then they would attack Belgrano when he got tired. Velasco attacked Belgrano’s army, but Belgrano stated that he didn’t want more people to be dead after he saw a kid getting hurt, so he surrendered. Paraguay declared the country independent. The new government was consolidated by: Velasco, Fugencio Yegros, Caballero, Fernando de la Mora, José Gáspar Rodríguez de francia.

The Two Greatest Diplomats Of The Napoleonic Era: A Comparison

On the following post the relationship between Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand and Klemens von Matternich, the two greatest diplomats of the Napoleonic era will be discussed.

The Napoleonic Era was a period in the history of France and Europe that included the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution. It began with Napoleon’s coup d’état, establishing the French Consulate and ended during the Hundred Days and his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Just after Napoleon was defeated and exiled to Elba, the Congress of Vienna (September 1814 – June 1815), chaired by Austrian Klemens von Metternich, was set to restore Europe and to provide a long-term peace. The main objective of the Congress of Vienna was not simply to restore the old limits of European countries, but to change them in order to balance the main powers, so peace would be kept.

It was during the congress when the two important characters that will be discussed on the paper, Metternich, representing Austria, and Talleyrand, representing France, played their crucial role.

On one hand we have Talleyrand. He was the son of Charles-Daniel de Tallertand-Périgord. He came from an aristocratic, but not rich family. He had clubfoot since he was young, so his family intended him for the church instead of sending him to the army. In 1770 he entered the seminary of Saint-Sulpice. His life in the seminary led him to have more conservative ideas defending the controversial privileges of the church. He also have some mistresses while being a court cleric. He participated in meetings of the Assembly of the Clergy, which gave him parliamentary experience. He became bishop of Autun in 1788. After Napoleon’s Exile, he became France’s representative at the Congress of Vienna, Talleyrand exhibited his diplomatic skills, but it still being uncertain whether it benefitted France or not: he managed to divide the Allies, urging Austria and England to conclude secret agreements with France to prevent Russia from annexing the whole of Poland and Prussia from annexing the whole of Saxony. This new triple alliance succeeded in reducing the territorial claims of the other great powers and led to the agreement by which France retained the frontiers of 1792.

On the other Hand we have Metternich. Son of Franz Georg Karl, he was the descendant of an old Rhenish noble family and his father was the envoy to the Rhenish principalities, so he spent his childhood in the Rhine. He studied diplomacy in 1788 at the University of Strasbourg. However, he had le Strasbourg and enter the University of Mainz in 1790 because of the French revolution. 1794 he went to England as a diplomat, but in October he rejoined his father and ran away to Vienna after the French invaded the Netherlands. In Vienna, he studied sciences. In September 1795 Metternich married the Eleonor Kaunitz. This marriage have him the access to high office in Austria. During the Napoleonic wars he served as Austian minister to France. In 1814, the Congress of Vienna became a great success for him. He had precise ideas about the basis for a new order in Europe, but he knew from the start that he would have to modify them. He wanted to secure Austria’s predominance by forming two confederations, one German and the other Italian, with Austria as the leading power in both. He proposed the creation of a hereditary German imperial title, and he thought that Austria and Prussia should share the task of protecting Germany’s western frontier. Metternich sought to prevent the elimination of France, which he saw as a necessary counterweight against Russia. This ideas of his produced a long-lasting European order, showing his incredible diplomatic abilities.

As we can see, Metternich and Talleyrand have many things in common. Both of them where born in old noble families. Their studies gave them political and diplomatic skills. Both of them reached their social and political status via the advantages other persons/association gave them: we can clearly see that Talleyrand’s participation in clergy meetings gave him many advantages, in the same way the marriage Metternich with Eleonor Kaunitz did. Finally, in the congress of Vienna, they not only showed incredible dimplomatic skills, but also they showed to have almost the same ideas. However; they reached them using different methods. It is kind of funny to see how they wanted France to recover its old territory, and how they achieved it through different alliances. Of course, they did this for different reasons: Metternich wanted to secure Austria’s predominance and to prevent Russia’s overgrowing, while Talleyrand wanted to keep France’s territories.

For further information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_era

http://0-www.britannica.com.millenium.itesm.mx/EBchecked/topic/581601/Charles-Maurice-de-Talleyrand-prince-de-Benevent

http://0-www.britannica.com.millenium.itesm.mx/EBchecked/topic/378934/Klemens-Furst-von-Metternich

Campione d’Italia

       

Campione d’Italia is a small commune in the province of Como, Lombardy. This commune has a particular condition, it is an exclave within the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland. An enclave is a portion of land that is entirely surrounded by the rerritory of any other country, which means that Campione d’Italia is surrounded by Switzerland!

