1.
American Revolutionary War
–
From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand
2.
French Revolution
–
Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
3.
Nantes
–
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River,50 km from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with almost 300,000 inhabitants within its limits. Together with Saint-Nazaire, a located on the Loire estuary. Nantes is the seat of the Loire-Atlantique département and of the Pays de la Loire région. Historically and culturally, Nantes belongs to Brittany, a former duchy, the fact that it is not part of the modern administrative Brittany région is subject to debate. Nantes appeared during the Antiquity as a port on the Loire and it became the seat of a bishopric at the end of the Roman era, before being conquered by the Breton people in 851. Nantes was the residence of the dukes of Brittany in the 15th century. The French Revolution was a period of turmoil resulted in an economic decline. Nantes managed to develop a strong industry after 1850, chiefly in ship building, however, deindustrialisation in the second half of the 20th century pushed the city to reorient its economy towards services. In 2012, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Nantes as a Gamma- world city and it is the fourth highest ranking city in France after Paris, Lyon and Marseilles. The Gamma- category gathers other large cities such as Algiers, Orlando, Porto, Turin, Nantes has often been praised for its quality of life and it was awarded the European Green Capital Award in 2013. The settlement is mentioned in Ptolemys Geography as Κονδηούινϰον and Κονδιούινϰον, during the Gallo-Roman period, this name was latinised and adapted as Condevincum, Condevicnum, Condivicnum, Condivincum, etc. Condevincum seems to be related to the Gaulish word condate meaning confluence, at the end of the Roman period, Condevincum became known as Portus Namnetum and civitas Namnetum. This phenomenon can be observed on most of the ancient cities of France throughout the 4th century, for instance, Lutecia became Paris, city of the Parisii, Darioritum became Vannes, city of the Veneti. Portus Namnetum evolved in Nanetiæ and Namnetis in the 5th century, the name of the Namnetes people could either come from the Gaulish root *nant-, from the pre-Celtic root *nanto or from the other tribe name Amnites, which could mean men of the river. The name Nantes is pronounced and the city inhabitants are called Nantais, in Gallo, the romance dialect traditionally spoken in the region around Nantes, the city is called Naunnt or Nantt, according to the various spelling systems. The Gallo pronunciation is the same as the French one, although northern speakers pronounce it with a long, in Breton language, Nantes is known as Naoned or An Naoned. The latter, meaning the Nantes, is common and reflects the fact that articles are more frequent in Breton toponyms than in French ones
4.
Brittany
–
Brittany is a cultural region in the north-west of France. Brittany has also referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain. It is bordered by the English Channel to the north, the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and its land area is 34,023 km². Since reorganisation in 1956, the administrative region of Brittany comprises only four of the five Breton departments. The remaining area of old Brittany, the Loire-Atlantique department around Nantes, at the 2010 census, the population of historic Brittany was estimated to be 4,475,295. Of these, 71% lived in the region of Brittany, while 29% lived in the Loire-Atlantique department, in 2012, the largest metropolitan areas were Nantes, Rennes, and Brest. Brittany is the homeland of the Breton people and is recognised by the Celtic League as one of the six Celtic nations. A nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the French Republic, the word Brittany, along with its French, Breton and Gallo equivalents Bretagne, Breizh and Bertaèyn, derive from the Latin Britannia, which means Britons land. This word had been used by the Romans since the 1st century to refer to Great Britain and this word derives from a Greek word, Πρεττανικη or Βρεττανίαι, used by Pytheas, an explorer from Massalia who visited the British Islands around 320 BC. This term probably comes from a Gallic word, aremorica, which close to the sea. Another name, Letauia, was used until the 12th century and it possibly means wide and flat or to expand and it gave the Welsh name for Brittany, Llydaw. Later, authors like Geoffrey of Monmouth used the terms Britannia minor, breton-speaking people may pronounce the word Breizh in two different ways, according to their region of origin. Breton can be divided into two dialects, the KLT and the dialect of Vannes. KLT speakers pronounce it and would write it Breiz, while the Vannetais speakers pronounce it, the official spelling is a compromise between both variants, with a z and an h together. In 1941, efforts to unify the dialects led to the creation of the so-called Breton zh, on its side, Gallo language has never had a widely accepted writing system and several ones coexist. For instance, the name of the region in that language can be written Bertaèyn in ELG script, or Bertègn in MOGA, Brittany has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic. This population was scarce and very similar to the other Neanderthals found in the whole of Western Europe and their only original feature was a distinct culture, called Colombanian. One of the oldest hearths in the world has found in Plouhinec
5.
