THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1799) - GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS

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FRENCH REVOLUTION JEFF LEWIS

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

By Jeffrey Lewis

The King of France was Absolute, the people all were destitute, the year was 17 and 89.

Churches paid no income tax, neither did aristocrats and wars were costing money all the time.

But Enlightenment Ideas, had entered people’s ears like Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood.

People starved and broke under feudalism's yoke knew no church or king was gonna do them any good.

There was such financial crisis, the king had to take advice, to try an old thing called Estates General government.

The estates general had 3 votes, Nobles, Church and Common Folks, 2 to 1 the commons lose it always went.

The commons in frustration said we represent the nation, the nobles and the church must lose their privileges.

And the rich were scared for real when they stormed to the Bastille and rebellions also broke out in the villages.

At the palace in Versailles, the king and queen were heard to sigh when the national assembly made a bill of rights.

Then the Women's march embarrassed them and chased them into Paris and the church and nobles lost their power overnight.

Arguments got hot whether to keep the King or not, different groups saw different ways to run the country best.

But when the Royal family tried to flee the country in disguise, they were busted and then put under a house arrest.

All of Europe's Kings were terrified to hear these things, so France was threatened on all sides by enemies.

And when these other kings declared the King of France had to spared, this made the King of France look worse to the Revolutionaries.

They had built a new machine the quick and painless guillotine, they said it's fairer than the King's Medieval Torture rack.

Then they put it on a vote and then dropped it on his throat and every king across the world just had a heart attack.

They attacked from North and South, and they attacked from East and West, Revolutionary France was in a desperate state.

And when the radical Marat was killed politically that was what it took for France's outlook to degenerate.

The new leader Robespierre said enemies were everywhere, and for a year the Guillotine was working endlessly.

And though he freed the slaves that’s true Robespierre’s head came off too and France was run by the more moderate Directory.

But the Directory was lame and France's only good news came from their armies now in Europe winning more and more.

And the man who made them win was General Napoleon and when he came back home he made himself the emperor.

So it was a painful climb to get from Kings to Modern times, but the French Revolution always paved the way.

'Cause the ideas that sparked the first, have never ever been reversed, it was biggest change that shaped our western world today.

THE FRENCH REPUBLICAN CALENDAR

To mark the advent of the new age of liberty, among other things they replaced, in October 1793, the old Gregorian calendar with a new republican calendar. Henceforth, the year of the official proclamation of the Republic (1792) would become Year One. In this secular calendar, the twelve months of the year were named after natural elements, while each day was named for a seed, tree, flower, fruit, animal, or tool, replacing the saints’-day names and Christian festivals. The republican calendar was abandoned by Napoleon on January 1, 1806.

The names of the months
Vendémiaire	Brumaire	Frimaire	Nivôse	Pluviôse	Ventôse
vintage	mist	frost	snow	rain	wind
Germinal	Floréal	Prairial	Messidor	Thermidor	Fructidor
seed	blossom	meadow	harvest	heat	fruits

Following the republican calendar, I was born on 14 Messidor CCXI (19/02/2002/)

QUESTIONNAIRE ABOUT LA AMISTAD

1. What is the movie about? Summarize the plot of the film mentioning the main characters.

The movie tells the story of 53 Africans who are captured  and introduced in a slave ship called La Amistad.As the ship is crossing from Cuba to the United States, Joseph Cinqué, a leader of the Africans, leads a mutiny forcing two Spanish navigators to help them sail the ship back to Africa. However, the ship is stopped by the American Navy, and the 53 living Africans imprisoned as runaway slaves.

In an unfamiliar country and not speaking a single word of English, the Africans find themselves in a legal battle. District Attorney William S. Holabird brings charges of piracy and murder. Besides, the Secretary of State John Forsyth, on behalf of President Martin Van Buren (who is campaigning for re-election), represents the claim of Queen Isabella II of Spain that the Africans are slaves and are property of Spain based on a treaty and the two Spanish navigators produce proof of purchase. Nevertheless,a lawyer named Roger Sherman Baldwin, hired by the abolitionist Lewis Tappan and his black associate Theodore Joadson, decides to defend the Africans.

Baldwin argues that the Africans had been captured in Africa to be sold in the Americas illegally. Therefore, the Africans were free citizens of another country and not slaves at all. In light of this evidence, the staff of President Van Buren has the judge presiding over the case replaced by Judge Coglin, who is younger and believed to be impressionable and easily influenced. 

Judge Coglin rules in favor of the Africans. After pressure from Senator John C. Calhoun on President Van Buren, the case is appealed to the Supreme Court. Despite refusing to help when the case was initially presented, ex president John Quincy Adams agrees to assist with the case giving a impassioned and eloquent speech for their release, which results successful.

Because of the release of the Africans, Van Buren loses his re-election campaign, and tension builds between the North and the South, which would eventually culminate in the Civil War.

2. What was the Triangular Trade? What nations benefited from it?

Triangular trade or triangle trade is a historical term indicating trade among three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. Triangular trade thus provides a method for rectifying trade imbalances between the above regions.

