The New World Flashcards
‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations’
Matthew 28:19
‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature’
Mark 16:15
Constantine converted to Christianity
312
One God was proclaimed to all mankind - one universal power, the Roman power, emerged and flourished
Knowledge of salvation and doctrine of Christ made known to all mankind
Eusebius of Caesarea - Oration in praise of Constantine
When Charlemagne went North of the Elme
converted the pagans simply by baptising them. No focus on teaching. Would be integrated through partaking in ordinary life
Who could doubt that this flash of understanding was the work of the Holy Spirit as well as my own?
Our Lord wished to bring about a most evident miracle out of my voyage to the Indies
Book of Prophecies, ed. Columbus, 1502, after 1st four voyages, to Ferdinand and Isabella
‘I am the good shepherd and I know my own… I must also bring them in’
Columbus, quoting John 10:14-16
Cortés desperate to convince Aztec Emperor to join forces
1521
beginning of Inca history fixed at time of arrival of one of descendants of Noah
Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala,
great bearded sage who had left big cross in Bolivia
indigenous sources
Around America
lots of pre-Hispanic crosses scattered
Description of whole conquest
Paints own role in bright lights
Placing arguments in solid tradition
Notion of one world. These Indians are Christians who’ve forgotten their religion
Makes sense of his idea of replacing idols with Christian images
As soon as Christian message presented, Indians would correct their ways
Refers to temples occasionally as mosques, as this was what he was expecting to see in Asia
Cortés, conqueror of Mexico, to Charles V
2nd of 5 or 6 letters
Most missionaries kept citing this letter - don’t destroy temples because you’ll put them off
‘Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it.’
T Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1274 (unfinished)
Accepted fundamental concordance of divine and human
Gave Thomistic conception its full realisation in New World
Wrote of one Indian -
‘it seemed to me that I saw in him our father Adam when he enjoyed the state of innocence’
Desire behind idolatry = good thing
Defended Aztec human sacrifices as expression of excessive religious zeal
Taínos observed natural religion in most basic form so could be easily converted to Christian faith
Las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, 1552
Reasons for negative view of American natives middle of 16th C
Shock of betrayal, once friars had seen Indians not really converted
Effects of Reformation - good missionaries staying in Europe - clever missionaries of 1st 50 years dwindle
As state grew in importance, more important to justify conquest and good way to do this = to highlight perversity of native cultures
Intellectual crisis in medieval thought
existence to essence
Much more objective, scientific than initial attitudes and accounts
Impatient with literature of the friars, supernatural. Only when he’s describing natural things, however.
When describing religious things, speaks about supernatural, starts speaking about things being work of the devil
Jose de Acosta, Natural and Moral History of the Indies, 1590
Began to justify conquest of New World in instrumental terms
We’re here because we’re superior
Fernandez de Oviedo, la historia general y natural de las Indias 1526
Francisco Lopez de Gómara
‘There was never a people more idolatrous than this one, so given over to the killing and the eating of their fellow human beings’
18th Century, essence-focus
Deterministic attitude to New World
Everything in New World inferior. Justifies our presence
Le Clerc, Comte de Buffon
Guillaume-Thomas Raynal
William Robertson
Law of Siete Partidas
Castilian medieval code of law which incorporated a load of Islamic law
In absence of immediate authortiy, town can elect a leader who is under monarch’s authority
Cortés founded city of Vera Cruz. To get council and people elected to the council, to get them to elect him captain of the expedition, used the law of Siete Partidas
Instruction
development of emphasis on instruction is what we see in Mexico. Cortés doesn’t instruct, he just gets Indians to practice
Understands mission as being to go to India and determine what method should be undertaken for the people’s conversion
Ferdinand and Isabella described specifically as ‘enemies of the sect of Muhammad and of all idolatries and heresies’
Columbus, letter to Ferdinand and Isabella
12th Century philosophers and theologians argued that anyone who applied reason…
Could only conclude that Christianity correct
Cicero, de Legibus
mankind is the only one among so many kinds and varieties of living beings who has a share in reason and thought
13th Century on, Dominican and Franciscan friars…
Launched vigorous and planned campaigns at conversion aimed at Jews and Muslims in Christian and non-Christian lands like North Africa
Number of books written by Raymund Lull
Over 300, but converted nobody
Invitations to learn more about Christian faith carried in
Letters conveyed by Columbus to the Great Khan (unaware Mongol Yüan dynasty had been overthrown by Ming emperors 1368)
1st lines of Columbus’s logbook
Columbus says mission = to see how natives of the Orient could be converted
Asserted that Khans had many times sent to Rome to request teachers of the holy faith, but Holy Father hadn’t provided them with this
(these lines probably added to flatter monarchs on Columb’s return)
No friars aboard until Columbus’s second voyage in
1493
Evd Columbus seeking resources
noticing cotton widely grown on islands he’d discovered:
I think it would sell well over here… to the large cities of the Khan
García, Chronicle of King John II of Castile of 1417
Told of capture of Canaries by Spanish Muslims under great general al-Mansur
Founded evangelical academy at Miramar
Didn’t last, but sowed seeds for missionary movement among Franciscans, w whom he had cordial ties
Raymund Lull
Spiritual descendants of Raymund Lull
Catalan and Majorcan missionaries who were being commended to the Pope by King of Aragon 70 years after Raymund’s death
Method of Catalan and Majorcan missionaries
Insert Christian missionaries into native societies and, using gentle example and persistent preaching, to draw the unenlightened into the faith
Wanted new lands for himself, for crusading Order of Christ.
