SOCIAL STUDIES TALKSHOW
Rise:
1 Political - Leadership
2 Economic - Trade developments and expansion
- innovative practices (a little bit)
Fall:
1 External - maritime competition
2 Internal - political challenges
Leadership
--> Capable and righteous leaders who were far-sighted : territorial expansion (Example : Doge Pietro II Orseolo and Doge Enrico Dandolo)
Trade Developments and expansion
--> attitude
--> innovation
Maritime Competition
--> New sea routes (Link to attitude)
--> New trade rivals (Link to innovative prtactices)
Political challenges
--> Incapable leaders (plague etc led to lack of good leaders）
--> Corruption in the government (some nobles lost income, leadership determined by how much the nobles could afford to pay to be elected. Sale of positions to raise funds during crises.)
Script
Winnie Welcome to...
E&W THE EMPIRE FACTORY！
Estee Where what's made, will break.
I'm Estee and she's Winnie.
Winnie That's right~ I know you guys miss us a lot since you have not seen us
for a week!
Estee Last week, we have talked about the rise of Malacca. This week, we are going to discuss about...
Winnie VENICE!
Estee You know, Winnie, I have a cousin who's doing this project for her Social Studies about Venice and I told her to catch this episode, which I believe can help her in a way or another.
Winnie Okayy. Hmm.. Let's get to the point. We are going to talk about the main factors which led to Venice's rise and decline.
Estee Cor-rect! First, we’ll start on the rise of Venice and one of the reasons for Venice's rise is the capable leadership. *ding*
（Acting out of the Doge deeds and voice over）
Voice over part :
YT In the past, there were 2 doges, the first Doge... (kenna pushed away) named Doge Pietro II Orseolo, believed that peace in the region will boost trade. (Dove shampoo) He established relationships with the Byzantine emperor in the East and the Germanic Kings in the West (shakes hands) to obtain favourable trading terms, such as lower tax rates, which contributed to the economic growth (show paper).
To further improve economy, he brought piracy under control, by disallowing trade with the cities controlled by the pirates. Hence, he was able to negotiate with the pirates without having to go to war.
For the second Doge, Doge Enrico Dandolo, he had overthrown the Byzantine Emperor and took over the capital at Constantinople. Venice gained recognition from other states and controlled some of the important territories which had belonged to the fallen Byzantine Empire, obtaining the best trading terms for Venice in 1204.
(go back to hosts)
Winnie You know, Estee, I really like the term ‘Doge’. You see, DOHHHHHH-JAYYY~~ (start playing with the name)
Estee WINNIE, WE ARE ON AIR. -.-
Anyway, this shows that the capable leadership does play an important role in Venice's rise as it boosts the economy and territories were expanded.
Winnie Next, moving on to the Trade Development and Expansion, there are 2 points we want to highlight.
Estee Bring out the highlighters! (grand music)
Yeeteng Nar. (put highlighter on table)
-silence, both w and e stares at yee teng leaving the room with the what-had-just-happened look-
-snaps back to talkshow-
Winnie Anyway, (taking one highlighter as pointer) One of them is the attitude towards trade.
Estee The Venetians possessed an enterprising spirit. They cared to explore unknown lands to find out new trade routes, supplies and markets.
Winnie: This causes them to be constantly learning new things and hence, being more outstanding than other countries.
Estee: For example, they brought in highly-prized spices from the East which other countries do not have. This attracted many merchants and traders to Venice.
-Animation/video/comic strip-
Voice over: Marco Polo was a famous explorer who discovered overland trade routes to China, earning Venice good relations with other countries in the Far East. This enabled Venice to expand its trade beyond the Middle East. The wealth created by this trade then turned Venice into one of the greatest cities in Europe.
Winnie Wow, so attitude is actually everything! We have to admire the Venetians for their strong enterprising spirit.
Estee Yup, yup.
Winnie In addition, (taking the second highlighter) Innovations came up by the Venetians had contributed greatly in development of trades.
(looks at tv) Look.
(TV: Nautical chart)
Estee This is a nautical chart. What it does is to present information such as distance, important landmarks and ports. Because of the use of this chart, traders in Venice could plan journeys to their intended destinations more precisely.
(TV: Galleys/ Vessels)
Winnie Also, Venetians’ have extensive knowledge of shipbuilding. The vessels they built were superior. They were able to sail faster and further as they are propelled by both oars and sails. These vessels were significant to facilitate the expansion of trade and territorial control.
