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A new world: the discovery of America

A new world: the discovery of America. For next time…. Special Lecture/Discussion on Machiavelli! Read the text, and pick a passage that you like or that is problematic, and come to class ready to discuss it Before discussion, I will introduce Machiavelli, his times and his text.

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A new world: the discovery of America

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  1. A new world: the discovery of America

  2. For next time… • Special Lecture/Discussion on Machiavelli! • Read the text, and pick a passage that you like or that is problematic, and come to class ready to discuss it • Before discussion, I will introduce Machiavelli, his times and his text

  3. From last time… • Humanism and Renaissance: two novelties in the INTELLECTUAL landscape of Western Civilization • Importance of antiquity • Importance of Christianity • Importance of the sense of history and of the place of humans in history

  4. Let’s talk final! • NB: your textbook talks about the conquest of America later on, in chapter 12th (week 9), but I wanted to anticipate this lecture because it is an important topic. So pay attention to this lecture, and then pay attention to the rest of the lectures between now and week 9 if you want to do well in the final!

  5. Exploration 101: • You must know WHY you go • You must know HOW to get there

  6. Why do you go? One of the most important long-term consequences of Medieval commerce

  7. Why do you go? Religion/Muslim 1453 Constantinople falls

  8. How do you get there? Triangular sails and smaller more agile ships

  9. How do you get there?Better cartography: from the Hereford Map (13th century)..

  10. To this 17th-century chart

  11. The race across the Ocean • The first to go across the Ocean were the Portuguese explorers, who went from Africa to India -early 15th century • Then Spain gets in the race…. • Why and how?

  12. Castile and Aragon become ‘Spain’ • 1469: Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille get married • They retained their separate titles and ruled their respective countries separately • Religion very important as a weapon to ensure Spain’s uniformity

  13. Spain, 1492: the expulsion of the Jews

  14. Spain, 1492: the end of the Reconquista

  15. Reconquista: map 1492

  16. So… • Spain was a big and diverse country to unify • Religion is important in that • Competition with Portugal • Competition with the Muslim territories • ‘Buscar el levante por el ponente’: Christopher Columbus’s idea

  17. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)

  18. His route

  19. What did he find? Look at your source! • Beautiful nature, which ‘abounds in various kinds of spices, gold, and other metals • Naked, weak, peaceful and loving indigenous people • They are not Christians, but suitable for Christianity and indeed… • ‘Let Christ rejoice…in the prospect of the salvation of the souls of so many nations hitherto lost’

  20. After Columbus: Spain and the Central America

  21. 1519: Cortés marches toward Tenochtitlán, capital of the Aztec empire

  22. 1533: Pizarro invades Cuzco, capital of the Incas empire

  23. Bartolome de Las Casas (1484-1566) and the denouncing of Spanish atrocities

  24. Francisco de Vitoria (1492-1546): how the conquered ‘changed’ the conquerors

  25. Aquinas and the concept of ‘just war’ • 4 things necessary: • Just cause to go to war • Legitimate authority which decides to go to war • Just intention for going to war • Just way of waging war

  26. Vitoria: why waging war against the Indians is wrong? • NO right reason: Christianity must not be forced • NO legitimate authority: the government of the Indians is AS LEGITIMATE as that of Spain • So is the war completely wrong? • No, since Spain is already in the New World they might as well….

  27. Why do we care? • Las Casas and Vitoria: two sides of the same coin • Las Casas: what is religion after all? What is conversion? • Vitoria: what is government after all? Does it need to be Christian to be legitimate?

  28. Post-colonial studies: another way to look at Vitoria, Las Casas, etc.

  29. ‘Orientalism’ and the New World • Orientalism is a way of studying the ‘colonies’: let’s apply it to the Indies • Columbus: the Indians are ‘naked’, ‘timid’, generous, loving…the making of the ‘Other’ • Las Casas: like Columbus, the Indians are weak and timid and loving, so let us not kill them • Vitoria: the Indians have a government as legitimate as ours -they are not more evil, nor are they nicer, they are like us (as far as the legitimacy of their government is concerned)

  30. So…are Columbus and Las Casas ‘bad’ and Vitoria ‘good’? • No, they are all mirrors of their time (remember, Vitoria never said that Spain should leave the New World, and he had other concerns for wanting to legitimize the Indians’ government) • But, attention to ‘Orientalism’ and to the question of the ‘Other’.

  31. For next time… • Special Lecture/Discussion on Machiavelli! • Read the text, and pick a passage that you like or that is problematic, and come to class ready to discuss it • Before discussion, I will introduce Machiavelli, his times and his text

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