1532: Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro executes the Inca emperor Atahualpa, conquering Peru.
1857: During the Indian Mutiny (Rebellion), Lucknow is relieved and a record 24 Victoria Crosses are awarded.
1920: The last 'White Russian' troops leave Sebastopol, ending the Russian civil war with a Bolshevik victory.
Introduction
'Everything that has happened since the marvellous discovery of the Americas has been so extraordinary that the whole story remains quite incredible to anyone who has not experienced it at first hand. Indeed it seems to overshadow all the deeds of famous people of the past, no matter how heroic, and to silence all talk of other wonders of the world.' - Bartolome de las Casas
It is amazing to think that when Bartolome de las Casas wrote those words in 1542, barely 20 years had passed since the discovery and conquest of the Aztec world in Mexico. It was only three years since the defeat of the Great Revolt of the Incas in the High Andes of Peru. At that moment, in fact, Manco Inca still controlled an independent Inca state in the jungles of Vilcabamba. During the same years in which Cortes overthrew the Aztecs, Magellan circumnavigated the globe.
...has history, and our ways of seeing the world, ever moved so fast as it did in the 16th century?
For the first time, people discovered the true scale and shape of the earth. We are blasé about the pace of change in our own day, but has history, and our ways of seeing the world, ever moved so fast as it did in the 16th century? The conquest of much of the New World by Spanish conquistadors during those few years was surely one of history's turning points. Indeed, as Karl Marx and Adam Smith claimed, perhaps it was the greatest event in history. There were many who thought so at the time.
'When has it ever happened, either in ancient or modern times, that such amazing exploits have been achieved? Over so many climes, across so many seas, over such distances by land, to subdue the unseen and unknown? Whose deeds can be compared with those of Spain? Not even the ancient Greeks and Romans.' - Francisco Xerez, Pizarro's secretary, in his Report on the Discovery of Peru
The conquistador-turned-historian Pedro de Cieza de Leon agreed:
'When I set out to write for the people of today and of the future, about the conquest and discovery that our Spaniards made here in Peru, I could not but reflect that I was dealing with the greatest matters one could possibly write about in all of creation as far as secular history goes. Where have men ever seen the things they have seen here? And to think that God should have permitted something so great to remain hidden from the world for so long in history, unknown to men, and then let it be found, discovered and won all in our own time!' - Chronicle of Peru
TopColombian exchange
Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico The long-term effects of the Conquest are no less fascinating. The 'Columbian Exchange' as modern historians call it, brought the potato, the pineapple, the turkey, dahlias, sunflowers, magnolias, maize, chillies and chocolate across the Atlantic. On the other hand, tens of millions died in the pandemics of the 16th century, victims of smallpox, measles and the other diseases brought by Europeans (and don't forget that the African slave trade was begun by the Europeans, to replace the work force they had decimated).
Then, after the defeat and extermination of the native societies, came the arrival of the European settler class and the appropriation of the native lands and natural resources. From this process has emerged the modern US empire. The effects on the economies of the world were no less marked as it shifted the centre of gravity of civilisation to the countries of the Atlantic seaboard and their offshoots in the New World. However, the story is also one of history's greatest adventures. The opening up of the continent involved unparalleled journeys of exploration with almost unbelievable bravery, endurance, cruelty and greed.
For instance, Almagro's 6,000km expedition to explore the wastes of Chile, or de Soto's fateful three-year march through a dozen US states - a tale only now being untangled by US historians. Then there are the extraordinary explorations across the Andes, deep into Venezuela and Colombia in the 1530s, journeys which gave birth to the alluring legend of El Dorado. It was the dream of El Dorado that fired Gonzalo Pizarro's 18-month expedition across the Ecuadorian Andes: 'the worst journey ever in the Indies', it was said. However, it led by accident to the discovery and descent of the Amazon. When all is said and done, it is no exaggeration to say that these are some of the greatest land explorations in history.
It was a meeting of civilisations which previously had no idea of each other's existence.
Moreover, this is a story of the reshaping of mental landscapes. The discovery of the New World after all was a 'Close Encounter of the Third Kind'. It was a meeting of civilisations which previously had no idea of each other's existence. One fascinating aspect of this encounter is how they responded to each other; how each categorised the other and read the signs. It has often been claimed, for example, that the Aztecs were fatally disabled in their encounter with the 'Other' because the conceptual tools of their civilisation did not enable them properly to categorise the aliens who had landed.
As a matter of fact, there is evidence that some of the Aztec leadership correctly assessed the Spaniards as foreign invaders. (We would surely categorise them as international terrorists today.) To an extent, this idea is confirmed by the Aztec version of events as collected by the Franciscan Bernadino de Sahagun as part of his monumental 'History of New Spain'. This is perhaps one of the greatest of all works of historiography, and a work that rebuts the still commonly held view that this story can only be told from the Spanish side.
