Flashcards
Religious Narratives
Cards in this deck (25)
- 1Portuguese Contact & Conquest- Prince Henry the Navigator - 1450s sponsored expeditions
- Instituted systemic programme of progressive exploration - conquest/violence
- 1415 capture of Sudan, 1450 reached Guinea, 1480s - Cape of Good Hope
- Fast progression by Portuguese on African content
- 1512: Ferdinand led first expedition to circumnavigate globe - 2Alvise da Cadamosto (1426-1483)- Commander of Portuguese expedition
- Grudging admiration & sense of respect - finding commonalities
- Instant identification of land mass w colour of people skin - racialisation of space - 'land of the blacks'
- Discussions of institution of slavery - treated as any other trade, listed alongside other commodities
- 'They are very poor people, liars... converted to our faith' - prioritise converting to Christianity.
- Conflating multiple Ottoman Empire cultures into one - generalisations & assumptions (homogeneity) due to skin colour
- Associates certain quals w race - 3Spanish Contact & COnquest- Moved into Atlantic Ocean - colonising islands off coast of Africa
1. Canary Islands (1470-93 conquest)
- Model for approach to Americas
- Base for later invasions - stored ships/commodities
- Provided Spanish w crops crucial to cultivation in Americas (sugarcane)
2. 1519 - 4Spanish: 1519Fernando Cortes overthrows Mexica Empire
- Left Cuba & moved into MesoAmerica
- Welcome by Tutona people - Montezuma
- Cortes & men constituted themselves as formal community. Became independent actor. with 300 people, allied w dissenting groups in Mexica Empire
- Considered capturing Tenochtitlan
- Cortes motivated by desire to challenge religious culture of Mexica - committed iconoclasm, planted own crosses in religious spaces
- August 1521 - Tenochtitlan fell - end of Mexican Empire - 5Spain: Tawantinsuyu (Invca) Empire- Francisco Pizarro & Diego de Almagro brought down Inca Empire
- Spain expanded reach
- Huge swathes of territory - 6Motivation1. Tech
- advances in ship/navigation tech enabled expansion
- 15th devpt of heavy galleons
2. Trade
- quicker, easier trade routes. Wanted access to tea, silk (from Asia/Africa)
3. Curiosity
- nutrition/novelty - learned valuable things from interactions
4. Conversion
- Convert people to Christianity (would make up for reformation).
- Ferdinand/Isabella - sought to expel all Jews/Muslims from Spain
5. Enlavement
- Superiority - wanted to enrich themselves
- Columbus 1492 advised Isabella of Castille 'they are suitable to take orders and be made to work'
- Easy to enslave people - 7Methods - deliberate violence: conquistadors & encomienda- Raid & capture 1/2 indigenous men to act as guides then attack neighbouring territories w guides to navigate/exploit weakness
- Attack families - women to ensure cooperation of men
- Conquistadors - saw successful capture/slaughter of people. Took over territories. First Nations allies. Mapped onto existing system (took advg). Saw opp in New World to change fortunes. Engaged in every econ system - mines, agri, commerce
- Central system they ran = encomienda (land grants). Allowed colonisers to do 3 things to groups of people living on land:
collect taxes from indigenous people, demand tribute, force labour
- Provided religious instruction to people on that territory - 8Encomienda- Diff to slavery - First Nations people could not be bought, sold, etc. to other white colonisers
- People not given inheritance rights so couldn't pass encomienda to children
- No motivation to protect/think of future gens - no reason not to work them to death
- All about brutally quick money
- First encomienda offered to Cortez men
- Abuses of First Nations people: Alonso de Zorita: 'inflicted unheard cruelties and torture among them'
- Some Spanish opposed - 9Spain: deliberate violence: Bureaucrats- Spanish crown created largest bureaucracy in New World to control
- 2 vice-royalties of Spain/Peru - directly underneath Crown. Had structures mirroring Spanish bureaucratic structures
- high court for civil cases, rural magistrates etc.
