The Emperors, Unit 5

The United States enters in the Great War!

Almost 2 years after the Lusitania´s sinking, President Wilson declares war to Germany

As you all know, on the morning of 6 May, Lusitania was 750 miles (1,210 km) west of southern Ireland.

The torpedo struck Lusitania under the bridge, sending a plume of debris, steel plating and water upward and knocking lifeboat number five off its davits. A second, more powerful explosion followed, sending a geyser of water, coal, dust and debris high above the deck. Many lifeboats overturned while loading or lowering, spilling passengers into the sea; others were overturned by the ship's motion when they hit the wáter. Lusitania sank in only 18 minutes, 11.5 miles (19 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale.  More tan 100 americans died.

Almost 2 years later, on April 2nd, Wilson spoke before Congress. With a deep sense of the solemn and tragic step he was taking, he told the parliamentarians that they should consider the German actions as a declaration of war against the government and the people of the United States.

The armed neutrality had been ineffective, since it was impossible to implement to defend the ships against the attacks of German submarines.

"We have nothing against the German people, our only feelings towards them are sympathy and friendship," Wilson said. But, he added, "the world must be a safe place for democracy to exist."

President Wilson

Dictators Unit 5

Germany extremely punished.

A new treaty has been signed in Versailles punishing the guilty countries of the war.

 The Treaty of Versailles has been signed on 28 June and consisted of 440 Articles setting out the terms for Germany's punishment who lost the 13 per cent of its territory and the most of the German´s colonies that had been redistributed among the other colonial powers. The small but industrially important Saar region has started to be governed by Britain and France and its coal is going to be exported to France in recompense for the French coal mines destroyed by Germany during the war. The treaty has been recieved with pleased in the German country. 

The ´Big Four´

 Germany actually has three weeks to comply. The German government is complaining that they have not been consulted the terms of the treaty. They argued that "is nothing less than a dictate" set by the representatives of the Allies, from left to right are; David Lloyd George for Great Britain, Vittorio Orlando for Italy, Georges Clemenceau for France and Woodrow Wilson for the US.

 The principal commands for the guilty of the war are:

1. The German army has to be restricted to 100.000 men, the navy is restricted to six battleships and no submarines. It can not have tanks or an air force.

Germany territory losses.

2. Germany has to return Alsace-Lorraine to France and the German region of east Prussia has to be separated from the rest of the country by a corridor of land that will be govern by Poland.

3. The Germans have to pay reparations of the European allies. Been total summatory 132 billion gold marks.

4. It had to sing the war-guilt clause.

5. Germany has to give all his colonies to Great Britain and France.

After this hard episode Europe has to recover, carry on and restart following paths of peace.

STANLEY KUBRICK´S PATHS OF GLORY

World War I has inspired movies, comics, songs, books and other artistic manifestations. The film that we are going to watch is considered a classic, and its director one of the most recognized, acclaimed and at the same time controversial of the history of cinema. Paths of Glory is a pacifist story that tells about the horror of war and injustice. I hope it will make you reflect.

Here I leave you the exercise that you must complete after watching the movie. The last day to deliver it is Tuesday, March 20. To find out how your evaluation will be, see the rubric we used for the previous film with which we work.

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APLICACIÓN DIDÁCTICA PARA LA PELÍCULA "SENDEROS DE GLORIA" from IES - ORNIA - LA BAÑEZA (LEÓN)

Sans Culottes - Unit 5

Thursday 30th, June 1914

The terrible tragedy of Sarajevo

The empire of Austria Hungary lose their heir

Franz Ferdinand

The last Sunday, June 28 a terrible tragedy happened in the city of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sofia were shot by Gavrilo Princip.

The attack occurred at first hour in the morning while his vehicle circulated in an official visit to the city of Sarajevo.
There were several failed attempts to kill them that morning, the most important was a cyanide bomb that caused several injuries. After this incident, the driver of the official car deviates from the established route to avoid the attackers, with the bad luck of getting lost and being with the cause of the inevitable death of the dukes.

