Iberian Peninsula

The bullfight, as it is rehearsed today, includes proficient toreros (of whom the most senior, who really kills the bull, is known as a bullfighter) who execute different formal moves which have an importance, or if nothing else a name, as indicated by the matador's style or school. It has been asserted that toreros look to evoke motivation and craftsmanship from their work and an enthusiastic association with the group transmitted through the bull. The nearby closeness puts the matador at some…

Race, particularly whiteness, is a human construct with fluidity that has changed throughout time to denote the desired and powerful from the Otherized. Whiteness or Caucasian, as a classification of desired standing, gained popularity and support following its inclusion by German scientist, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in the 1795, and has since been adapted to include and exclude different “racial” groups over time. The concept of race, and whiteness, is therefore a creation used to justify…

with Carthage building up a great empire in the Spanish peninsula, expecting to raise new armies to invade Italy. The second Punic war was a conflict of a military Carthaginian genius called Hannibal against Rome, and later shared with the young Roman general Scipio, who effectively offset Carthage’s looting of Italy and its allies. In 221 B.C. Hasdrubal, the Carthaginian general that founded New Carthage in the Iberian Peninsula and prone at diplomatic solutions, was assassinated…

Spain stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific and included lands in the north such as the Netherlands and Italians lands such as Milan and Naples. Additionally, after becoming king of Portugal in 1580, Philip united all of the states of the Iberian Peninsula, and with the addition of Portugal’s Atlantic ports and fleet, the Spanish Armada and the country it represented was the strongest in Europe of the time. However, with the defeat of Spain in the Thirty Years’ War and the Peace of…

“God did not create the Pyrenees to separate France and Spain, but to set the border between non-climbers and climbers” (Christian Laborde, Tour and Pyrenees). The scenery that can be witnessed, is one that cannot be resisted. The Pyrenees Mountain Trip is one thing, if available, may only come once and is an opportunity to not pass up. With the euro and the dollar being about equal, making the trip affordable, at this time. However, it may not be for long. Accordingly, if this opportunity is…

What rings a bell when you think about the crusades? Nice and really buff knights (in a sparkling defensive layer, obviously) or maybe just a group of guys going out to do the Lords work in a devilish world. Whichever it may be the Crusades were just wars not a group a people. Crusades impacted Europe both negative and positively in a number of ways. It also has left a lasting impact on the outside world. The First Crusade was propelled at the Levant with purpose of safeguarding Christians and…

village yearning for absolution constitute the majority of life for Native Americans dealing with Spanish rule in the America’s. Dating back to 1492, when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella trounced over the last Muslim stronghold within the Iberian Peninsula, Christopher Columbus embarked on a journey to look for the Indies with three ships. However, mistakenly, he landed on the island of San Salvador and encountered a peaceful fishing community. No one knew that this would be the start of…

people and their homelands. Another modern country, Sudan, derives its name from “Bilād as-Sūdan” which means “land of the blacks” and in medieval times referred to the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. As Africans moved to Europe, specifically the Iberian peninsula, the concept of the “moor” was adopted, a word that persisted and made its way into the subtitle of a Shakespeare tragedy. In Cairo, black and white soldiers were garrisoned separately, leading to the “Battle of the Blacks”…

elder.” Muhammad used fear to convince possible converts that if you did not follow God and His Apostle or profess to the Islamic faith, you would be punished. Caliphs of Islam used this tactic universally as they conquered peoples from the Iberian Peninsula to Asia. Muhammad promised his followers“Ye shall do battle with them, or they shall profess Islam… whosoever shall obey God and His Apostle, He shall bring him into the gardens of [Paradise]; but whosoever shall turn back, He will punish…

2/10/2016 Dr. E. Redwine Reconciliation of Greek Philosophy and Monotheistic Religions “On July 19, 711, an army of Arabs and Berbers unified under the Islamic Umayyad caliphate landed on the Iberian Peninsula” (M 'Bow 2). Over the next several decades, through diplomacy and warfare, they brought the entire peninsula under Islamic control. The new territories, were referred to as al-Andalus. This region of southern Europe produced a wealth of great thinkers which would influence the…