Louis Pasteur: A Cow's Best Friend

Louis Pasture was born on December 27 1822 to the family of a poor tanner in Dole, France. He grew up very poor but gained degrees in Letters and Mathematics and Sciences all before entering the elite college of Ecole Normale Superieure. He became a physics and Chemistry professor before meeting Marie Laurent who he married. Continuing with his studies of chemistry and science he discovered many breakthroughs about health and disease. Louis Pasture reduced puerperal fever and he created the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax. These discoveries were small compared to his germ theory of disease and idea of fermentation which are still studied today. He was an extremely smart and helpful microbiologist and chemist who helped todays knowledge about disease and medicines. Pasture died September 28 1895 of a series of strokes and his body still lies under the Institute Pasture in Paris in a beautiful vault which he well deserved.

Questions

A)During the life time of Louis Pasture, people were extremely curious and creative. Many new things were happening in the world and new sports, medicine, advances and entertainment were being founded. In France, Felix Faure was elected and things were good for everyone. Creativity drove the culture into something new that interested people into pushing farther into science and entertaining others. Louis Pasture was one of the many scientist and chemist of this time who made a huge impact on science and modern medicine and microbiology. He created many theories and medicines that advanced health and without his discoveries, doctors would not be able to keep people safe, and scientist would not be as educated. Louis Pasture affected France and this time period in an incredible way, by pushing himself through to understand and better his knowledge on Science creating a whole new look on medicine and experiment. Louis inspired people to explore and promoted the population with all of his new discoveries.

B) Louis Pasteur changed almost the entire course of human medicine, pasteurized milk may not seem to be much, but in reality it stopped the spread of numerous diseases, and his discovery of the germ theory provided the basis for scientists to provide cures, vaccines and remedies for an entire range of afflictions. Louis Pasteur can almost be considered one of the founders of modern medicine, and is responsible for the savings of millions of lives by now.

C) Je m'appelle Louis Pasteur. Je suis Francais, tres tres Francais. Je suis le inventeur de "pasteurization." Je nee au Dole, France. C'est vrai.

Jeanne d'Arc: Maid of Orleans

Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) was born in the little village of Domremy on January 6, around the year 1412. She had four siblings and was extremely committed to God. She was a national heroine of France who became a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Simply a peasant girl, she saved France from defeat in one of the mournful periods of the Hundred Years' War with Great Britain. Her first great quest was to lead a French army against the English who destructed the city of Orleans. Because of the success, she is often known as the Maid of Orleans in honor.

 

Born a strong and healthy child, she grew up Catholic because of her deeply religious mother. By the age of 13, Joan began hearing the "voices of saints" as she believed. These voices told her to go to the King of France and help drive out the English. At about 17, she left to fulfill her mission. King Charles VII realized Joan's strange powers and by then, he was so desperate, he was willing to listen to the young girl who claimed to hear the voices of saints. Finally agreeing to give her a small army and a suit of armor, Joan set out in April of 1429 to rescue Orleans from the English. By the end of the battle of Orleans, 114 were dead and 40 were captured in her favor. During the battle, she was shot with an arrow. She modestly pulled it out and continued to lead. 

 

 

In September 1429, Joan was wounded in a minor battle near Paris. In May 1430, the English captured her at Compiegne. The English were determined to not give her up to the French, although important prisoners could not bring high ransoms. 

 

Seen as an "agent of the devil" by the English, Joan was imprisoned and tried her on charges of witchcraft and heresy. Despite the accusations and bullying, she insisted repeatedly that her visions and voices had come from God. But it was no use, a French clergy, sympathetic to the English sentenced her to death. Courageously, she was burned in front of a large crowd in Rouen on May 30, 1431. Her brave death led many to believe they had witnessed the martyrdom of a saint. Because of her charges, she was not given a Christian burial and her ashes were thrown into the Seine River. 

 

In 1455, Joan's family asked for a new trial to reconsider the charges against Joan. Pope Callistus III granted a hearing. In 1456, the pope pronounced Joan innocent. In 1909, Pope Pius X beatified her. Beatification is a preliminary step towards sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XV declared Joan of Arc a saint in 1920. Her feast day, the day of her death, is May 30. 

Questions:

a. What was it like to live in France when your person did? What was going on socially, culturally, politically, etc.? How was your person affected by their time period and how did they in turn affect everyone else?

