Colonial Scars

COLONIAL SCARS:

I think one of the most interesting consequences of the colonization of African countries by European colonial empires, is the presence of European languages in Africa. French, for example, which is the most common European language in that continent, is spoken by more than twenty African countries. However, there are a lot other European languages there which are a little less popular. One example is Portuguese. This language is spoken in countries such as Cape Verde, Angola or Mozambique (in this one more than 27% of population knows it as second language). In Mozambique, the 5^th of May they celebrate the Day of Portuguese Language and Culture, as well as in many other Portuguese-speaking African countries. However, the influence of this language in this country has increased during time as a way to improve communication between Mozambicans during the independence. Henrique Terreiro Galha, revolutionary leader, posted some blog entries about this independence in which he affirmed the following: “Portuguese was the only vehicle of communication among the different ethnicities… Joaquim Chissano ‘the need to transform the Portuguese language, from an instrument of depersonalization and oppression, to a vehicle of communication of the People’”. Definitely, Portuguese has become an important part of Mozambique since, thanks to colonization, this language was brought there. However, Mozambique is also very important for Portuguese people as a way of escaping from the crisis of the democracy, as well as other colonies of the past such as Angola. The main reason, some people affirm, is that there, with only some formation, you can help the country grow a lot. And that is happening thanks to all this immigration; only in 2011 Mozambique’s economy grew a 7, 4%.

Finally, it is important to say, that this is only one of the lots of European languages that are actually spoken at Africa thanks to colonization of the early XX c. and that have lasted until today. Moreover, as well as this one, there are other scars of colonialism which can be observed nowadays, such as the Commonwealth, Multiculturalism in France's Presidential Debate, etc.

WORKS CITED:

Global voices page, Translation posted 19 May 2011 16:46 GMT (Not mentioned author).                                                                                       https://globalvoices.org/2011/05/19/mozambique-portuguese-the-language-of-mozambicanness/

Nations online page (Not mentioned author).

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/african_languages.htm

Eldiario.es, Mozambique, la huída de la emigración, Susana Irles, 17/10/2012, 09:00 a.m.

http://www.eldiario.es/internacional/portugal-crisis-emigracion_0_58794511.html

Iron architecture and Chicago's school of architecture

Modernisme

Here you can see an image explaining the main facts of Modernisme. 

Glossary French Revolution

Timeline of important thinkers

Make your own mind maps with Mindomo.

Declaration of Independence

In my opinion, the Declaration of Independence was written because of selfish causes or, in other words, with economic purposes. This ones may have been inspired by the bourgeoisie and members of the upper-class, who needed the support of the lower-class. But, what evidences do we have to get to this statement?
First of all, it is no difficult to imagine a bourgeoisie desirous of power, moreover, they had many reasons to promote a rebellion against England as we can see in their grievances, such as the cut off of trade with the rest of the world.
Furthermore, we can observe evidences of the trying of the upper-class to persuade lower-class in that grievances as well and in the Declaration of Independence. For example, it is important to standout that they were written by white and privilaged men, using an inspiring language to call all classes to rebellion and to wake up patriotic feelings.
However, this determination of the bourgeoisie to persuade lower-class might have been only the result of their desire of gaining power over the govermen, for what they needed support.
As a conclusion, I can afirm that the reason of the writing of the Declaration of Independence is that priviladge classes needed the support of the lower-class to rebolt and this way gain control over goverments.

Here are links to the Declaration of Independence in which there can be observed the aspects I previously mentioned.

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

Interview to a pike man of the Tercios of Flanders.

Today, we are interviewing a pike man of the Tercios of Flanders. He was born in 1506 and enlisted to the Tercio of the kingdom he lived in when it was created, so he has being one the first pike men in history.

1. Which was the purpose of the creation of the Tercios?

They were created by Charles I when he faced the difficult job of maintaining secure the territories he had inherited in Milan, Naples and Sicilia.

With France trying to snatch these regions to the King, he had the duty of reorganizing the Spanish infantry of these Italian regions.  So, the first Tercios were created in order to accomplish the defense of these territories.

2. Which of the Tercios you belonged to?
I was part of the Sicilia’s Tercio, one of the first three Tercios, together with the ones of Naples and Lombardi. This three Tercios were called “Old Tercios” because of its long service.

These groups were born, by order of Charles I, for defending some of his kingdoms, and each of them had its own authorities. 

Later, Tercios’s formation continued as we were doing a very good job and demonstrating our loyalty to the King.

3. How did it come to your mind the idea of enlisting to a Tercio for defending your region?

Well, you have already said it: it was a matter of defending my own region. However, it was also a great opportunity of showing the world my loyalty to the king; all men that were there demonstrated a huge loyalty to Charles I in every battle and, of course, to God, as all were also catholic.

Moreover, it seemed to be a great chance to form myself as a soldier, as I had no experience in the job and Tercios were formed by great soldiers but also by unexperienced ones.

4. Talk us about the tactics you used in your battles.

Our tactics were inspired by the ones that the Swiss army used; we fought combining, in a very efficient way, bladed weapons (such as spades and spears) and fire arms (like harquebus and muskets).

Moreover, we had a huge mobility and a big capacity for adapting to each fighting field, so everybody knew us as the invincible army.

5. What part did you take inside this tactic? Which was your job?

I was a pike man, as well as most of the people that worked in the Tercios.

First of all, the muskets started the war, over one hundred meters away from the enemy.

