HISTORY

FIRST PART

1. Unit 1: French Revolution + Napoleon

2. Unit 2: The Heyday of Europe

3. Unit 3: Colonialism and Imperialism

SECOND PART

• Unit 4: World War I

• Unit 5: Russian Revolution

• Unit 6: Totalitarian Regimes. Nazis

• Unit 7 & 8: World War II and its Consequences

BIBLIOGRAPHY

We must read at least one novel: 1984, George Orwell

TIMELINE

1776: Independency of the USA

1789: French Revolution

1799: Napoleon

1815: Waterloo, Viena Congress

1885: Conference of Berlin

1914-1919: World War II

1917: Russian Revolution

1919: Treaty of Versailles

1933: Hitler's rise to power

1939-1945: World War II

PREHISTORY → 3M B.C. – 3000 B.C (98% of time)

WRITING marks the beginning of history: first written texts appeared in Mesopotamia, and
they were commercial texts in order to keep the trading information and not forget it.

It wasn’t until decades later when they started writing literature, before that literary texts
were shared orally.

HISTORY → 3000 B.C. – now

It is divided into 4 different eras:

- Ancient Age → 3000 B.C. – 476 A.D. (fall of the Western Roman Empire)
Main civilizations from the west: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome
- Middle Ages → 476 – 1492 (America)/ 1453 (Fall of the Eastern Roman
Empire, Fall of Constantinople)
- Modern Age → 1492 – 1789 (French Revolution)
- Contemporary Age → 1789 – now? The invention of the Internet? The end
of WWII? It is a matter of debate

CONTEMPORARY AGE

First universal Era. Before the contemporary age people were living in their homeland,
people did not travel or move. They didn’t know anything about other civilisations. If one
thing happened on one territory, other territories weren’t necessarily affected. Ex: the
Independence of the US affected the beginning of the French Revolution.

Transition to the Old Regime to the New Regime

OLD REGIME → political, social and economic history until the end of the 18th century.

- Absolute monarchy → the King holds all the powers, no division of powers.
- Religion = vital role
- The king = embodiment of God power on Earth. The king rules because
God wants him to rule on Earth.
1. Father of his subjects
2. Natural institution. There was no such thing as a Republic. It was
the obvious and natural institution to have.
3. Good and protector
- Society → estates. You were stuck to your estate by birth. You did not
change from estate to estate in almost any case. You can ascend to
another estate for example if you were a peasant and become a monk →
you go from being from the Third Estate to the Clergy (low clergy though, so
the living conditions didn’t change much)
 NOBILITY

CLERGY

THIRD ESTATE (95% people) → lo

que sería el proletariado: peasants,
artisans, traders, bankers, …

- Economy → fixed rules.

Subsistence economy: you produce what you need. There were a lot of
rules for economy → GUILDS
It had its benefits, but it also was very restrictive: they set the prices, they
had a lot of rules about the hours they could work, the place where they
could work…
In these conditions an industrial revolution was impossible because there
was no space for creation or change.
Capitalism was invented and broke with this system of guilds (overall)
When there were social issues, they didn’t blame the king. They blamed the
“government”: the advisors and ministers that helped the King (but did not
actually have any power) → “Long live the King! Down with the bad government!”

NEW REGIME → political, social and economic system in Wester world from the end of
the 18th century.
- POLITICS→ democracy, parliamentarism, constitutions…
- IDEOLOGY→ individualism (the most important thing for us is not the
community, but the individual), rights and freedoms, tolerance, pluralism
- SOCIETY→ social classes (vs estates) → you can move (with still some
limits)
- ECONOMY→ liberalism (or capitalism)

POPULAR SOVEREIGNITY

Who does the power belong to? The authority of a State and its government are created
and sustained by the consent of its people, who are the source of all political power → the
SOCIAL CONTRACT (among equals) → the power of general will.

If the king is not worthy, the people have the right to remove him and replace him.

“The moment the government usurps the sovereignty, the social contract is broken, and
all private citizens recover by right their natural liberty; they are forced to obey, but they
have no obligation to do so (…)”

“Any law that the populace hasn’t ratified in person …

The answer of Louis XV was the following: In my person alone lies that sovereignty. The
fullness of this authority, which they exercise in my name only, remains permanently
vested in me, and its use can never be turned against me. Legislative power is mine alone
w/o subordination or division”

The Social Contract of Rousseau was the promotor of the American Independent
movement (and then the French Revolution)
SEPARATION OF POWERS (Montesquieu)

“When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same
body of magistrates, there can be no liberty.”

Montesquieu shared this idea with Rousseau that the absolute monarchy should end. But
he finds a different solution: dividing power. If we want to put an end to this monarchy, we
should divide the power into three different and INDEPENDENT parts:

- The executive power (nowadays, it is held by the Prime Minister/President

of the Government)
- The legislative power → creating and approving laws (parliament. In Spain
when we vote we are choosing the representatives in the parliament, not
directly to the president)
- The judicial power → nowadays they are held by the courts, the judges.
Their function is to exert laws.

According to Montesquieu the powers should be separated and different

to avoid a dictatorship. But nowadays this no longer happens in every
country. In the US for example, people vote for the president.
The government should not give their opinion on the decision of judges,
because there would be no real separation of powers

