This political map represents the colonial empires in 1914
It dates 1914 and it represents the imperial expansion of the Industrialised European countries.
The map represents the whole world.
The different colours appearing in the key depict the countries and their colonies, while the arrows tell us the direction of each empire grouth.
2- Analysis
The major colonial empires were: Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
Great Britain: Canadá, Nigeria, Egypt
France:
Italy:
Germany
The countries outside Europe which took part in the colonial expansion were:
USA: Alaska, Cuba Philippines.
The Russian Empire: expanded to the south.
Japan: expanded to the north and to the west.
The largest colonial empire was Great Britain, and Africa the most affected continent.
3-Historical context
The European colonial expansion took place between 1850 and 1914, Britain brought nearly 30% of Africa's population under its control, to 15% for France, 9% for Germany, 7% for Belgium and 1% for Italy. The only regions not under European control in 1914 were Liberia and Ethiopia.
At the time, states focused on building their empires with new technological advances and developments, making their territory bigger through conquest, and exploiting the resources of the subjugated countries.
Research suggests, the current conditions of postcolonial societies have roots in colonial actions and policies. For example, colonial policies, such as the type of rule implemented, the nature of investments, and identity of the colonizers, are cited as impacting postcolonial states. Examination of the state-building process, economic development, and cultural norms and mores shows the direct and indirect consequences of colonialism on the postcolonial states.
4-Conclusions
Numerous scholars have attempted to analyze and categorize colonial activities by determining if they have positive or negative outcomes some researchers have focused on the type of political and economic institutions that existed before the arrival of Europeans. Heldring and Robinson conclude that while colonization in Africa had unequivocal negative consequences for political and economic development in areas that had previous centralized institutions or that hosted white settlements, it possibly had a positive impact in areas that were virtually stateless, like South Sudan or Somalia. In a complementary analysis, Gerner Hariri observed that areas outside Europe which had State-like institutions before 1500 tend to have less open political systems today. According to the scholar, this is due to the fact that during the colonization, European liberal institutions were not easily implemented. Beyond the military and political advantages, it is possible to explain the domination of European countries over non-European areas by the fact that capitalism did not emerge as the dominant economic institution elsewhere. Prosperous economic institutions that sustain growth and innovation did not prevail in areas like China, the Arab world, or Mesoamerica because of the excessive control of these proto-States on private matters.
Tratado de Fontainebleau, en virtud del cual se permitía a las tropas francesas su paso por España para conquistar Portugal, país aliado de Inglaterra, para obligar a que cumpla el Bloqueo Continental que Napoleón había impuesto a Inglaterra. Con este pretexto Napoleón dispuso sus tropas en distintas partes de España, lo que levantó serias sospechas sobre su intención de ocupar la Península. Durante 1809 se produce una ofensiva francesa y capitulan Zaragoza y Madrid junto a la derrota en Ocaña. A comienzos de 1810, el territorio peninsular está prácticamente ocupado (en ciudades, no en zonas rurales), salvo Cádiz.
2-¿Qué bandos se enfrentaron en la guerra de la independencia?
En la guerra de la independencia se enfrentaron dos bandos, el patriota y el de los invasores si bien el primero recibió el apoyo de los ingleses con la intención de evitar una alianza de los españoles y los franceses.
3-¿Qué dos grupos integraban el bando "patriota"?¿Qué los caracteriza?
Dentro del bando patriota encontramos dos grupos: absolutistas y liberales. Los absolutistas pretendían la continuidad de la monarquía absoluta mientras que los liberales buscaban el cese de ésta.
4-¿Qué significa la expresión "viva Fernando y vamos robando"?¿Qué eran las guerrillas?
Gran parte de los resistentes, dada la dificultad de actuar en el Ejército regular se integraron en guerrillas: grupos armados irregulares que atacaban por sorpresa al enemigo y se retiraban, amparándose en el control del territorio. Éstos grupos solían saquear lo que encontraban a su paso y de ahí el lema "Viva Fernando y vamos robando".
5-¿Qué consecuencias tuvo la guerra para España?
La guerra de la independencia dejó el país esquilmado, la hacienda quebrada, un gobierno inestable y una gran perdida demográfica: sobre 10,5 millones de habitantes costó entre 215.000 y 375.000 vidas a las cifras hay que añadir entre 350.000 y 500.000 personas fallecieron por el hambre y las epidemias.
6-¿Cuál fue el coste de la ayuda de Gran Bretaña?
Las tropas inglesas apoyaron, por raro que parezca a los patriotas españoles pues una alianza entre España y Francia no interesaba a los ingleses. Sin embargo, a la vez que apoyaban a los patriotas iban destruyendo el floreciente tejido empresarial español, en especial la industria textil. Como ejemplo de esto encontramos la destrucción de fábricas textiles de Segovia y Ávila.
7-¿Qué medidas fueron aprobadas en las Cortes de Cádiz de 1810?
Las Cortes de Cádiz quedaron inauguradas en Septiembre de 1810 y en marzo de 1812 aprobaron una Constitución que acabó con el absolutismo y estableció la división de poderes. Las Cortes aprobaron también otras reformas como la abolición del régimen señorial y la supresión de la Inquisición. Sin embargo su obra apenas tuvo impacto.
8-¿Qué batallas provocaron el final de la ocupación francesa en España?
La victoria hispano británica de Arapiles marcó el principio del fin de Napoleón en España. El fracaso galo en el frente ruso también propició la derrota francesa pues redujo la presencia gala a 100.000 efectivos. Tras las derrotas de Vitoria y de Irún los franceses fueron acorralados hasta los Pirineos. Finalmente un armisticio posterior a la abdicación de Napoleón comportó la liberación de las guarniciones galas que quedaban en España.
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/)
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 Americancolonies 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 Adamsthe 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.
In the 18th 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 4th , 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
