History of Modern Spain — Fall

During our first class of Fall Quarter we will review the story of the Iberian peninsula and the creation of Spain. This is the story that we studied in our first year of Spanish history: the Celts, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Visiggoths, the Arabs, and the medieval monarchs who together over 2,000 years create a new European state: Espana. This year we will continue this story with the evolution of Modern Spain. That story includes the Spanish Empire in the new world of America, the creation of the modern monarchy to handle the responsibilites of the largest empire in human history, and the cultural world that is created as part of this new Spain.

REQUIRED READING

Mark Williams
The Story of Spain: The Dramatic History of Europe's Most Fascinating Country

PART ONE: Lecture
During our second class of Fall Quarter we will review the story of Spanish exploration and colonization of the new world in the fifteenth century: the history of cosmography, the Greeks' texts, the new maps, the maps and the explorers, the explorers and the monarchs of Portugal and Spain, and the figures of Columbus, Vespucci and others.

We also take up the question: Why were the Spaniards the ones to make the major exploration breakthroughs?
Why not Portugal?
Why not the Islamic civilization?
Why not the Chinese?

PART TWO: Pictures

The city of Seville, Spain.

REQUIRED READING

Mark Williams
The Story of Spain: The Dramatic History of Europe's Most Fascinating Country

PART ONE: Lecture

The economics of the new empire.

PART TWO: DVD

For our second half this evening, we have an excellent DVD from National Geographic that discusses the Colombian Exchange: that is, the benefits and costs of the ecological and biological exchange that took place when the older culture of Europe met the more isolated cultures of the New World. It is called "America Before Columbus" but it is not really limited to conditions before Columbus. It also explores the results of the Columbian journeys for both the Western Hemisphere as well as Europe.

REQUIRED READING:

The Elliott book is our text for the whole quarter.

J. H. Elliott, Imperial Spain 1469-1716

PART ONE: LECTURE

Wikipedia on Aztecs:
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries. "Aztec" (Nahuatl pronunciation: [astekaÊ”]) is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan",[1] a mythological place for the Nahuatl-speaking culture of the time, and later adopted as the word to define the Mexica people. Often the term "Aztec" refers exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan (now the location of Mexico City), situated on an island in Lake Texcoco, who referred to themselves as Mexica Tenochca or Colhua-Mexica. Sometimes the term also includes the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan's two principal allied city-states, the Acolhuas of Texcoco and the Tepanecs of Tlacopan, who together with the Mexica formed the Aztec Triple Alliance which controlled what is often known as "the Aztec Empire". In other contexts, Aztec may refer to all the various city states and their peoples, who shared large parts of their ethnic history and cultural traits with the Mexica, Acolhua and Tepanecs, and who often also used the Nahuatl language as a lingua franca. In this meaning it is possible to talk about an Aztec civilization including all the particular cultural patterns common for most of the peoples inhabiting Central Mexico in the late postclassic period. From the 13th century, the Valley of Mexico was the heart of Aztec civilization: here the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the city of Tenochtitlan, was built upon raised islets in Lake Texcoco. The Triple Alliance formed a tributary empire expanding its political hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states throughout Mesoamerica. At its pinnacle Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious traditions, as well as reaching remarkable architectural and artistic accomplishments. In 1521 Hernán Cortés, along with a large number of Nahuatl speaking indigenous allies, conquered Tenochtitlan and defeated the Aztec Triple Alliance under the leadership of Hueyi Tlatoani Moctezuma II. Subsequently the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital, from where they proceeded with the process of colonizing Central America. Aztec culture and history is primarily known through archaeological evidence found in excavations such as that of the renowned Templo Mayor in Mexico City; from indigenous bark paper codices; from eyewitness accounts by Spanish conquistadors such as Hernán Cortés and Bernal Díaz del Castillo; And especially from 16th and 17th century descriptions of Aztec culture and history written by Spanish clergymen and literate Aztecs in the Spanish or Nahuatl language, such as the famous Florentine Codex compiled by the Franciscan monk Bernardino de Sahagún with the help of indigenous Aztec informants.

PART TWO: DVD

We have a brilliant DVD tonight from the History Channel series, "Engineering an Empire," with a film on the Aztex Empire with special emphasis on their spectacular water engineering and the building of the city of Tenochtitlan.