ECONOMIC LAWS by ADAM SMITH

Adam Smith wrote The wealth of the Nations→ this book created the concept of
capitalism (=economic liberalism). It was published the exact same year as the America
Independency ( ). Basically, Adma Smiths opposes to the Old Regime economic
system: if I want to set a different price from my guild mates, I should be able to do this
because I have more knowledge about my situation and what’s best for me. He wants to
put limits to the restrictions of the economic system set by the Government.
According to adam smith, poor people existe because they are receiving aids and helps
from the taxes and government → they are espabilando para buscarse su propias formas
de subsistir sin la necesitad de las paguitas del gobierno (me quedo tiese)
• Law of self interest → every person seeks to achieve the greatest personal
benefits
➢ no one knows better than me what is best for me
➢ encourage individual initiative
• Law of Harmony → seeking personal benefit does not lead to conflicts, but to
common good
• Law of Accumulation → common wealth is the result of adding individual wealths
➢ Encourage individual wealth. If Amancio Ortega is getting rich, uld
encourage him to become richer and richer because he would create more
jobs for other people and that contributes to society (procedencia dudosa.
Fuente: miami me lo confirmó)
• Law of Freedom → previous laws only work when there is a full economic
freedom (free market, Supply & Demand)
Laissez-faire, free competition
ENLIGHTENEMENT
Main goal → get rid of the Old Regime and get a new conception of the world. New
ideological regime based on the following philosophical principles →
Philosophical principles:
- Materialism → only belief in what you see → reaction to the religious dogma.
Everything that matters is material. They didn0t want to base their life on
faith, but instead of what you can touch and see.
- Rationalism → they didn’t gossip God anymore (some of they were still
believers but), they wanted to focus on human reason. They weren’t
reacting against God, they just wanted to develop the human rationalism.
- Individualism → community is no longer the most important thing. We are
more focused on individual rights and freedoms rather than those of the
community.
- Reaction to Christian world view
- Positivism (vs. Natural Laws) → previously in the old regime, law was based
on moral conceptions. This was called the Natural Law because the whole
society shared the same moral conceptions (the Christian conceptions
established the law → something that was immoral was illegal). Now there
is a different between morality and law. Those positivists reacted against
the Natural Law because they strongly believed in individualism, they
strongly believed in relativism. Since everyone had their personal principles,
there wasn’t such a thing as a general morality → Law shouldn’t be based
on moral conceptions, because everyone had their own moral conceptions.
Everything that matters is the general will, the general agreement → this
became the source of law. If we all decide that something is legal / illegal,
then according to law it will become legal / illegal despite the moral
conceptions.
- Faith in Progress → they believed that the humanity will always improve.
Being a progressist means that you have faith in progress and that the
humankind will constantly improve.

THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE USA

Prior conquests → Spanish conquest

from Mexico

1621 British arrived at Massachusetts

(almost 100 pilgrims escaping from the
wars of religion taking place in Europe).
They came in a ship named Mayflower.
They were received by the native
population, and they helped the pilgrims
to survive. One year later, those pilgrims
decided to hold a dinner to
commemorate the arrival and thank the
natives for their help → thanksgiving!!

They stablished communities in the East. However, New York was founded by the Dutch.
The Dutch bought the island of Manhattan and called the place New Amsterdam (1660).
Then the British bought this settlement and renamed it as New York because they came
from York.

The Thirteen colonies: on the eastern coast of the US, we find 13 Colonies that belonged to
the British empire. People from these colonies were 100% British and FELT 100% British. At
the beginning they didn’t want to become independent.

The British empire gave those colonies a lot of autonomy. The political system was basically
the same but each colonies had their autonomous laws and everything (un poco como las
comunidades autonomas).

- They belonged to the British Empire

- Population: 4M people
- Different administration system
- Autonomy
- No general desire for independence

Rebellion against taxes: Stam Act

Causes of the independence:

- IDEOLOGICAL → enlightened ideas. The founding fathers had been reading

Rousseau, Montesquieu, Thomas Jefferson, Adam Smith…
- POLITICAL → Seven Years’ War (1765-1773): British Empire vs. France
When there is a war, they need money → How do they get the money?
TAXES! So George III (English King) decided to raise the taxes, but not to the
population living in Great Britain (metropolis). He decided to raise the taxes
only to the population living in the colonies.
Although the people from the colonies felt British, they didn’t have the same
rights (although they had the same duties) as the people living in the
metropolis (eran como ciudadanos de segunda).
Not only did they need money for the war, but also soldiers. Many young
men FROM THE COLONIES were sent to war.

So basically:
1. More taxes
2. Less rights
3. Same duties
According to the New Regime (the one being spread in the American
colonies thanks to the enlightened ideas of the founding fathers) this is
completely unfair.
They created the following idea: “No taxation without representation” It
wasn’t as if they didn’t want to pay. They wanted a representative in the
British Parliament of London. So they decided to send an open letter to the
King asking for a political representative. (Esto es algo taaaan del New
Regime, porque en el Old Regime apechugabas con lo que decía el rey y
punch. Ahora podían o tenía la opción de discutir estas cuestiones)
When the King received the letter, he did not only refuse to give them the
representative in the parliament, but he also decided to raise the taxes.
 Why? He thought that this letter was a sort of rebellion because he thought
of the colonies as a lower population and that they had no right to argue with
him (although they actually could, but u know he was a bit of an arrogant
son of a bitch)

The Stamp Act (1765): the way of raising the taxes was by implementing a tax every time the
Americans wanted to send a letter → the tax was in the stamp

The reaction of the leaders of the American settlers:

The most extremist members of the settlers decided
to create a group to defend their interests, even
accepting the use of violence → The Sons of Liberty
→ “Unite or die”

Boston Tea Party: In 1773 the situation is going to change dramatically → The Boston Tea
Party.

The East Indian Company (private company) that traded with tea. In 1773 this company was
bankrupt, they were at risk. Although it was a private company, it was vital for the interest
of the crown. Why? Because not only was the biggest company in England, but also
because in ruled in India (the government of the colony of India was in the hands of this
company). Therefore, the King was interest in helping this company (because the
surveillance of the most important colony of the B.E. was at risk) → He got rid of the taxes
of transport for the Company while the tea traders in the colonies still had to pay those
taxes. As a result, the East Indian company could decrease the price of the tea (because
they didn’t have to pay taxes → more people would buy their tea since it was cheaper).

The American traders went to the harbour of Boston because they knew that a ship full of
East Indian Company tea was to arrive. When the ship arrived, they assaulted it and threw
the entire shipment of tea to the sea.