Seen as part of wider assault on Islam
Henry ‘the Navigator’ of Portugal, 1394-1460
Painé’s task
to study in detail the language and beliefs of the natives of Hispaniola, to provide basis for missionary programme
Drawing on tradition of Raymund Lull, developed with Muslims and Jews in mind
Catalan speciality
Difference - lack of books in oral culture
Hugely different conception of the world
Pané attempts to fit Taíno conception of the world to familiar structure
They believe in a creator God, in heaven, immortal, no one can see, has a mother, but no beginning. Call him ‘Giver of Cassava, Master of the Sea, Conceived without Male Intervention’
Painé wanted to show
that the Taínos were aware of existence of a single creator God - ‘natural religion’ lay at the root of beliefs
Switched soon to scorn for superstitions
Just as the Moors, they have their laws gathered in ancient songs, by which they govern themselves, as do the Moors by their scripture
Pané, of Taínos, in An account of the antiquities of the Indians, 1498
Gulf between Taíno beliefs and Christian ones
e.g. Ts believed that dead walked around the world of the living with no navels. No rigid life/ afterlife distinction
Columbus, logbook, of Taíno Indians
‘these people have no religion, nor are they idolatrous, rather they are very gentle, without knowing what evil is… they are believers, and recognise that there is a God in heaven’
Columbus used this native ally to defeat Indian caciques without difficulty
Guacanagarí
In Trinidad, Columbus saw
islanders wearing turbans similar to almaizores - head-covering of Spanish Muslims
Suppression of Judaism and Islam in Portugal
1497
Required to be read publicly to those who were about to have lands brought under Spanish rule
God gave St Peter the world. Thus, he and his successors had the right to judge and govern all Christians, Moors and Jews
One of Peter’s heirs made donation of these isles and the mainland to Spanish Kings and Queens
If those hearing document in doubt, could ask to see written proof
Native peoples told could have time to understand but also warned of ‘malicious delay’
Natives must accept Pope and Spanish rulers and must accept right of Christian preachers to spread the faith among them
If they do these things, they, their families and land will be left alone, free
Doctrine of Submission, 1513
‘The Requirement’
Roots of ‘the Requirement’
Seed has traced them back to Islamic practices in times of war
Koran 2:256, no compulsion in religion
Averroës, passage had to be sent to enemy, requiring to submit
Continuing role of the caciques as heads of their communities resembled
self-government permitted by Muslims to Jews and Christians, allowing them to administer their own laws
Comparable practice enshrined in many ‘surrender treaties’ which allowed Moors to submit to Christian rule on what both sides agreed were honourable terms
Indians had to move to special villages close to Spanish settlements in the New World just as
Muslim and Jewish communities had to live in defined areas
Cortés, of the Tenochtitlán cotton market
‘it seems like the silk market of Granada’
Basic framework for governing New World natives’ societies created as a result of
the discovery of less complex, village-based societies 1st encountered in the Canaries, Bahamas, Caribbean, Brazil
Encomienda system imposed despite these huge differences
Encomienda
Encomienda, in colonial Spanish America, legal system by which the Spanish crown attempted to define the status of the Indian population in its American colonies. It was based upon the practice of exacting tribute from Muslims and Jews during the Reconquista (“Reconquest”) of Muslim Spain. Although the original intent of the encomienda was to reduce the abuses of forced labour (repartimiento) employed shortly after the discovery of the New World, in practice it became a form of enslavement.
As legally defined in 1503, an encomienda (from encomendar, “to entrust”) consisted of a grant by the crown to a conquistador, soldier, official, or others of a specified number of Indians living in a particular area. The receiver of the grant, the encomendero, could exact tribute from the Indians in gold, in kind, or in labour and was required to protect them and instruct them in the Christian faith. The encomienda did not include a grant of land, but in practice the encomenderos gained control of the Indians’ lands and failed to fulfil their obligations to the Indian population. The crown’s attempts to end the severe abuses of the system with the Laws of Burgos (1512–13) and the New Law of the Indies (1542) failed in the face of colonial opposition and, in fact, a revised form of the repartimiento system was revived after 1550.
The encomienda was designed to meet the needs of the colonies’ early mining economy. With the catastrophic decline in the Indian population and the replacement of mining activities by agriculture, the system lost its effectiveness and was gradually replaced by the hacienda system of landed estates. The encomienda was not officially abolished, however, until the late 18th century.
Henry the Navigator is actuated by zeal for God - wish to convert people to Christianity and fight moors
No mention of gold, ivory, slaves as motives
Eanes, Crónica dos feitos da Guiné, of Henry the Navigator
Caravel used for exploration e.g. by Columbus
adapted from arab qârib
Papal bull January 1455 to Alfonso V of Portugal
confirmed to the Crown of Portugal dominion over all lands south of Cape Bojador in Africa. Along with encouraging the seizure of the lands of Saracen Turks and non-Christians, endorsed the enslavement of such peoples.
Treaty of Tordesillas
1494
America clearly marked as an administrative province, ‘vilayet Antilia’
On Ottoman map of ‘Colon-bo’, 1513
Crushing of first revolt of the Alpujarras
1501
After crushing of first revolt of the Alpujarras
Muslims of Granada converted or expelled
All Muslims in Castile forced to convert or be expelled
1502
Charles V forced all Muslims of Aragon to convert or be expelled, prompting revolt of Muslims of Valencia
1525