The best-known triangular trading system is the transatlantic slave trade, that operated from the late 16th to early 19th centuries, carrying slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between West Africa, Caribbean or American colonies and the European colonial powers, with the northern colonies of British North America, especially New England, sometimes taking over the role of Europe. The use of African slaves was fundamental to growing colonial cash crops, which were exported to Europe. European goods, in turn, were used to purchase African slaves, who were then brought on the sea lane west from Africa to the Americas, the so-called Middle Passage.

The main nations of  Western Europe, as well as North America (new England). Great Britain, Netherland and Spain. In La Amistad the slaves which appear were captured in Sierra Leona.

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

Slave ships spent several months travelling to different parts of the coast, buying their cargo. The captives were often in poor health from the physical and mental abuse they had suffered. They were taken on board, stripped naked and examined from head to toe by the captain or surgeon. 
Conditions on board ship during the Middle Passage were appalling. The men were packed together below deck and were secured by leg irons. The space was so cramped they were forced to crouch or lie down. Women and children were kept in separate quarters, sometimes on deck, allowing them limited freedom of movement, but this also exposed them to violence and sexual abuse from the crew.

The air in the hold was foul and putrid. Seasickness was common and the heat was oppressive. The lack of sanitation and suffocating conditions meant there was a constant threat of disease. Epidemics of fever, dysentery (the 'flux') and smallpox were frequent. Captives endured these conditions for about two months, sometimes longer.

In good weather the captives were brought on deck in midmorning and forced to exercise. They were fed twice a day and those refusing to eat were force-fed. Those who died were thrown overboard. Contrary to this, in La Amistad, the amount of food was not enough and therefore some slaves were thrown overboard as well. 

The combination of disease, inadequate food, rebellion and punishment took a heavy toll on captives and crew alike. Surviving records suggest that until the 1750s one in five Africans on board ship died.

4. What enlightened ideas appear in the movie?

Nearly all the enlightened ideas of the movie appear in the impassioned and eloquent speech of John Quincy Adam who defended the same ideas of John Locke, one of the most important philosophers and thinkers of the time. He claimed that humans are rational, independent agents with natural rights (life, freedom, equality, independence) that join political society (social contract) to be protected by the rule of law. Therefore, the end of a law should be to preserve and enlarge freedom. Locke also argued that people would have the right to revolt in order to take back the power they had given to illegitimate governments. Men deserve freedom.

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

Cinqué was born in 1814 in what is now Sierra Leone, also known as Sengbe Pieh, was a West African man of the Mende people who led a revolt of fellow Africans on the Spanish slave ship, La Amistad. After the ship was taken into custody by the United States Coast Guard, Cinqué and his fellow Africans were eventually tried for killing officers on the ship, in a case known as United States v. The Amistad. This reached the US Supreme Court, where Cinqué and his fellow Africans were found to have rightfully defended themselves from being enslaved through the illegal Atlantic slave trade and were released. Americans helped raise money for their return to Africa. But Little is known of his later life.

6. What is the role of John Quincy Adams, former US President, in the movie?

John Quincy Adams the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829.He was the son of second President John Adams Had a very important role in the movie because after the abolitionists asked him for help, he accepted serving them as a lawyer. Thanks to his speech the Supreme court was convinced and declared that those black men were elegal slaves and because of this free men.

THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES

In the 18^th  century the 13 British colonies on the east coast of during the second continental  congress, held in Philadelphia  North America organized the first colonial insurrection. To strengthen their position against Britain the Declaration of Independence was written on July 4^th , 1776 during the second continental congress, held in Philadelphia.
I agree with Howard Zinn that the Declaration of Independence was written for selfish reasons. The wealthy upper class wanted to provocate rebellion and the Declaration of Independence was the comment that sparked the flame.


Taking into account Zinn´s arguments we can say upper classes created specific language to persuade rebelión against England among lower classes vague enough to avoid class conflict.
The fact that some americans were clearly omitted from those united by the Declaration of Independence: indians, black slaves and women evidences Zinn´s arguments.
Contrary to Bailyn´s opinion, the Declaration of Independence does not represent the colonists´ deepest fears and beliefs, just the ones of those who were wealthy. The upper classes found profitable and beneficial for their own personal economy being a free nation, even if this target supposed making the non-wealthy colonists go to war.
Being a free nation would slightly affect the lower classes. What benefit were they going in cheaper tea and the possibility of trading with another nation different to England?


In addition, the argument can be supported by evidences found in the DoI grievances. Expresions such as "He has plundered our seas " "ravaged our coasts " "Burned our towns" "Forced us"or "destroy the lifes of our people" are the evidence of the specific language mentioned by Howard Zinn.

As a conclusion, the Independence of United states was significantly affected by the DoI which aim was to create rebelion and anger against Britain, as well as a feeling of patriotism to avoid class conflict. Even though England tried to indulge their petitions the grievances appearing in the DoI were so exquisite and large the war broke out. Finally Britain recognised the colonie´s independence (1783), and George Washington became the first president of the Untited States in 1789