Tea Party 2.0 → Trump

The First Continental Congress (Philadelphia, 1744)

- After Tea Party, first confrontations with the British soldiers

The British King took measures in consequence of the Assault to the ship → sending
troops in order to make sure that they will obey him.

- First meeting between representatives of each colony

As a consequence, the American movement fought back, but they weren’t as strong
as the British troops soooo what could they do? → The first measure was to meet
all together (the representatives of the 13 colonies) in Philadelphia → The First
Continental Congress 1774 (important people involved: Thomas Jefferson, John
Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and of course George Washinton).

- 2 different positions
The thing was that in this congress there were different opinions, so there wasn’t a common
idea → 2 different positions

• Some wanted to break ties with the British crown (Washington, Jefferson) →
REVOLUTIONARY. Until this point no colony in the world had ever become
independent (or like tried to)
• Others wanted to try and make agreements with the King

- Agreements
• Boycott of British products
• Declaration asking for rights and freedoms:
In this first continental congress, the “final” decision or agreement was to prevail
and try to make agreements → result: they wrote an open letter to the King and in
this letter they made a Declaration asking for their rights and freedoms. At the same
time as they were gathering in PH to make agreements, there violent groups
(amateur army) fighting against the British troops (not a war YET)
• No general desire for independence

2nd continental congress 1775. In the middle of this debate, they received the answer from
the King. After the response of the King denying the agreement, all of them realized that
there was no possible agreement with the King so they all agreed on the same agreements:

- Continue the Boycott of British products

- Keep fighting the Br troops
- General desire for independence (general among the representatives)

Virginia Declaration of Rights 1776

They wanted to prove that they were right and not the King.
The main leaders of this rebellion decided to show to the
whole world that they were fighting a FAIR war, that they
were not rebels nor traitors (as they were called in the
King’s response) → They wrote this declaration. (also
called the Bill of Rights). This is the first declaration of
rights ever written. (Written by George Maison)

INFLUENCES:

This declaration in pretty much based in Capitalism: the second right they defend is “the
Means of acquiring & possessing property” (they are very influences by Adam Smith’s book
as we saw in the beginning). The second article is also a reference to Rousseau: “all power
is by God & Nature vested in & consequently derived from the people”. We can also see this
influence in the 3rd article. Then, we can see Montesquieu influence in the 5th article in which
they defend the separation of powers.

Declaration of Independence (4th of July 1776) → Written by Thomas Jefferson

The War of Independence (1775-83)

- Civil war
 It was a civil war because in fact a lot of people from the 13 colonies supported the
king.
- How could the rebels win?
1. War with France and Spain
They looked for alliances in countries that were against the British empires → Spain
and France.
Benjamin Franklin was sent to Europe and met with Louis XVI (king of France). They
agreed to be allies, because that way France could defeat Britain.
Same happened with Spanish King Charles III, for
However, France got more involved in the war as a form of revenge from the 7 years
war (in which they were defeated by Britain). Not only did they send ships, but also
troops (General Lafayette). Spain sent very few soldiers.
2. No internal consensus
Many British weren’t in favour of fighting against the Americans because they
considered them British as well, therefore they will be fighting against themselves
3. Guerrilla warfare
Instead of fighting in an open field against the British, the Americans took advantage
of their knowledge of the territory and avoided open field battles. Therefore, they
waited for strategic attacks, like attacking them in the middle of the forest (as a very
simple example).

In 1781 the ceasefire occurred. However, is that enough to end the war?????
Another way of considering the end of a War is the Peace Treaty → The Peace of
Paris (1783)

The Peace of Paris (1783)

It was the Peace Treaty. Main result → the Independence of the US. According to
this treaty the British King accepted and recognize their independency.
With this treaty the French and the Spanish took advantage by getting territories (ex:
Spain regained Menorca)

PEDIR APUNTES PRNCIPIO DE CLASE DEL 25/02/2025

US Constitution (1787)
2nd amendment → the right to possess arms
You can change an amendment by adding another amendment, but they have to be
approved by politicians from all parties

The American independence was the first time in history when progress ideas (Rousseau,
Montesquieu…) were successful, the first time when people arose to reclaim their
sovereignty and the first time that a colony separated from its metropolis.
The American Independent movement was an example, a role model, for future revolutions:
- French revolution
- The independence of many colonies (they chose the political model of the
US: political republic

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

This revolution was so important because France was the most important countries at that
time. Not in the political field (that was Britain), but in terms of culture and mentality.

Economic causes
- Economic Crisis:
1. They had a lot of war debts, because they spent a lot of money in
wars (the aid to the US, the 7 years’ war in which they lost)
2. Harvests (crops): no rain → no crops → no harvest → poor
economy, famine. There was no bread → the prices of bread
increases (the bread cost a whole month salary)

- Luxury and frivolity in Versailles.

Louis XVI. He didn’t care about politics; he wasn’t really interest on being
king. He was not aware of the situation of his country. His advisors were the
ones who actually ruled the country because he didn’t care → when the
revolution started, he didn’t understand why it happened + he was raised in
the Old Regime, so he thought he was the personification of God in Eart and
for him in was inconceivable for people to raise against him. He was very shy
and hesitated a lot → not good traits for a king.
Conclusion: he was the worst option of a King for this period.

Marie Antoinette. She was not French, she was Austrian. The thing is that
there was a time during the revolution where France was against Austria →
gente TENSAAAA. Personality: she was very vain, she loved luxury.

Everyone in France knew about the situation of the monarchs and in a time
when you (as a citizen) are in crisis but still have to pay the luxuries of the
kings… pues hombre yo entiendo el cabreo la verdunch.

