10 Examples of Historical Account

An historical account it is a narration chronological about some real and relevant event in history. Its focus may be on one or several characters, on a series of events, on a specific conflict or on a specific period. For example: the narration of the Cuban Revolution.

As it is an exposition or explanation of events that took place in past times, historical accounts always have an end. It is important to understand that, although they are based on events and people that really existed in the past, the approach and interpretation can vary according to each historian.

Historical accounts serve to understand how certain events that marked humanity or certain cultures were carried out. In addition, they allow us to know what its consequences have been up to the present, while at the same time proposing that societies do not repeat the mistakes of the past.

Structure of the historical narrative

The historical narrative comprises the following structure:

Elements of the historical narrative

Like any narrative, the historical account has the following elements:

Characteristics of the historical account

Some of the qualities that historical accounts have are the following:

Examples of historical narrative

1. May 5, 1862: the day Mexico defeated the French army

More than a century and a half ago, near the Mexican city of Puebla, a confrontation took place between local troops and the invading army of the Second French Empire, in a battle that reminded many of the glorious military deeds of antiquity Greco-Roman We refer to the Battle of Puebla, a brief halt in the seizure of Mexico by the Europeans, in what is known today as the Second French Intervention in Mexico.

The opposing forces could not be more disparate. In one corner, led by Ignacio Zaragoza, a soldier of just 33 years old, were the 4,500 men of the Mexican army; in the other, under the command of the Count of Lorencez and relative of the Empress Carlota, Charles Ferdinand Latrille, were the 6,500 of the disciplined and better equipped French imperial army.

The first, armed in the south and east of the outskirts of the city, in the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe; and the latter advancing on them from the nearby Hacienda la Rementería. It is in part the disparity of the armies that made the Mexican victory so glorious and unexpected.

1. Mexico, 1910: the first revolution of the 20th century

The 20th century took its first fearful steps, without suspecting the turbulent destiny that it would soon face in very different countries. One of the first was Mexico, which in 1910 woke up from the long positivist sleep that was the Porfiriato: three and a half decades in which authoritarianism, political and social persecution, technological progress and industrial growth were combined. Mexico had taken important steps towards development, but always turning its back on the impoverished and marginalized majorities, especially in the countryside.

Thus, when in 1910 the caudillo Porfirio Díaz announced that he would not run for re-election to the position of president but it would give way to the alternation typical of democracy, new voices emerged to herd the people towards the votes.

The main one of all of them was that of Francisco I. Madero, a businessman and rancher who toured Mexico taking his anti-reelection and anti-Porfirista message to every corner, which earned him an unexpected arrest in San Luis Potosí, under accusations of "attempted rebellion" and "outrage against the authorities". The favored opposition candidate was in prison when the elections were held, in which Díaz was re-elected to the post, betraying his word.

1. The four chapters of the conquest of America

At the end of the 15th century, the worldview of the empires of Europe changed forever. A Genoese navigator, determined to find new trade routes for Spain to the East, stumbled upon the unexpected coasts of an entire continent, which they called in different ways: “the New World”, “Las Indias Westerners”.

Soon there was news of the fabulous natural treasures that abounded in that new land, or of the towns aborigines who lived among them, and faced with the cruelty and greed of the Europeans, the Catholic Church had to to intervene. Then, Pope Alexander VI announced that the new continent should be under the control of the European crown and that it should be destined for the spread of Christianity, i.e., that the natives should be converted to the "true" religion and shown compassion Christian.

That is why Spain was the first to gain control of the continent, and had to confront the native peoples through war, while other empires, like the English or the Dutch, were encouraged to colonize parts of the new continent later, when the Protestant Reformation allowed them to get rid of the mandates of the papacy. The history of the conquest of America by the European powers is divided into four different parts: the Spanish conquest, the Portuguese conquest, the French conquest, and the British conquest.

1. A cry of freedom and independence

It was still early in the morning when the priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, accompanied by soldiers Ignacio Allende and Juan Aldama, he climbed to the heights of the parish of Our Lady of Sorrows and rang the bells to summon the parishioners.

It was September 16, 1810 and the message he had to give was no longer religious but political and social: Hidalgo was going to summon his people to take up arms against the government. of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, whom he accused of having betrayed Hispanic values ​​and responding to the orders of the French, who after invading Spain had removed Fernando from the throne VII. And at that moment, without Hidalgo himself knowing it, the long struggle for Mexican independence began.

