The Aztecs And The Spanish Inquisition

Front 1

What is the Spanish Worldview?

Back 1

 Worldview: A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group; the overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world
 We have a general idea of the European Worldview during the Renaissance period, but what was Spain’s Worldview in particular – and how was it developed?
 This class: we will briefly examine Spain’s history in an attempt to discover the various values and beliefs that the people of Spain saw as being important to them.
 We will try to see where Spain’s Worldview came from and what helped to form it.
 By understanding Spain’s Worldview, it may be easier to understand why they took the actions that they did later on when they travelled west to the Americas and eventually conquered the Aztecs and other indigenous peoples.

Front 2

Religious Turmoil

Back 2

 At the beginning of the 700’s (the beginning of the Middle Ages) most of the people of Spain – as well as most of Europe – was Christian.
 In 711, A Muslim force crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from Northern Africa and landed in Spain.
 In a matter of a few years, almost all of Spain (except for a thin strip at the very top of Spain) was conquered by the Muslims.
 This lasted for over 500 years
 Many Christians converted to Islam (though many did not)
 Spain was part of a vast Islamic empire that spread from Spain and across northern Africa to the Middle East and East toward areas of India, China and Indonesia.
 This empire controlled a vast trade network that predated the City States of Italy.

Front 3

Islamic Enlightenment

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 Muslim society valued many of the same things that the Humanists of the Renaissance did – though the Muslims did this nearly 1000 years before the European Christians.
 Learning was valued – The world’s first university was established in Cairo in 971 – over 200 years before a counterpart in Europe was established.
 Many cities of Muslim Spain became great centres of learning.
 They respected the classic books of the Greeks and studied medicine and science – Muslim medicine and science was far more advanced than that of Christian Europe at that time.
 Muslim Spain was also quite tolerant of other religions – although Islam was the majority religion, many Jews and even some Christians lived in the Spanish cities and generally experienced peace and prosperity.

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Change

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 By the early 1000’s the power of Spain’s Muslim leaders began to decline and a period of civil unrest began.
 Larger regions were divided into smaller, less powerful independent principalities or states.
 The Christian controlled region in the north took advantage of this and began the “Reconquista”. This was a “holy” war based on religious differences – as well as an attempt for the Christian Kingdoms in the north to expand their territory and increase their power.
 The Spanish Christians developed a new fighting style in which they grouped large numbers of soldiers, all using the same weapon, into tight formations (early version of formations used for centuries by all Western militaries).
 These battle formations proved to be superior to the comparably disorganized formations of the Muslim forces.

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The Spanish Inquisition

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 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella took control of “The Spanish Inquisition” which was a period in which people of other religions were put on trial and punished or exiled from Spain. This included Muslims, Jews, and any other “non-Christian” people.
 The Spanish Inquisition was a very “dark” period of Christian history.
 Some people estimate that over 250000 people were forced to leave Spain at this time – they usually were not allowed to leave with any money and they obviously had to give up all of their territory and most of their posessions.
 The Inquisition was also famous for “Witch Burnings” and other tortures and executions.
 This was done as an attempt to unite Spain under one religion – this idea was seen as the only reasonable idea by the King and Queen of Spain – they were considered the “Catholic” monarchs.

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Converging The Catholic Religion

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 As the Catholic Monarchs pushed the non-Christians out of Spain – they also began to think of the non-Christians in other countries.
 They knew that the Muslims were spreading Islam throughout the Middle East and Asia – they viewed this as a threat to Catholicism.
 The Spanish Monarchs began to believe that it was their religious duty to convert as many people as possible to the Catholic faith – in Spain and outside of Spain – they believed that this would be in the best interest of all people, as it would “save their souls”.
 This may very well be one of the reasons that Kind Ferdinand and Queen Isabella finally agreed (after many years of “thinking” about the idea) to fund Christopher Columbus’ expedition west to find a trade route to Asia – as Catholic missionaries accompanied Columbus on his journeys.

Front 7

Christopher Columbus

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 After approaching many European Monarchs with a request to fund his sea voyage, Christopher Columbus finally received the funding he needed in 1492 from the Spanish Monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
 After fighting the Muslim forces for so many years, Spain was actually quite poor, and much of it’s reserve of precious metal (gold and silver) were used up.
 It took years for Spain to agree to Columbus’ request for ships and funds to travel west to Asia.
 Spain really couldn’t afford Columbus’ idea, though the King and Queen may have felt desperate to do something to gain more wealth (though originally they planned to do this by establishing an Eastern Trade Route)