The French Occupation Of Spain During The Peninsular War

Any student of history has come to recognize the fact that history is written by the victor and in lieu of this, research becomes essential to uncover where the truth lies. The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, so ironically named, is a personal account for historical events leading up to the conquest of New Spain, formerly known as the City of Mexico. The author, Bernal Diaz, was a soldier of the conquering army who composed the document well after the events took place sometime between 1552 and 1557. Though the document did provide insight in regards to the victor’s perspective, it also served as a tool to rewrite the account of the conquered people.

During the 15th century, many considered Spain insignificant. However, within a century it became a world-dominant power in Europe. Although Spain only took a brief time to rise, it was also short-lived. The rise of Spain was due to its flourishing culture, stable political system and successful voyages to the New World. On the other hand, its decline was due to religious control, resistance from other countries and inflation.

Francisco Goya’s The Executions of May 3, 1808, is a remarkably interesting piece of art. This piece represents a protest against the Napoleon Occupational Army in Madrid. There are various visual elements and design principles in the art, which will be covered. The beginning of this ILO will contain the visual elements first, followed by the design principles, and what they mean in the artwork.

In Victors and the Vanquished, Schwartz poses the question of “How can we evaluate conflicting sources” (ix)? Through reading historical events such as the “Conquest of New Spain” there is an undeniably large amount of destruction of cultural material and bias testimonies of events recorded several years after they occurred. After analyzing the Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica there is a debatable amount of evidence from the Mesoamericans and Spanish explanations of this event in history. The intentions of each explanation created a conflict to historians, art historians and anthropologists on which viewpoint holds to accuracy. There is also the issue of not only inaccuracies, but the motives behind each bias account. As many of these aspects are taken into consideration, interpreting each justification between both sides of history in Mesoamerica as a clash of ethnocentrism between two different cultures that causes an uncertainty of what actually happened in history.

Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés'

Goya might inspired by Peter Paul Rubens who also previously painted a Saturn Devouring His Son on 1636. But Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son is different with Rubens’s. Rubens’s Saturn was painted less cannibalistic whereas Goya’s Saturn is more cannibal as he emphasized on Saturn’s expression.

Great insights went into the intricate composition of Francisco Goya’s painting The Third of May 1808, his painting utilizes the principles of art and design which displays all six principles: unity and variety; emphasis; balance; rhythm and movement; perspective; and proportion and scale. All six principles could also be identified and critically analyzed within his painting The Third of May 1808 which ultimately resulted in a whole cohesive composition.

rotten and wasted while on delivery ships. Men soon became sick due to the lack of

Goya made a series of etchings and paintings depicting the atrocities of both sides involved with the war. The most famous of these paintings are the two depicting the scenes from the second and third of May. The work focuses on the victims of the situation, which in this case are the Spanish citizens being executed. The work is not meant to be beautiful, but is instead supposed to be horrible in order to shock the viewer. Goya's purpose within the painting is less to blame the French, but instead to point out to people the "faceless and mechanical forces of war itself, blindly killing a representative of humanity"(Stokstad). He used the incident as an example of how horrible war is and what can happen when violence is instituted.

Write a report on the topic of your choice involving isolationism or United States involvement

His art represented the reaction against previous conceptions of art and the desire for a new form of expression. In order to understand the scope of Goya's art, and to appreciate the principles which governed his development and tremendous versatility, it is essential to realize that his work extended over a period of more than 60 years.

The sixteenth century for the Spanish monarchy under the crown of Castile was a significant historical period due to the encounter of the New World, and is often referred to as the Golden Age of Spain. The Spaniard conquest of America was a cataclysmic event of the history as once Spain had discovered the New World, they began to take over the control throughout the century, continuously colonizing many parts of America. In ruling the New World empires, their expansion of Spanish cities and towns had continued, and had brought them with absolute control over the land, as well as wealth and income from precious primary resources, which applied as strengths for them, however, on the other hand, some of the variables associated with the native

Since the first humans picked up rocks and killed each other, war has grown and changed, going from a way to solve small disputes to a massive enterprise involving all of a country’s resources. One example of such a war would have to be the one between Spain and England in the 1500’s. What started as a mere religious conflict soon became much more, with the full naval might of the two countries facing off. It culminated in a huge battle between the massive Spanish Armada and the much smaller English fleet. With superior strategy, ships, and confidence, the English managed to not only fend off the Spanish but handily defeat them, preventing what could have been a huge invasion and disaster. Queen Elizabeth herself came to rally the troops, giving them the confidence to triumph over the Spanish (Kallen, 2013). It is apparent that this battle was a major battle and turning point in history. If the Spanish had won, history would be completely different. It is for this reason that is can be considered a major turning point in history.

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes is regarded as one of the most important Spanish artists from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His work spanned the time of four

“Saturn Devouring His Children” is the boldest painting of the group. Goya portrays a grim voracious giant with predatory, lunatic eyes stuffing his son’s torn, headless body into his maw, a visual equivalent of torture and murder, set against the darkness which accentuates the mood of despair to illustrate his honest views of humanity during a turbulent time.