GOYA

LA GUERRA DE LA INDEPENDENCIA: SANGRE, PASIÓN Y LÁGRIMAS

1. ¿Qué supuso el Tratado de Fontainebleau (1807)?

El Tratado de Fontainebleau fue firmado entre Francia y España y marcó el inicio del enfrentamiento. Implicó que las tropas francesas, unos 25000 hombres, pudieran penetrar en España, camino de Portugal. Este tratado acordaba la entrada y desembarco de 25000 hombres franceses en España para invadir Portugal. Pero Napoleón incumplió el tratado intentando conquistar, no solo Portugal, sino toda la península.Supuso el inicio de la Guerra de Independencia.

2. ¿Qué bandos se enfrentaron en la Guerra de la Independencia (1808-1814)?

En la Guerra de Independencia se enfrentaron los bandos de patriotas (españoles) e invasores (franceses).

3. ¿Qué dos grupos integraban el bando "patriota"? ¿Qué los caracteriza?

Por un lado el bando patriota, que buscaba la liberación de la patria, estaba dividido en absolutistas, que luchaban por la continuidad de la monarquía absoluta y los liberales que querían terminar con ella. Por otro lado encontramos a los españoles afrancesados o Carloterceristas que luchaban por una transición de la monarquía absoluta y liberalismo siguiendo el modelos del despotismo ilustrado.

4. ¿Qué eran las guerrillas?¿Qué significa la expresión "Viva Fernando y vamos robando"?

Eran grupos armados irregulares españoles que atacaban por sorpresa al enemigo francés.
La expresión “Viva Fernando y vamos robando” era un grito patriótico que por un lado vitoreaba a Fernando VII y por otro mostraba la difícil situación de los guerrilleros que, al no formar parte del ejército regular vivían de los que robaban ya que no cobraban o recibían paga alguna.

5. ¿Cuál fue el coste de la ayuda de Gran Bretaña?

El duque inglés de Wellington lideró las tropas anglo-portuguesas y contribuyó a la victoria de España frente a Francia, aunque nunca tuvo buena relación con los líderes españoles. Intervinieron 30000 hombres de los cuales hubo 5000 bajas, 15 piezas de artillería, 200000 mosqueteros y 90000 uniformes. Pero la ayuda británica no fue desinteresada, la intervención inglesa ocultaba propósitos económicos como el de hacer desaparecer la industria española que, si prosperaba, podría hacer peligrar las exportaciones inglesas de paños y algodones en España destruyendo fábricas textiles en Segovia y Ávila, además estos querían beneficiarse del comercio con América.

6. ¿Qué medidas fueron aprobadas por las Cortes de Cádiz de 1810?

Las Cortes de Cádiz de 1810 aprobaron una Constitución liberal (“La Pepa) en 1812 que acabó con el absolutismo y estableció la división de poderes. Las Cortes aprobaron entre otras, reformas como la abolición del régimen señorial, la supresión de la Inquisición y las bases de un Estado liberal con soberanía nacional y sufragio nacional masculino indirecto. Las Cortes de Cádiz fueron disueltas en 1813 cuando Fernando VII volvió de Francia.

7. ¿Qué batallas provocaron el final de la ocupación francesa en España?

El duque inglés de Wellington venció en la batalla de Arapiles en Salamanca en 1812 y comenzó un gran avance de las tropas anglo portuguesas y el inicio del retroceso de Napoleón. Este había mandado 700.000 hombres a Rusia para invadirla, lo que provocó una disminución del ejército francés en España, situación que aprovechó el bando español junto con las ayudas inglesas y portuguesas para expulsar a los franceses de España. Fue entonces, y tras las derrotas de Vitoria y San Marcial (Irún) en 1813 que Napoleón liberó a Fernando VII por el tratado de Valençay y un año más tarde, en 1814, las últimas tropas galas fueron evacuadas de la península.

8. ¿Qué consecuencias tuvo la guerra para España?

La guerra dejó al país esquilmado. La Guerra de la Independencia supuso grandes pérdidas para España. La hacienda quebró (sus ingresos cayeron de 1.500 millones de reales a menos de 650 millones), el Gobierno se desestabilizó y murieron 250.000 españoles en combate y se perdieron entre 350.000 y 500.000 vidas por el hambre y las epidemias. Fernando VII luchó por impedirlo pero, esta batalla fue el principio del fin del Antiguo Régimen, del absolutismo y del sistema económico señorial. En el plano internacional, supuso el inicio de la pérdida del imperio de América y el fin de España como protagonista en Europa.

AMISTAD, THE MOVIE (1997)

1- What is the movie about? Summarize the plot of the film.

Amistad is an American historical drama film based on the true story of the events in 1839 aboard the slave ship La Amistad. It has an important historical meaning because the case was a watershed fact for America-Spain relations, and reveals the political machinations as it holds repercussions on the North-South conflict eventually leading to America's Civil War.

