Browsing by Subject "Spain -- Colonies -- America"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Nationalizing New World Knowledge: Natural History as a Tool of Empire in King Philip II's Spain
    (2020) Albrecht, Cameron; Krippner, James; Saler, Bethel
    Upon inheriting the throne to Spain and its New World colonies in 1556, Philip II sought to expand his empire's presence in the Americas. Lacking the militaristic or political talents of his father Charles V, the last Holy Roman Empire, the newly crowned monarch explored other avenues of acquiring imperial power. Following the age old adage "Knowledge is power," Philip II devoted extensive Spanish resources to the study of natural history in the New World. The king enlisted Spanish scholars such as Juan López de Velasco, Francisco Hernández de Toledo and Sarmiento de Gamboa in the empirical description of Spain's holdings in the New World. Under the patronage of Philip II, the three scholars produced an unrivaled cache of knowledge regarding the New World's history across various disciplines: cosmography, botany and ethnography. Through his sponsorship of intellectual endeavors, Philip II fashioned himself as a philosopher-king reminiscent of Alexander the Great. However, his legacy extends far beyond this superficial label and shaped the discourse on Spain's intellectual traditions for centuries to come. Often relegated to the margins of discussions regarding European intellectualism, Spain's scientific endeavors merit further study. Philip II started Spain's retreat into intellectual isolationism as a defense mechanism against competing colonial powers. The natural histories compiled under Philip II's patronage permitted the weaponization of knowledge for the purpose of establishing authority in the New World. Seeking to protect this tool of empire from imperial rivals, namely England and France, Philip II instituted strict censorship policies regarding all knowledge of the Americas. With Spain's intellectual progress purposefully hidden from the rest of Europe, the country gained a reputation for supposed anti-intellectualism. However, Philip II's secrecy regarding Spain's knowledge of the New World enabled the Spanish Crown's establishment and maintenance of a dominating colonial presence in the Americas. This thesis examines the natural histories produced by López, Hernández and Sarmiento as calculated intellectual projects intended to solidify Spain's imperial presence in the New World.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Utopian Visions, Apocalyptic Dreams, and Indigenous Reactions: Feather Art and the Construction of a New Colonial Culture in Sixteenth-Century Michoacán
    (2019) Lehman, Steve; Saler, Bethel; Krippner, James
    Before the Spanish invasion of the 1520s, the feather artisans of the Purhépecha Empire in modern-day Michoacán crafted sacred objects that held value for their religious and social significance. By the 1550s and 1560s, however, Purhépecha featherworkers were producing elaborate mosaics depicting Christian iconography in a Renaissance style for use in new European contexts. Examining how the different inhabitants of sixteenth-century Mexico valued feathers and feather art is just one method of studying the dynamic cultures of New Spain, and how these cultures interacted with one another. The Purhépecha and other Mesoamerican indigenous societies valued feathers as highly sacred objects, going back generations before the Spanish conquest. Feathered items were reserved for the nobility, religious ceremony, ritual sacrifice, and war, all of which were intricately connected in indigenous societies before the arrival of the Spanish in the early sixteenth century. Franciscan friars such as the compiler of the Relación de Michoacán seemed to value feather art only insofar as it allowed other Franciscan missionaries to better understand Purhépecha culture, and thus facilitate the conversion of the indigenous population to Christianity in order to bring about the apocalypse as foreseen in the bible. Spanish colonial elites such as Bishop Vasco de Quiroga, one of the most powerful men in early colonial Michoacán, valued indigenous labor such as featherwork as a means to bring the indigenous population of New Spain closer to the Christian God. Through labor, prayer, and European-styled political organization, Quiroga attempted to implement a new, utopian society in the Lake Pátzcuaro region of Michoacán. Finally, religious figures such as the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas valued featherwork for its potential use in the Catholic Church. Many feathered objects created after the conquest were made specifically for Catholic contexts outside Mexico, intended to be worn or used by European clergy totally removed from their indigenous origins. From the initial Spanish contact with Mesoamerica in the 1520s to the consolidation of colonial power through the 1560s, indigenous art and labor practices were irrevocably changed by the forced shifting of power from indigenous to European elites. Examining the feather art of sixteenth-century Michoacán is just one method to measure these changes, and the ways that Spanish colonizers altered traditional indigenous art forms in order to represent entirely different values and motivations. Feather artisans were not without agency in this process, but Spanish colonialism forever altered the role and context of indigenous traditions such as featherwork for centuries to come.