The moment of the attempt.

 This man shot twice against the car in which the dukes were. One of the bullets reached Franz Ferdinand the chest and another one bounced and reached sofia which was pregnant with 9 months. Both died after 20 minutes. Franz Ferninand was very scrupulous in his costumes and always wore his clothes well pressed and buttoned, to the point of wearing the lapels of his shirt and jacket sewn in the military parades so that they would not move with the wind. The day of the murder he wore the stitched coat, this was one of the reasons why it was not possible to succor in time. 

All those involved in the attacks have been caught and will be judged according to their charges.

Sources close to Emperor Franz Joseph the 1st point to the fact that the last heir to the throne of Austria Hungary will be Charles of Habsburg-Lorraine and Saxony.

You can watch a animated recreation of the attempt here.

Sans Culottes - Group 5

October 3rd, 1864

The creation of the I.W.A

Good news for the workers and the proletariat

Marx talking in St. Martin's Hall in September

To start good this October, we bring some good news for workers across Europe, a new Association is born to help them.

The I.W.A (Interational Workers Association) was founded in London at Saint Martin's Hall, in September 28th, forming a committee whose mission was to draft a program and statutes for the Association. It is considered a response to the exploitation suffered by workers as a result of the industrial revolution. Its goal is to achieve a more just and equitable social order, fighting against capitalism. It is a symbol of international solidarity among workers across borders.

The assembly of delegates has chosen a provisional committee where Chartists, trade unionists, socialists of different tendencies and followers of Proudhon are found.

Some notorious members are Louis Auguste Blanqui,  a  french socialist and political activist, Giuseppe Garibaldi, a italian politician and general, and Friedrich Engels, co-writer of the Communist Manifiesto with the chosen one to write the statutes, Karl Marx. The statutes highlights several ideas:

Promotional poster of the I.W.A

· The International should not abolish national associations, but enhance their activity on a global scale.

· The emancipation of the working class would be the work of the workers themselves.

· There would be no emancipation without struggle for political power.

We hope that the organization achieves its purposes and spread throughout the world to provide better conditions for workers.

For more info you have this: video

And the original news of the creation of the I.W.A here

CONTENTS UNIT 5 - THE IMPERIALISM AND THE I WORLD WAR

This is a very interesting period of History. Tensions between European countries led to a conflict the world had never witnessed before. Its consequences would be terrible...

Pay attention to the presentation; there are some surprises in it.

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Unit 5 The Imperialism and the IWW from IES - ORNIA - LA BAÑEZA (LEÓN)

The next video will help you to understand better and to study the unit. Enjoy it!!

The Emperors - Unit 4

Robert Owen has bought New Lanark Mills

The 27-year-old young bussinessman, Robert Owen, has converted New Lanark Mills in a "Working Paradise" and has provided opportunities for children.

In 1799 Robert Owen, at the age of twenty-seven, ended the purchase of the Dale factory holdings in New Lanark, Scotland, and married Anne Caroline Dale soon there after.

As the manager of the New Lanark Mills, which employed more two thousand people, (including around five hundred children whose working life had begun at the age of five or six when they had left Edinburgh or Glasgow workhouses), Robert Owen introduced a yet more human and progressive employment regime than the one that had been in place under David Dale. No child younger than ten years old was employed and these were allowed relatively decent breaks for meals and some modestly worth while educational opportunities. As far as adult employees went he sought to introduce some new machinery, to improve the flow of work through the factory, and to quietly discourage pilfering and drunkenness.

New Lanark gained international fame when Owen's experiments in enhancing his workers' environment resulted in increased productivity and profit. Robert Owen spent considerable amounts of money on improving housing conditions in New Lanark, arranging the public refuse system, and for the paving of its streets. He also arranged for a company store that sold goods of higher quality and at lower prices than the stores that had previously been available in the area. This store managed to make a profit that Owen diverted towards funding a school for the worker's children leading to the establishment of the first infant school in Great Britain through Owen's support for the educational efforts of James Buchanan.