Glass
–
Glass is a non-crystalline amorphous solid that is often transparent and has widespread practical, technological, and decorative usage in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optoelectronics. The most familiar, and historically the oldest, types of glass are silicate glasses based on the chemical compound silica, the primary constituent of sand. The term glass, in usage, is often used to refer only to this type of material. Many applications of silicate glasses derive from their optical transparency, giving rise to their use as window panes. Glass can be coloured by adding metallic salts, and can also be painted and printed with vitreous enamels and these qualities have led to the extensive use of glass in the manufacture of art objects and in particular, stained glass windows. Although brittle, silicate glass is extremely durable, and many examples of glass fragments exist from early glass-making cultures, because glass can be formed or moulded into any shape, it has been traditionally used for vessels, bowls, vases, bottles, jars and drinking glasses. In its most solid forms it has also used for paperweights, marbles. Some objects historically were so commonly made of glass that they are simply called by the name of the material, such as drinking glasses. Porcelains and many polymer thermoplastics familiar from everyday use are glasses and these sorts of glasses can be made of quite different kinds of materials than silica, metallic alloys, ionic melts, aqueous solutions, molecular liquids, and polymers. For many applications, like glass bottles or eyewear, polymer glasses are a lighter alternative than traditional glass, silica is a common fundamental constituent of glass. In nature, vitrification of quartz occurs when lightning strikes sand, forming hollow, fused quartz is a glass made from chemically-pure SiO2. It has excellent resistance to shock, being able to survive immersion in water while red hot. However, its high melting-temperature and viscosity make it difficult to work with, normally, other substances are added to simplify processing. One is sodium carbonate, which lowers the transition temperature. The soda makes the glass water-soluble, which is undesirable, so lime, some magnesium oxide. The resulting glass contains about 70 to 74% silica by weight and is called a soda-lime glass, soda-lime glasses account for about 90% of manufactured glass. Most common glass contains other ingredients to change its properties, lead glass or flint glass is more brilliant because the increased refractive index causes noticeably more specular reflection and increased optical dispersion. Adding barium also increases the refractive index, iron can be incorporated into glass to absorb infrared energy, for example in heat absorbing filters for movie projectors, while cerium oxide can be used for glass that absorbs UV wavelengths
6.
Palace of Versailles
–
The Palace of Versailles, Château de Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. Versailles is therefore not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. First built by Louis XIII in 1623, as a lodge of brick and stone. The first phase of the expansion was designed and supervised by the architect Louis Le Vau and it culminated in the addition of three new wings of stone, which surrounded Louis XIIIs original building on the north, south, and west. After Le Vaus death in 1670, the work was taken over and completed by his assistant, charles Le Brun designed and supervised the elaborate interior decoration, and André Le Nôtre landscaped the extensive Gardens of Versailles. Le Brun and Le Nôtre collaborated on the fountains, and Le Brun supervised the design. During the second phase of expansion, two enormous wings north and south of the wings flanking the Cour Royale were added by the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart. He also replaced Le Vaus large terrace, facing the garden on the west, with became the most famous room of the palace. The Royal Chapel of Versailles, located at the end of the north wing, was begun by Mansart in 1688. One of the most baffling aspects to the study of Versailles is the cost – how much Louis XIV, owing to the nature of the construction of Versailles and the evolution of the role of the palace, construction costs were essentially a private matter. Initially, Versailles was planned to be a residence for Louis XIV and was referred to as the kings house. Once Louis XIV embarked on his campaigns, expenses for Versailles became more of a matter for public record. To counter the costs of Versailles during the years of Louis XIVs personal reign. Accordingly, all materials that went into the construction and decoration of Versailles were manufactured in France, even the mirrors used in the decoration of the Hall of Mirrors were made in France. While Venice in the 17th century had the monopoly on the manufacture of mirrors, to meet the demands for decorating and furnishing Versailles, Colbert nationalised the tapestry factory owned by the Gobelin family, to become the Manufacture royale des Gobelins. In 1667, the name of the enterprise was changed to the Manufacture royale des Meubles de la Couronne, the Comptes meticulously list the expenditures on the silver furniture – disbursements to artists, final payments, delivery – as well as descriptions and weight of items purchased. Entries for 1681 and 1682 concerning the silver used in the salon de Mercure serve as an example. 5 In anticipation, For the silver balustrade for the bedroom,90,000 livres II
7.
