Women´s Role during the Industrial Revolution.

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French Revolution

French Revolution

             In the 1700s there was a social unfairness in France , taxes and laws created during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV which remained during the ruling of king Louis XVI were unjust  and only a minority of the people were benefit of those laws and taxes. The peasants and the poorer were the most affected people in all, with this bad decision while the clergy and nobles enjoy the money and the luxury. In 1789 France was in need of money and almost broke. The revolution was the result of the unhappiness that  the majority with the government at that time. The were several causes but the most important one was, the  discontent of the legal division among social groups that had been like that for several centuries. The revolution was waiting at the door  for some group to open it and the lower social class was about to do it.    

                  Let's first start knowing a bit about the ruler of France at the time of the revolution.  King Louis XVI came to the throne in 1774;he was an absolute monarch. Then  he married Marie - Antoinette, who was believed to dominate the king’s decisions . The king and his wife were highly criticized because of over spending money. During his reign France was merged in a  deep depression that ended up in a bloody revolution;there was no money, no food and the people was not happy with how the country has been ruled. When the revolution started Louis did not fully understand what was really happening so between 1789 and 1791 he signed decrees from the Assembly so that they become law and in September 1791 the constitution was finally proclaimed.In 1793,a few years later, he was executed in 1793.      

Before the Revolution broke out, in a time known as the Ancien Regime, France was divided in three estates: The first estate known as the clergy, formed by the clergy who were people like priests, who run the catholic church and other aspects of the country. Apart from keeping register of the births,deaths and marriages of the people of France; they have the power to levy a 10% tax known as the tithe. Members of this estate saw no need to change and were blind to any social problem.The second estate consisted on the nobility of France, including members of the royal family; they did not have to pay any taxes.They have special privileges like wearing a sword and hunting. Again like in the first estate, they saw no problem in the Estates -General or social structure. What the members of this estate saw was only profit from themselves. And the third estate, was made up of everyone else ( from peasants, farmers and the bourgeoisie). The third estate was the 96% of the french population, and had no right and privileges like the other two estates. This class did all the working of the land and created most of what the higher classes enjoy, yet they did not have any benefits.They did not have equal representation in the government, no influence in voting procedures and paid a lot of taxes. Many historians  believe that one of the reasons of the revolution was the dissatisfaction of the people of the third estate, who wanted a more equal distribution of the wealth and power of the country.

          Historians believe that there were four main causes for the French Revolution. The first one, The unfair division of social classes, which was already described in the paragraph above. The second cause was Money. The main problem here is that the government of France was bankrupt, owing 4000 millions livres. The reasons of this debt were the money they had spent in costly wars and the royalty accused by the people  for spending a lot of money on luxuries. Apart from these, it was said that the tax system was corrupted and some tax collectors did not hand all the money taxes over the government. The third main cause was the bad harvest. As most people in France depended on the agriculture and farming in the 1700’s, the weather conditions did not help because of the heavy rains, hard winters and too hot summers led to three very bad harvests. Peasants and farmers having very small incomes were affected , they became unemployed and many poor people were starving while the clergy and nobility continued to live their luxurious lives. The fourth and last cause was The national assembly, June 1789 created by the deputies of the third estate who tired of the arguments of the arguments over how each order should vote, declared themselves a “national assembly”. As they represented the majority of the population they felt they were the “true parliament”. The deputies of the third estate demanded to draw up a constitution showing how France was to be governed .

            After the execution of Louis, the things in France were still badly along the months, the war was going on, peasants started to revolt everywhere, Jacobins declared that “Terror is the order of the day”, many areas of France were rebelling against the new radical Jacobin government and convention took emergency measures; which set up a Committee of Public Safety. The Jacobins were in control of the Committee and their leading figure was M. Robespierre, the creator of the famous guillotine, the man who once  was  against slavery and death penalty was in 1793 the main supporter of the terror. He allowed revolutionary tribunals to convict people without a fair trial, he was blame to be the responsible of  more than 12.000 deaths in France. In 1794, people got sick of all the killing and by the mid of that year the terror had died out so did Robespierre, who met his fate with his own creation, the guillotine.

  The french revolution was one of the bloodiest and greatest rebellions of the people against the government in the  world , which was printed in the heart of  all the french men, women and children of the time. It was the revolution that put an end in the suffering of the french people who during years had to pay for the bad and selfish decisions taken by the ruler and his followers. It was the revolution that took the life of thousands of french people, in the search of  égalité, fraternité and liberté.