Then, harquebuses fired when the opposite army was nearer.

And finally it was our turn, the turn of the pike mans, who were organized in a square formation. We put our pikes pointing the outside of the square, so the enemy army couldn’t get closer to us. I don’t want to brag, but we were the most important part of the attack, because the enemy army, whose soldiers were mostly on horses, was unable to fight against us as it was very easy to make them fall with our pikes.   

Furthermore, next to us, there were situated what we called “mangas”, that were groups of soldiers with fire arms that helped us during the battle.

6. What would you say that were the keys for wining so much?

I would stand out the organization of the Tercios and the huge help that pikes provided us. The square organization was a fundamental part of our attacks in order to defeat our enemies as they could do nothing to penetrate the formation. Moreover, pikes were important because they were between 4 to 6 meters long, so they made us able to manage the other army’s soldiers without getting out of our place and they also avoid a lot of deads as we used them to protect ourselves too.

7. Did you participate in the “encamisadas”? ¿What did they consist in?

Of course, and I think they provided our army a huge help.

The “encamisadas” were tactics in which we attacked the enemy when it was off-guard. The best pike mans of the Tercio were in charge of putting into practice this strategy.

It consisted in travelling during the night to the enemy’s field (where they slept), taking with us only bladed weapons and a white T-shirt for distinguishing us from the other army.  

Although these were only eventual attacks, with them we managed to sabotage our enemy’s arms and to cause the most injuries as possible.

8. What can you tell us regarding the “12 apostles”?

As a mentioned, I was part of one of the first Tercios, so it still was a big difference between the two groups of soldiers that had fire arms: the harquebusiers and the musketeers. Both groups used different arms.

The ones used by the harquebusiers, needed 12 gunpowder’s loads in tubes made of wood, this is what was popularly called the 12 apostles.

However, as time went by, differences between the two groups of soldiers disappeared, and the arms that harquebusiers used started to be similar to the ones of the musketeers.

9. Did you use any uniform or method for distinguishing from your enemies?

We didn’t use any uniform, each person wore what he wanted or could afford; however, all of us had to wear a red ribbon tied to our wrists and those who were pike men also had to tie another like it in our pikes and similar weapons.

10. How did Tercios end?

The end of the scary Tercios took place during the reign of Philip V, who dissolved and transformed them into regiments with less free captains, controlled by a more centralized power.

However, I think Tercios will remain during history because of all the battles they have fought and won and the good reputation they have given to the Spanish armies. 

SPANISH ARMADA: reading like a historian

Extract from a letter to English government giving details about the progress of the Armada (SP 94/3)   
                                                                                                                                                                    -How useful do you think this information would be to the English government?
The information included in the letter is very useful because it provides facts related to the Spanish Armada, such as the number of boats, soldiers, their locations...This way, they will be able to know if it was necessary to send more boats, crews, or whatever and be prepared for the attacs.

-Why were there more soldiers than sailors?
The reason of a huge difference between sailors and soldiers is that the main objective was a land invasion, so soldiers were more useful to fight, whereas sailors only had to carry them to England. 

Lord Howard of Effingham, the Admiral of the English fleet, sent this report to Francis Walsingham 21 July (SP 12/212)

-How do you think the news that the Spanish Armada had been sighted was able to reach Lord Howard so quickly when he was at Plymouth, over a hundred miles away?
Because he received intelligence (someone who transmited relevant information) that there were a great number of Spanish ships.

-Why do you think Howard complained to Walsingham about the wind?
The main problem regarding the wind was that it was changing frequently, what made the fight very difficult for them.

-Howard says that the Spanish fleet was ‘soe strong’. What made it strong?
What made the Spanish Armada seem so strong was the great number of different kinds of sheeps that compond it: 120 sail sheeps whereof 4 were galleasses and many ships of greate burthen. An extract from a Spanish captain’s account of the events. He had survived after being shipwrecked on the Irish coast and was then interrogated by the English, but eventually returned home to Spain.

 An extract from a Spanish captain’s account of the events. He had survived after being shipwrecked on the Irish coast and was then interrogated by the English, but eventually returned home to Spain.

-The Spanish Armada fought the English fleet for two days without losing any ships. What happened next that changed this?
After two days in wich they hadn't lost any ship, they perceived in the night 6 ships falling upon them fired: by reason whereof they were driven to cut their Cables: at which time a great ship was burned among them.

-Why was it a good thing that the Spanish plans were stopped?
 Because the captain who wrote the letter had been hold prisonerin the british coast after suffering a shipwrecked, so, if Spanish plans of attaking the british cities would have been done, he would have died.

-If you could change one thing to give the Spanish a better chance of winning what would it be and why?
 If I had the chance, I would change those annoying winds and weather conditions that made the work of the Spanish Armada so difficult, to the point that people even said that was God who made the fleet be unsuccesful.

-The English celebrated their victory with a medal saying ‘God Blew and they were Scattered’ – how would the Spanish have explained their defeat? The medal represents the important part that the wind and weather in generall took in their battles, and that made the fight so difficult for the soldiers. This argument would habe been the one used by the Spanish in order to explain their fail in the battle.

Charles V

In this map we can see four different layers.
The first one show the territories of Charles V, those that he inherited, as well as those which were conquered by himself.
In the second layer it is showed the place were he was crowned emperor and some important facts about the day of his coronation.
In the third layer we can see the three most important battles in wich he took place.
Finally, in the fourth layer, we can see his last journey as an emperor.