2º British: Great explorers of Modern Age

In the first term we studied the most famous travellers of Medieval Age (Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta and Zheng He). Modern Age was the time of the Great Explorations: the discovering of America and the circumnavigation of the Globe. Let’s study it!

First of all, watch carefully the following TED-ed video about Magellan’s adventure (about 6 minutes, in English).

Secondly, fill in the class worksheet as completely as possible. If you need some extra help, there is plenty of information on the IAPH dossier (in Spanish), with wonderful illustrations about what is needed on board or the different parts of an exploration ship; and also the mariners museum web, including a complete guide of the Health measures on board that will be quite useful for your task.

When finish, give the complete worksheet to the teacher. As usual, this work is mandatory. If you do not finish it, do it out of date or just copy&paste from internet, your score will be 0.

Ready? Steady? Go!

Reto Lector 2019: En clave femenina

¿Ya os habéis apuntado al Reto Lector 2019: En clave femenina de nuestra biblioteca escolar? ¿Ya habéis escogido a vuestra autora de novela gráfica para esta primera prueba? Si aún no os habéis decidido, en el blog de La Biblio del Vasco podéis encontrar numerosas sugerencias:

• Historias, historietas y autoras de cómic. Un interesante artículo de PikaraMagazine
• 8 mujeres que se ríen del mundo muy en serio. De Sleepydays
• Presentes: autoras de tebeo de ayer y de hoy. Publicado por AECID y disponible en Issuu. 

¡Feliz lectura! :)

2ºBritish: G.O.S.T.- Stage 5: Isabella and Ferdinand, the Catholic Monarchs

This is a really important and revelant topic. Why? Because it was the starting point of the "Modern monarchies & Estates" (15 minutes video), finishing the feudal society, and because a New World was discovered (but... who was the first one? Watch this 10 minutes video and find it out). 

As you can imagine by this introduction, this stage of the game will take time... Keep calm and pay attention.

Thanks to TVE series, we can watch the key moments in the life of Isabella and Ferdinad. Can you put them in the correct chronological order?

Fragment: Columbus arrival to America

Fragment: Royal wedding

Fragment: Death of Isabella

Fragment: Selfproclamation as Queen

Fragment: Surrender of Granada

Do not forget to visit the TVE-Isabel official website, you will find it quite useful for the next Mission, ahem. Same for the “Marriage alliances” that they achieved: 

But no doubt the first and real trigger event was the famous “Farsa de Ávila”. What do you know about it?

Ah! We will have a very interesting class about the University of Salamanca, sponsored by Isabella and Ferdinand. Pay special attention to it!

1492 was a very important year for the Kingdom of Castilla: Columbus discovered a new continent for Queen Isabella and the "Reconquista" was finished was the conquest of Granada. 

By the way, against the common belief, there were many laws protecting the rights of natives in the Spanish America. Their status was similar to the peninsulars, as you can read in this article. Finally, on January 1514 King Ferdinand authorized by Royal Decree the legal marriage of Spaniards settlers with Native Americans which were, in fact, a usual practice there. That decree was considered too modern and open-minded for other nations. For example, until 1967 (yes! the 20th century! Can you believe it?) USA did NOT declare "unconstitutional" the racist laws that phohibited mixed marriages. 

Another relevant and also very controversial issue was the expulsion of the Jews and the beginning of the "Black Legend" of Spain, among the infamous "Inquisición"; in the following  videos of AcademiaPlay (in Spanish) you can learn all the details and historical true facts:

La Inquisición española (updated: 15 minutes)
La expulsión de los judíos (updated: 13 minutes)

Finally, the process of Royal Succession after Isabella’s death was not easy... Watch the following 8 -minutes video to learn about it.