REQUIRED READING:

Bernal Diaz, The Conquest of New Spain

RECOMMENDED READING

Buddy Levy, Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs

RECOMMENDED READING

David Carrasco, The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction

PART ONE: LECTURE

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (1485 - December 2, 1547) was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

A NOTE ON THE READING

You will see four books below. First there is the Bernal Diaz eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico.  You will definitely want to buy this and read it.  It is an extraordinary document that tells the whole story from the point of view of a very acute observer who was there.  Second, you will notice a collection of letters from Cortez to King Charles I (also Holy Roman Emperor Charles V).  They are powerful and informative and reading them allows you direct access to one of the most important actors in the drama of the conquest of the New World.  The edition from Yale University Press is a masterpiece with a brilliant introduction.  It is worth owning the book even if you have time to read only the introduction and one letter.  There are five long letters in the collection.  The levy and Thomas books are both excellent histories of the conquest.

REQUIRED READING:

Bernal Diaz
The Conquest of New Spain

RECOMMENDED READING

Hernán Cortés
Letters from Mexico

Buddy Levy
Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs

Hugh Thomas
Conquest: Cortes, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico

PART ONE: LECTURE

About Bartolomé de las Casas from Wikipedia:
Bartolomé de las Casas O.P. (c. 1484 to 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. He became the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians". His extensive writings, the most famous being A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and Historia de Las Indias, chronicle the first decades of colonization of the West Indies and focus particularly on the atrocities committed by the colonizers against the indigenous peoples. Arriving as one of the first settlers in the New World he participated in, and was eventually compelled to oppose the atrocities committed against the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists. In 1515, he reformed his views, gave up his Indian slaves and encomienda, and advocated, before King Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, on behalf of rights for the natives. In his early writings, he advocated the use of African slaves instead of Natives in the West-Indian colonies; consequently, criticisms have been leveled at him as being partly responsible for the beginning of the Transatlantic slave trade. Later in life, he retracted those early views as he came to see all forms of slavery as equally wrong. In 1522, he attempted to launch a new kind of peaceful colonialism on the coast of Venezuela, but this venture failed causing Las Casas to enter the Dominican Order and become a friar, leaving the public scene for a decade. He then traveled to Central America undertaking peaceful evangelization among the Maya of Guatemala and participated in debates among the Mexican churchmen about how best to bring the natives to the Christian faith. Traveling back to Spain to recruit more missionaries, he continued lobbying for the abolition of the encomienda, gaining an important victory by the passing of the New Laws in 1542. He was appointed Bishop of Chiapas, but served only for a short time before he was forced to return to Spain because of resistance to the New Laws by the encomenderos, and conflicts with Spanish settlers because of his pro-Indian policies and activist religious stances. The remainder of his life was spent at the Spanish court where he held great influence over Indies-related issues. In 1550, he participated in the Valladolid debate in which Juan Gines de Sepulveda argued that the Indians were less than human and required Spanish masters in order to become civilized. Las Casas maintained that they were fully human and that forcefully subjugating them was unjustifiable. Bartolome de las Casas spent 50 years of his life actively fighting slavery and the violent colonial abuse of indigenous peoples, especially by trying to convince the Spanish court to adopt a more humane policy of colonization. And although he failed to save the indigenous peoples of the Western Indies, his efforts resulted in several improvements in the legal status of the natives, and in an increased colonial focus on the ethics of colonialism. Las Casas is often seen as one of the first advocates for universal human rights.

REQUIRED READING

Bartolome de Las Casas
The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account

PART TWO: DVD

We have an excellent DVD for our second half tonight on another native American culture: The Mayas. This will allow us to learn about three of the cultures of the New World. The DVD is from History Channel and is part of an excellent series called: "Engineering an Empire."

From Wikipedia:
Francisco Pizarro González (c. 1471 or 1476 - 26 June 1541) was born in Trujillo, Spain, the illegitimate son of Gonzalo Pizarro, an infantry colonel, and Francisca González, a woman of poor means. His exact birth date is uncertain, but is believed to be sometime in the 1470s, probably 1471. Scant attention was paid to his education and he grew up illiterate. He was a distant cousin of Hernán Cortés. On 10 November 1509, Pizarro sailed from Spain to the New World with Alonzo de Ojeda on an expedition to Urabí. He sailed to Cartagena and joined the fleet of Martin Fernández de Encíso, and, in 1513, accompanied Balboa to the Pacific. In 1514, he found a supporter in Pedrarias Dávila, the Governor of Castilla de Oro, and was rewarded for his role in the arrest of Balboa with the positions of mayor and magistrate in Panama City, serving from 1519 to 1523.

