LEXINGTON, Va. – Cadets studying French at VMI are learning about history using more than just dates and facts. In their study of 16th-century France, they are learning how and why events unfolded 500 years ago by investigating space and place. And they are using Google Maps to illustrate their conclusions.
Google Maps allows a user to pinpoint and display locations by offering satellite imagery from around the world.
Since the department of Modern Languages and Cultures hired Maj. Jeff Kendrick and Maj. Abbey Carrico three years ago, the French department has expanded to include rigorous 300-level courses, trips to Paris, and, most recently, the Seiziemistes of the mid-Atlantic. A seiziemiste is a person who studies 16th-century French history. The biennial conference was hosted by VMI for the first time this past December, bringing scholars from all over the mid-Atlantic to speak with other students and professors interested in 16th-century French history.
Kendrick, a founding member of the Seiziemistes of the mid-Atlantic, asked three of his students, Caleb Bishop ’16, Will Derouin ’16, and Connor Morgan ’16, to participate in the conference by presenting their capstone projects. Each of them focused on an aspect of the wars of religion between the Catholics and the Protestants (or Huguenots) that spanned the 16th century in France.
“The overall organizing principal of the course was the idea of space and place in 16th-century France, so who had the right to occupy certain spaces and what kinds of activities were allowed to go on in certain places,” Kendrick explained, “and how does this relate to the ideological conflict that was going on in France?”
For example, Bishop studied the gruesomely detailed engravings and politically charged poetry of the time. His map illustrated how art was used as propaganda to reach a wider audience in France.
“The idea is a person who doesn’t know anything about this would be able to – if Mr. Bishop published this – take a tour of 16th-century France and hit the highlights related to the paper he is working on,” said Kendrick.
Using Google Maps was a new avenue for the French students. And though it required some technology training in English – which meant less time speaking in French – the visualization of space and place brought the historic events into perspective.
Derouin used that perspective in his presentation by showing how the violence in France grew from a massacre in a small barn to the seizure of an entire city.
“Throughout the first war, the Protestants took back more and more space until they eventually controlled cities,” Derouin explained. And as his map, littered with points of bloodshed, demonstrated, “there wasn’t a huge area of France where violence wasn’t occurring.”
A lot of time has passed since the 16th century, though, and not every village mentioned in the cadets’ studies has survived the 500 years to make it onto Google Maps. As Morgan, who mapped Charles IX’s two-year “grand tour” of France, said, “there are a handful of places that don’t show up on this map because the place ceases to exist. So that’s one of the drawbacks of this project. A lot of stuff changes in 500 years.”
The project also suggested comparisons between the past and present. Because Morgan’s project focused on the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, he was quick to notice the lack of separation between church and state.
“French Protestants and Catholics both firmly believed that if they didn’t get rid of the other party then God was going to punish them for tolerating these heretics. … There was no reconciliation between these two groups for the most part,” he noted.
Morgan pointed out that government and religion are strictly separated in France today, but the problems between ISIS and the West are similar to the problems of 16th-century France.
“A lot of people my age will say, ‘Why are you learning about something that’s 500 years old? Why are you talking about history that’s so irrelevant? Well, you can not only learn and … prevent the same mistakes from happening, … but I’ve drawn a lot of parallels to stuff that’s going on today,” he said.
The scholars who attend the mid-Atlantic conference are the experts in the field, and sharing this knowledge with future seiziemistes helps to spread an understanding of the Huguenots’ and Catholics’ struggles and their resonance with today’s challenges.
As Kendrick said, “It’s a really good opportunity for French studies at VMI. … It’s nice having these people come here, … people who are well known in their field. And these [cadets] are reading their books and able to meet them.”
Morgan is a member of the VMI swimming and diving team.
– Kelly Nye