This event, known today as "the cry of Dolores", was however the tip of a revolutionary iceberg. In Santiago de Querétaro, that same year, in the house of the city's corregidor, José Miguel Domínguez, a handful of conspirators: Ignacio Allende, Mariano Abasolo, José Mariano Michelena, José María García Obeso, Juan Aldama, the priest Miguel Hidalgo himself and Costilla, and other lawyers, merchants and soldiers dissatisfied with the events that took place in the European metropolis as a result of the Napoleonic invasions. His purpose, hidden behind the excuse of meeting to talk about literature, was to form a Governing Board that would take power in the name of Ferdinand VII, king deposed by the French, as was happening in different regions of Spain.

1. Sinking of the Titanic

The Titanic, a British ocean liner of the White Star Line shipping company, was built under the initiative of J. Bruce Ismay in 1907, and designed by naval engineers Thomas Andrews and Alexander Carlisle at the Harland & Wolff shipyards in Belfast (Ireland). The construction of her began in April 1909 and was completed at the end of March 1912. At the time of her completion, the Titanic was the passenger ship largest and most luxurious ever built. She was provided with sixteen watertight compartments that served to protect the ship from damage important.

Her sinking occurred on the night of April 14-15, 1912, when she was making her first voyage from Southampton to New York. He collided with an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. This collision occurred on the starboard side at 11:40 p.m. on April 14 and caused the liner to sink at 02:20 a.m. on April 15. April, that is, in less than three hours. Some 1,500 people died from various blows, falls, drowning or hypothermia. Famous personalities perished in the shipwreck, including Benjamin Guggenheim and John Jacob Astor IV.

The ship did not have enough lifeboats and the crew had never been trained to deal with this scenario. As a result, the evacuation of passengers was poorly organized. The behavior of the captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, was also criticized, especially because he had kept the ship at too high a speed, given the sailing conditions. The meteorological and climatic circumstances also played a determining role.

The shipwreck caused a shock throughout the world, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom. After the sinking, several commissions of inquiry were carried out and their conclusions were used to improve maritime safety, especially through new regulations. Likewise, this tragedy has given rise to numerous legends about the reasons for its sinking.

1. Biography of Steve Jobs

Steve Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955. His parents were two low-income college students when they had him, so they gave him up for adoption to the Armenian couple Paul Jobs and Clara Hagopian. The family moved to Mountain View in 1961, and while Steve was in college, he began interested in computing and attended workshops organized by Hewlett-Packard, a company in which more forward worked.

In 1972, he studied at Reed College in Portland for only six months as an undergraduate, though he continued to attend as an audition. Months later, he went on a spiritual retreat in India. Upon his return, he was hired by Atari, a company that marketed video games. At that time and from his garage, he joined the engineer Stephen Wozniak to manufacture and market the first personal computer: Apple I. Already in 1976, they founded Apple Computer and, the following year, they developed the Apple II. From that moment, it became one of the fastest growing companies in the United States.

In 1984, Apple released the first Macintosh, which was a real revolution at the time. Despite this success, Jobs did not get along with his co-workers, so he left the company in 1985. After leaving Apple, Steve Jobs focused on creating Pixar Animations Studios and soon began producing movies for The Walt Disney Company.

At the same time, he founded the NeXT Computer company. In 1993 he changed his name to NeXT Software and focused on operating system development. Because of this, three years later Apple announced the purchase of Jobs's company to update the Macintosh operating system. In this way, Steve Jobs returned to form part of his first company in 1996 as an advisor.

Given the conflicts with Microsoft, the president of Apple resigned and Steve Jobs took his place in 1997. During this second stage, he returned to revolutionize the market as he had done years before.

In 2004, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This illness was not made public and Jobs continued to work normally. In 2009 he underwent a liver transplant, although shortly after he reappeared and, two years later, he died on October 5, 2011 at just 56 years old.

1. Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was an armed conflict that began in 1910 and ended in 1920. It represented the most significant social and political event of the Mexican 20th century. It was a series of armed uprisings against the successive dictatorial governments of Porfirio Díaz, that lasted until the second or third decade of the century, when the Mexican Constitution was finally proclaimed.

During the conflict, troops loyal to the dictatorial government of Porfirio Díaz, who ruled the country since 1876, initially clashed against the rebels led by Francisco I. Madero, who saw the possibility of starting a recovery movement for the Republic. They were successful in 1910, through the San Luis Plan, in which they advanced from the Mexican north, from San Antonio (Texas).