Reports of Peru's riches and Cortés's success in Mexico tantalized Pizarro and he undertook two expeditions to conquer the Incan Empire in 1524 and in 1526. Both failed as a result of native hostilities, bad weather, and lack of provisions. Pedro de los Ríos, the Governor of Panama, made an effort to recall Pizarro, but the conquistador resisted and remained in the south. In April 1528, he reached northern Peru and found the natives rich with precious metals. This discovery gave Pizarro the motivation to plan a third expedition to conquer Peru, and he returned to Panama to make arrangements, but the Governor refused to grant permission for the project. Pizarro returned to Spain to appeal directly to King Charles I. His plea was successful, and he received not only a license for the proposed expedition but considerable authority over any lands conquered during the venture. He was joined by family and friends, and the expedition left Panama in 1530.

RECOMMENDED READING

Kim MacQuarrie, The Last Days of the Incas

PART ONE: LECTURE
From Wikipedia:
Francisco Pizarro González (c. 1471 or 1476 - 26 June 1541) was born in Trujillo, Spain, the illegitimate son of Gonzalo Pizarro, an infantry colonel, and Francisca González, a woman of poor means. His exact birth date is uncertain, but is believed to be sometime in the 1470s, probably 1471. Scant attention was paid to his education and he grew up illiterate. He was a distant cousin of Hernán Cortés. On 10 November 1509, Pizarro sailed from Spain to the New World with Alonzo de Ojeda on an expedition to Urabí. He sailed to Cartagena and joined the fleet of Martin Fernández de Encíso, and, in 1513, accompanied Balboa to the Pacific. In 1514, he found a supporter in Pedrarias Dávila, the Governor of Castilla de Oro, and was rewarded for his role in the arrest of Balboa with the positions of mayor and magistrate in Panama City, serving from 1519 to 1523.

Reports of Peru's riches and Cortés's success in Mexico tantalized Pizarro and he undertook two expeditions to conquer the Incan Empire in 1524 and in 1526. Both failed as a result of native hostilities, bad weather, and lack of provisions. Pedro de los Ríos, the Governor of Panama, made an effort to recall Pizarro, but the conquistador resisted and remained in the south. In April 1528, he reached northern Peru and found the natives rich with precious metals. This discovery gave Pizarro the motivation to plan a third expedition to conquer Peru, and he returned to Panama to make arrangements, but the Governor refused to grant permission for the project. Pizarro returned to Spain to appeal directly to King Charles I. His plea was successful, and he received not only a license for the proposed expedition but considerable authority over any lands conquered during the venture. He was joined by family and friends, and the expedition left Panama in 1530.

RECOMMENDED READING

Kim MacQuarrie
The Last Days of the Incas

Thanksgiving Vacation. No meeting week of Nov 25-29.

Thanksgiving week.
Students have stated they prefer having the week off.
Many are traveling for the holidays.
So no classes during Thanksgiving Week.
See you on Dec 3, 2013.

Wikipedia:
El Greco born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, (1541 - 7 April 1614) was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" (The Greek) was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters ... often adding the word Krēs ("Cretan"). El Greco was born on Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the centre of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before travelling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings. El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.