Social causes

- the society was divided by estates:

1. NOBILITY: the dynasty (1%). They were wealthy, but not as much as
before. However, the lived quite nicely because they enjoyed
PRIVILEGES →

- They didn’t pay taxes

- They had political representation: government + they
had representatives of the nobility in the parliament

2. CLERGY:
• Higher → they were people from the nobility who became
bishops, archbishops… They had PRIVILEGES → they fought
against the Revolution:
• No taxes
• Political representation in the Parliament
• Lower → they weren’t part of the nobility before, usually they
belonged by birth to the third estate (they had “improved”
 their position). It is formed by monks, nuns, priests… They
had soooome PRIVILEGES →
• No taxes
BUUUUUUT NO political representation → most of the
approve the Revolution because they consider it a fair
cause.
3. THE THIRD ESTATE: about 98% of the population.
• BOURGEOISIE → merchants, liberal professions: lawyers,
doctors, bankers…
• They were wealthy (sometimes even wealthier that
nobles… But this was the Old Regime, es otro rollo!!
Aquí lo que cuenta es el nepotismo.
• They had knowledge, they had been reading
Rousseau, Montesquieu… → they are going to be las
mentes pensantes, pero no van a ir a luchar porque
perdería la riqueza que tienen (a luchar van los de
siempre… POR LAS PRECARIAS!!!!!!)
BUUUUUT:
- They had to pay taxes
- NO political representation
4. PEASANTS, LABOURERS… → they were:
• Poor
• Had to pay taxes
• NO political representation
They went to fight because: they had no other choice + they
had nothing to lose.

The Revolution at first was supported by the 3rd Estate and the lower clergy, but
they the Lower clergy stopped supporting it because the revolution turned
against the Church. They started killing nuns and everything.

Stages of the Revolution

1. ESTATES GENERAL (1789)
The king tried to convince the nobility and the clergy to pay taxes, only for this critical
situation. The reaction of the nobility + clergy → nononononononono.
The king, in order to force the nobility and the higher clergy to pay taxes, he removed
the prime minister (who belonged to the nobility) and he replaced him who belonged
to the 3rd Estate. (Pa chulo mi culo) → The King appointed a banker as the Prime
minister: Necker.
To convince the nobility + clergy, Necker created a special Parliament with
representatives of the 3rd estate → “ESTATES GENERAL”.
The thing is that no one had set the voting system. There were two ways of voting:
- One person = one vote (new way. It represents the individualism of the New
Regime)
- One estate = one vote (old way, Old Regime)
Necker, as a person of the bourgeoisie, preferred the new way because they would
win the elections (+ it was the New Regime Style). Every vote had the same value.
 On the other hand, people from the nobility and the clergy preferred the old way of
voting because they would prevail as the privilege, and it would be 2 votes (nobles
and clergy vs. one vote of the 3rd Estate). The decision of the voting system end up
being taken by the king. Since the king wanted the tax increase to the nobility and
the clergy, it would be obvious to support them; but at the same time by supporting
the bourgeoisie, he would lose the support of the nobility and the clergy to him. IF
he chose the other option, the result would be the same but opposite → a very
difficult decision → the option he finally chose: not to make any decision (ole su
coño moreno, a tomar por culo el parlamento) and wait for them to reach an
agreement. Since the king didn’t make any decision, Necker took part to make the
decision (era al único que realmente le interesaba que hubiese un progreso, el
único real gangstah luv).
The representatives of the bourgeoisie decided to stop the negotiation with the
other two estates and declared themselves as the National Assembly → they are
sort of saying: WE (the 3rd estate) are the ones who actually represent the nation →
who doesn’t represent the nation any longer: the king → ROUSSEAU (CAN I TALK MY
SHIT AGAIN) → this is a rebellion against the king and the two other estates.
The King reacted very childishly to this assembly: to lockdown physically the place
where they are gathering (the Parliament) they will have no place to gather and take
decisions against me → he actually put chains to the Parliament doors.
The Bourgeoisie solution: they decided to look for another place in the palace to
gather and conspire. The place they found was a tennis court (sala del juego de la
pelota). When they began discussing in this tennis court, they decided to take an
oath: to not leave the room until we write a new constitution for France)
Marie Antoinette proposes to pretend that they agree to the National Assembly
demands, but just as a way to gain time to beat them by force. While they pretend
to agree with them, they will be sending troops to Paris to prepare to fight.

2. THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY (1789 – 1792)

During this period there will be like a double power: on paper (theoretically) the
power is held by the King, and he will be the King until the end of this second stage.
But at the same time, the assembly (with representatives of the 3 rd estate) held the
real power. All the new laws and the new constitutions will be passed by the
assembly, not by the King. So, the King right now is like representative, but he makes
no choices.

The Storming of the Bastille

14/7/1798 → It technically marks the beginning of the Revolution. The King Louis XIV
(with Necker) decided to send troops to Paris as a way of stablishing quien manda
aqui. It was a sort of threat so to say.
To fight the troops, the people are going to take weapons to fight them There was a
huge demonstration in the streets of Paris, and they decided to look for weapons.
For that they decided to head to a military quarter, and they decided to assault the
place and take a lot of riffles. Now that they had the weapons, they needed the
gunpowder to use them. There was a castle (that was a prison as well) called the
Bastille and the importance of this place was not that it was a prison (since there
were only 7 prisoners there, actually mentally ill people), but because it was the
main store of gunpowder of the nation. So the people from the demonstration
decided to march to the Bastille (in the outskirts of Paris). The next problem to solve
was: how would they get in the Bastille? Well, a group of delegates of this crowd
entered the prison and started to argue with the director of the prison. At the
beginning they were being nice, not violent. The director of the prison was in favour
of the King, since he was a royal officer, so he said no to giving away the gunpowder
→ VIOLENCE (puedo ser el caramelito más dulce, o el veneno más letal) They
decided to enter and storm the Bastille violently. It is estimated that 200 people died
in this event.
The people accomplished to storm the Bastille and decided to behead the governor
of the prison and walked through the streets with the head of the governor stuck in
a palo. Not only that, but they also took the heart of the governor and send it in a box
to the King as a way of saying: this is what is gonna happen to you if you don’t
succumb, BITCH!
From this day everything changed, because the king realized that this was no longer
a riot or a slight rebellion. This was a… REVOLUTION!!!!!

