Colonizations 1

Mappemundi

World map in latin, 13th-14th century, oriented to the east, strange lands and monstrous humans, medieval concepts of secular and spiritual time and space, knowledge of ancient geography, Europe,

Prester John

Christian Emperor of India who appears in Sir John Mandeville’s Tales, in India, late 1300s, represents how Europeans saw people from the East

Nahua Encyclopedia / Florentine Codex

Anthropological record of culture, flora, and fauna of the Nahua; written by Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagun; written in Colegio de Santa Cruz north of Tenochtitlan in late 16th century; it is written in Nahuatl and documents images and POVs of the Mexica through the Conquest

Michel-Rolph Trouillot

(1949-2012) UChicago anthropologist who was born in Haiti and discussed historicity and planetary flows

Historicity

Thinking of history in terms of two sides: what happened vs what is said to have happened, by Michel-Rolphe Trouillot “The Power in the Story” 1995

Planetary flows

By Michel-Rolph Trouillot, he argues that from 1492-1945 there began momentous planetary flows that changed all of history that came after it, and we as modern audiences may not recognize the significance of the collisions of people, goods, and cultures from the first two centuries. “first moment of globality”/”momentum of change”

Where: the Atlantic/Europe/world

Sir John Mandeville

The author of Mandeville’s Tales, however he was thought not to be a real person but a figment of the author’s imagination. from late 1300s, he is though to be an Englishman, he is important because he was a likable narrator that delivered the common european sentiment of what was thought of the places far east

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

a novel written by sir john mandeville (not really) that dictates Sir John Mandeville’s travels into Asia. written in the late 1300s by an unknown european author; this informed how people thought of Asia and, broadly, other places outside of Europe and was thought to influence the wonders people expected to see when they first went to the New World (Colombus)

Ibn Battuta

Muslim traveler, travelled more than anyone else pre modern, wrote some descriptions of places he visited that we read; lived in the 1300s, was from Morocco; he traveled to Marrakush and Granada, which we discussed in class, was a Muslim POV compared to the European travelers we have discussed

Sangamentos

a prominent performance from the Kingdom of the Kongo that were military exercises for soldiers and were displays of power for the wealthy and allegiance to the Catholic Church after conversion; before late 15th century (European contact) and continued into 20th century) important bc an example of syncretism, or combining diff religious traditions and showed how Christianity fit into the Kongo’s preexisting spirituality and tradition

Spaces of correlation

how the Kongo elite created new Kongo Christian myths that merged and redeployed preexisting Catholic and Kongo lore; deployed by Kongo elites and Afonso; Kingdom of the Kongo; 15th-16th century; important bc establishes how Christianity was combined with Central African lore

Malinche / Malintzin / Doña Marina

Nahua interpreter for Hernan Cortes, mother of one of the first Mestizos; 1500-1529; she was an indigenous ally of Hernan Cortes, and while the significance of her role changes based on who tells the story (Nahua Codez vs Bernal Diaz) she is an important figure in the Conquest

al-Idrisi

Muslim scholar in King Roger 2 of Siciliy; completed the Book of Roger, where he claims to have constructed an atlas based on reliable sources commissioned by Roger; (1100-1165), Sicily; worked as a Muslim geographer for a European king, created one of the most influential atlases ever

Omar ibn Said

Muslim scholar that was enslaved and wrote about his life at the behest of his enslaver; (1770-1864); from modern-day Senegal, forced to go to US South; we learn not only the POV of someone enslaved, but also historicity in who gets to tell their tale, and who is forgotten by time

Casta Paintings

18th century; in line with the Enlightenment, casta paintings were attempts to cataloging and naming the different mixtures of races happening in the Americas/New Spain; they were popular in the Americas, sometimes viewed oddly by people in Spain; showed Spanish conceptions of race shifting over time

Limpieza de sangre

“purity of blood”, 16th-19th century, used in Mexico, used to refer to the status of having ancestry from people were or were not “Old Christians”; important because it was the Christian justification for discriminating against natives and Africans because they were New Christians/Muslims, but black blood was looked at like it was worse; they had limpieza certifications that were supposed to indicate their blood/racial purity

Nuremberg map of 1524

this is a map of Tenochtitlan; published in 1524; theorized to be originally of Indigenous authorship, but through European wood printings that got some details wrong and used for the purposes of cortes, has been though to be produced by Europeans; has concentric circles as is Aztec map making tradition, but captions in Latin likely written by Cortes to suit his purposes

Afonso

(1456-1542); The second Christian king of the Kongo; took control from his brother after a civil war and made christianity the official religion of the Kongo; learned much from the Portugese and gave his kingdom protection through Catholicism; linked the Kongo origin story with Catholicism and his victory to ensure his power

Reconquista

Black Kings’ Festivals

Moctezuma / Montezuma

Emperor of the Mexica Empire when cortes arrived; captured and killed by Cortes when he seized Tenochtitlan; 1466-1520; he was involved in one of the most heinous language barriers possible and represented Mexica might

Requirement / Requerimiento

The requirement of 1524 made it so that, technically before, the conquistadors began their conquest, they would read it to the indigenous peoples whose lands they were taking to submit to them, and if they did not, they would be met with force; this is a trend of using Catholic theology to justify their colonization, however it also represents the miscommunication between the groups, because they read it in Spanish away from the natives, so they could not have known what they were saying

Bernal Díaz

conquistador and soldier for hernan cortes who later wrote about the Conquest from his perspective; (1492-1584), from Spain; tells us the European perspective of the Conquest, which we can contrast to the Florentine Codex to understand the different perspective (and potential lies) of the Conquistadors

Nzinga a Nkuwu / João I

first Christian king of the Kongo and father of Afonso; (1440-1509); was king when Portugese sailors arrived and voluntarily converted to Catholicism (but not his Kingdom)

Portolan maps

13th-16th century, usually from mediterranean (italy, spain, portugal, arab); significant because we don’t really know how they developed, as the oldest ones we have are already pretty accurate, were for practical use by sailors and had accurate coastlines, but also had illustrations similar to T and O maps; has many rhumb lines that signify the directions from a sailors compass, instrumental in Portuguese expansion to Africa

T&O maps

represents Africa, Europe, and Asia as a circle with Jerusalem in the center; 7th-14th century; European, very Christian, showed how people thought of the world, biblical places appeared with real ones; Asia usually as big as Africa and Europe combined

Juan de la Cosa Map of the World 1500

first known map that showed the New World, equator, and Tropic of Cancer, portolan chart but also Ptolemaic mapping NOT mappaemundi, why: earliest surviving representation of the Americas, probably Spanish/Mediterranean

al-Idrisi’s Tabula Rogeriana

The Book of Roger; an atlas commissioned by King Roger 2 of Sicily and done by Muhammad al Idrisi, a Muslim scholar; made in Sicily; 1154; work of a Muslim scholar for a european ruler, combined different map making traditions from the European and Islamic worlds, done with scientific progress in mind (as many maps at the time were fraught with hearsay and inaccurate descriptions of other places); Muslim scholar promoting his Christian ruler