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A Tale of two women : Lucie Darnay and Madame Defarge.

A Tale of two women : Lucie Darnay and Madame Defarge.

              In his novel ,“ A tale of two cities”, Charles Dickens presents two opposites personalities in the characters of Lucie Darnay, representing good; and Madame Defarge, representing evil. Although both women have French descendant, they are nothing alike.They are very different from each other, not only physically but also in terms of family, social position, temperament and even in fate .Dickens shows through Lucie Darnay the ideal middle upper class woman ideal . While in the character of Madame Defarge he shows the opposite of feminine ideals, the type of woman “such as the world would do well never to breed again” as Charles Dickens wrote.

             Madame Defarge embodies the chaos of the French Revolution. Through her stitches, she secretly  condemned to death any person she considered to be a threat to the French revolution or to herself. When the Revolution broke into full force she revealed herself as the woman whose hate for the aristocracy  and  seek for vengeance because of what  the Marquis Evremonde had had with her sister.  She let herself  die  Miss Pross’  hands, Lucie’s loyal servant and friend. Who in her attempt to kill Lucie and her  baby, received the bullet that killed her. Madame Defarge was so obsessed with Lucie and her baby daughter  because Lucie Manette married with an Evremonde and the baby girl carried Evremonde’s blood.

           On the other hand, Lucie Darnay, embodies goodness, compassion, love and virtue. Protected and raised  by her loyal servant Miss Pross and her father´s friend, Lucie grew up in a big bubble where everything was fine. She was kind and naib. By defining Lucie as “the Golden Thread” Dickens alludes to the one who holds her family together. It is shown in the novel when Mrs Darnay wait at the street corner for two hours each day, on the chance she sees Mr. Darnay through the prison window. As flat as this character seemed to be in the novel, she brings light to the darkness that the people of France was living.

           Both women have an important “mission” in the novel, that is to show lightness, hope, love and mercy through Lucie ; and darkness, hate, vengeance through Madame Defarge. Whom behaviour and hate was a result from the oppression and personal tragedy that she suffered at the hands of the Aristocracy. Dickens, also showed through these women social position, degree of education and female role.     

Britain under rule of a mentally diseased King

Britain under rule of a mentally diseased King

   George III reigned Britain for almost sixty years. He is remembered for getting mad. It is almost impossible to believe that one of the most powerful kingdoms in the whole world was about to lose its great power because of its King illness. At that time,  the best doctors determined that the King was going mad.  Everybody seemed to be on alert  because of his mental disease but not for good reasons; they were  trying to take advantage of it. Needles is to say that this is the reason why he was known as the “mad” King.

 King George was the ruler of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 until his death in 1820. He was remembered for losing thirteen colonies and he was the third Hanoverian monarch and the first one to be born in England and to use English as his first language. He was a loving husband and father but very strict; he wanted his children to be disciplined. Despite this, his eldest son disgusted the king; he went to parties, drank in excess and gambling. In fact, they disliked each other. The king referred to his son as the fat, and he ridiculed his father.

  King George´s disease was, later known, called Porphyria. This disease causes a lot of pain, aches, blue urine and mental disorders. At the beginning of his disease and without finding a logical explanation for his behaviour doctors isolated him, treating him as an insane man. He was forced to wear a straitjacket and to obey the doctor's orders. Despite his illness, George III was a dedicated and diligent king and won the respect of his politicians. In fact, when his illness drove him off the political scene, people realised how much they needed him. Although he was ill, he continued to reign Great Britain and Ireland. His behaviour was very criticized by his eldest son, who was a traitor as well as some members of the Parliament. King George's eldest son pushed him into a public breakdown so that he could become Regent.

Time went by and he could recover successfully. His illness was stabled and, this allowed him to rule England for many more years. He became very popular and loved by people of Great Britain. He ruled as long as his illness allowed him to do. All in all, he also became famous and well known as The Mad King.

Lung, Yanel.

García, Julieta

Mindmap on George III

Match the years with the different events during The Jacobite's Risings

George I - Religious

Matching exercise

Match the items on the right to the items on the left.

Activities: Religious Rebellions during the Hanoverian Dynasty

Gap-fill exercise

Fill in all the gaps, then press "Check" to check your answers. Use the "Hint" button to get a free letter if an answer is giving you trouble. You can also click on the "[?]" button to get a clue. Note that you will lose points if you ask for hints or clues!

