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 If you do not finish it, do it out of date or just copy&paste from internet, your score will be 0.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.

2ºBritish: G.O.S.T.- Stage 4: León and Castilla

The relationship between those two territories was not always easy, specially after Castilla (firstly a vassal territory) achieved the independence from León and turned into a kingdom itself… As an example, León refuse to participate among Castilla into the “Crusade” of 1212, year of the famous Battle of Navas de Tolosa, where an international Christian coalition defeated the muslim troops:

There are two interesting videos about that complex evolution, until reaching the Battle of Navas de Tolosa. A good and complete revisión from Kings & Generals (13 minutes) and the Real Crusade History (22 minutes). Although probably the clearest version is the summary by ACADEMIAPLAY (14 minutes).

Another key figure in this stage was Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known as “El Cid”. He was a Castillian knight with such a quite adventorous life that was turned into an epic poem. In 1961 a Hollywood superproduction was filmed in Spain about him.

And do not forget the importance of the Pilgrimade to Santiago de Compostela in the medieval life:

By the way! The Iberian península also suffered the Black Death pandemia. Be careful because in any moment you can suffer an unpleasant surprise… ;)

2º British: G.O.S.T - Stage 3: Navarra, Aragón, Cataluña and Portugal

The explanation provided at class will help you to study the complex and comvulsive history of those territories during the Middle ages.

PS. Do you know what is the meaning of “portolan chart”? It would be quite important when talking about King “Henry the navigator” of Portugal... And what can you remember about the meaning of medieval heraldry?

By the way, for the first activity of this stage's mission you would need to download the well-known archive with free free power point templates.

3º British: From cocoa to chocolate

As a complementary revision of the primary sector, here you have this educational video from Barry Callebaut, explaining all the steps necessary, from cocoa tree to chocolate bars.

And if you are into statistics, here you have some numers about the world production:

4º British: THE GREAT WAR - WEEK BY WEEK 100 YEARS LATER

Studying World War I? Here you have a terrific colecction of videos, conducted by Indiana Neidell for British Pathé. It was an ambitious project, covering week by week the evolution of the war on its centenary. Here you have the link to the first video: The outbreak of WWI.

Learn & enjoy!