Mahoma Journey

In Santa Biblia: The Bible Through Hispanic Eyes, Justo L. González invites the reader to read the Bible in fresh ways, and gain insight from the perspective of “those who claim their Hispanic identity as part of their hermeneutical baggage, and who also read the Scripture within the context of a commitment to the Latino struggle to become all that God wants us and all of the world to be—in other words, the struggle for salvation/liberation.” (González 1996, 28-29) Published hot on the heels of the quincentennial of Columbus’ voyage to the new world, and abreast of discussions taking place in the larger Hispanic community, González’s book is both timely and well researched.

Restall, Matthew. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2003

“Upon docking, I called Eurylochus and two others who were the smartest of my men to the shore to see the state of the island and its inhabitants. The land to the north, I assigned Eurylochus. The western domain I gave to the soldier in command behind Eurylochus, and the southern territory was handed to the soldier fourth in command. The eastern area, which was the largest in size and most populated with dense forests, I took for myself to explore. Any information the men acquired while searching, they were

Convinced of the superiority of Catholicism to all other religions, Spain insisted that the primary goal of colonization was to save the Indians from heathenism and prevent them from falling under the sway of Protestantism. The aim was neither to exterminate nor to remove the Indians, but to transform them into obedient Christian subjects of the crown. To the Spanish colonizers, the large native populations of the Americas were not only souls to be saved but also a labor force to be organized to extract gold and silver that would enrich their mother country. Las Casas’ writings and the abuses they exposed contributed to the spread of the Black Legend-the image of Spain as a uniquely brutal and exploitative colonizer. This would provide of a potent justification for other European powers to challenge Spain’s predominance in the New World.

Restall’s ultimate goal in writing this book is to provide readers and scholars alike with a more realistic viewpoint and history of the Spanish conquest. He wishes to dispel the many myths that accompany the epic tale so as to provide a better understanding of who the natives were and, more importantly to Restall, who the Spanish were. He does an excellent job of questioning the who, what, and where of the personalities and motives of the men involved in conquest. These questions are heartily answered in a well-written and easy to read history book.

In A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, Bartolomé de Las Casas vividly describes the brutality wrought on the natives in the Americas by the Europeans primarily for the purpose of proclaiming and spreading the Christian faith. Las Casas originally intended this account to reach the royal administration of Spain; however, it soon found its way into the hands of many international readers, especially after translation. Bartolomé de Las Casas illustrates an extremely graphic and grim reality to his readers using literary methods such as characterization, imagery, amplification, authorial intrusion and the invocation of providence while trying to appeal to the sympathies of his audience about such atrocities.

“Victors and Vanquished,” through excerpts of Bernal Diaz del Castillo The True History of the Conquest of New Spain and indigenous testimonies from the Florentine Codex, represents the clash between European and indigenous cultures and how there was no simple “European” or “indigenous” view. Rather, there were a variety of European and indigenous opinions and interpretations that were influenced by personal interests, social hierarchy and classes, ethnic biases and political considerations.

For this essay I will be talking about the book “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” by Bartolomé de Las Casas. Whom wrote this to the King of Spain, Prince Philip II, in 1542 to protest what was happening in the New World to the native people. I will be explaining many things during this essay. The first thing I will go over is what the books tells us about the relationship between Christianity and the colonialism. The second thing I will talk about is if it was enough to denounce the atrocities against indigenous people. Next, if it is possible to

In 1492, the Spanish defeated the Moors, an inquisition took off and Christopher Columbus sailed to the Americas. This paper will argue how the Spanish Reconquista resulted in the inquisition and the expulsion of Jews and Moors in Medieval Spain. The sources that will be used are several primary sources, and secondary sources. The Spanish Reconquista inspired the ideas of religious nationalism, a common anti-Semitism among the Spanish people, the idea of a catholic state and catholic rulers, and other practical and economic influences.

Since my endeavors have achieved achievement, I realize that it will please to you: these I have resolved to relate, so you might be made familiar with everything done and found in this our voyage. On the thirty-third day after I withdrew from Cadiz, I went to the Indian ocean, where I discovered numerous islands occupied by men without number, of all which I took ownership for our luckiest ruler, with broadcasting envoys and flying benchmarks, nobody questioning. To the first of these I gave the name of the favored Savior, on whose guide depending I had achieved this and additionally alternate islands. Yet, the Indians call it Guanahany. I likewise called every one of the others by another name. For I requested one island to be called Santa Maria of the Conception, another Fernandina, another Isabella, another Juana, thus on with the rest.

