13-08-2012, 12:49 PM
A new world: the discovery of America
4B-America.ppt (Size: 2.34 MB / Downloads: 57)
The Catholic Church after Trent
Post-Tridentine Catholicism: stronger, ‘leaner’ and ‘meaner’, with the Pope once again back in control
Protestant Churches also get ‘institutionalized’: one of the ‘new’ effects of the Reformation
Territorial Churches and territorial states: a complex relationship: another ‘new’ effect of the Reformation
‘Confessionalization’ and ‘social discipline’: important historiographical categories to explain the similarities between Catholicism and Protestantism
Intolerance: a disgraceful example of continuity
The Jewish communities were heavily persecuted in the Middle Ages (ms. from 1321)
Luther’s violent anti-Semitism: the Reformation does not change Christian anti-Semitism, in fact
The Jewish community was persecuted after the Reformation (1492: Jewish community expelled from Spain; 1555: The Roman Ghetto is built)
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?
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
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’
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?
‘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)