- Created strict mercantilist reg
- 1493: Treaty of Tordesillas (Pope) - drew line down centre of New World. Every East - Portuguese, West = Spanish.
- Requerimiento - manifesto - conquistadors required to read to First Nations comms before hostilities opened. Demanded that conquered people accept Spanish rule/Christian faith or risk subjugation
- British colonisers took note of this - Walter Raleigh refuted line-by-line - 10Spanish deliberate violence: Priests- religious orders played key role in evangelising - Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans
- Helped priests - 11Spanish: negotiation- Hasinai people
- Careful negotiation when violence not possible
- Northern frontier of Spain = Hasinai
- Controlled extensive territory (Texas/Mississippi) - had extensive trading networks, structured society
- Met on relatively equal footing - civil settlements - forced to seek alliances - 12Spanish unintentional violence: 'Columbian exchange'- Exchange when people, plants, animals, diseases from Europe & Africa meet in N/S America - clash of violence
- Animals/crops exchanged in new ways - domestic animals arriving in Americas
- Turkey/guinea pigs from America & botanicals - Maize, potatoes, papaya, tobacco - 13Spanish unintentional violence: disease- Smallpox among Mexica - struck Antilles, Tenochtitlan - epidemic raged there, killing many Mexica leaders.
- People largely healthier than those in Europe - lack of domesticated animals
- Never exposed to diseases of Africa/Asia - no immunity - catastrophic
- 1531 Measles, 1543 typhus, 1550 mumps, 1559 - MM, dypteria
- Bernal Diaz del Castillo (1492-1584) - 'we could not walk without treading on the bodies and heads of dead Indians' - 14Spanish unintentional violence : populaion collapse- Population of Europe c. 80m people in 1500, population of Americas c. 70m
- 1.5m 100 years later
- Population collapse of c. 90%
- few surviving faced cultural shock
- Disease moved faster than Europeans could conquer territory
- Europeans/British settling found empty villages/houses full of skeletons (John Smith) - 15Bartolome de las Casas on cruelty vs First Nations- Purposeful murder
- Christians as barbarians - transformed into devils
- Spaniards - treacherous/cruel nation w common enemy of Catholics
- Right of English to the West-Indies
-Historical/true account of cruel massacres/slaughters of above 20m innocent people by Spaniards in Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica & continent of Mexico, Peru - 16las Casas on West Indies s- 1493 inhabited by Spaniards
- Hispaniola - fertile land, islands of inhabitants
- People fruitful, obedient, peacefuk, meek, patient, live w/out desire for revenge
- Not materialistic, poor, sleep on mats, naked, capable of learning/Christianity
- Spaniards ignorance of true God, cruel tigers/wolves/lions
- Slaughter of unfortunate wretches - inhumanely butchered
- 'Decimated by Spaniards' & stripped of humanity
- Perished 12m fouls, women & children. 50m consumed in massacre? Fact?