Campione d’Italia is separated from Italy by Lake Lugano and montains. Even though its shortest point from the rest of Italy is less than 1km, a journey o at least 14 km through swiss territory is required to reach to the nearest town, Lanzo d’Intelvi.

Campione d’Italia has a particular economic and administrative status because of its condition as an enclave. The swiss franc is used, mail could be sent with either thr Italian postal service or the swiss one, Car plates are not Italian, and many other things that are the product of the interaction with a different culture.

There are many different enclaves around the world and they are as interesting as Campione. Many of them have cultures blended, just like Campione’s economic status. But there are many others that have cultural problems with the communities around them. But, one thing is certain, they are always fascinating!

The house of Hanover

Life as a member of a royal family can be very difficult because of all those succession problems and family relationships problems.

The house of Hanover is a great example of how succession works. When a ruler dies , his power is usually given to the next person in the succesion line, e.g. a son, a brother, etc. but, sometimes the person that is next in the succession is not good enough for ruling. This is exactly what happened with George I of Great Britain, a German duke which was the 52th person in line to the throne of Great Britain; however, he was the first in the succession that wasn’t catholic, so he became king of England.

This same house of rulers can be a great example of relations between family members. George I always had a rivalry with his son because Great Britain’s population preferred George II over George the I. Even after his father’s dead in Hanover, George II decided not to go to his funeral in Germany, and he was still praised by England’s population, which saw it like a way of expressing fonding for England.

Baroque Concerto

Alessandro Marcello’s oboe concerto in D minor is one good example of Baroque art. I think this is a great example of a Baroque concerto (specially Italian Baroque concerto) because it follows the structure of a common Baroque concerto: it is divided in three movements: Allegro-Adagio-Allegro; the first and third movement make use of Ritornello (a theme performed by an orchestra, and then a development performed by the soloist) and the second movement has a rather free structure.

Even though Alessandro Marcello is unfrequently played because Vivaldi’s and Bach’s compositions are the most representative  compositions of Baroque music, I consider him a great composer from the Baroque period.

This work is perhaps the most well-known composition of Alessandro Marcello.

Eppur si muove!

The Observer

“I do not feel obliged to believe
that the same God who has endowed us
with sense, reason and intellect
has intended us to forgo their use”

So all the stars
Will guide us on our way
The Sextant as a leader
Has duration for all days

Look at the amazing skies
In long and profound discoveries
With a strong and a clear mind he’s encrypting
More secrets of astronomy

In endless nights
He entirely observes the skies
His publications will change the world

Galileo Galilei

Only what my eyes will see, I will believe!
Day and night – separated by the light

In Pisa he’s required
To teach the theory
That the stars and all the planets
Revolve around the earth
But he believed
In a different truth
The heliocentric one
Proposed by Kopernikus
A new age has begun

The stolen sun
Makes their fear rise
And man will sacrifice
The moon is the reason why

The amazing skies…

In endless nights..

And all the servants of the cross – they will deny
Will deny the starlight

In Pisa he’s required
To teach the theory
That the stars and all the planets
Revolve around the earth
But he believed
In a different truth
The heliocentric one
Proposed by Kopernikus
A new age has begun

Asis Nasseri, Haggard male lead vocalist and songwriter, was inspired by the life of Galileo Galilei, who was forced to disavow his belief that the Earth moves around the sun by the inquisition. Legend has it that he said: “Eppur si muove” (And yet, it moves) in front of the inquisition when he was told to abandon his beliefs. Haggard took this story as a form of inspiration and made an album called Eppur si mouve because it shows that a person always has to defend their own beliefs.

Witchcraft Persecusion

Witch hunting became a very common practice between 15th and 17th century’s Europe. It began as way of destroying remnants of paganism.People used to believe that witches made pacts with the devil, and celebrated reunions, called Sabbaths were they worshiped the all kinds of daemons. When witch hunting began it was done by the inquisition, but this practice became a way of demonstrating power by the authorities.

As this practice grew, more and more people (specially women) were accused of being witches, and it became a way of getting rid of poor people, ill people, or any person that might represent a problem to the people of the wealthier social classes. Trials were made. Trials where people were tortured to confess that they were something they weren’t. Many ways of proving if someone was a witch were invented: people were burnt, they were tossed into the water, etc.