RECOMMENDED READING

David Davies, John Elliott, Xavier Bray, Keith Christiansen,
El Greco

PART ONE: LECTURE

From Wikipedia: Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.5 million. The population of the great Madrid is calculated in 7.2 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third-largest in the European Union after London and Paris. The city spans a total of 604.3 km2 (233.3 sq mi). The city is located on the Manzanares river in the center of both the country and the Community of Madrid (which comprises the city of Madrid, its conurbation and extended suburbs and villages); this community is bordered by the autonomous communities of Castile and Leon and Castile-La Mancha. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political center of Spain. The Madrid urban agglomeration has the third-largest GDP in the European Union and its influences in politics, education, entertainment, environment, media, fashion, science, culture, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities.Due to its economic output, high standard of living, and market size, Madrid is considered the major financial Centrex of Southern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula; it hosts the head offices of the vast majority of the major Spanish companies, such as Teleamerica, Iberia or Repsol. Madrid is the most touristy city of Spain, the third in the EU the fourth-most tourist ic of the continent and the seventh in the world according to Forbes. Is the 10th most livable city in the world according to Monocle magazine, in its 2010 index. Madrid is currently a Candidate City for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Madrid houses the headquarters of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), belonging to the United Nations Organization (UN), the SEGIB and the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI). It also hosts major international institutions regulators of Spanish: the Standing Committee of the Association of Spanish Language Academies, headquarters of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the Cervantes Institute and the Foundation of Urgent Spanish (Fund©u). While Madrid possesses a modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighborhoods and streets. Its landmarks include the Royal Palace of Madrid; the Teatro Real (Royal theatre) with its restored 1850 Opera House; the Buen Retiro Park, founded in 1631; the 19th-century National Library building (founded in 1712) containing some of Spain's historical archives; a large number of National museums,[25] and the Golden Triangle of Art, located along the Paseo del Prado and comprising three art museums: Prado Museum, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, a museum of modern art, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

There are several theories regarding the origin of the name "Madrid". According to legend Madrid was founded by Ocno Bianor (son of King Tyrrhenius of Tuscany and Mantua) and was named "Metragirta" or "Mantua Carpetana". Others contend that the original name of the city was "Ursaria" ("land of bears" in Latin), because of the many bears that were to be found in the nearby forests, which, together with the strawberry tree, have been the emblem of the city from the Middle Ages. The most ancient recorded name of the city Magerit (for *Materit or *Mageterit ?) comes from the name of a fortress built on the Manzanares River in the 9th century AD, and means "Place of abundant water". If the form is correct, it could be a Celtic place-name from 'ford' (Old Welsh) and a first element, that is not clearly identified The Roman Empire established a settlement on the banks of the Manzanares river. The name of this first village was "Matrice" (a reference to the river that crossed the settlement). Following the invasions carried out by the Germanic Sueves and Vandals, as well as the Sarmatic Alans during the 5th century AD, the Roman Empire no longer had the military presence required to defend its territories on the Iberian Peninsula, and as a consequence, these territories were soon occupied by the Vandals, who were in turn dispelled by the Visigoths, who then ruled Hispania in the name of the Roman emperor, also taking control of "Matrice". In the 7th century, the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula saw the name changed to "Mayrit", from the Arabic term referencing water as a "trees" or "giver of life") and the Ibero-Roman suffix "it" that means "place". The modern "Madrid" evolved from the Mozarabic "Matrit." Middle Ages Although the site of modern-day Madrid has been occupied since prehistoric times, and there are archeological remains of a small Visigoth basilica near the church of Santa Maria de la Almudena and two visigoth necropolises near Casa de campo, the first historical certainty about the existence of an established settlement in Madrid dates from the Muslim age. At the second half of the 9th century, Emir Muhammad I of Cordoba built a fortress on a headland near the river Manzanares, as one of the many fortress he ordered to be built on the border between Al-Andalus and the kingdoms of Leon and Castile, with the objective of protecting Toledo from the Christian invasions and also as a starting point for Muslim offensives. After the disintegration of the Caliphate of Cordoba, Madrid was integrated in the Taifa of Toledo. With the surrender of Toledo by Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile, the city was conquered by Christians in 1085, and it was integrated into the kingdom of Castile as a property of the Crown. ] Christians replaced Muslims in the occupation of the center of the city, while Arabs and Jews settled in the suburbs. The city was thriving and was given the title of "villa", whose administrative district extended from the Jarama in the east to the river Guadarrama in the west. The government of the town was vested to the neighboring of Madrid since 1346, when king Alfonso XI of Castile implements the regiment, for which only the local oligarchy was taking sides in city decisions. Since 1188, Madrid won the right to be a city with representation in the courts of Castile. In 1202, King Alfonso VIII of Castile gave Madrid its first charter to regulate the municipal council, which was expanded in 1222 by Fernando III of Castile. The first time the Courts of Castile were joined in Madrid was in 1309 under Ferdinand IV of Castile, and later in 1329, 1339, 1391, 1393, 1419 and twice in 1435. Since the unification of the kingdoms of Spain under a common Crown, the Courts were convened in Madrid more often.

PART TWO: Pictures of Madrid

Christmas Vacation  (3 Weeks) Dec 16, 2013 to Jan 5, 2014

Christmas Vacation.
No class:
Dec 16, 2013 to Jan 5, 2014
Winter Quarter begins January 6 in our new year of 2014.