The war with England was going on at the time continuously. Socially, the Renaissance was just beginning in Italy and it continued throughout the 17th century. It was a period of art and ball gowns and wearing long dresses. However, she "cross dressed" and was seen as an outcast because she didn't wear dresses or stay at home. She was in the war and fighting and to the culture at the time, it was wrong. She affected everyone because she stood up for what she believed in and wasn't afraid to show it. She helped France get out of the "dark age".

b. Name a few ways that your person changed history. How did his or her thoughts and actions affect the way other people thought fifty or one hundred years later? Elaborate.

Joan of Arc chose to follow "the voices in her head", she really believed and she followed what she thought was right by going to the king.

c. Using the French skills that you have, write one paragraph from your person's perspective:

Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France

Queen Marie Antoinette of France was born Archduchess Maria Antonia Josephina Johanna of Austria on November 2nd, 1755. She was twelfth child and ninth daughter of Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Underneath her "Queenly" serenity, the Empress was tough-as-nails and intent on cementing her country's alliances through the marriages of her sixteen children. Marie and favorite sister, Carolina, learned to be accomplished in sewing, music, and dancing, which Marie loved the most. However, within a few weeks of her fourteenth birthday, Marie would be thrust from this idyllic childhood into adulthood.

Marie Antoinette's mother, Empress Maria Theresa

Louis Auguste, the fifteen year-old Dauphin (King to-be) of France, was looking for a wife who would one day be his Queen. Though Austria's alliance with France was somewhat shaky, Empress Maria Theresa didn't give up. Nothing could patch things up better than a marriage that would produce the next King of France.

Marie's husband, King Louis XVI at age twenty-three

Preparations for the wedding began while the bride and groom were still hundreds of miles apart. Elaborate gowns were sent from France for the Marie's trousseau along with a portrait of Louis for her to admire. Though the Empress had forged the perfect match, she had worries. Marie was still a terrible speller and found the French language difficult to learn. She also had trouble memorizing all of the strict royal protocol of the French court. After she and Louis married, Marie would live in France, away from her friends and family. She would have to carve a whole new life out for herself as the Dauphine.The Empress worried that her sweet, naive daughter was unprepared for what was ahead of her.

Marie at age fourteen in the portrait she sent to Louis before their wedding.

On April 19th, 1769 Marie married Louis by-proxy in the Church of Augustine Friars in Vienna. Her brother Ferdinand stood in for the groom while the long Roman-Catholic nuptial mass was conducted. On May 7th, 1770, Marie was officially "handed over" to France. She met her husband Louis, who was tall, chubby, and awkward, but also kind and sweet. On May 16th they were married ceremoniously in the Chapel Royal of Versailles. The next few days were filled with extravagant fireworks shows, operas, and balls all thrown in the honor of the new Dauphin and Dauphine's marriage.

Madame Du Barry

Marie was simultaneously hated and adored at the court of Versailles. Many found her kind and unpretentious. Others spread nasty rumors out of jealousy. Her biggest rival was Madame Du Barry, King Louis XV's mistress. Believing she was rude, common, and power hungry, Marie refused to speak to Du Barry. This further increased her unpopularity among some courtiers. Finally, Marie gave in to avoid upsetting the King, saying as little to Du Barry as she could: "There are a lot of people at Versailles today."

Queen Marie Antoinette at Versailles

After that, Du Barry was no longer a threat. However, by 1774 there was still a major problem. Four years into the marriage, no announcement of Marie's pregnancy had been made. As the future Queen, it was Marie's duty to produce not only a male heir but many children. Instead, she confided to a close friend, her husband had not so much as held her hand on their wedding night. Then, on April 27th, 1774, King Louis XV died of smallpox. Marie was now Queen of France at nineteen and her husband was King Louis XVI at twenty. They would be the last to ever receive those titles.

Marie's mother was furious at her daughter's inability to produce an heir as Queen. She constantly criticized and ridiculed her daughter, even suggesting that she wasn't pretty enough to attract her husband. In reaction, Marie did what many teenage girls are famous for: she shopped. Fashionable gowns in 18th-century France were made of the finest silks with wide hips, lace, and bustles. Louis gave her "Petit Trianon" as a retreat where she could relax with friends and ignore protocol. News of this spending angered the French people. Life for the poor in France was becoming increasingly difficult as the country's financial problems deepened. Though many pointed blame solely at Louis XVI, the spending had been going on since his great-grandfather built the gilded palace of Versailles. Luckily, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. It was announced that the Queen was pregnant on May 16th, 1778.