1857: During the Indian Mutiny (Rebellion), Lucknow is relieved and a record 24 Victoria Crosses are awarded.
1920: The last 'White Russian' troops leave Sebastopol, ending the Russian civil war with a Bolshevik victory.
Introduction
'Everything that has happened since the marvellous discovery of the Americas has been so extraordinary that the whole story remains quite incredible to anyone who has not experienced it at first hand. Indeed it seems to overshadow all the deeds of famous people of the past, no matter how heroic, and to silence all talk of other wonders of the world.' - Bartolome de las Casas
It is amazing to think that when Bartolome de las Casas wrote those words in 1542, barely 20 years had passed since the discovery and conquest of the Aztec world in Mexico. It was only three years since the defeat of the Great Revolt of the Incas in the High Andes of Peru. At that moment, in fact, Manco Inca still controlled an independent Inca state in the jungles of Vilcabamba. During the same years in which Cortes overthrew the Aztecs, Magellan circumnavigated the globe.
...has history, and our ways of seeing the world, ever moved so fast as it did in the 16th century?
For the first time, people discovered the true scale and shape of the earth. We are blasé about the pace of change in our own day, but has history, and our ways of seeing the world, ever moved so fast as it did in the 16th century? The conquest of much of the New World by Spanish conquistadors during those few years was surely one of history's turning points. Indeed, as Karl Marx and Adam Smith claimed, perhaps it was the greatest event in history. There were many who thought so at the time.
'When has it ever happened, either in ancient or modern times, that such amazing exploits have been achieved? Over so many climes, across so many seas, over such distances by land, to subdue the unseen and unknown? Whose deeds can be compared with those of Spain? Not even the ancient Greeks and Romans.' - Francisco Xerez, Pizarro's secretary, in his Report on the Discovery of Peru
The conquistador-turned-historian Pedro de Cieza de Leon agreed:
'When I set out to write for the people of today and of the future, about the conquest and discovery that our Spaniards made here in Peru, I could not but reflect that I was dealing with the greatest matters one could possibly write about in all of creation as far as secular history goes. Where have men ever seen the things they have seen here? And to think that God should have permitted something so great to remain hidden from the world for so long in history, unknown to men, and then let it be found, discovered and won all in our own time!' - Chronicle of Peru
TopColombian exchange
Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico The long-term effects of the Conquest are no less fascinating. The 'Columbian Exchange' as modern historians call it, brought the potato, the pineapple, the turkey, dahlias, sunflowers, magnolias, maize, chillies and chocolate across the Atlantic. On the other hand, tens of millions died in the pandemics of the 16th century, victims of smallpox, measles and the other diseases brought by Europeans (and don't forget that the African slave trade was begun by the Europeans, to replace the work force they had decimated).
Then, after the defeat and extermination of the native societies, came the arrival of the European settler class and the appropriation of the native lands and natural resources. From this process has emerged the modern US empire. The effects on the economies of the world were no less marked as it shifted the centre of gravity of civilisation to the countries of the Atlantic seaboard and their offshoots in the New World. However, the story is also one of history's greatest adventures. The opening up of the continent involved unparalleled journeys of exploration with almost unbelievable bravery, endurance, cruelty and greed.
For instance, Almagro's 6,000km expedition to explore the wastes of Chile, or de Soto's fateful three-year march through a dozen US states - a tale only now being untangled by US historians. Then there are the extraordinary explorations across the Andes, deep into Venezuela and Colombia in the 1530s, journeys which gave birth to the alluring legend of El Dorado. It was the dream of El Dorado that fired Gonzalo Pizarro's 18-month expedition across the Ecuadorian Andes: 'the worst journey ever in the Indies', it was said. However, it led by accident to the discovery and descent of the Amazon. When all is said and done, it is no exaggeration to say that these are some of the greatest land explorations in history.
It was a meeting of civilisations which previously had no idea of each other's existence.
Moreover, this is a story of the reshaping of mental landscapes. The discovery of the New World after all was a 'Close Encounter of the Third Kind'. It was a meeting of civilisations which previously had no idea of each other's existence. One fascinating aspect of this encounter is how they responded to each other; how each categorised the other and read the signs. It has often been claimed, for example, that the Aztecs were fatally disabled in their encounter with the 'Other' because the conceptual tools of their civilisation did not enable them properly to categorise the aliens who had landed.
As a matter of fact, there is evidence that some of the Aztec leadership correctly assessed the Spaniards as foreign invaders. (We would surely categorise them as international terrorists today.) To an extent, this idea is confirmed by the Aztec version of events as collected by the Franciscan Bernadino de Sahagun as part of his monumental 'History of New Spain'. This is perhaps one of the greatest of all works of historiography, and a work that rebuts the still commonly held view that this story can only be told from the Spanish side.