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

One of the first measures they took while fighting was to write the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and Citizen (which almost the exact same as the American one)

Kidnapping of the King and the Queen

According to the chronicles, it was a spontaneous march by peasants to the Palace
of Versailles. Most of the people who were marching were women. The reason
behind this march was the huge famine taking place. The chronicles say that the
women were carrying their babies with them, and it was 15km!!!! When they arrived
they began asking: “give us bread! Give us bread!!!”. According to the chronicles,
the Queen went out to the balcony, and she allegedly said: “if they don’t have bread,
let them eat cake”. Did everything of this actually happen? We cannot prove it.
So what we know: they went back home with no bread at all. And the people spread
the rumour about what Marie Antoinette allegedly said, and the headers of the
revolution got mad at this. Again, another crowd, while all of this was happening,
decided to storm the Palace of Versailles. They managed to do it and get to the room
where Marie Antoinette slept. So, they humbly invited the King and the queen to
leave the Palace and show the people that they were with them. So, it was not
violent, but they were indeed forced to leave the palace (the monarchs and their
children) and move to another palace in Paris (the Palace of the Tuileries).

Measures against the church

WE must understand that the revolution was not only against the monarchs, but
against the other two estates: nobility and clergy. So according to the slogan of the
Revolution: Liberté, Égalité et Fraternité; the Nobility was abolished, no one was
considered to be noble and began to call everyone “citizen”. Since this measure
everyone was the same, they were obliged as well to pay taxes.
With the Church was more difficult, because they could not abolish the clergy since
it was an institution that belonged to the Pope. What they did was to start assaulting
and physically attacking churches. This was made by the crowd. The headers
strategized and decided to create a division within the Church so that they could
defeat them. So, they forced every single member of the clergy to take an oath of
 allegiance to the principles of the Revolution: The Civil Declaration of the Clergy
(1791). They were forced to sign that they supported of the Revolution. The real goal
behind this: the headers knew that some were going to sign (just to preserve their
lives, they had no choice), but others would not because they were very devoted
and were not to give up their faith for the sake of their life. Therefore, we now have a
division of the clergy: those who signed and those who refused. So now the crowd
started to prosecute those who refused (not as much as later on, because they were
technically still in a monarchy). What they did was to publish to the population the
names of those who didn’t sign.
The second consequence of this measure is that Pope was going to get mad at this
situation. Until this moment (1791) the Pope remained silent because he didn’t
want for people to refuse to Catholicism. Pero es que ya era too much y dijo: hasta
aquí hemos llegado. So, the Pope got mad and what he did was to write an open
letter to the French Catholics telling them that were not longer forced to follow this
government... (un “tú sabrás” en toda regla)

Constitution and the parliament

1791: they passed a new constitution for France:
• France was still a monarchy BUT they were a moderate one: the government
is going to be divided following Montesquieu’s ideas. the power belongs to
the people
• they called the king to be NOT. The king of France, but the king of THE
FRENCH

Increasing importance of the CLUBS: association of people supporting political

ideas. Start of the political parties. They were all supporters of the revolution, from
the most moderate to the least ones.
• GIRONDINS: they wanted to change the system but not in a violent way
• JACOBINS: at the beginning they we’re not so violent, but the leader will
become so; M. Robespierre
• CORDELIERS: they were extremists and really violent: they had a faction
in the club: the “sans-coulottes”. DANTON

on the parlament: the placement was

right: girondins & monarchy-supporters
left: jacobins & cordeliers
this is why nowadays we make a distinction between left and right, as liberal and
conservative
3. THE NATIONAL CONVENTION – THE TERROR (1792 – 1795)

1792: the revolutionaries are gonna proclaim the first republic

what happened? it had to do with marie-antoinette
- she decided to write a secret letter to her brother, asking for his help: to create an army in
austria and enter france and rescue her: TREASON. this letter got found, was intercepted
by a spy, he sensed it back to the authorities in the french assembly. the revolutionaries
found a way of proving the king and queen as traitors.
- austrian king declared war on france, in order to “save” marie-antoinette, his sister. when
austria did this, there was a storming of the tuileries to attack and even kill the king and the
queen, they blamed them for the war with austria

The reign of terror

- committee of public safety: they wanted to clean and get rid of every single revolutionary
in France. the name is ambiguous with intention
- power through terror
- context: war against Austria, the War in the Vendée
- 40,000 casualties (executed during only 3 years), half of them were peasants and laborers,
just because they were considered possible revolutionaries

trial and execution of the king

robespierre as the leader of the revolution decided to judge the king and the queen. they
were charged with two crimes:
- treason
- blamed for the casualties of the storming of the bastille and the tuleries.
they were two separate trials

the tragic end of louis vii

- 3rd living son
- forced to declare against his mother
- abused by his guardian
- died 6 months later
- “louis xvii”
- the daughter survived, she couldn’t be the heir
- he thought his parents had escaped, and he was mistreated in prison; beatings and forced
to drink alcohol at the age of 10 years.
- allegedly he died due to natural causes, but napoleon later discovered that he had died
because of the beatings and malnutrition.

The reign of Terror (1794)

Robespierre started persecuting the counterrevolution and the members of the Girondins.
He in fact executed some of his “friends”. He even became paranoid because he thought
that everyone was conspiring against him. He even prosecuted some members of his own
party: the Jacobins. With this situation, the other members conspired against him, he was
removed from the parliament, he was judged, condemned and finally executed in the
guillotine.

The Law of Suspects (1794)

They wrote a Law of those who were considered suspects of counterrevolutionaries and
therefore were arrested and condemned. In this law, they included some rules like the
social credit system in which they gave people a certificate (if they were) good citizens. If
you were found writing or saying against the revolution, they are going to take this certificate
from you and consider you a suspect. Not only you, but also to you family (aquí pringamos
todos, tía). This was applied for 2 years.

A lot of people began escaping from France, especially those who belonged to the nobility
or the clergy.