Marie at Petit Trianon

On December 19th 1778, courtiers packed into the royal bedchamber and watched while Marie suffered through a horrible labor. When a daughter was born many didn't even suppress their groans of disappointment. The pressure to have a male was now even higher. Still, both Louis and Marie adored their daughter, who they named Marie-Therese. After a miscarriage and the death of her mother, Marie became pregnant again. On October 17th, 1780, a Dauphin was at last born. Just a few days before, the American Revolution had ended with the Americans and the French victorious. Louis Joseph Xavier Francois added to the patriotism of the French court and subjects.

The Queen with her children, Marie-Therese and Louis.

Unfortunately, this harmony between the classes didn't last long. Conditions for the French people became worse as France struggled to pay off debts from the American Revolution. The price of bread began to rise as well. Marie, meanwhile, was playing her favorite role: the mother of her children. She broke the long tradition of French Queens by nursing them herself and chose a close friend to be their nanny when her duties as Queen conflicted with their care.

By 1787 France was getting dangerously close to revolution. Radicals formed a group called the Third Estate which later became the National Assembly. They demanded a solution to the bread crisis and called for the rights of the poor to be protected. King Louis continued to be ineffective. Though he desperately called on countless advisers to put an end to his subjects' struggling and save the monarchy, it was too late. On July 14th, 1789 the thousands stormed the Bastille and Paris erupted with riots. La Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen ("The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen")was soon adopted, beginning a constitutional monarchy of France. While she and the king were placed under a sort of house arrest in the Tuileries Palace, Marie desperately hoped that her brother would invade France and save her family. When France declared war on Austria in 1792, that hope was lost. Marie Antoinette was now an enemy of the Austrian people as well.

Marie and her children as a mob breaks into the Tuileries Palace

The family was soon imprisoned in the tower of the Temple on Marais. Outside the infamous September Massacres were occurring. 1,200 aristocrats, including Marie's close friend the Princesse de Lambelle, were murdered, their heads gruesomely affixed on pikes and marched through the city. On September 21st the end of the monarchy was officially declared. Louis was separated from Marie and the children and tried in court in December for acting against the First French Republic. Louis was found guilty and executed by the guillotine on January 21 1793. Marie was devastated by the death of her husband, with whom she had been through so much. Upon her relocation to the Concierge prison, her second son Louis-Charles was taken from his mother and given to a cobbler. Marie's son would be poisoned against his family and die from abuse and neglect two years later.

Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine

Marie Antoinette's trial lasted two days and began on October 14th. She was charged with ridiculous and humiliating crimes, including plotting to kill important political figures and having an inappropriate relationship with her own son. Though her courtroom demeanor was one of dignity, she emotionally denied abusing her son, winning sympathy from many of the women in the courtroom.

Sadly, sympathy did not save her. Marie was found guilty and sentenced to the same fate as her husband on October 16th. At 12:15 pm Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France, was taken in a cart to the guillotine. Her last words were apparently an apology to her executioner for stepping on his foot: "Monsieur, je vous demande pardon. Je ne l'ai pas fait exprès," (Sir, I beg your pardon. I did not mean to do it).

J'habite dans un grand châteaux Versailles. Je porte vêtements de style. J'aime chanter et danser. Je fais toujours un pique-niques avec mes enfants. Ils aime jouer. Je faire souvent une promenade à pied. Il est amusant et gentil.

What was it like to live in France when your person did? What was going on socially, culturally, and politically? How was your person affected by their time period and how did they in turn affect everyone else?

Marie Antoinette lived in 18th-century France, a time when life was very different for those of different classes. The aristocracy lived in unlimited luxury and extravagance, while the poor often struggled to get by.Ever since the American Revolution in 1776, the French people had become increasingly weary of the French aristocracy. If all men were created equal as the Americans' Declaration of Independence said, why were so many of French peasants starving while the nobles feasted? At the same time,France was the center of fashion, the arts, and even science (the first hot air balloon flight was made in Paris on December 14th, 1783). Marie Antoinette was affected strongly by the social protocol that women followed in her time. While many of accuse her of not doing enough to help her people, Marie was not in a position which allowed her to go against her husband on any matters, much less political. She was taught to obey and support her husband in everything he did, no matter what he own feelings were. Never the less, her excessive spending further damaged France's financial situation and the French people's anger towards her public image, a major factor in the beginning of the French Revolution.

Name a few ways that your person changed history. How did his or her thoughts and actions affect they way other people thought fifty or one hundred years later?