Witch hunting expanded even into the colonies! An example of this is Salem witch trials. This witch hunt began when two girls began to be afflicted with a very strange illness: they began to fill pain around their body, they couldn’t control their arms and legs, they couldn’t sleep or speak. Since no one knew what had happened, people thought of witchcraft. There are several theories about what caused this kind of affections: Some people think that it was because people were so concerned and feared about what could happen to their souls, but others think that bred poisoning caused by fungus led people to have hallucinations, pains and all this kind of behaviors; however, this theory was refuted because the symptoms were inconsistent. Many people were accused for these events, and several trials were done. many other people started to act as if they were being witched. Many people were accused for these events, and several trials were done, leading 20 persons or so to their death.

Petrarch

Salve! Come sta? I’m Francesco Petrarca. I was born on July 20, 1304 in Italy. I was a renaissance poet and one of the first humanist scholars. I’m often called the Father of Humanism.

When I was a child, I moved to Avignon, France. There was a time, there was an age, that was happier for poets, an age when they were held in the highest honor, first in Greece and then in Italy, and especially when Caesar Augustus held imperial sway, under whom there flourished excellent poets: Virgil, Varius, Ovid, Horace, and many others. Alas, I didn’t live on that time, so I had to study law in France just as my father willed. However, my passion has always been Ancient Greek and Rome literature. After my father’s death in 1326, I left my studies to focus on the classics.

Then, I became a priest, making me able of pursuing my interest in ancient literature. I was also able to search for forgotten classical texts. I built up a huge collection of forgotten texts. When I went to Venice I had to trade all those texts I found in exchange for a house where I took shelter from the plague.

As I studied the Classics I started to feel that humanity could revive the customs of the Ancient Greek and Rome. This doctrine became known as humanism, and marked, in a certain way the beginning of Renaissance.

Poetry has been my life! I am known for my Italian poetry, especially the Canzionere and the Triunfi. Actually, I wasn’t very enthusiastic about writing in Italian, I really preferred to write in Latin. My Latin works, which are not as known as the Italian ones, were Scholarly works, essays, letters, and even more poetry.  My most well-known compositions were lyrical poems about Laura, a woman I had fallen love with after seeing her in an Avignon church on April 6, 1327 (She was the reason because I left the church). I was also very good writing other kind poetry like sonnets.

This is the last of my memories: It was the night before my 70th birthday, I needed to work on my study on some writings, and suddenly I felt to tired, I felt like if I was going to sleep, I slowly closed my eyes and had deep rest.

Maximus ignis ego; Laura secundus erat.
Quid rides? divinæ illam si gratia formæ,
Me dignam eximio fecit amante fides.
Si numeros geniumque sacris dedit illa libellis
Causa ego ne sævis muribus esca forent.
Arcebam sacro vivens a limine mures,
Ne domini exitio scripta diserta forent;
Incutio trepidis eadem defuncta pavorem,
Et viget exanimi in corpore prisca fides

History readings assignment

What sort of discoveries and findings are being made in history today?

Nowadays, many things are being discovered: mosaics in Antiochia that they were probably used for glass blowing furnace during the 4th century, a wall built by the romans named the Trajan’s Rampart which was created to defend the Empire in case of an invasion, more than 159 22-carat coins that were used by the romans for buying land or goods, some skeletons of people that might have died violently due to the Scandinavian migration period, a viking arme ring that was found in Ireland, and the last one, the influence that climate changes have had in the human life leading some cultures into times of prosperity, but also leading others into crisis.

In what ways are these discoveries and findings made?

Some of them are made by experts that are looking for something, but find something else, and some others are made accidentally.

What was unusual about some of the findings discussed in the articles?

something extremely unusual about the findings in the article was the position that the skeletons of Öland had because it was like if they hiding or trying protect themselves from something.  

Every new findings needs to be compared to similar findings that are already known. Why?

They need to be compared with old findings because the new findings can change the hypotheses historians have about a specific historic event. They can also be used to prove that an event happened.

Was everyone involved in these findings a professional historian or scholar? How might you and your friends make similar findings? 

Not at all, because some findings can be made accidentally by a common person. However, all the research that must be done about what was discovered is always done by a professional.

My friends and I could make a similar discovery by accident in a trip to a place that is not very visited like a mountain or a forest.

What are some of the facts you learned from the articles?

I learnt that we will keep learning and making new discoveries from past that can teach us how was the life in different times of human life. I also learnt that many important discoveries are made by accident.

Many of these findings were made at physical sites. What dangers are historic sites exposed to?

Nature.