Early Modern Spain and the Americas
King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile were known as the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. Their marriage on October 19, 1469 and joint rule led to unification of Spain at the time. With their marriage, the Catholic Monarchs wanted to restore the royal authority of Spain and to convert the country of Spain to Catholicism. This led to the creation of the Inquisition in Castile but in the kingdom of Aragon, the Inquisition had already existed since the mid 13th century. Because Ferdinand and Isabella desired the conversion of Spain, they began a series of campaigns known as the Granada War, which was paid to the pope at the time, Pope Sixtus IV. The pope implemented taxes that would finance the war. The fall of Granada happened in January of 1492 in which Ferdinand and Isabella made advances in their cause for religious unification which involved the expulsion of Jews and Muslims who refused to convert to Christianity. The Jews that had been “converted” to Catholicism were not forced to be exiled, but if they were found practicing Judaism or even just accused then there would be severe punishments such as imprisonment, interrogation through torture, or even death. After a great number of revolts against the forced conversions of the Jews, Ferdinand and Isabella eventually ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Spain in the same year, 1492. Again the “converted” Jews were not forced to be exiled but punishments for still practicing Judaism were still the same and might even be worse.
During this time, the Inquisition’s task was to seek out those who have not been converted or are secretly practicing either Judaism or Islam. Due to the revolts that happened, Ferdinand and Isabella became skeptical of certain buildings which led to the investigation of many buildings that were already built or currently in construction to see if they were secretly worship centers or enemy hideouts. One person that was tasked with enforcing the activities of the Inquisition was the Commander-in-Chief of the frontiers of Navarre, Don Juan de Ribera. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sent him a mandatory letter asking him to investigate a building which someone regarded as Count Salinas was constructing in the boundary land between Castile and Navarre.
In this autographed letter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, they are questioning Don Juan de Ribera’s actions regarding the building that he was tasked to investigate. The Catholic Monarchs received a letter from Count Salinas with a complaint that Don Juan de Ribera ordered the stopping of labor on that building. This autographed letter asks Don Juan to inform King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella whether he stopped the building’s construction because it was a fortress or not in order for the Catholic Monarchs to take appropriate action against Count Salinas and the building. This letter reveals the uncertainty of the monarchs because of the revolts that were going on at the time and the lack of religious unity that was happening so they had to send someone to investigate buildings that were being constructed to make sure it wasn’t an enemy fort. This action also shows the lack of trust that the monarchs had for some of the people living in their kingdom.
Along with the historical background of the letter, the letter is also significant because of the several cultural aspects that the document relates to Spain during the time. These cultural aspects can be broken up into four main categories: paleographic, diplomatic, philological, and historical. In the Paleographic aspect of the letter, the handwriting of the letter is an example of the courtly or “cortesana” style. This specific style of writing was used by the royalty for writing letters or important documents, and was common during the late fourteenth century through the first half of the sixteenth century. Under the Diplomatic aspect of the letter, this letter is classified under the name of royal missive because of its specific formatting such as the cross at the top of the letter and the expression “El rrey e la rreyna”. This expression means that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella mutually agree to writing and sending the letter within the government of the kingdom. After the message, the signatures of the Catholic Monarchs were signed after the date and the phrases “Yo la rrey'' and “Yo la rreyna.” The letter was also signed by Fernand Alvarex de Toledo, who was a royal secretary to show the authenticity of the document. The Philological aspect of the letter was the text within the letter. The letter was written in the old Spanish that was primarily used in the fifteenth century which is considered to be an example of the philological and linguistic characteristics of the Castilian language during that period of time. This is known through the construction of text, the style, and the vocabulary, and this is important because the reader can get a sense of how the Spanish language was written and spoken in the fifteenth century. Finally, the Historical aspect of the letter is the significance of the year that it was written. The letter was written on July 27, 1492 and this was one of the most important years in the history of Spain. During this year, Granada fell to Spain in January, the Jews were exiled from Spain in July, the Gramática de la Lengua Castellana which was a book explaining the Spanish language and its rules was written in August, and Christopher Columbus discovered the New World in October. During the time of revolt in Spain, especially near the boundary of Navarre, the Catholic Monarchs wrote several letters to Don Juan de Ribera, the Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish troops on the border between Castile and Navarre, to investigate and ease the revolts that were happening in the region. This was one of the letters that were preserved, and it is significant because of the minor details we can learn about Spain during this time such as the language, handwriting, and context in which the letters were written.
