History of Aboriginal America After 1492
1. 300 Spartans Fought to Protect It
The Standard Model of history.
“Some cats got it” – challenging Eurocentric history.
Travelers’ Tales. Europeans were not the only travelers.
Stumbling Upon a Continent. Beringia, and the early settlement of the Americas.
Or Maybe They Floated There on a Log. How Eurocentric scholars address accomplishments by other peoples.
3. Chronicle of the Destruction of the Indies
From Prince Henry the Navigator, Columbus, through to 1517.
1493 – The Santángel Letter – First News of the New World
Columbus reports on the Indies.
The Pope Grants the Americas to Spain: Inter Caetera, May 4, 1493
World Council of Churches Renounces Doctrine of Discovery
[17 February 2012]
Preferring Hell to the Spanish
Bartolomé de las Casas tells a pointed tale of atrocity and Spanish greed.
Aztecs at the Court of Charles V
4. Columbus & the Race for the Americas
Hero. The myth and reality ofColumbus.
Ocean Crossings. How Europeans crossed the ocean to theAmericas first.
5. Isabella’s Loophole & the Mind-Tricks of the Colonizer
The Birth of Colonial Ideology.
Cognitive Dissonance: Inventing Racism in the New World.
The encomienda slave system receives the sanction of law.
By reading out this document, the Spanish purported to create legal claims to Aboriginal lands.
6. Papal Generosity, the Laws of Burgos & More
The Requirement, the Laws of Burgos and the Papal Donation of 1493. The Inter Caetera and the incomienda system enshrined.
Francisco de Vitoria & the Rights of the Indians:
Founding documents of international law and Aboriginal rights
1. De Indis de Jure Belli, 1532
Aboriginal people were rightful owners of their own land.
How the Spanish might acquire title to American lands.
7. The Birth of Aboriginal Rights
The Father of International Law & the Rights of Indigenous Americans. In 1532, Francisco de Vitoria addresses aboriginal rights, founds international law.
Continuing the discussion of aboriginal rights by Francisco de Vitoria.
Sublimu Dei, 1537: “that the Indians are truly men”
Papal bull recognizing Aboriginal humanity and right to freedom.
9. Bartolomé de las Casas, Defender of the Indians
10. Spain and the “Black Legend”
Spain’s reputation for colonial brutality is well-deserved, as Las Casas makes clear, but it’s a reputation they deserve equally with other colonial powers.
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