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Ap World History Chapter 1 Summary

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I. While the Requirement struck many Europeans as an unusual political practice, it was important in legitimizing Spanish dominion over an area. It found its origins in the ritual demand for submission associated with the Islamic jihad (pp. 69 – 78).
A. The Spanish Requirement was “an ultimatum for Indians to acknowledge the superiority of Christianity or be warred upon” (pp. 70). It was read aloud exactly as written in order to avoid any doubts about the legitimacy of the Spanish dominion in the New World (pp. 69 – 72).
1. The explicit threat of warfare differentiated the Requirement from other European cases. Most other countries began wars on a local level, without the need to royal input.
2. The aim was to force the other side to submit to Christianity’s superiority, and,…show more content…
Different from classic Greek and Roman methods, which focused on political and military domination.
d. The liberal treatment of the conquered is addressed later in the chapter. C. Important Quotes
1. “The Requirement offers limited options—either accept Christian superiority voluntarily or we will impose submission at the point of a sword or harquebus” (pp. 71).
a. This quote is important in understanding the often times “absurd” nature of the Requirement. It is strange to imagine a group of heavily armed Spaniards reading such a message to a native population that had little to no grasp of Christianity at the time. The idea that the Spanish were giving the soon-to-be conquered population a choice in their destiny was little more than a fallacy.
2. “The central idea of the Requirement—summoning people to acknowledge a superior religion or be attacked—is thus the same as the core of the summons as understood in the Islamic legal tradition of the Iberian peninsula” (pp. 78).
a. This quote is particularly important because it establishes the core similarity between the Islamic summons and Spanish Requirement—the emphasis on religion as opposed to political or military
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