Botticelli, Venus and Mars, 1483

Humanities 3II. Spain and the New World

Lecture 6

A New World Order

Outline

• Review: Religion, Identity and Politics

• Voyages of Discovery

• How ‘America’ Got Its Name

• First Impressions: Columbus, Vespucci

Roman Catholic Church ca. 1500

• the “one true Church,” which offers the only pathto salvation (re-affirmed by the pope in 2007)

• stresses conversion (Jews, Muslims, indigenouspeoples of the “new world”)

• concerned to eradicate heresy:– early Church: Arianism (denial of Jesus’ divinity);

Pelagianism (salvation through works)– Spanish Inquisition: exposure of marranos, converts to

Catholicism (conversos) who secretly practice Judaism

Roman Catholic Church, cont’d

• Pope claims absolute spiritual power and temporalpower as prince of the Papal States

• Spiritual power trumps temporal power (popeconfers right to rule on princes)

• Challenges to the pope’s authority: i) from criticswithin the Church; ii) from sources of competingknowledge (philosophy, science); iii) from thepolitical and military power exercised by princes

Politics• Two models of government (sovereignty):

– republicanism: free citizens are self-governing– principality: the right to rule belongs to a single individual,

who exercises supreme power• Strengthening the state:

Machiavelli suggests a prince is best able to do this– through religion (war against Moors; Ferdinand initiates the

Spanish Inquisition)– through dynastic marriages (Ferdinand & Isabella;

Habsburgs => Charles V)– through conquest (Spain and the new world)

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)

• Columbus sailed fromSpain on August 3, 1492and landed at “SanSalvador” on October 11,1492.

• Site of first landfall iscontested: it is somewherein the islands east ofCuba.

• Four voyages to the NewWorld: 1492, 1493, 1498,1502.

Why Did Columbus Set Sail?• Personal glory and profit: looking for a

route to the east: to China (Cathay) and theEast Indies. This is where he thought hehad landed.

• Economic motives: gold, mastic, aloe-wood, slaves. Spain is broke after costlywar against Moors.

• Religious motives: conversion of the nativepeoples to Catholicism.

“Since thus our Redeemer has given to ourmost illustrious King and Queen, and totheir famous kingdoms, this victory in sohigh a matter, Christendom should takegladness therein and make great festivals,and give solemn thanks to the Holy Trinityfor the great exaltation they shall have forthe conversion of so many people to ourholy faith; and next for the temporal benefitwhich will bring hither refreshment andprofit, not only to Spain, but to allChristians.” -- Columbus

Papal Bull Granting Spain the Right tothe New World (1493)

“…kingdoms grantedand entrusted by Godand His Church so thatthey might be properlyruled and governed,converted to the Faith,and tenderly nurtured tofull material andspiritual prosperity” (LasCasas, 6)

Columbus was the first one there…

So even if he didn’t know where hewas going, why don’t we live on thecontinent of “North Columbia” in the“United States of Columbia”?

Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512)

• Member of prominent Florentine family,long associated with Medici.

• Made either four or (more likely) twovoyages: 1499-1500 (Spain) and 1501-2(Portugal)

• In 1503 his letter to Lorenzo diPierfrancesco de’ Medici announcing thediscovery of a “New World” (MundusNovus) is published.

• This letter and related writings (his letter toPiero Soderini) are reprinted many timesand circulated throughout Europe.

• They come to the attention of a group ofscholars and mapmakers in the Strasbourgregion, who in 1507 literally remake theworld.

• In short: America is called “America”because Vespucci had better PR.

“It is well here to consider the injury and injusticewhich that Americo Vespucio appears to have doneto the Admiral, or that those have done whopublished his Four Navigations, in attributing thediscovery of this continent to himself, withoutmentioning anyone but himself. Owing to this, allthe foreigners who write of these Indies in Latin, orin their own mother-tongue, or who make charts ormaps, call the continent America, as having beenfirst discovered by Americo. For as Americo was aLatinist, and eloquent, he knew how to make use ofthe first voyage he undertook, and to give the creditto himself, as if he had been the principal captain ofit.” (B. De Las Casas)

Ptolemy, Cosmographia (Ulm 1482)

Map of the Discoveries of Columbus, (CarolusVerardus, 1493)

FrontispieceDe Ora Antartica,AmericusVespuccius(Strasbourg, 1505)

Martin Waldseemueller,Cosmographia Introductio, 1507

Waldseemueller, Globe Map(1507)

Waldseemueller, 1513 edition ofPtolemy

Perception of Natives: Columbus• They are human: “Thus I have not found, nor had

any information of monsters, except of an island...which is inhabited by a people... who eat humanflesh.”

• For the rest, the people are “very comely,” child-like, timid, generous, naïve.

• They can be made Christians: “for they are inclinedto the love and service of their Highnesses and of allthe Castilian nation.... And they knew no sect, noridolatry; save that they all believe that power andgoodness are in the sky.”

• But “idolators” can be enslaved

Vespucci• Similarly stresses innocence and “naturalness” of

people he encounters, but lays greater emphasis onviolence and slavery as an outcome of war.

• They are truly primitive, without law or religion:“they have no shame of their shameful parts... Wedid not learn that they had any law, nor can they becalled Moors nor Jews, and [they are] worse thanpagans; because we never saw them offer anysacrifice; nor even had they a house of prayer; theirmanner of living I judge to be Epicurean…. Theylive and are contented with that which nature givesthem.” (10-11)

Piero di Cosimo, The Discoveryof Honey, c. 1505-10