During our first class of Fall Quarter we will review the story of the Iberian peninsula and the creation of Spain. This is the story that we studied in our first year of Spanish history: the Celts, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Visiggoths, the Arabs, and the medieval monarchs who together over 2,000 years create a new European state: Espana. This year we will continue this story with the evolution of Modern Spain. That story includes the Spanish Empire in the new world of America, the creation of the modern monarchy to handle the responsibilites of the largest empire in human history, and the cultural world that is created as part of this new Spain.

REQUIRED READING

Mark Williams
The Story of Spain: The Dramatic History of Europe's Most Fascinating Country

PART ONE: Lecture
During our second class of Fall Quarter we will review the story of Spanish exploration and colonization of the new world in the fifteenth century: the history of cosmography, the Greeks' texts, the new maps, the maps and the explorers, the explorers and the monarchs of Portugal and Spain, and the figures of Columbus, Vespucci and others.

We also take up the question: Why were the Spaniards the ones to make the major exploration breakthroughs?
Why not Portugal?
Why not the Islamic civilization?
Why not the Chinese?

PART TWO: Pictures

The city of Seville, Spain.

REQUIRED READING

Mark Williams
The Story of Spain: The Dramatic History of Europe's Most Fascinating Country

PART ONE: Lecture

The economics of the new empire.

PART TWO: DVD

For our second half this evening, we have an excellent DVD from National Geographic that discusses the Colombian Exchange: that is, the benefits and costs of the ecological and biological exchange that took place when the older culture of Europe met the more isolated cultures of the New World. It is called "America Before Columbus" but it is not really limited to conditions before Columbus. It also explores the results of the Columbian journeys for both the Western Hemisphere as well as Europe.

REQUIRED READING:

The Elliott book is our text for the whole quarter.

J. H. Elliott, Imperial Spain 1469-1716

PART ONE: LECTURE

Wikipedia on Aztecs:
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries. "Aztec" (Nahuatl pronunciation: [astekaÊ”]) is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan",[1] a mythological place for the Nahuatl-speaking culture of the time, and later adopted as the word to define the Mexica people. Often the term "Aztec" refers exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan (now the location of Mexico City), situated on an island in Lake Texcoco, who referred to themselves as Mexica Tenochca or Colhua-Mexica. Sometimes the term also includes the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan's two principal allied city-states, the Acolhuas of Texcoco and the Tepanecs of Tlacopan, who together with the Mexica formed the Aztec Triple Alliance which controlled what is often known as "the Aztec Empire". In other contexts, Aztec may refer to all the various city states and their peoples, who shared large parts of their ethnic history and cultural traits with the Mexica, Acolhua and Tepanecs, and who often also used the Nahuatl language as a lingua franca. In this meaning it is possible to talk about an Aztec civilization including all the particular cultural patterns common for most of the peoples inhabiting Central Mexico in the late postclassic period. From the 13th century, the Valley of Mexico was the heart of Aztec civilization: here the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the city of Tenochtitlan, was built upon raised islets in Lake Texcoco. The Triple Alliance formed a tributary empire expanding its political hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states throughout Mesoamerica. At its pinnacle Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious traditions, as well as reaching remarkable architectural and artistic accomplishments. In 1521 Hernán Cortés, along with a large number of Nahuatl speaking indigenous allies, conquered Tenochtitlan and defeated the Aztec Triple Alliance under the leadership of Hueyi Tlatoani Moctezuma II. Subsequently the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital, from where they proceeded with the process of colonizing Central America. Aztec culture and history is primarily known through archaeological evidence found in excavations such as that of the renowned Templo Mayor in Mexico City; from indigenous bark paper codices; from eyewitness accounts by Spanish conquistadors such as Hernán Cortés and Bernal Díaz del Castillo; And especially from 16th and 17th century descriptions of Aztec culture and history written by Spanish clergymen and literate Aztecs in the Spanish or Nahuatl language, such as the famous Florentine Codex compiled by the Franciscan monk Bernardino de Sahagún with the help of indigenous Aztec informants.

PART TWO: DVD

We have a brilliant DVD tonight from the History Channel series, "Engineering an Empire," with a film on the Aztex Empire with special emphasis on their spectacular water engineering and the building of the city of Tenochtitlan.

