4º British: Life in the trenches

How was daily life inside a war trench? What were the problems? How often were soldiers in the hiring line? Could things has been different? If you want to know those (and more) things, visit the special BBC web about the Myth of trench warfare.

You can scroll through great graphics like the one below which explain different aspects of trench warfare from a typical day, to how often soldiers were in the firing line, to how the trenches kept men safe, to life behind the lines, and much more. 

This guide on trench warfare is part of  a BBC series of awesome guides on WWI called I Wonder Guides. All are interactive like this trench warfare guide.

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4º British: the youngest soldier of the British Army

A schoolboy, aged 12, who fought on the Battle of the Somme after lying about his age has been declared the youngest authenticated combatant of the First World War.

Private Sidney Lewis joined the East Surreys at Kingston in August 1915, with only 12 years old, and fought on the front for six weeks. He was sent home in August 1916 after his mother contacted the War Office in London.

“His story is quite phenomenal – not only did he enlist at the age of 12 and fight on the Somme at the age of 13, but he returned to service at the end of the Great War and worked in bomb disposal during the Second World War”. 

4º British: The defense of Belgium

In 1914 the political situation in Europe was very delicate. Due to different political and military alliances, any small incident between two countries would support their respective allies, causing a " dominoes effect" and large-scale conflict.

One of those incidents was Belgium, a "young" (It was independent since 1830) and neutral country. The Germans wanted to cross Belgium in order to invade France. The Belgians, led by their King Albert I, offered a harsh and unexpected resistance. The German army used Zeppelin LZ to bomb the city of Liege, decisive city to their plans of conquest (besides this bombing was the beginning of the air war in military history) .

Still, Belgium resisted and became a symbol of "honor and courage", receiving praise (and military support) of France and England.

Precisely the British were reluctant to officially enter the war. And that is reflected in these verses of the famous satirical magazine Punch:

Why should I follow your fighting line

For a matter that’s no concern of mine?

[...]

I shall be asked to a general scrap

All over the European map,

Dragged into somebody else’s war.

After the Belgian example, the English opinion changed and the Goverment took active part in organizing the offensive with their continental allies. You can see this change of opinion through "The Gutemberg Project - Punch", a good collection of their cartoons.

Los guerreros de terracota de Xian

Bienvenidos a la antigua China! La actividad de hoy consiste en explicar a los lectores de este blog los Guerreros de terracota ...

Lo primero que tienes que hacer investigar para responder, de la forma más completa posible, las preguntas que aparecen a continuación.

¿Quién mandó hacer los Guerreros de terracota? ¿Cuándo? ¿Por qué?

¿Qué sabes acerca de ese emperador?

¿De qué material estaban hechos?

¿Qué pasó con sus colores?

¿Cuál es la historia detrás de los Guerreros de terracota?

¿Quién las descubrió y cuándo?

Describir el lugar donde se encuentran los Guerreros de Terracota (tamaño, ubicación, etc )

Tras la investigación, haz un pequeño archivo multimedia (que puede ser un vídeo, un power point, un libro de fotos ... ) explicando todo lo que has aprendido acerca de los Guerreros de Terracota. Cuando hayas terminado, enviar el archivo a blogeducativo08@gmail.com. Recordad que esta es una actividad obligatoria, y recibiréis una nota por ella. 

Disfrutad del trabajo y buena suerte!

Puede encontrar información adicional en los siguientes enlaces:

Qin Dinasty 

Xian exhibition and Imperial tours 

chinavista and Travel guide

wright photos 

4º British: Road to war: UK vs Germany

The European situation in those previous years was not easy. In fact, there were deep and dangerous contradictions between countries and politicians... Here you have an example:

Sir Ralph Norman Angell (1872–1967) was an English lecturer, journalist and Member of Parliament for the Labour Party. In 1913 he wrote a very influential book, “The Great Illusion”. The thesis of the book was that, in the new 20th century, a war in Europe would be impossible. Why? According to Angell, because the integration of the economies of European countries had grown to such a degree that war between them would be entirely futile, making militarism obsolete. 

Meanwhile that book become a best-seller in UK, the German militarist Friedrich Adolf Julius von Bernhardi (1849–1930) wrote a bellicose book “Germany and the Next War”, printed in 1911. He advocated a policy of ruthless aggression and complete disregard of treaties and regarded war as a "divine business" and a “necessity” for his country.

Everybody know how this theoretical/editorial controversy finished...

4º British: Sofía Casanova, a Spaniard journalist in the Great War

Sofía Casanova, born in Galicia, was the first woman working as a war journalist. Hired by the newspaper "ABC", she wrote about the War of Morocco, the Great War, the Russian Revolution... and even the Nazi period. 

During the Great War, she joined as a volunteer nurse the Red Cross hospital in Warsaw, taking care of wounded soldiers from the front. She visited the trenches of the allied troops, claiming against the new weapons. 

She died in 1958 in Poznan (Poland). Now you can discover more things about her intense and controversial life.

El mapa de los Balcanes

La clave para resolver el mapa, y fecharlo en el año adecuado, es Albania: ¿Aparece en vuestro mapa? ¿O no? En 1912 los albaneses reclamaron su independencia frente a turcos y griegos, y fueron legalmente reconocidos como país en 1913. Pero muy poco después, con el estallido de la I Guerra Mundial, Albania volvería a ser invadida...