In 1911 elections were held and Madero himself was elected president. But his discrepancies with other revolutionary leaders, such as Pascual Orozco and Emiliano Zapata, caused his former allies to rise up against him. The opportunity was seized by a group of soldiers known today as the "Tragic Ten" who, led by Félix Díaz, Bernardo Reyes and Victoriano Huerta staged a coup d'état and assassinated the president, his brother and the vice president. Thus Huerta assumed the mandate of the country.

Revolutionary leaders such as Venustiano Carranza or Francisco "Pancho" Villa reacted quickly, they fought the de facto government until Huerta's resignation in 1912, after the North American invasion of Veracruz. Then, far from achieving peace, conflicts began between the various factions that had deposed Huerta, that Carranza convened the Aguascalientes Convention to appoint a single leader, who was Eulalio Gutiérrez, appointed President. However, Carranza himself ignored the agreement and hostilities resumed.

Finally, the first steps were taken to enact a new constitution for the country in 1917 and bring Carranza to power. But the internal struggles would take a few more years, during which these leaders would be assassinated: Zapata in 1919, Carranza in 1920, Villa in 1923, and Obregón in 1928. But already in 1920 Adolfo de la Huerta had assumed the mandate, and in 1924 Plutarco Elías Calles, giving way to the democratic history of the country and putting an end to the Mexican Revolution.

1. The fall of the Berlin wall

At the end of World War II, both Germany and the city of Berlin were divided into four occupation sectors: Soviet, American, French and English. Bad relations between the communists and the allies grew to the point where two Germanies emerged. Thus, in 1949, the three western sectors (American, French and British) became known as Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern (Soviet) sector became the German Democratic Republic (RDA).

Until 1961, almost three million people left East Germany for West Berlin, due to the battered Soviet economy. The GDR began to realize its population loss and, on the night of August 12, In 1961, he decided to erect a temporary 155-kilometre fence separating the two parts of Berlin. In the next few days, construction of a brick wall began and people whose houses were in the construction line were evicted.

Over the years, due to the existence of many escape attempts, the Berlin Wall was enlarged until it became a concrete wall between 3.5 and 4 meters high. height, with an interior formed by steel cables to increase its resistance and, in the upper part, they placed a hemispherical surface so that no one could grab on to it. she.

Around 1975, 43 kilometers of the wall were accompanied by the so-called "death strip", made up of a moat, a barbed wire fence, a road along which constantly circulating military vehicles, alarm systems, automatic weapons, watchtowers and patrols accompanied by dogs 24 hours a day. day.

The fall of the wall was motivated by the opening of the borders between Austria and Hungary in May 1989, due to the fact that more and more Germans traveled to Hungary to request asylum. This fact led to huge demonstrations in Alexanderplatz that led to the November 9, 1989 the GDR government stated that passage to the west was allowed and an exodus took place massive. This event marked the beginning of the reunification of the German Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic after twenty-eight years of separation.

1. The death of Julius Caesar

in the calls ides of march from 44 a. C., a group of senators, who conspired against his government, summoned Julius Caesar to the Forum to read him a petition, which was intended to return power to the Senate. Marco Antonio, an important collaborator of César, wanted to stop him to explain that he had had diffuse news of the possibility of a plot against him, but he was not convinced.

The group of conspirators intercepted him and led him to an adjoining room in the Theater of Pompey, where Tullius Cimber delivered the petition. As the dictator began to read it, Cimber tugged at his robe, causing Caesar, being Pontifex Maximus and legally untouchable, to yell at him: Ista quidem vis est?, which in Latin means "What kind of violence is this?". At that moment, Servilio Casca drew a dagger and attacked Caesar's neck, who quickly defended himself by sticking a writing stylus into his arm.

The aggressor soon shouted in Greek ἀδελφέ, βοήθει!, which means “Help, brothers!”, and, at that precise moment, all the senators they threw at him. The dictator tried to leave the building to call for help, but, blinded by the blood running from his head, he stumbled and he fell. The conspirators continued to execute him until he died. In total, they gave him twenty-three stab wounds, of which it is believed that only one was the one that caused his death.

According to the Roman historians Eutropius and Suetonius, there were sixty senators who actively participated in the assassination. After the assassination, the conspirators fled and left the body at the foot of a statue of Pompey, from where some slaves picked it up and, after taking it to Marco Antonio, he showed it to the shocked village.

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