- Indigenous people not violent but cruelty of Spaniards forced them to take up arms
- Spaniards ate their food - one consumed in one day as much as 3 families - 17More las Casas on Spanish in West Indies- set indigenous people on fire 'eye-witness
- If one Spaniard killed, 100 Indians die
- Good govts of Hispaniola - queen crucified by Spanish. People living in monasteries persecuted
- men sent to work in mines, women land
- Women w children milk dried up - starvation
- 1509 St John & Jamaica Islands possessed by Spanish - cruelties, killing. Burning/roasting men - innocent/harmless 'creatures'
1511: Cuba - burnt down houses, tortured people to find gold. 10 000 crowns of gold to Spanish, 80 000 people slain
- Murdered innocent: 'cruel Spaniards, what will ye kill helpless women'
- Took Indian slaves to Panama/Peru - 18Paul Vickery on las Casas- Controversial:
- 'Reformer at the the court of Spain, unsuccessful coloniser, friar in Hispaniola'; creator of the Black Legend; conscience of Catholic Spain, 'friend of humanity' (Bolivar
-'Prophet of the New World'
- Sought to physically preserve Natives & spiritual salvation of their soouls
- Challenged prosperity of Spanish nation
- Believed leaders of Spain would come under judgement of God - need repent
- Forced monarchy to confront its practices/laws
- Saw himself as prophet - spoke on behalf of Indians - 19Vickery on Las Casas' actions- Targeted encomienda system's use of Indians
- Root of all evil by colonists - Crown allotted land & Indians to work for conquistadores as reward
- Negative reaction to him
- Desire to liberate Indians whilst evangelising them to Christianity
- Memorial de remedios - 1516 - written proposal for Indians' salvation
- questioned Spanish motives - spread Gospel or acquire wealth
- Sought to establish colony w priests & farmers, not traders who exploited indians
- 'Those Indian peoples... are supremely capable of the Christian faith' - 20More on Las Casas - superiority complex?- Western superior complex - desire to education Indians - white religious superior
- Las Casas didn't acc q native subjection to the Crown - Spain & Christianity must earn obedience by showing themselves worthy of respect/superior to native religions
- Adamant Christianity would supplant native faiths
- Concerned Indians dying would reduce no. of people he could convert
- More concerned about Spaniards violating Christian faith than effect on Indians - 21Bumas on Protestant use of Las Casas' Brevisima relacion in Europe & US oclonies- Indians as pawns in European game
- English colonists of N. America compared their endeavour to Spanish colonisation of Americans in which '12, 15 or 20 millions of poore reasonable creatures' killed
- English religious discourse - implied lack of religion of Catholic Spaniards - English painted them as mass-murdering, accomplices to cannibals
- Portrayed entry into New World as sign of their superiority
- 16th C on, developed 'Black Legend' of Spanish terror - evidence in Casa's book
- Translated & circulated book to demonise Spanish Empire - provided Protestant colonial identity
- Las Casas himself as Catholic Spanird publicly condemning Spanish
- Very Brief Account used as call for English colonisation/justification - 22Bumas on Very Brief Account- Time of Protectorate - abuses report by Casas served as pretext for English military action in Ireland/Scotland
- John Elliot presented himself as superior version of las Casas - Tears of Indians
- Elliot claims Indian conversion to Protestantism as they accept blame for sinful life & act more like Englishmen
- Eliot translated 1664 New English version & stressed spiritual dimension of conquest to make Indians better Christians - 23Bumas on Elliot vs Las Casas- both had best intentions for Indians/Christianity - overlapped in missionary idea to instruct Indians in Gospel
- Las Casas trying to protect Indians vs Eliot converting them
- Eliot didn't denounce other Puritan, unlike las Casas
- Both indirectly responsible for misery? Illegalisation of Indian slavery prompted by las Casas brought about mass importation of African slaves
- Eliot's communities of praying Indians targeted by other natives, whites
- Very Brief Account revived when Raleigh wanted to raise funds for colonisation
- Las Casas: Christians barbaric, Natives civilised vs translation: Spaniards enemies of christianity - 24Bumas final on it- All info about Spaniards, little about Native/indigenous people themselves - defined by colonial experience
- 25De Bry added to translatiojns- Most accurate gauges of Protestant attitudes towards New World
- Presented Protestant attitudes towards New World - presenting behaviour as superior to Spaniards
- allows for any treatment of Amerindian population - legitimising discourse
- Naked Indians recognisable human whilst Spaniards are recognisably Spanish but portrayed as darker. Lighter Indians - can identify w them
- Open title: 'Tears of Indians' - tears of Indians due to Spanish brutality, own crimes against God
- since De Bry's 1958 editions, Indians demonised
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- Year 2 Vast Early Modern Americas (Religious Narratives//Conflict and conquest) Flashcards on Religious Narratives, created by Isla Duguid on 25/04/2022.
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- Isla Duguid
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