4º British: Life in a WWI trench. Simulation game

It's not the first time we talk in class about the Great War trenches but, as you are really interesting into it, here you have a new 4-minutes video from History Channel and even a simulation game from the Canadian War Museum. Join History first hand... 

Links thanks to Ken Halla.

4º British: Causes of IWW and its global nature

As you asked me this morning in class, here you have the document with the detailed causes of the I World War.

In addition, if you want a deeper study about WWI, the websites of The Guardian and the British Library, offer both stories and video clips that clearly outlines that global nature:

The Guardian has a 3-minute clip called "Empire" that reminds us that Britain brought in the most colonial soldiers, conscripting over a million men from their Indian colony and France brought in over 200,000 Africans to work in French factories.

The British Library has a number of stories about racism and nationalism in WWI. Example: Colonial participation in the war often reinforced racial stereotypes as these colonial soldiers became more visible to the European public. According to historian Fogerty, "the German army made much of the ‘exotic’ soldiers it captured from among enemy troops, often subjecting Africans and Asians to anthropological study in the camps and using images of the prisoners in propaganda." 

By the way, the photo that illustrates this post, is the uniform that Franz Ferdinand was dressing when he was killed... Can you see the blood spots?

3º British: The tulip stock-market crisis (Holland, 1636)

In 1559, the first tulips arrived to Holland from Turkey, where it was considered a sacred flower. The natural conditions of the Dutch farmland were optimal for its cultivation and in the following years they got different kinds of tulips never seen before: higher, more colorful, with different shades ... Soon the tulip was consolidated as a symbol of ostentation and economic power between high Dutch society, and everyone wanted to have one.

The process by which the tulip changed color was at that time a secret; no one could control what color would be a tulip until it had not flourished, so Tulips quoted certain colors were better than other more common; thus the price of the flower began to grow uncontrollably until incredible prices: they were even sold stately homes, fields or entire farms, mortgages on their homes, free labor commitments up to 15 years... in exchange for a single bulb!

Then came the February 5, 1637. That day was the last big sale of tulips: 99 tulips 90,000 guilders (about 15,000 euros today). On February 6 nobody bought a single tulip. The critical voices against the absurd price of a flower that bloomed only two weeks a year, won and the market collapsed.

The collective psychosis ordered worldwide sell and sell, but nobody wanted to buy. After one week, large families were bankrupt and soon went bankrupt the country!. The municipalities ordered laws that nullified the debts incurred by investors, and creditors courts were collapsing, but for most it was too late. They had a stroke the dream of being rich instantly and, what is worse, thousands of people had lost homes, jobs or family, and now had absolutely nothing.

As a class activity, you have today’s time for answering these questions:

1. Explain the process of how a stock market bubble is formed

2. Who wins and who loses with the formation of the bubble? And with his break?

Maybe you would need to read about the general process of a stock-market bubble (in Spanish).

When finish, send your answers to blogeducativo08@gmail.com.

Good luck! J

4º British: The Spanish Independence War in 140 characters strings

You are about to start the second edition of your favourite historical activity... twitter in class! Yes, you have read correctly: you will use Twitter with educational purposes.

You must create a twitter account (please do NOT use your personal one) as you were one of the participants in the Spanish Independence War (a militar commander? A politician? A French soldier? A war journalist?... there are many possibilities, you can review the document “Characters of the War” on this blog). With this “historical account” you become follower of @auladeadriana

REMEMBER that you must create your historical account BEFORE Thursday or you will have a penalization on your mark.

During the next 3 weeks you have to create a minimum of 18 tweets (10 of them base on real primary sources) in the name of your chosen character. Try not to be independent, but “talk” with the others (a soldier complaining to his superiors? The liberal politicians writting the Constitution in Cádiz? Napoleon encouraging his troops? Politicians exchanging messages and speeches? Goya painting agaisnt the absurd of wars?...)

Last year, this experiment was a total success and your partners really did good performances, so you will have to work hard for leading them...

The “war” will start on 12 February and will finish on Friday 6 March. This work is individual and mandatory and will be part of the score at the end of the term. If you fail to finish it, do it out of date, or just copy from a webpage, the mark will be a 0 for this work.

Be creative and enjoy it! J

Sources you can use:

Gaceta de la Regencia de las Españas (Official news in the B.O.E.)

Spanish primary sources (you’ll need to translate them, obviously)

British primary sources (insert on the academic text. Be patient...)

Napoleon’s opinions about his contemporaneous

Constitution of Cádiz, 1812

Journalist: Jéróme Phelipeau and the Siege of Cabrera