The Kings Unit 4

8th August, 1835

Last news

Great fire in Barcelona

Bonaplata's factory

The last friday's night the factory "El Vapor" was assaulted and inflamed by a group of luddites. There were numerous damages and the Bonaplata asked the government for an indemnification. A worker, Aleix Pardiñas, was arrested by the police and he confessed after having being tortured and he was shooted the saturday.

Luddites attacking the machines

The factory began to work after the dead of  Fernando VII and in a political difficult situation with the confrontation between carlists and supporters of Isabel II. Due to this struggle and to the politicals trends of some friars in Reus and other important cities, some convents were attacked. Then the revolt arrive to Barcelona and on the 25th of July, there were similar attacks in Sant Josep's convent and also in those of the Carmelites, the Dominicans, the Agustinos and the Trinitarios. On 5th of August, the general Balsa, who was trying to stop the disturbances, died. With the presence of this rarefied atmosphere and of the conflicts inside the factory about the machines that were seen as the enemy by the working class the workers decided that that night was the perfect one to carry out the plan that they had organize during weeks and weeks. They enter in the factory and began to burn some machines. Then they escape in the confusion and run away. The mayority of the workers managed to escape but Aleix Pardiñas didn't get it and some hours later he was imprisoned. During this weekend some others industrious towns like Manlleu, Ripoll, San Pedor, Moyá or Gironella were attacked by the luddites.

Leader of the English Luddites

They took as example the attacks in Alcoy in 1821. It was the first manifestation of Luddism that there was in Spain. It took place on 2 of March of 1821, during the Liberal Triennium of the reign of Ferdinand VII, when about 1200 peasants and laborers from the neighboring villages who carded and spun wool in their homes assaulted Alcoy and destroyed 17 machines. Two regiments from Játiva and Alicante had to intervene to restore tranquility.
In the all the cases they take as example the attacks made up in the south and east of Great Britain, in which the first Luddites destroy the machines  as a form of  increase pressure on employers, to weaken the lower-paid workers who competed with them, and to create solidarity among workers. They said: "These attacks on the machines did not necessarily imply hostility to the machines as such, the machine was just a convenient objective against which an attack could be carried out". The aim of the Luddites is gainning a better negotiating position with their employers. They were not afraid of technology per se, but they were "labor strategists". 
If you want to see more of the history of luddites click here.

The executioners- unit 4

 14th november 1913

FORD REVOLUTIONIZES THE CAR MARKET.

  

Henry Ford invents production line to make more accessible the buy of a car to every citizens.

The day we have been waiting for a long time has arrived, an American race driver born in the state of  Michigan has fulfilled the dreams of thousands of citizens. Now the access to buy a car is easier thanks to Henry Ford, the man that has changed the world.

Henry Ford

Henry Ford, who is 50s invented the Assembly Line, that is a manufacturing process  in which parts are added as the semi-finished assembly moves to workstation where the parts are added in sequence until the final assembly is produced. 

On October 7th 1913, the Ford plant on Piquette Avenue in Detroit began to produce the Ford Model T in masse with the assembly line. That day began a new era, the so-called Fordism, although of Model T had been released a few years earlier, on October 1st 1908.

Ford Model T production

The Ford team employs unskilled labor, farmers who have come to the city to seek their fortune and who will soon be car workers. The key for to the system is to subdivide the tasks to the minimum expression and bring the components to the workers, instead of waiting for each worker to move to the vehicle that manufactures. That being the case, these workers hardly need training. With chain work in poorly qualified hands, Henry can reduce cost and decides to pass on that cost reduction in a price reduction that will increase sales. In 1908 it is price was 825 dollars but every time the price goes down more.

Bearing in mind that the economic stage was one of the high inflation in the interwar period, this was an essential factor for the democratization of the Ford model... and for the automobile boom.

As Henry says: when we think that tomorrow will never come, it has already become yesterday.