Les Invalides
–
Louis XIV initiated the project by an order dated 24 November 1670, as a home and hospital for aged and unwell soldiers, the name is a shortened form of hôpital des invalides. The architect of Les Invalides was Libéral Bruant, the selected site was in the then suburban plain of Grenelle. By the time the project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 196 metres and the complex had fifteen courtyards. It was then felt that the veterans required a chapel, Jules Hardouin-Mansart assisted the aged Bruant, and the chapel was finished in 1679 to Bruants designs after the elder architects death. This chapel was known as Église Saint-Louis des Invalides, and daily attendance of the veterans in the services was required. Shortly after the chapel was completed, Louis XIV commissioned Mansart to construct a separate private royal chapel referred to as the Église du Dôme from its most striking feature. The domed chapel was finished in 1708, because of its location and significance, the Invalides served as the scene for several key events in French history. On 14 July 1789 it was stormed by Parisian rioters who seized the cannons, Napoleon was entombed under the dome of the Invalides with great ceremony in 1840. In December 1894 the degradation of Captain Alfred Dreyfus was held before the main building, the building retained its primary function of a retirement home and hospital for military veterans until the early twentieth century. In 1872 the musée dartillerie was located within the building to be joined by the musée historique des armées in 1896, the two institutions were merged to form the present musée de larmée in 1905. At the same time the veterans in residence were dispersed to smaller centres outside Paris, the building accordingly became too large for its original purpose. The modern complex does however include the facilities detailed below for about a hundred elderly or incapacitated former soldiers. On the north front of Les Invalides Hardouin-Mansarts chapel dome is large enough to dominate the long façade, at its far end, the Pont Alexandre III links this grand urbanistic axis with the Petit Palais and the Grand Palais. The Pont des Invalides is next, downstream the Seine river, the Hôpital des Invalides spurred William III of England to emulation, in the military Greenwich Hospital of 1694. The buildings still comprise the Institution Nationale des Invalides, an institution for disabled war veterans. The institution comprises, a retirement home a medical and surgical centre a centre for medical consultations. In 1676 Jules Hardouin-Mansart was commissioned with the construction of a place of worship on the site and he designed a building which combined a royal chapel with a veterans chapel. In this way, the King and his soldiers could attend mass simultaneously, while entering the place of worship though different entrances, when the Army Museum at Les Invalides was founded in 1905, the veterans chapel was placed under its administrative control
8.
Paris
–
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
9.
Blois
–
Blois is a city and the capital of Loir-et-Cher department in central France, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours. In 1171, Blois was the site of a libel against its Jewish community that led to 31 Jews being burned to death. Their martyrdom also contributed to a prominent and durable school of poetry inspired by Christian persecution, in 1196, Count Louis granted privileges to the townsmen, a commune, which survived throughout the Middle Ages, probably dated from this time. The counts of the Châtillon line resided at Blois more often than their predecessors, in 1429, Joan of Arc made Blois her base of operations for the relief of Orléans. Joan of Arc rode the thirty-five miles on Wednesday 29 April to Blois to relieve Orléans, after his captivity in England, Charles of Orléans in 1440 took up his residence in the château, where in 1462 his son, afterwards Louis XII, was born. In the 16th century Blois was often the resort of the French court, the Treaty of Blois, which temporarily halted the Italian Wars, was signed there in 1504–1505. The citys inhabitants included many Calvinists, and in 1562 and 1567 it was the scene of struggles between them and the supporters of the Catholic Church, the bishopric, seated at Blois Cathedral, dates from the end of the 17th century. In 1814 Blois was for a time the seat of the regency of Marie Louise. Blois was occupied during World War II by the German army, the city was liberated by American soldiers during the last two weeks of August 1944. On both occasions, the city withstood several days of bombing, the Château de Blois, a Renaissance château once occupied by King Louis XII, is located in the centre of the city, and an 18th-century stone bridge spans the Loire. As Blois is built on a pair of hills, winding and steep pathways run through the city. To the south of the city, the Forêt de Russy is a reminder of the woods that once covered the area. La Maison de la Magie Robert-Houdin is a museum fronting on the Château, the Gare de Blois railway station offers direct connections to Paris, Orléans, Tours, Nantes and several regional destinations. The A10 motorway connects Blois with Paris, Orléans and Tours, Blois was the birthplace of, Thubois Stephen, King of England from 1135 to 1154. Official website Documentary photography of Blois by Sayf Jewish Encyclopedia entry INSEE commune file
