MEDIEVAL SPAIN.

The Muslims invaded the Iberian Peninsula in the year 711, less than a hundred years after the death of the Prophet Mahomet, during which time his followers had expanded east of the Arabian Peninsula and west into northern Africa. A narrow body of water, the Straight of Gibraltar, separated Africa from Europe. Once they crossed the Straight of Gibraltar, they fought their way north, defeating the Christian kingdoms until they reached Gaul (France) and were deterred from further invasions at the battle of Poitiers in 733, by Charles Martel, who supposedly acquired his name (Martillo) on account of this victory. Muslims remained in Iberia during the next seven hundred years, creating great centers of civilization, especially in southern Spain, which they named Al Andaluz. Their civilization influenced directly or indirectly Spanish culture and although resistance by Christian rulers began in 718 and lasted as long as the invaders remained in Spain, at times they coexisted peacefully. We refer to this period in the history of Spain as the RECONQUEST. A frontier of war divided Christians from Muslims which did not deter them from collaborating in cultural endeavors. At the city of Toledo, along with Jewish scholars who had also settled in Spain, members of these three cultures came together to translate the writings of the great thinkers of Antiquity, reacquainting Europe with long lost ideas that eventually shaped its societies during the Renaissance. In 1492, the year that Europe discovered America (which of course had been discovered thousands of years earlier by hunter-gatherers who crossed the Straight of Behring separating Asia from the new continent), the Muslims were expelled from the city of Granada, their last stronghold, as was also the Jewish population from elsewhere in Spain. A marriage between Fernando and Isabella, which was kept secret for fear of opposition by the nobility, gave rise to the process of nation building in Spain by uniting the Kingdoms of Castille and Aragon. The royal couple were given the right of patronage or control over the Church (patronato) by the Pope as well as the titles of Catholic King and Queen, since they defended the faith against infidels (the Moors).. After Columbus claimed the New World on behalf of the Catholic Monarchs, Spain was transformed into a world empire. Her realms included the Kingdom of Naples, the Indies, as America was called, and the Philippines. When the Catholic Monarchs fifteen year old grandson, a Habsburg on his fathers side, ascended the throne in 1515 as Charles the First of Span and Fifth of Germany, the empire added the Habsburg possessions in Europe: part of Germany, Austria and Flandes (The Neatherlands and Belgium). It was claimed that the sun never set in the Spanish Empire!. It is important for us to recognize that many practices and institutions brought to Americaby the Conquistadors were the result of prior experience during the Reconquest, and we shall identify only the most important: 1) The Encomienda system, NEVER a land grant but a grant of tributaries by the Crown (Moors in Spain and Indians in America). The Encomendero had the obligation to teach the Church doctrine to his tributaries and defend them in case of attack.

2) Neither the wars of the Reconquest or the wars of conquest in America were fought by AN ARMY OF PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS, but rather private individuals who established a Compania, usually though not necessarily led by hidalgos, or members of the lower nobility. The participants established a partnership through which they would acquire arms, horses and men, while in exchange they were promised by the King titles of nobility, such as "adelantado", the privilege to establish cities which bestowed great honor on them and their descendants, the right to assign encomiendas and other benefits.. This agreement was called a capitulacin and this is precisely what Francisco Pizarro did after his first voyage of reconnaissance to the coast of Peru in 1525. He went to Madrid to negotiate with the King and sign the capitulacin on behalf of the partnership that had been established with Diego de Almagro and Hernando de Luque in Panama So we can say that the Conquest of America was a mixed venture in which both private persons (conquistadors) and the Crown participated3) As stated, very few of those who participated were soldiers, and definitely NONE or very few were freed prisoners, as rumors would have it, but rather artisans, peasants, or impoverished members of the lower nobility. Spoils of the conquest were divided according to their rank: caballeras, a larger measure of land, to caballeros ( those who could ride horses), and peonas a small measure of land, to peones, or foot soldiers, and of course one fith of the booty for the King. Since the Crown distrusted the Conquistadors, royal officers would always tread along, as well as members of the Church. 4) Before waging war on the Indians, the priest or a an officer had to read the REQUERIMIENTO to the natives, a document which stated that from thereon the land belonged to the Catholic Monarchs and that no harm would be inflicted on them if they accepted as legitimate rulers the king and queen of Spain, and Christianity as the true faith. This is precisely what happened in Cajamarca (Peru) when Atahualpa was captured. Father Valverde was the first to approach the Inca with a Bible in his hand, which the Inca immediately threw to the floor, signaling the need for the Spanish to attack. Interestingly this document was inspired by a practice used by the Muslims in their Yihads, or Holy Wars, except that they did not threaten to attack but to collect tribute on those who would not accept their religion and their rule. Why was this document created? Just wars (la Guerra justa) could only be waged against infidels. The Indians were NOT infidels but heathens, since they had not rejected Christianity (had never heard of it) as the moors had. By reciting the Requerimiento before attacking, Spanish jurists and theologias believed they gave the natives the opportunity to accept the true faith and the rule of the monarchs. If they chose not to and attacked, they immediately became infidels and the war was just. Of course the Indians did not know what was going on since the requerimiento was recited in Spanish. 5) Spain was a post-medieval society and by the time it colonized America, Renaissance values as described above had not yet taken root, therefore the culture and institutions they brought to America reflected a post-medieval culture, as well as values and practices derived from seven hundred years of warfare! The Conquistadors were not settlers and did not attempt to establish roots anywhere in America. They sought honor, glory and wealth, after which they desired to return to Spain. Few of them did so because so many of them died fighting not against the Indians but against each other, as in the Civil Wars in Peru. This is NOT to deny that Renaissance values crossed the Atlantic and made their way to America, mostly through the

efforts of clergymen, such as Fray Bartolome de las Casas and Fray Domingo de Santo Tomas, who actively pursued the welfare of the native population. Such was also the case in Spain at the University of Salamanca, where clergymen as Father Victoria and Father Mariana questioned the right of the Crown to appropriate for itself a continent that was already inhabited. 6) Most importantly, the Conquistadors despised manual labor and sought lifestyles appropriate to a noble status, even if in Spain they were impoverished peasants or artisans before arriving in America. 7) In her colonies, Spain attempted to impose a society of orders (estamentos), as was the case in feudal Europe. Remember that feudalism divided societies into three orders: those who fight (the nobles), those who pray (the clergy), and those who work (the peasants). But the colonial population was also divided according to ethnicity, with Spanish and creoles at the top, Indians at the bottom, and mixed bloods such as mestizos, zambos, mulattoes in between. Please go to the Caste System in the table of contents to see paintings depicting the different castes in New Spain (Mexico) 8) The Spanish were staunch Catholics, their religion strengthened by seven hundred years of fighting infidels. As we shall later see, Spain did not go through the Reformation that swept Europe in the sixteenth century. We inherited from Spain a type of governance where there was NO separation between church and state. We shall next review the antecedents of the Reformation and England, the other colonizing power contributing to the development of the Atlantic region. Isabella of Castile