REQUIRED READING:

Bernal Diaz, The Conquest of New Spain

RECOMMENDED READING

Buddy Levy, Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs

RECOMMENDED READING

David Carrasco, The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction

PART ONE: LECTURE

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (1485 - December 2, 1547) was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

A NOTE ON THE READING

You will see four books below. First there is the Bernal Diaz eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico.  You will definitely want to buy this and read it.  It is an extraordinary document that tells the whole story from the point of view of a very acute observer who was there.  Second, you will notice a collection of letters from Cortez to King Charles I (also Holy Roman Emperor Charles V).  They are powerful and informative and reading them allows you direct access to one of the most important actors in the drama of the conquest of the New World.  The edition from Yale University Press is a masterpiece with a brilliant introduction.  It is worth owning the book even if you have time to read only the introduction and one letter.  There are five long letters in the collection.  The levy and Thomas books are both excellent histories of the conquest.

REQUIRED READING:

Bernal Diaz
The Conquest of New Spain

RECOMMENDED READING

Hernán Cortés
Letters from Mexico

Buddy Levy
Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs

Hugh Thomas
Conquest: Cortes, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico

PART ONE: LECTURE

About Bartolomé de las Casas from Wikipedia:
Bartolomé de las Casas O.P. (c. 1484 to 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. He became the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians". His extensive writings, the most famous being A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and Historia de Las Indias, chronicle the first decades of colonization of the West Indies and focus particularly on the atrocities committed by the colonizers against the indigenous peoples. Arriving as one of the first settlers in the New World he participated in, and was eventually compelled to oppose the atrocities committed against the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists. In 1515, he reformed his views, gave up his Indian slaves and encomienda, and advocated, before King Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, on behalf of rights for the natives. In his early writings, he advocated the use of African slaves instead of Natives in the West-Indian colonies; consequently, criticisms have been leveled at him as being partly responsible for the beginning of the Transatlantic slave trade. Later in life, he retracted those early views as he came to see all forms of slavery as equally wrong. In 1522, he attempted to launch a new kind of peaceful colonialism on the coast of Venezuela, but this venture failed causing Las Casas to enter the Dominican Order and become a friar, leaving the public scene for a decade. He then traveled to Central America undertaking peaceful evangelization among the Maya of Guatemala and participated in debates among the Mexican churchmen about how best to bring the natives to the Christian faith. Traveling back to Spain to recruit more missionaries, he continued lobbying for the abolition of the encomienda, gaining an important victory by the passing of the New Laws in 1542. He was appointed Bishop of Chiapas, but served only for a short time before he was forced to return to Spain because of resistance to the New Laws by the encomenderos, and conflicts with Spanish settlers because of his pro-Indian policies and activist religious stances. The remainder of his life was spent at the Spanish court where he held great influence over Indies-related issues. In 1550, he participated in the Valladolid debate in which Juan Gines de Sepulveda argued that the Indians were less than human and required Spanish masters in order to become civilized. Las Casas maintained that they were fully human and that forcefully subjugating them was unjustifiable. Bartolome de las Casas spent 50 years of his life actively fighting slavery and the violent colonial abuse of indigenous peoples, especially by trying to convince the Spanish court to adopt a more humane policy of colonization. And although he failed to save the indigenous peoples of the Western Indies, his efforts resulted in several improvements in the legal status of the natives, and in an increased colonial focus on the ethics of colonialism. Las Casas is often seen as one of the first advocates for universal human rights.

REQUIRED READING

Bartolome de Las Casas
The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account

PART TWO: DVD

We have an excellent DVD for our second half tonight on another native American culture: The Mayas. This will allow us to learn about three of the cultures of the New World. The DVD is from History Channel and is part of an excellent series called: "Engineering an Empire."

From Wikipedia:
Francisco Pizarro González (c. 1471 or 1476 - 26 June 1541) was born in Trujillo, Spain, the illegitimate son of Gonzalo Pizarro, an infantry colonel, and Francisca González, a woman of poor means. His exact birth date is uncertain, but is believed to be sometime in the 1470s, probably 1471. Scant attention was paid to his education and he grew up illiterate. He was a distant cousin of Hernán Cortés. On 10 November 1509, Pizarro sailed from Spain to the New World with Alonzo de Ojeda on an expedition to Urabí. He sailed to Cartagena and joined the fleet of Martin Fernández de Encíso, and, in 1513, accompanied Balboa to the Pacific. In 1514, he found a supporter in Pedrarias Dávila, the Governor of Castilla de Oro, and was rewarded for his role in the arrest of Balboa with the positions of mayor and magistrate in Panama City, serving from 1519 to 1523.