Marie Antoinette was the last woman to ever hold the title of Queen of France. Her name became infamous, and so did her reign and her eventual death. She was rightly portrayed as frivolous and naive, but also unfairly made out to be haughty and uncaring towards her people. The phrase, "Let them eat cake" which she was said to have replied to an adviser when told that her people couldn't afford bread, was never said. Truthfully, it probably never even entered Marie's mind that her people were suffering as much as they were. Safely contained in the gilded gates of Versailles, the royal family lived in a completely different world than their subjects. The revolution that resulted from this ignorance struck fear in the hearts of other royals of Europe and began the French Republic.

Marie Antoinette - Madame Déficit

Marie Antoinette was born on November 2, 1755, in Vienna, Austria. She was the fifteenth child of Holy Roman Emperor Francis 1 and Maria Theresa. She had a happy childhood up until the age of ten when her father died. Her mother soon made arrangements to marry at the age of fourteen. She was to marry Louis XV, dauphin of France, to make an alliance between France and Austria.

Soon Louis XV died and Marie had to marry Louis XVI. Marie and Louis' relationship was not very good. He was unable to have children and was going to have the needed operation in order to do so. Meanwhile it left Marie bored with nothing to do. But that soon ended when she started to gamble and have affairs with other men. She once gambled for three days straight.

When Marie first showed herself to the people of Paris, they immediately liked her personality and thought she was beautiful. But another act caused by her boredom was spending money on dresses. She started buying them from a woman named Rose Bertin, who was a milliner and dressmaker. Marie kept on buying these dresses until she was in debt, earning her the nickname "Madame Déficit," meaning The Queen of Debt.

Marie Antoinette had four children. Her firstborn was Marie Thérèse Charlotte, later known as Madame Royale. She was born on December 19, 1778 and died on October 19, 1851, of pneumonia. Louis Joseph Xavier Francois, Dauphin de France, was her second child, born on October 22, 1781. He died almost eight years later of tuberculosis. Marie's third child was Louis XVII Charles, Roi de France. He was born on March 27, 1785. He was taken away from his parents and put in the Temple prison where he was neglected and later died of tuberculosis. And lastly, Marie Sophie Helen Beatrice was born on July 9, 1786, and died in less than a year.

Marie Thérèse Charlotte

Louis Joseph Xavier Francois, Dauphin de France

Louis XVII Charles, Roi de France

Marie Sophie Helen Beatrice

a. What was it like to live in France when your person did? What was going on socially, culturally, politically, etc.? How was your person affected by their time period and how did they in turn affect everyone else?

Marie lived in a consuming house named Versailles. She didn't go out much, at least at first. When Marie was frustrated with court life, she went and made friends. She spent money on them, buying expensive gifts. Of course she also spent a lot on herself. Her busy work life was just too boring for her so she was determined to escape it and lead to a life of pleasure and luxury. Masked balls, theatricals, and gambling were some of her extravagances. With all of this going on, Marie doesn't realize that she's ignoring her people. She doesn't try to help or listen to them. That's when her people start to turn on her.

Marie set fashion trends throughout France with all of her extravagant dresses, but was soon led into debt. She put France in a horrible situation. Her debt was a main cause of the French Revolution. Her people were getting furious, wanting her dead.

b. Name a few ways that your person changed history. How did his or her thoughts and actions affect the way other people thought fifty or one hundred years later? Elaborate.

Marie Antoinette is a very relatable person. She goes through the hard times of life and also through the good times. She was bored, found something to do, and even though it may not have been her best choice, she stood her ground until the day of her death. Marie Antoinette gives a great lesson to all people: Everyone makes mistakes. Her consequence of her mistake was death, but nowadays we just learn from ours and move on. Mistakes are a part of life and everyone makes them.

Marie also showed us that we shouldn't give into our temptations. Our temptations can lead us into trouble. Her constant spending lead all of France into a bad situation. Her temptation caused her her life.

c. Using the French skills that you have, write one paragraph (in French! 6-8 good sentences) from your person’s perspective. Be sure to use “je”.

Je suis ennuyé. Mon travail est stressant. Je désire avoir juste l'amusement. Je veux vivre librement et faire ce que je veux. Je pense que je pourrais aller à Rose Bertin et demande elle de faire une robe pour moi. Alors je sortirai avec mes amis. J'espère que je pas dois faire plus le travail. Je serai une femme libre!