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Announcements. Essay prompts! Handouts on mechanics, Thesis statements, counterarguments, and quotations Don ’ t procrastinate! 24 hr turnaround on email questions Office hrs on Wed 9:45 to 10:45. Lecture 3: The New World. Human Nature & Authority. Machiavelli: People suck

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Announcements

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  1. Announcements • Essay prompts! • Handouts on mechanics, Thesis statements, counterarguments, and quotations • Don’t procrastinate! • 24 hr turnaround on email questions • Office hrs on Wed 9:45 to 10:45

  2. Lecture 3: The New World

  3. Human Nature & Authority • Machiavelli: • People suck • Prince should study history & military science • Prince should be like fox and lion Pico: • Man is capable of self-control & purification • Moral philosophy & dialectic • Vegetable, animal or angel? But who gets to count as human? Are certain types of humans just naturally more bestial? And what would Machiavelli say about Spanish colonization?

  4. Machiavelli on Colonization “…men must be either pampered or crushed, because they can get revenge for small injuries but not for grievous ones… If, however, instead of establishing settlements the prince sends in troops… [t]he prince does far more injury,… and everybody is turned into an enemy” (ch 3) Colonization  ideal and real collide

  5. Christopher Columbus(1451 – May 20, 1506) • Born in Genoa, Italy • 1st voyage = Aug 3, 1492 • The Bahamas sighted Oct. 12 • 2nd voyage = Sept 24, 1493 • Slaughter of native Taino people of Hispanola (present-day Dominican Reupulic and Haiti) • 3rd Voyage = May 30, 1498 • Arrested by Spain for tyranny upon his arrival home • 4th Voyage = May 11, 1502 • - Stranded in Jamaica for a year

  6. The Admiral’s Letter • written Feb 15, 1493 • Luis Sant Angel, Isabel’s financial minister • highly circulated letter • primary concern = justifying expedition • natives = • naked, without use of iron or steel • “incurably timid” • irrationally generous • “senseless brutes” • “very subtle wit… who give a marvelously good account of everything” • women work harder than the men • selective polygamy • pros for colonization  fertility of land, GOLD!, slaves • cons  people with tails, Amazons, cannibals

  7. Columbus’s Routes

  8. Amerigo Vespucci

  9. Waldseemuller Map

  10. Vespucci’s letter • Terrestrial Paradise- incredibly abundant land • no laws, no religion • no king, no justice • no private property, only communal dwelling • no knowledge of metal work • cannibals! • piercings of bone but do not value gold • polygamous • longevity of life • very warlike for no reason (see p 22) • incredibly healthy environment • CONTRAST BETWEEN PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT.

  11. Whose New World? • Line of Demarcation drawn by Pope Alexander VI in 1493: Spain gets west of the line while Portuguese gets east of the line. • Treaty of Tordesillas shifted line in 1494 thereby giving Portugese claim to Brazil.

  12. The Requirement (1512-1573)

  13. Logic of the Requirement • there is a God • God created the World • God is known through Christianity • God (through JC) gave St. Peter the keys to heaven and rule of earth • Peter was first Pope • All other Popes have his authority • Current Pope gave authority over this land to Spanish

  14. The Reconquista “Fight those who believe not in Allah… nor acknowledge the religion of truth… until they pay jizya [poll tax] with willing submission and feel themselves subdued” Q. 9:29 “When thou drawst nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, that all the people that are found therein shall become tributary unto thee, and shall serve thee. And if it will make no peace with thee,…thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth, but thou shalt utterly destroy them” (Deut 20:10-16)

  15. Bartolome de las CasasAug 24, 1484 – July 17,1566 • Friend & biographer of Columbus • 1507 - Ordained Dominican priest and granted land & native workers • 1514 – renunciation of encomienda • 1516 – named “Protector of the Indians” • 1542 – New Laws of the Indies passed

  16. Jose de Acosta1539 – Feb 15,1600 • Became Jesuit priest in 1553 • Traveled to South America in 1572; remained for 15 years • Returned to Spain in 1587 and published Historia natural y moral de las indias; thefirst study of American geography and culture

  17. Acosta’s Hierarchy of Peoples • Stable state • use of letters • “do not diverge greatly from right reason” and • natural law • do not deserve conversion by force; only reason COMPLETE USE OF NATURAL & RIGHT REASON THUS RIGHT TO CONVERT ALL OTHERS EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION Chinese & Japanese • use of signs • Form of govt • Settlement in towns • need strong authority for conversion • No law • No feeling • No govt • No settlement • DESERVE SUBJUGATION BY FORCE Mexicans & Peruvians CANIBALS (& Cattle)

  18. CIVILIZATION irrational savage noble savage REASON & PASSION

  19. Other vs Self Cannibalism in Brazil in 1557 as alleged by Hans Staden 1520 painting of Isabella of Spain with the Virgin and Christ Child

  20. CURSE OF THE ADMIRAL They say it came first from Africa, carried in the screams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Tainos, uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door that was cracked open in the Antilles. Fuku Americanus, or more coloquially, fuku – generally, a curse or a doom of some kind; specifically the Curse and Doom of the New World. Also called the fuku of the Admiral because the Admiral was both its midwife and one of its great European victims; despite “discovering” the New World the Admiral died miserable and syphilitic, hearing (dique) divine voices. In Santo Domingo, […] the Admiral’s name has become synonymous with both kinds of fuku, little and large; to say his name aloud or even to hear it is to invite calamity on the heads of you and yours. - Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

  21. To Utopia and Beyond… • How does More’s Utopians compare to Columbus and Vespucci’s descriptions of the people of the new world? • Would Thomas More be on Team Pico or Team Machiavelli? Why or why not? • What seems to be the key to the perfect society for More? Why? • Does More convince you that a perfectly equal society is possible? Why or why not?

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