4. DIRECTORY (1795 – 1799)

After the fall of Robespierre, the Girondins (the moderates) took the power again and they
wanted to give France stability, peace; that was what people longed at this point of the
revolution after all the violence. To accomplish this goal, the parliament decided to create
a new government called the Directory. It was called this was because it was only formed
by 5 directors. Why did they make this decision? They wanted to make sure that they gave
France stability. If the government was formed by more people, there would be a lot of
disagreement (maybe it would be more democratic, pero ahora mismo lo que necesitamos
es estabilidad). They elected the 5 members of the directory. They used this government for
4 years. Did they manage to give France the stability they were seeking? Nope.

The supporters of the Old Regime, who wanted to put an end to the Revolution, and the
extremist revolutionaries were against this moderate government. If you represent the
centre, you are going to be attacked by one side and the other (como pasó con Ciudadanos,
que se fueron a tomar por culo). During these 4 years of Directory, the government had to
deal with several rebellions by two factions:

5. The supporters of the monarchy, of the Old Regime. But who could be the monarchs
if they were all killed. Well, the brother of Louis XIV. (Actually, after Napoleon, the
monarchy would be restored, and he would become King).
6. The supporters of the Jacobins and the most extremist supporters of the Revolution

In the middle of this tension, the army became extremely important. At this point France
was in war with Austria (also against Prussia… Estaban en todas las movidas). This is one
of the reason the military became important, but also because, since there were a lot of
rebellions against the Directory, the directors asked the army to react to those rebellions to
protect the government. And here it comes… NAPOLEON!!!!!!!!

Napoleon

HE was extremely important at this moment and became very well respected in France. The
French wanted a leader, they were tired of chaos, violence and instability, but they didn’t
trust the normal politicians (for obvious reasons). So, what were the requirements that this
leader should have:

7. Not to be a politician
8. Shouldn’t have been involved in the revolution. His past should be
clean.
9. Social origin: not to be a noble nor a clerk. He must be from the 3 rd
estate, but related to the bourgeoisie (middle class)
10. Someone with a very high reputation. The most reputed persons
were generals from the army.
Napoleon accomplished all these requirements. He was born in Corsica and since he was
not the first son, he had to enter the army and actually very young. Very soon he excelled
for his military skills (era un makina). In fact, he became general (el puesto más alto) when
he was 24. So, he was a very well-respected military, and he moved form Corsica to Paris
because he was reclaimed by the Directory to supress some of the riots against the
government.
The Directory sent Napoleon to Egypt to fight the British because France was struggling to
fight against them for the control over Egypt. Did Napoleon prevail in this campaign? No, he
was defeated by Nelson’s British army. However, he was welcome in France as a hero. To
fight he went to Egypt with scientists and geologists because he wanted to take advantage
and learn more about Egyptian culture (which was a mystery). In fact, the Rosetta stone was
found by one of Napoleon’s archaeologists. This was very important because it was the
means to decipher hieroglyphics. So, the French may have not won the war, but they gain
so much culture and discoveries and, in that time, the Enlightenment, that was already an
achievement. This discovery was a revolution in history because now they could read all
the hieroglyphics. Napoleon sent a lot of the Egyptian treasures to France. (A WIN IS A
WIN!!) (Fun fact: French troops also discovered Hachis in Egypt and thanks to that it spread
to Europe)

Coup of 18 Brumaire
In November Napoleon decided to stage a coup, and he took the power in France. In his
first speech as the ruler of France he said: the revolution has prevailed, and the revolution
has ended. (With this quote he was trying to get the support of all sides of the dispute: he is
saying “eye y ey pekeña, no te preocupes que tu lucha ha servido para algo. Yo no voy a ser
como los otros reyes, yo soy diferente, yo te voy a cuidar” and at the same time he is saying
to the supporters of the old regime: “tranquila mi putita que la revolución ya ha acabado,
ya está aquí el full time papi”

Napoleon ruled for 16 years (casi ná, no veah el tío)

THE NAPOLEONIC ERA (1799-1821)

Consul (1799 – 1802 & 1802 – 1804)
When Napoleon made the coup, he created a new form of government named the consul.
It consisted of the government of France based on three rulers: Napoleon + two consuls.
So he kinda shared the power, but actually he was the one ruling France; the other were like
advisors. He was in a lot of war campaigns with other countries so one of his first measures
was to defeat other European nations to gain more prestige and consequently, more power.
In 1802 he called a referendum to ask if the French people wanted him to be the sole and
life consul (so basically, he was “asking” to be a dictator, a king but disguised as
democracy). So, 90% of the people voted for him to be the sole and life consul of France.

Emperor (1804 – 15)

In 1804, he decided to give another step and became the Emperor of France.
In fact, he wasn’t made emperor in a normal way. Normally the Pope would have to
proclaim the emperor/king. Sin Napoleon wasn’t in favour of Catholicism, the Pope didn’t
want to crown him as an emperor. Napoleon’s solution: me robo al papa, lo secuetro, me
lo traigo pa parís y a ver si no se atreve a cornarme el chachondo). In fact, even in Paris the
oen who put the crown on his own head was Napoleon himself!!! Es que se la pelaba todo
al tío

Military campaigns: just in 8 / 9 years napoleon managed to conquer a lot of other

territories, and he made alliances with other countries. He was a genius in terms of military
skills. His strategy to keep the control of the new conquered territories was to put as rulers
his own relatives (example: cuando invadió españa puso a su Hermano, Pepe Botella)
The first defeat suffered by Napoleon was in 1805 in the battle of Trafalgar in which the
British troops defeated the French Spanish ships.
Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808. He told Charles IV he was only going to Portugal, but it
was just an excuse to conquer Spain. At first it was a victory from the French, but then the
Spanish decided to fight back and in 1814 the Spanish defeated Napoleon (chupate esa
gabachoooo)

The great mistake: Russia (1812-15)

He followed the advice of his team to invade Russia and that was a huuuuuge mistake. The
error was in the logistical aspect of the campaign, Russia was sooo far away it was very
difficult to transport the food and basic needs for the troops. So they plundered every single
farm that they found to get food.
The emperor of Russia used the Scorched-Earth policy (política de la Tierra-Quemada) →
he burns his own villages and farms so that the French army couldn’t plunder them. So, the
soldiers were freezing, hungry, ill and desperate. The condition of the French army was very
poor, and the soldiers began dying. Even though they faced so many challenges the
managed to reach Moscow and they conquered it indeed. However, they couldn’t stay
because there was a heavy fire in the whole city of Moscow and the situation there for the
French was unbearable. So, in 1814 Napoleon decided to come back to France.
A coalition of countries gave Napoleon two alternatives for France: either he resigns his
power of emperor, or they would invade France. The British emperor, with the other
coalition kings, sent Napoleon to the exile to a tiny island next to Corsica, the island of Elba.