Reports of Peru's riches and Cortés's success in Mexico tantalized Pizarro and he undertook two expeditions to conquer the Incan Empire in 1524 and in 1526. Both failed as a result of native hostilities, bad weather, and lack of provisions. Pedro de los Ríos, the Governor of Panama, made an effort to recall Pizarro, but the conquistador resisted and remained in the south. In April 1528, he reached northern Peru and found the natives rich with precious metals. This discovery gave Pizarro the motivation to plan a third expedition to conquer Peru, and he returned to Panama to make arrangements, but the Governor refused to grant permission for the project. Pizarro returned to Spain to appeal directly to King Charles I. His plea was successful, and he received not only a license for the proposed expedition but considerable authority over any lands conquered during the venture. He was joined by family and friends, and the expedition left Panama in 1530.

RECOMMENDED READING

Kim MacQuarrie, The Last Days of the Incas

PART ONE: LECTURE
From Wikipedia:
Francisco Pizarro González (c. 1471 or 1476 - 26 June 1541) was born in Trujillo, Spain, the illegitimate son of Gonzalo Pizarro, an infantry colonel, and Francisca González, a woman of poor means. His exact birth date is uncertain, but is believed to be sometime in the 1470s, probably 1471. Scant attention was paid to his education and he grew up illiterate. He was a distant cousin of Hernán Cortés. On 10 November 1509, Pizarro sailed from Spain to the New World with Alonzo de Ojeda on an expedition to Urabí. He sailed to Cartagena and joined the fleet of Martin Fernández de Encíso, and, in 1513, accompanied Balboa to the Pacific. In 1514, he found a supporter in Pedrarias Dávila, the Governor of Castilla de Oro, and was rewarded for his role in the arrest of Balboa with the positions of mayor and magistrate in Panama City, serving from 1519 to 1523.

Reports of Peru's riches and Cortés's success in Mexico tantalized Pizarro and he undertook two expeditions to conquer the Incan Empire in 1524 and in 1526. Both failed as a result of native hostilities, bad weather, and lack of provisions. Pedro de los Ríos, the Governor of Panama, made an effort to recall Pizarro, but the conquistador resisted and remained in the south. In April 1528, he reached northern Peru and found the natives rich with precious metals. This discovery gave Pizarro the motivation to plan a third expedition to conquer Peru, and he returned to Panama to make arrangements, but the Governor refused to grant permission for the project. Pizarro returned to Spain to appeal directly to King Charles I. His plea was successful, and he received not only a license for the proposed expedition but considerable authority over any lands conquered during the venture. He was joined by family and friends, and the expedition left Panama in 1530.

RECOMMENDED READING

Kim MacQuarrie
The Last Days of the Incas

Thanksgiving Vacation. No meeting week of Nov 25-29.

Thanksgiving week.
Students have stated they prefer having the week off.
Many are traveling for the holidays.
So no classes during Thanksgiving Week.
See you on Dec 3, 2013.

Wikipedia:
El Greco born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, (1541 - 7 April 1614) was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" (The Greek) was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters ... often adding the word Krēs ("Cretan"). El Greco was born on Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the centre of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before travelling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings. El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.

RECOMMENDED READING

David Davies, John Elliott, Xavier Bray, Keith Christiansen,
El Greco

PART ONE: LECTURE

From Wikipedia: Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.5 million. The population of the great Madrid is calculated in 7.2 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third-largest in the European Union after London and Paris. The city spans a total of 604.3 km2 (233.3 sq mi). The city is located on the Manzanares river in the center of both the country and the Community of Madrid (which comprises the city of Madrid, its conurbation and extended suburbs and villages); this community is bordered by the autonomous communities of Castile and Leon and Castile-La Mancha. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political center of Spain. The Madrid urban agglomeration has the third-largest GDP in the European Union and its influences in politics, education, entertainment, environment, media, fashion, science, culture, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities.Due to its economic output, high standard of living, and market size, Madrid is considered the major financial Centrex of Southern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula; it hosts the head offices of the vast majority of the major Spanish companies, such as Teleamerica, Iberia or Repsol. Madrid is the most touristy city of Spain, the third in the EU the fourth-most tourist ic of the continent and the seventh in the world according to Forbes. Is the 10th most livable city in the world according to Monocle magazine, in its 2010 index. Madrid is currently a Candidate City for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Madrid houses the headquarters of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), belonging to the United Nations Organization (UN), the SEGIB and the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI). It also hosts major international institutions regulators of Spanish: the Standing Committee of the Association of Spanish Language Academies, headquarters of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the Cervantes Institute and the Foundation of Urgent Spanish (Fund©u). While Madrid possesses a modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighborhoods and streets. Its landmarks include the Royal Palace of Madrid; the Teatro Real (Royal theatre) with its restored 1850 Opera House; the Buen Retiro Park, founded in 1631; the 19th-century National Library building (founded in 1712) containing some of Spain's historical archives; a large number of National museums,[25] and the Golden Triangle of Art, located along the Paseo del Prado and comprising three art museums: Prado Museum, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, a museum of modern art, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