Amistad ship is carrying a large group of Africans who have been abducted and sold into slavery in Cuba, taken on board, and chained in the cargo hold of the ship, who were Mende tribesmen. They gained the control of their captors' ship off the coast of Cuba, and when they arrived to the U.S they get prisoned as runaway slaves. That envolved them on an international legal battle. They didn't speak a word of English, and they seemed like they are doomed to die for killing their captors when an abolitionist lawyer decided to take their case, arguing that they were free citizens of another country and not slaves at all. The case finally got to the Supreme Court, where John Quincy Adams maked an impassioned and eloquent plea for their release to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841. Finally the prisoners returned to their home, Africa.


2- What was the triangular Trade? What nations benefited from it? 

 
It is a historical term indicating trade among three ports or regions. Triangular trade was a type of trade across the Atlantic Ocean between three regions that took place between the 16th and the 19th century and is characterized by its triangular shape. It was a very effective commerce method that rectify trade imbalances between regions. Arms, rum, textiles and wine were shipped from Europe to Africa, slaves from Africa to the Americas, and sugar, tobacco, cotton and coffee from the Americas to Europe. The main nations that were benefited from the triangular trade were; Western Europe, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain and North America.


3- Do some research and explain the conditions in which slaves were captured and transported from Africa to the Americas.

Slaves suffered very poor conditions. Most of them had been taken from their homeland and were from different countries and cultures, so they spoke different languages. Many of them had never seen the sea before and neither a ship, besides hey had no Knowledge of where they were going or what was waiting for them. The Atlantic passage was notorious for its brutality and for the overcrowded, unsanitary conditions on slave ships. Hundreds of Africans were chained together, and the low ceilings did not permit them to sit upright. Men, as they were considered more dangerous and stronger, were shackled together in pairs using leg irons or shackles, On the other hand, women and children were kept in different quarters in the deck, but with limited freedom of movement. They were used to live without any belongs. The heat was intolerable. They could not use to the toilet buckets and it was easy to be infected by lots o diseases due to the terrible smell that was contaminating the air. Also hunger was a serious causative of get ill, because they were given some food, but only the fastest could catch it. Epidemics were frequent. The captives were often in poor health from the physical and mental abuse they had suffered. Historians estimate that between 15 and 25 percent of the African slaves bound for the Americas died aboard slave ships. Those whom died were thrown overboard, and those who were sick were killed.



4. What enlightened ideas appear in the movie?

The Enlightenment ideas tell us that the right to freedom is equal for all without subordination or subjection; and that all men should be restrained from violating the rights of others and that every person has the right to defend their life and property from such invasion. Is based on the thought of The natural state of man as freedom. The most important enlightened ideas that appear in the movie are the right of the freedom and equality. We can see almost every enlightened idea in president John Quincy Adams´ argument. His lecture is based on freedom and equality and on “The Natural Law”, which says that God has given to every human being certain rights and they can do anything to achieve that state. He also argues that there is no difference for God between black and white and defends the abolition of slavery.

 5. Who was Joseph Cinqué? Did he really exist?

He existed. Joseph Cinqué, also known as Sengbe Pieh, was a West African man of Mende. He was a rice farmer, married, with three children, when he was captured illegally by African slave traders in 1839 and sold to Pedro Blanco, a Spanish slave trader. Cinqué was taken to Havana, Cuba, where he was sold with 110 others to Spaniards José Ruiz and Pedro Montez. He was the African man who led the revolt of fellow slaves on La Amistad and also his participation in the trials. After being set free, Cinqué and the other Africans reached their homeland in 1842 in Sierra Leone.





6. What is the role of John Quincy Adams, former US President, in the movie?John Quincy Adams was president of the United States from 1825 to 1829. He argued to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Amistad captives on two separate days in 1841, the 24th of February and the 1st of March. He used philosophical arguments like the “state of nature” and legislative arguments by saying that slaves are reflected like "people with a dutie" in the Constitution of the United States.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE ESSAY

The American Declaration of Independence is a document that was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and that announced the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. It was written following the concepts of both the Enlightenment ideas of freedom and liberty in accordance with "Natural Law".


I agree with Howard Zinn’s interpretation of the Declaration of Independence because he argues that the colonists upper-classes wanted to trigger revolution against England by using an “inspiring and patriotic language” to persuade the lower classes, avoiding class conflict, but stirring enough to built patriotic feelings. This leads me to think that the upper-classes used the lower classes for defending privileged economic interests and I would say that this document was used to bring together people from the colonies to protect the economic interests of the privileged Bourgeoisie.


The document says that the “all men are created equal, with unalienable rights”. The document was written to "unite large number of colonists and persuade those who had grievances to turn against England", what I think that means they were deceived and forced to follow what they were proposed; without liberty. I don’t think that ideological principles of the Enlightenment like liberty or happiness were the ones that moved the upper-class colonists to write this document and start a revolution, moreover, he says that some Americans “were omitted” like Indians, slaves or even women, so they did not had all the rights the should have.
An evidence that supports Zinn arguments is the tone, language and adjectives used in the list of grievances. A patriotic tone is used to unite colonists against England, giving examples about their brutality and destruction caused in America. Some of these injustices would affect only the rich and powerful colonists, and that makes me think that the economic is the main reason why they would want to start a revolution.


As a conclusion, I think the abusive taxes and economic problems were the main causes by which the upper-class colonists started a revolution against England. They used an inspiring and patriotic language to unite many colonists and turn them against England, thus triggering the American Revolution.