Estee In addition, the Venetians made a great galley, a combination of a merchant and war vessel. It was formidable enough to discourage most pirates from launching an attack on the trading ships from Venice.
Winnie In conclusion, we see that the capable leadership, Venetians' attitude towards trade and their innovative ideas are the main factors that led to the rise of Venice between 9th and early 15th century. Well, of course, there are other factors involved but these are the main ones.
Estee Alright Winnie, we have now come to the end of...
Winnie THE TALKSHOW? *sad face*
Estee No. The end of the rise part. ==
Winnie ALRIGHT!
Estee Now, we'll have a commercial break.
Winnie We will talk about the decline of Great Venice after the break. Stay tuned to…
E&W THE EMPIRE FACTORY!
(Commercial Break)
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Scoop water using cup
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Commercial 2: Pirates!
Words: Always facing dangers when going out to sea?
Scene: Boats in pool being ‘destroyed’ by ‘pirate ship’.
Words: No problem!
Scene: Another boat with gadget on it. REFLECT the pirates, pirates cannot get near, pirate ship exploded.
Words: Buy ‘AwayFromMe!’ today. Available at all Watson outlets.
Back to Talkshow
Winnie Welcome back to…
E&W THE EMPIRE FACTORY!
Estee Where what’s made, will break.
Continuing from where we have stopped, Venice had transformed into a prosperous maritime kingdom…
Winnie Until the later part 15th century, when it soon faced many new challenges,
Estee and eventually leading to its decline.
Winnie Yes. One of the main factors that caused its decline was the harsh maritime competitions. In the 15th century, Marco Polo's tales of his voyages encouraged many European explorers to follow in his footsteps. There was competition to search for new maritime trade routes.
(tv shows reminder of who Marco Polo is when he is mentioned.)
(Script)
(Vasco [yeeteng] stands tall and proud, bought a lot of goods - show off. Vasco n venetian [Xinyue] in a row, Vasco grows and Venetian shrinks..)
Yanling (VO) In 1947, the Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, successfully reached Calicut, a spice centre in India, by going round the Cape of Good Hope. The Portuguese were able to buy their spices directly from India and this led to competition with the Venetians. This new sea route destroyed Venice's monopoly of the spice trade and greatly reduced the large profits which Venetian traders had earned for centuries.
Estee Not only was there discovery of new trade routes, new trade rivals also emerged, competing with Venice as a trade centre.
Winnie Rivals such as the Dutch East India Company and the English East India company was established, bypassing the Venetians to bring in supplies from other countries. This affected Venice’s position as an entrepot trade, causing a decline in their economy.
(While saying, show pics on tv)
Estee Hmm…true. But even though there was so many competitiors, Venice should be able to overcome all of them with their BRILLIANT diplomatic skills and SUPERIOR galleys and vessels right? Anyway, it was these things that had initially contributed to their trade development.
Winnie Well…sad to say, the Dutch and the British eventually came up with better-designed ships. Larger states were more successful in negotiating for favourable trading rights in new ports. Hence, they no longer enjoyed the benefit of having the BEST trading terms and the BEST ships like they had previously.
Estee I see…It’s no wonder then that they were so badly affected. But these factors alone couldn’t have caused the GREAT venice’s decline right?
Winnie: That’s right. Venice could have overcome all these external threats easily. But… but…
Estee But…?
Winnie Well, you see…things WITHIN Venice aren’t going so well either. Government plays an important role in a nation, as it determines the fate and future for its country. Thus, political challenges is another key factor that leads to the fall of Venice.
Estee Yeps. As the city-state prospered, there was a weakening of the government. First, let me talk about the ...INCAPABLE LEADERSHIP. (Stunning music)
(At the same time, Winnie can show the shocked/frightened look. LOL)
Estee Venice has maintained a growing population and economy since the 12th century due the good decisions made by capable leaders in the government. However, something happened which affected the quality of men selected into office.
(Act dead. One lying on the bed, one slouching on a chair, the rest cry for them at the sides..)
As older families died, Venice faced the challenges of a shrinking number of the nobility. To make matters worse, a plague struck Venice in the 17th century and led to an alarming decline of the population of nobility.
Winnie First, the number of can-be leaders shrank significantly. Then, the standard of leadership dropped. What else can happen?
Estee *ding* Corruption. (sudden. Lifts one finger)
Winnie Hmm… Such a coincidence, we have Dr. Koluptor, a researcher of political sciences who is currently studying corruption-ology.
