CIENCIAS SOCIALES
ED. PARA LA CIUDADANÍA
Pilar Sánchez
- From Estates General to National Assembly
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens
- The Reign of Terror
- The Directory
- The Age of Napoleon
FUNNY VERSION OF "BAD ROMANCE" BY LADY GAGA TO EXPLAIN FRENCH REVOLUTION
FRENCH REVOLUTION THROUGH PICTURES AND TEXTS
people riot the prison of bastille
The number of armed men in Paris is supposed to amount to 300,000 men and they called themselves the Militia. The way by which so many people have procured arms is, that all the public storehouses where weapons were lodged, have been broken, as well as several private houses plundered [saqueadas], whick they thought contained them. The Archbishop of Paris is hmong the Lumber of those who have been sacrificad to the people´s rage. He was assassinated at Versailles on Tuesday night. The city of Paris is entirely surronded with a guard and not a soul suffered to go out who has an apperance of wealth.
Letter from a journalist of LondonTimes to his newspaper editor on July 20, 1989
(source: History in the First Person, Louis L. Synder and Richard Morris, eds., 195)
THE TENNIS COURT OATH
The Tennis Court Oath depicts actual the meeting of the Third Estate on the tennis courts of Versailles on June 20, 1789. After being locked out of the palace, members of the Third Estate decided that their allegiance was not to the king, but to the people. The Third Estate vowed to stay together until they were able to comprise a constitution. This meeting caused a stir in France and spread the idea of revolution, and eventually led to the French Revolution. The members of the Third Estate featured in the picture went on to form the National Assembly and were the heart and soul of the French Revolution. Without their efforts and dedication the corrupt French Monarchy could never have been overthrown. Jacques-Louis David depicts the revolutionary scene of the Third Estate’s meeting in The Tennis Court Oath. His painting spread ideas of change and revolution.
David uses formal qualities in order to create a composition that illustrates the virtues he wants to impress upon the viewers. At the center of the painting is Jean-Sylvain Bailly administering the oath. The hands of the assembly reach toward him in solidarity. This created a very symmetrical, self-contained composition that emphasizes the unity of the assembly. The faces of the people are excited, and there is a dynamic quality to their movement, demonstrating their enthusiasm and excitement for revolution. In the bottom right corner sits the lone dissenter, the single member of the assembly who did not sign the new constitution. The static quality of his self-contained position makes him stand out from his zealous [entusiastas] companions. He draws away [alejar] from the central figure, one of the few lines in the painting that leads away from the center, further exhibiting his resistance to the solidarity of his peers [compañeros]. Even the curtain on the left leads the viewer’s eye toward the figure of Bailly. David also utilizes symbolism to represent the effect of this event on France’s future. In the top left corner, a wind blows the curtains into the room, perhaps symbolizing the winds of change, demonstrating the effect this event will have on the French Revolution. The light from the window falls onto the center of the painting, illuminating Bailly as if signifying his enlightenment.
DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZENS,
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, AUGUST 1791
The representatives of the French people, constituted as a National Assembly, and considering that ignorance, neglect, or contempt [desprecio] of the rights of man are the sole causes of public misfortunes and governmental corruption, have resolved to set forth [describir] in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable and sacred rights of man and the citizen:
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be based only on common utility.
2. The purpose of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
3. The principle of all sovereignty rests essentially in the nation. No body and no individual may exercise authority which does not emanate expressly from the nation.
4. Liberty consists in the ability to do whatever does not harm another; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no other limits than those which assure to other members of society the enjoyment of the same rights. [...]
6. The law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to take part, in person or by their representatives, in its formation.
7. No man may be indicted, arrested, or detained except in cases determined by the law and according to the forms which it has prescribed. Those who seek, expedite, execute, or cause to be executed arbitrary orders should be punished; but citizens summoned or seized by virtue of the law should obey instantly, and render themselves guilty by resistance. [...]
9. Every man being presumed innocent until judged guilty [...]
10. No one should be disturbed for his opinions, even in religion, provided that their manifestation does not trouble public order as established by law.
11. The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may therefore speak, write, and print freely, if he accepts his own responsibility for any abuse of this liberty in the cases set by the law. [...]
13. For maintenance of public authority and for expenses of administration, common taxation is indispensable. It should be apportioned equally among all the citizens according to their capacity to pay. [...]
16. Any society in which the guarantee of rights is not assured or the separation of powers not settled has no constitution.
17. Property being an inviolable and sacred right, no one may be deprived of it except when public necessity, certified by law, obviously requires it, and on the condition of a just compensation in advance.
Source: The materials listed below appeared originally in The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History, translated, edited, and with an introduction by Lynn Hunt (Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1996), 77–79.
“We are bringing back the Baker, the baker´s wife and the baker´s boy”
women forced royal family return paris
Louis XVI had remained at Versailles. He refused to accept the National Assembly´s decrees on the abolition of feudalism and the Declaration of Rights. On October 5, however, thousand of Parisian women armed with sticks, lances, pistols and swords marched to Versailles. A delegation of the women met with Louis XVI and described how their children were starving from a lack of bread. On october 6, the royal family journeyed to Paris escorted by women armed with pikes. The women sang: “We are bringing back the Baker, the baker´s wife and the baker´s boy” ( the King, the queen Marie Antoinette and their son). In June 1791 the King and his family atttempeted to flee France to requested the help of other European monarchs (Austria) to overcome this revolution and restore the monarchy in France. He almost succeeded but they were recognized ( in spite of their disguise), captured and brought back to Paris.
From the legislative
assembly to the convention
the triumph of jacobins: louis xvi beheaded on the gillotine
On January 20, 1793, the National Convention condemned Louis XVI to
death, his execution scheduled for the next day. Louis spent that evening saying goodbye to his wife and children. The following day dawned cold and wet. Louis arose at five. At eight o'clock a
guard of 1,200 horsemen arrived to escort the former king on a two-hour carriage ride to his place of execution. Accompanying Louis, at his invitation, was a priest, Henry Essex Edgeworth, an
Englishman living in France. According to this witness, those were the last words of the King:
'I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I Pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.'
TO BE CONTINUE
IT´S YOUR TURN
INSTRUCTIONS MANUAL IN THE WINDOW "RESEARCH AND KEEP ON TASK"
"If you have got a new point of view about the World, you’ll have to find new ways of showing it”
Mark Rothko
Pilar Sánchez has a double Degree in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature (2010), a Degree in History (2002), both by Salamanca University. She also has Advanced Studies in Philosophy.
She has been
working as a teacher and researcher in the Salamanca University, Art and Aesthetics Department, as an Art critic,
a team member in specialised publications, teacher of Spanish as a foreign language in other countries (Ireland), Secondary teacher of Social Studies and Spanish Language and Literature in Madrid
and Head of Department in SEK Les Alpes International School.
Her main goals when teaching are setting up the latest educational methodologies based on cooperative and blended learning, relying on emotional intelligence as one of the best means to enhance teacher and teenage students’ relationship.