- John Le
For my special collections piece, I have chosen to write about a page from Antonio de Solís y Ribadeneyra’s Historia de la conquista de México, población y progresos de la América septentrional, conocida por el nombre de Nueva España. This translates to “the History of the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards”. In this publication, Solís details a three year period of Spain’s conquest and colonization of Mexican territory. It begins with Cortes’ appointment as governor of “New Spain of the Ocean Sea” and describes his many sieges over that period of time. Published in 1684, the Historia de la Nueva España immediately became recognized as a classic and grew incredibly popular throughout Western Europe. It was one of the first historical accounts of European colonization of the Americas and served as an important source up until the early nineteenth century. Unlike today, this account depicts Cortes in an extremely positive light while the injustices imposed upon the natives were hardly recognized. In the beginning chapter, the author applauds Cortes’ achievements by saying, “Whoever will confide the difficulties he overcame, and the battles he fought and won against an incredible superiority of numbers, must own him little inferior to the most celebrated heroes of antiquity”. This theme of mistelling history is consistent throughout the entire book and is likely one of the main sources that contributed to this misconstrued perception of American colonization that existed up until the 20th century.
Solís’ Historia de la conquista de México, población y progresos de la América septentrional, conocida por el nombre de Nueva España reflects course content through how it misrepresents the truth to fit the interests of the crown. This is quite similar to how “Juana la Loca” was incorrectly deemed as crazy and how Alfonso X’s public opinion on Jews and Moors was quite different from his private one. Solís’ book fits right into this category due to its narrow and biased perspective on the Cortes’ conquests. This approach to retelling history, completely biased and in favor of the powerful and dismissive of the story of the poor, conquered any other viewpoint that might have been right. This theme is consistent throughout many countries during the middle ages as the Church and individual rulers prioritized maintaining their own power and legacy over any responsibility to the people who they ruled. This twisted sense of priorities plagued the time period resulting in an extreme level of concentration of wealth that left a huge majority of ordinary people poor and uneducated. As discussed in class, the strong economy that was present during the 1300s and 1400s slowly disintegrated due to leaders who held values such as this.
I selected a title page (Source A) that includes vivid illustrations and references to the time period. The first part of the text at the center translates to “History of New Spain”, and also includes a nod to the author, Antonio de Solís. The most notable aspect of the page is a picture of a man surrounded by a wreath-like border. Based on how he looks and the context of the book, it is fair to assume that this individual is a Spanish Noble and relevant to the colonization efforts in some respect. Next to him are two females, one of which is naked and another that is fully clothed. The one with clothing, on the right, is labeled as “Hispaña” while the other one is “Nova Hispaña. This is a clear analogy to Spain's perspective on America at the time; it was an undiscovered land that was considered completely undeveloped compared to itself and the rest of the Western world. Next to the female figures are what look like eagles; the eagle on the side of “Hispañia” is seemingly older and bigger than the one on the side of “Nova Hispaña”. This furthers this idea that Spain viewed Mexico and the entire American continent as being completely new and untapped, when in fact there had been people living there for thousands of years before. This page is a clear representation of the idea mentioned in the paragraph above in that the depiction of America and its colonization by Spain is morphed and largely untrue.
If I had no prior knowledge of the time period and place from which this page was forged, I would be able to derive a number of core values that the society would likely have had. The first core value that is evident through this leaflet is the importance of royalty. The man in the center of the photo is obviously the centerpiece of the illustration and, based on his appearance, one can presume that he represents royalty of some sort. The fact that every other part of the page surrounds his face demonstrates the value that the society must have placed on its crown and leaders. Another value that one can derive from this page is art; the level of detail here is exquisite and exemplifies a culture that not only values art, but also promotes its creation. On top of this, based on the nature of the title, it is obvious that this society values history and storytelling; the amount of effort put into this page furthers this point. Considering the information in prior paragraphs, these three values portrayed in this leaflet are relatively accurate; Spain at the time did encapsulate these themes among many others.
As mentioned earlier, Historia de la conquista de México, población y progresos de la América septentrional, conocida por el nombre de Nueva España was one of the primary sources that historians used to understand the American colonization for hundreds of years after its creation. Despite its partially inaccurate content, it was still important in developing our modern understanding of that time period and the creation of modern America. I chose this individual page due to its fascinating design and detail; it truly shows how important the conquest of Mexico was seen throughout Spain.
- Erik Stein