In 1707, under the Act of Settlement, George's mother, Sophia, was nominated heiress to the English throne if the reigning monarch William III and his heir Anne died without issue. The act sought to guarantee a succession. In August 1714, became king.
The following year, George was faced with a rebellion with the , supporters of the Catholics James Stuart, who has a strong claim to the throne. However, on 4 February 1716 admitted defeat and returned to France.
In Jacobite plans for regaining the British throne continued. By that year they had managed to enlist the help of the Spanish for another military expedition. The precise reasons for the Spanish support were born out of complex European power politics. Surprisingly England's old enemy, France, and Britain had come to a peace settlement in 1713, which ended the ''. Amongst other things the treaty required the 'Old Pretender' to move his exiled court from France. The Jacobites had therefore to cast about for support elsewhere. Spain had also signed a peace treaty with Britain but did not respect the provisions which excluded Spanish influence in Italy. By 1718 Spain had seized the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia and planned to invade the mainland in the south. This was a direct challenge to Austria which had inherited Spain's Italian lands but it was also a challenge to which was a guarantor of the Peace of Utrecht. The Royal Navy promptly smashed the Spanish navy near Messina. The Spanish knew that Britain's George I was involved in an expensive naval campaign in the Baltic so they declared war on Britain.
The old pretender did indeed land in . He was also a very dispiriting and frigid leader. Morover, Louis XIV had just died, consequently no help came from France. Finally the goverment dealt energetically with the situation, because “” left Scotland in less than six weeks.
In the early Hanoverian period, the nation was sunk into a condition of moral apathy. was a minister for two years in Georgia. In 1739 he built the first of his chapels at Bristol, and formed the first of his regular Methodist societies in London. He was a great social reformed as well as a great religious leader. He influenced the religious life of the whole British people. He restored as a living force in the personal creed of men and in the life of the nation.
Between 1719 and 1745, Jacobitism had decome almost entirely a Scottish movement. Charles Edward, the of the Old Pretender, was determined to win back the throne of his fathers. Some tried to dissuade him but he didn't listen. Seeing his determinations, they gave him their support and also some other clans joined in. Charles marched south. , who was an opposing general, came north to meet him, but Charles was joined with a very capable officer called and entered Edinbourgh unopposed. He won a decisive victory and Scotland seemed to be at his feet. Meanwhiles, General Wade was sent north to prevent an invation of England. Charles advanced south and swered west to avoid . He entered England by Carsile, took Manchester and reached Derby. So, Prince Charles retreated against his wishes. He reached Scotland safely. After the failure of this rising, the hopes of the jacobites were forever crushed.

Hanoverian Dynasty: Religious Aspect

Should Scotland become an independent nation?

Compare and contrast the two views of the Glorious Revolution:

    The series of events in 1688/1689 which culminated in the exile of the King, James II and the accession to the throne of William III and Mary II were know as The Glorious Revolution. The historical interpretations of these events, in which Parliament asserted its rights over the Monarchy were handled by featured sources. In this case, we are going to work (or we will work) with the BBC and the Parliament website(s). In addition, both have excellent records about our topic and a marked difference in the point of view.
     One of the main reasons of the Glorious Revolution was the discontent of the people with James II policies. Quickly James's opponents invited William of Orange, who was Europe’s leading Protestant statesman to bring an army of liberation to England and to safeguard Mary’s inheritance. Both versions about the Glorious revolution, the one from the BBC and the Parliament website agree that the British causes of the revolution were as much religious as political.
     Secondly, was William´s main reason for interfering in English affairs, This was essentially pragmatic ( He wished to bring England into his war against Louis XIV¨s and a free parliament was seen as more likely to support this. The forces that the prince of Orange amassed for his invasion were vast: Firstly, they agree that the Declaration of Indulgence allowed dissenters and catholics to work freely and to suspend all the religious penal laws against the catholics, although there is a difference about the date of this event, in which BBC states that it happened in 1688 and the Parliament mentions that it was in 1687. Secondly, we can mention that in 1689 Parliament gave William and Mary the crown jointly and before they were offered it, both were presented with a document called, the Declaration of Rights, later embodied in law as the Bill of Rights by the Parliament, in December of 1689.
     All in all, Parliament gained power over taxation, over the royal succession, over appointments and over the right of the crown to wage war independently;William´s wars deeply changed British state. Their massive cost to allow modern financial institutions and bureaucracy grow up .
     The revolution caused negative aspects in Ireland and Scotland . For example political and religious decision were taken like Irish Protestants established a monopoly over land-ownership and political power.The revolution failed to limit the power of parliaments and created no body of protected constitutional law.