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• 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 & AuthorityPico:•Man is capable of self-control & purification•Moral philosophy & dialectic•Vegetable, animal or angel?

Machiavelli:•People suck•Prince should study history & military science •Prince should be like fox and lion

But who gets to count as human? Are certain types of humans just naturally more bestial? And what would

Machiavelli say about Spanish colonization?

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

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

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

Columbus’s Routes

Amerigo Vespucci

Waldseemuller Map

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.

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.

The Requirement (1512-1573)

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

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)

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

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; the first study of American geography and culture

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

•No law•No feeling•No govt

•No settlement•DESERVE

SUBJUGATION BY FORCE

• use of signs•Form of govt•Settlement in

towns• need strong authority for conversion

COMPLETE USE OF NATURAL & RIGHT

REASON THUS RIGHT TO

CONVERT ALL OTHERS

irrational savage

noble savage

CIV

ILIZA

TIO

NR

EA

SO

N &

PA

SS

ION

Other vs SelfCannibalism in Brazil in 1557 as alleged by Hans Staden

1520 painting of Isabella of Spain with the Virgin and Christ Child

CURSE OF THE ADMIRALThey 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

To Utopia and Beyond…1. How does More’s Utopians compare to

Columbus and Vespucci’s descriptions of the people of the new world?

2. Would Thomas More be on Team Pico or Team Machiavelli? Why or why not?

3. What seems to be the key to the perfect society for More? Why?

4. Does More convince you that a perfectly equal society is possible? Why or why not?