Estee You mean they teach this in university?! (Shocked)
Winnie I guess so.
Xinyue AHEM.
Estee Oh, she’s here already. -.-
Winnie Erm… (quickly adjust back to professional host) Good afternoon, Dr. Koluptor. By any case, your name sounds like corruption, OOPS I DIDN’T SAY THAT.
Estee (coughs) ANYWAY, I heard that the Venetian’s government actually suspended the civil servants salary. Can you tell us more?
Xinyue Hmm. Let me tell you briefly what happened. There was war and somebody needed to finance. Hence, the government suspended the civil servants’ salaries.
Winnie Mmm-hmm. *give face that prompt xinyue to continue talk*
Xinyue This way, nobles became poorer resulting in them resorting to sell their votes or positions in the government. Hence, people just have to be rich to obtain high posts regardless of their ability.
Winnie Oh, I see. Okay, Dr. Koluptor, you can go back to research on your corruption. *funny smile*
(Xinyue leaves stage with what the heck face)
Estee From here, we can infer that the inefficiency of the nobility who made decisions for their own benefits.
Winnie This is not advantageous to Venice at all. Hence, the decline.
Estee Now, we are going to briefly summarized what we’ve covered today.
(Video. Everyone acting with Winnie and Estee voice over)
(Video scene, to be videoed separately and then later put the 2 videos side by side. Video 1 to picture the rise, Video 2 the decline.)
Video 1
(Yanling to be doge – portraying capable leadership – standing proudly as she shakes xinyue’s and yeeteng’s hands)
Winnie One of the main reason for Venice to rise is its very capable leadership. Because of the far-sighted leaders in the country, friendships with other countries such as the Byzantine Empire were established. This increased trade in Venice and the country gradually rose.
(Xinyue rowing a boat to explore the ‘world’ – which is actually pool at Yanling’s condo – yeeteng and yanling to be people from other countries and trade with Xinyue)
Estee Yeah. We have also talked about the trade developments and expansion. Venetians’ attitude towards trade was really positive. Other than having lower tax rates than their trading rivals, new trade routes, supplies and markets were also explored by travelling to unknown lands. This caused Venice to be ahead of their trading competitors and hence, the country rose in the region.
(Yeeteng using the nautical chart and compass – which are represented by papers with words ‘nautical chart’ and ‘compass’ printed on it – as she trade with Xinyue and Yanling)
Winnie Mmm-hmm. Under trade developments and expansion, there is also Venetians’ innovative practice. Objects such as the Nautical chart and the Mariner’s compass aided in the trading. Venice was then more outstanding than the other countries. Traders would prefer to trade at Venice. Thus, Venice rose.
Video 2
(Xinyue happily rowing boat want to go Venice for spice, Yanling row pass her and told her about the Cape of Good Hope, both of them row happily to India with Yeeteng – the Venetian – sadly waiting at ‘Venice’)
Estee Now, to the decline of the empire. There was maritime competition. People from other countries started to, in a sense, explore the world. Hence, there was competition to search for new maritime trade routes. The Cape of Good Hope was found and this affected trade in Venice SEVERELY. The discovery of the new route became one of the factors for the decline of Venice.
Winnie Actually, there were ways to prevent it.
Estee Oh, really?
Winnie voice-over:
First, for discovery of new sea routes, the new route was used partly because it was safer than the overland sea route to Venice, as there were robbers and plunderers hiding in the desert and mountainous terrains…
( Yanling walking through ‘mountainous region’, pushing a trolley. Winnie, and xinyue suddenly jumps out and starts throwing stones at Yanling, one of you can take the sword also
Xinyue: Give me your trolley!
Yanling: NOOOO!
Winnie(throws stones): DIE!
(Yanling crouches down in fear, shielding with arms)
Xinyue snatches trolley and runs away. Winnie still laughing over there.
Xinyue: COME LAH!
Both of them runs away tgt.)
Hence, Venice can send out the mercenaries to set up outposts along the overland trade routes to fight off robbers and protect the traders, thus making the route safer for travelling.
After implementation…
(Yanling walking through mountainous region, winnie and xinyue jumps out again and tries to rob yanling again. Repeats previous scene till yanling crouches down. Estee jumps out with wushu knife and shield and scares off robbers. Xinyue and Winnie runs away. Yanling and Estee HI-FI.
Yanling: This route has become safer, I will definitely recommend it to my fellow traders as it is short and safe. :D)