There are several theories regarding the origin of the name "Madrid". According to legend Madrid was founded by Ocno Bianor (son of King Tyrrhenius of Tuscany and Mantua) and was named "Metragirta" or "Mantua Carpetana". Others contend that the original name of the city was "Ursaria" ("land of bears" in Latin), because of the many bears that were to be found in the nearby forests, which, together with the strawberry tree, have been the emblem of the city from the Middle Ages. The most ancient recorded name of the city Magerit (for *Materit or *Mageterit ?) comes from the name of a fortress built on the Manzanares River in the 9th century AD, and means "Place of abundant water". If the form is correct, it could be a Celtic place-name from 'ford' (Old Welsh) and a first element, that is not clearly identified The Roman Empire established a settlement on the banks of the Manzanares river. The name of this first village was "Matrice" (a reference to the river that crossed the settlement). Following the invasions carried out by the Germanic Sueves and Vandals, as well as the Sarmatic Alans during the 5th century AD, the Roman Empire no longer had the military presence required to defend its territories on the Iberian Peninsula, and as a consequence, these territories were soon occupied by the Vandals, who were in turn dispelled by the Visigoths, who then ruled Hispania in the name of the Roman emperor, also taking control of "Matrice". In the 7th century, the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula saw the name changed to "Mayrit", from the Arabic term referencing water as a "trees" or "giver of life") and the Ibero-Roman suffix "it" that means "place". The modern "Madrid" evolved from the Mozarabic "Matrit." Middle Ages Although the site of modern-day Madrid has been occupied since prehistoric times, and there are archeological remains of a small Visigoth basilica near the church of Santa Maria de la Almudena and two visigoth necropolises near Casa de campo, the first historical certainty about the existence of an established settlement in Madrid dates from the Muslim age. At the second half of the 9th century, Emir Muhammad I of Cordoba built a fortress on a headland near the river Manzanares, as one of the many fortress he ordered to be built on the border between Al-Andalus and the kingdoms of Leon and Castile, with the objective of protecting Toledo from the Christian invasions and also as a starting point for Muslim offensives. After the disintegration of the Caliphate of Cordoba, Madrid was integrated in the Taifa of Toledo. With the surrender of Toledo by Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile, the city was conquered by Christians in 1085, and it was integrated into the kingdom of Castile as a property of the Crown. ] Christians replaced Muslims in the occupation of the center of the city, while Arabs and Jews settled in the suburbs. The city was thriving and was given the title of "villa", whose administrative district extended from the Jarama in the east to the river Guadarrama in the west. The government of the town was vested to the neighboring of Madrid since 1346, when king Alfonso XI of Castile implements the regiment, for which only the local oligarchy was taking sides in city decisions. Since 1188, Madrid won the right to be a city with representation in the courts of Castile. In 1202, King Alfonso VIII of Castile gave Madrid its first charter to regulate the municipal council, which was expanded in 1222 by Fernando III of Castile. The first time the Courts of Castile were joined in Madrid was in 1309 under Ferdinand IV of Castile, and later in 1329, 1339, 1391, 1393, 1419 and twice in 1435. Since the unification of the kingdoms of Spain under a common Crown, the Courts were convened in Madrid more often.

PART TWO: Pictures of Madrid

Christmas Vacation  (3 Weeks) Dec 16, 2013 to Jan 5, 2014

Christmas Vacation.
No class:
Dec 16, 2013 to Jan 5, 2014
Winter Quarter begins January 6 in our new year of 2014.