On the one hand, Spain—with papal endorsement—has authority both over its own preexisting jurisdiction and over its “discoveries” in the New World. That power, though, is distinctly limited, both by what it has a rightful claim to compel and by the existence of legitimate indigenous civic authority. Las Casas holds that civic power established by violence is neither prudent nor lasting. In this vein he appeals to the example of Constantine. According to Las Casas, Constantine waged war on pagan threats not with the conversion of pagans as a goal per se but rather for reasons of imperial defense. Such motivations for state violence are a legitimate and compelling, Las Casas argues. Though Las Casas presents a questionably accurate picture of Constantine’s motivations for conquest, Las Casas’ basic point is heard: the power of civic government has limits, particularly when it comes to the use of violence in the name of Christianity.

The greed for gold and the race for El Dorado were the main inducements of the Spaniards who, at the peril of their lives, crossed the ocean in unfit vessels in a mad pursuit after the gold and all other precious property of the Indians” (Peace 479). The royal rulers of Spain made it a rule that nothing would jeopardize their ability to rob the land from the native people of Latin America. The missionary process, “had to be encouraged, but the missionaries could not be permitted to dominate the colony at the cost of royal rule” (Gibson 76). The European governments established missionaries to cleanse their minds of any guilt aroused by the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children. When European “ships arrived in the 16th century to colonize the land and exploit its natural resources, they killed indigenous people and brought black slaves from Africa. Millions of indigenous people were slain and their cultures completely destroyed by the process of colonization” (Ribero). The overall devastations caused by the Christianization of the native inhabitants created a blend of cultures within the indigenous civilizations which gradually isolated old native ways into a small population of oppressed people. The Christianized people became a symbol of loyalty to the European powers and were left alone simply on their religious status. This long term mission of total religious replacement caused very strong and advanced

Three weeks after expelling the Jews from Spain, Los Reyes Catolicos signed the following decree: we send Christobal Colon with three caravels through the Ocean Sea to the Indies on some business that concerns the service of God and the expansion of the Catholic faith and our benefit and utility. Throughout the first voyage, Columbus kept a detailed record of his thoughts and actions, in which he sought to justify himself to his Sovereigns, to his Lord, and to himself. He believed that history would be listening. In his record, we began by explaining the premise of the voyage in terms of Reconquista, the reclaiming of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslims who had occupied it for

In The Unconverted Self, author Jonathan Boyarin reexamines the relationship between Christian Europe and the world around it, especially in the context of interreligious dialogue as a means of defining Christian identity. The common school of thought, as presented in this book, is that European identity reaches modernity after 1492 with the discovery of the radically different culture of Indigenous Americans (p. 9). Boyarin argues that this is untrue, as this belief operates under the incorrect assumption that the European people were a homogenous population (p.9). Instead, Boyarin “seeks to move beyond the concept of two separate Europes,” and proposes instead that this “othering” that was so critical to define Christian identity was already occurring in pre contact Europe (p. 1). For this, Boyarin looks to the Jewish and Muslim populations of Europe as a replacement for the Indigenous American peoples. He asserts that this sense of the “other” threatening Christendom existed far before 1492, and outlines the ways in which this conflict in religious dimensionality was vital to the formation of Christian identity. Boyarin’s volume presents a concise read that reexamines existing scholarship and recontextualizes historical events to create a convincing argument, as well as provide questions for future scholarship to build upon. However, there were aspects in this book that were lacking, causing it to be an almost tedious read at parts.

The Catholicism to the Americas came as another piece of colonization, when the expedition lead by Cristopher Columbus in the fourteenth hundred brought political, economic and social changes towards the indigenous communities living in what today is known as the American continent. The impacts that Catholicism has had in the lives of people since it was established in the American continent, by the ways it was established and how it has evolved until todays date, is a topic that has different perspectives; acknowledging that it is part of people’s identities, makes of this a harder topic to be critical about and whether to see if the impact that Catholicism has had in the American population has been more positive or negative is a still an ongoing debate in which extensive amounts of people have different perspectives.