He spent a couple of months living there, but then who was ruling in France. Weeeell, the
monarchy was restored in France, the new king was the brother of Louis XVI. He will take
the name of Louis XVIII. He lasted two months because he became king against the will of
most French people. The French people were not very happy with the new King, Napoleon
heard these rumours, and he decided to return to France and take back the power. And he
did it!! He joined a tiny arm and took a couple of ships, so he managed to leave the island
of Elba and return to France. When he returned to France (in Marseille) he began marching
to Paris and on his way a lot of supporters joined his journey. So Napoleon regained the
power and decided to fight as a last battle against all his enemies → the Battle of Waterloo

Battle of Waterloo and the End of Napoleon

It was the French Empire against Britain, Prussia, Russian empire, Spain, to kiski vaya. The
war lasted 5 years and he almost succeeded but finally he was defeated in Waterloo and
the victors decided again to send him to the exile in the most isolated colony owned by the
British Empire: Saint Helena (a tomar por culo a la izquierda)

Napoleon ended very sad (por cualquier cosa vaya) and finally died. But how did he die?
Uncertain. Some the theories:
 - Stomach tumour (la más fiable) → como dijo Rennee Rapp: now my tummy
hurts
- Poisoned??

13/03/2025

UNIFICATION OF GERMANY (1871)

11. 1861: William I, King of Prussia

12. Otto von Bismarck, his Chancellor:
- Dncjwndc PEDIIIIIRRRRRR
13. First steps towards unification:
- Opposition of Denmark and Austria: The surrounding nations obviously
preferred to be surrounded by little countries than by a unified country that
was like a sort of empire in a way.
14. Franco Prussian War (1870)
- Prussia defeats France (Sedan, III French Republic)
o As a consequence, France began the 3rd republic because the
defeat was so harmful to the empire that the emperor of France had
to choose to reestablish the republic.
o The Germans will make a gesture, a symbol that will be a threat for
France. The Prussians defeat the French and in the hall of mirror in
Versailles they proclaim the unification of Germany after signing the
peace
o This is in part why the French had such a desire of revenge against
the Germans that they accomplished during WWI.
- Prussia invades Paris → Treaty in Versailles (1871):
o Proclamation of the II Reich – William I, Emperor
o Alsace and Lorraine, annexed to the German Empire + war
reparations
▪ The French were not only defeated + the germans
proclaimed their empire in the Franch nations +++++ the
French had to pay the costs of the war to the germans (eran
unos hijos de putita los alemanes eh) + they will take
territories from France: Alsace and Lorraine. The reason why
they took those territories: there were a lot of mines of coal
in those territories. Coal was the main source of energy at
that moment.
- Bismarck’s way of ruling (he was still the Chancellor but form Germany, no
longer Prussia because now it was an annexion:
o Main goal: balance and stability of Prussia
o Prussia rules Germany
o Centralism and protectionism (mark, Reichsbank) (following
Napoleons policies). He wanted to have the control over the whole
Germany. Ex: they created a single currency for the whole territory,
because before there were 39 currencies, one for in each state →
marks. Another copy from Napoleon was to create a national bank,
just as Napoleon did with France, to control the whole economy of
Germany → Reichsbank.
 Bismarck took measures in favour of every single ideology: from the
right, from the left, authoritarian and libertarian. He was a very
intelligent politicians because to gain the support of the entire
country.
• LEFT AUTHORITARIAN: relentlessly persecuted Catholic
positions of power
• LEFT LIBERTARIAN: Constructed the first modern Welfare
state (you pay a lot of taxes but that money is invested in
your well-being, healthcare…)
• RIGHT AUTHORITARIA: did everything he did in the name of
German Monarchy
• RIGHT LIBERTARIAN: destroyed the German Labour
movement
So, he was an aristocrat but with left wing measures. This has to do
with the beginning of Communism and Socialism (both were
created by Marx who was German). He was a socialist.
o Social measures: healthcare system
o End of Bismarckian period:
o Main consequence → The Bismarckian Balance:
• System of international alliances sponsored by Bismarck to
have allies and reduces wars (Germany, Russia, Austria-
Hungary)
• Goals: isolating France, consolidating Germany as
European leader and arbitrator (to be the one who resolves
stuff)
• Consequence: no wars until 1914. Longest period of peace
until this moment.
• 1871-1914: “Peace through strength” (La Paz Armada)
• In 1871 two main things happened:
• 2nd industrial revolution → steam boats…
with the increase of economy politics also
changed because they were able to travel,
they could invent new stuff like the
telephone, the typewriter, the car…

UNIT 3:

DEFINITIONS

2 different concepts:

• COLONIALISM → “attitude, doctrine or action that leads to the dominance of one

State over another through the use of military, economic or political force” It
doesn’t refer to a specific time in history, colonialism has happened all the way
throughout history
• IMPERIALISM→ “historical period in which the main European nations developed a
policy of colonial expansion, in which they fought to take over some territories” it
refers to a specific historical period located in the 2nd half of the 19th century and the
beginning of the 20th, in which the main European nation developed a policy of
 colonial expansion. They main European nation to take action in this imperialism
were: the British empire, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium

Imperialism was divided into 2 stages:

• Explorations and former colonization (1780-1875) → economic depravation was

not their main world, mainly to reach some parts of the world
• Imperialism (1878-1914) → the most brutal and darkest one (the one we are going
to study, we are EMO GIRRRRLSSS)
River “niall”
1. The Era of the ‘great explorations’

The goal of this stage was exploration: (ex: the sources of the river Nile)

- Discover unknown places

- Evangelize (1900: 60,000 missionaries)
- Romantic idea of discovering and exceed human limits
- Non profitable expeditions (Pole)

2. The imperialist Era (1875-1914)

• Importance of a country is measured based on its colonial space

• Eagerness not to be left behind → race to get unoccupied territories
• Main imperial powers: British Empire, France, Belgium

We must understand that it was a period in which a nation’s worth and prestige depended
on the number of colonies that you owned.

Common ideas on colonialism and imperialism.

What were the real reasons for Imperialism. WE tend to think that the only reason was
economic deprivation, and it’s true that one of their most important reasons was to get
material sources, but it was not the only one. So…

Motivations for colonisation

1. European mentality:
• Golden age in European. In politics (It was their longest period of peace); in
economy (beginning of the 2nd industrial revolution); science and culture (the
new inventions and discoveries)
• Since they were so proud of this, they felt like they needed to share their
knowledge and prestige with the underdeveloped nations (el paternalismo
puro y duro, eran literalmente un hombre hacienda mansplaining)
2. Economic reasons
• Need for raw materials → industrial revolution
• 1900: Europe covered 7% of the Land but has 35.7% of the World population
• Need for markets to sell the national products (protectionism) → problem
of overproduction → they forced their colonies to buy those products that
were over produced
• Result: not very profitable
3. Strategic reasons:
• Occupying key positions for possible conflicts, or to defend against possible
attacks
 • Protecting communication routes with other colonies
• Simple and pure strategy (Gibraltar, Malta, the Cape, Hong
Kong)
4. Demographic reasons:
• Way-out to overpopulation
• Solution to conflictive population (example: the British used
Australia as a prison for the most conflictive prisoners)
5. Political reasons
• Prestige (Italy, Germany)
• National pride (France after 1870)
• Training battlefield
• Public opinion
• Nationalism

Having colonies also allowed to those nations to provide their citizens a new life: if
a British person couldn’t find a job in England, he could move to any of their colonies
to try and find a new job.

Means that made colonisation faster and easier:

• Advances in healthcare
• Asepsis: boiled water → reduced the risk of illnesses transmitted by boiling
water
• Quinine: in infusion, prevents from certain diseases (malaria)
• Modern firearms (it is not the same a rifle like the colonisers had,
than the spears with a shield that the colonised territories had)
(como dijo PS: pim pam pum tengo una pistola, pim pam pum
que dispara sola. Pim pam pum, tengo un revolver, pim pam
pum que dispara doble)
• Advances in technology during the industrial revolution → the
steamboat e.g. because before, you depended on wind in order to
sail, but with the steamboat they didn’t depend on wind anymore, so
they could sail along rivers in the middle of the jungles. Also, the
railway, specially important for the British colonisation in Africa. They used the
railway in order to connect the different regions in Africa.
The obvious problem with this → the colonised communities became slaved.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE

It was the most important colonial power ever. At their peak, the British controlled 25% of
the surface on Earth (en plan milokaaaa, que Harry Styles todavia no existía…)
Nowadays all the former British colonies remain in the British Commonwealth (Es que no
pasan pagina los tíos eh, tampoco les puedo juzgar…) → e.g. A british person is going to pay
less than a non British person to travel to Australia for example. So it’s like an European
Union but for former British empire.

India
It was the most important colony for the British Empire, it was known as ‘the crown’s jewel’
Africa
People knew nothing about Africa. British controlled a huge line from Egypt to South Africa.
The British were obsessed to connect the northern colonies with the southern colonies by
conquering the countries in between. How did they reach this? Obviously, by fighting, but
also thanks to the railway (they built a huge railway connecting Egypt with South Africa.
However they had a problem → when they were about to reach their goal, they couldn’t
finish because they stepped with the German east Africa. Until WWI with the Treaty of
Versailles in which the German were made to give up all their colonies
CECIL B RHODES: this was a businessman who went to Africa. He was an imperialist; he
was the vivid representation of the concept of “the sacred duty of the white man”. So, he
invested a lot of money into the colonisation. (que pringado mi brother). HE created a
company (DeBeers) which consisted on the sell of diamonds (this obviously involved
SLAVES) (ex: the movie Diamantes de Sangre)

French colonies
The focused on the Western part of Africa (since the British had the vertical line linking Egypt
w/ Sout Africa. The French not only wanted to get resources, but also to spread the French
language, administration and culture to those territories.
The French also conquered the Southeastern part of Asia, and they called it Indo China:
Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
France still to this day have a lot of colonies: Réunion for instance

The declining Spanish Empire

It was declining because Spain had already lost almost all the colonies in America. At the
end of 19th century Spain only had 5 colonies: Cuba, Puerto Rico; in Africa (2 colonies and
a protectorate) the protectorate of Morocco, Western Sahara, Equatorian Guinea; in Asia
the Philippines
In 1898 Spain lost 3 of those colonies: Cuba, Puerto Rico and Philippines. USA began a war
against Spain and as a result, the US, took those three colonies from Spain. There was a
ship in the Bay of Havana, it exploded one night and the Americans blamed the Spanish for
it (the truth is that it was an accidental fire in the boilers and due to that, the ship exploded)
(querían follon y lo crearon, hay que ser malrollera tía!!!). También hay teorías de que fueron
los propios estadounidenses quienes lo crearon (no tiene mucho sentido porque había
marines americanos dentro, pero es que son estadounidenses y allí quien no esta loco está
vendiendo relojes por la calle)

Belgian Congo