America Past; Do2; Age of Discovery: Spain

[High pitched Tone, High pitched Tone]. [Lower pitchedTone, Tone, Tone]. [Lower pitched noise]. [Long pause. Short beep.] This Spanish study typifies the influence that the Spanish Empire

had on life in Spain. Spain had one of the largest empires of any European country. She influenced the rest of the world. But she was also influenced by her empire. Here you have Spanish leather, cordovan leather, hand tooled and gilded. You have an African ceiling, a Moorish ceiling. You have a chest covered with gold. Gold that they got from the New World. But there's a great contrast between life in Spain, life in Europe and life in the New World. We looked at that life briefly on the last program; the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas, the Indians of North America before the time of Columbus. Today I want to look really at two things: Europe before Columbus and the Spanish Empire in the New World, the Spanish Empire when it mixes with the culture of the Native American. When the Spanish discover the New World, that's a turning point in history. Obviously, the discovery of a new continent would

be a turning point. It marks the end of what we call the Middle Ages or medieval times and the beginning of modern times. Modern times is usually said to have begun around the year 1500, and 1492 is close enough to that. What was Europe like before Columbus came to the New World? Well, Europe was isolated. Most people didn't travel very far. If you tried to travel by sea to the north, you encountered the Vikings: great sailors, great merchants, great pirates. And you didn't go into the North Sea unless you were ready to take on the Vikings. And you didn't go into the Mediterranean Sea either, unless you were ready to take on the Moslems. The Moslems brag that the Mediterranean was their lake, That you couldn't float a plank of wood on it without their permission. So Europe is isolated; it's cut off from traveling to other places by water. But people in Europe are isolated from each other as well. The roads were

terrible. If you were brave enough to venture out, you ran the risk of being attacked by robbers, by unemployed laborers, displaced peasants. It simply wasn't worth the risk. Merchants just didn't see a big enough reward to justify taking the risk of those terrible roads with no bridges. A road system that was far worse than existed, say, during the Roman Empire. So the chances are you lived your life in some isolated little village. You were probably born, raised, married, and died within 10 miles of one spot. Now there's going to be a great change in that. That's what happens around the year 1500; this suddenly explodes. Let's look at the, really, the three major institutions of Europe prior to the Age of Discovery. One might be symbolized by the castle, the nobleman and his

castle and the serfs all working for him. Most of us would have been serfs in the Middle Ages, peasants. [Background music plays.] We would spend our lives in grueling labor. We lived on manors. A manor was simply a large, self-sufficient farm, and that's where you lived. You had your little hut over the. Little grass roof with a hole in the middle to let the smoke out and let the rain in, unfortunately. A dirt floor in the corner, maybe, with some husks over there, and that's where you slept. Outside were the pigs, chickens and children all mixed together. And that was home. That's all you need. [Music plays.] The lord of the manor, up in the castle, he didn't have it much better. Those are drafty, damp places. Big old hall, maybe the size of an auditorium. one fireplace and they're fighting the battle of the century to keep it warm. The French have a

little bit better idea of comfort than the English. Theirs were probably somewhat more comfortable. But it wasn't very pleasant. But the man in the castle runs your life. He is everything to you. You can't even leave that manor. You can't leave that farm without his permission. You can't get married without his permission. You work for him, and what does he do for you? Well, he lets you work for him. He keeps you alive. He can give you a job. He can't throw you out, either. That's the life on the manor and the castle. That's a small part of what we know as the feudal system. Feudalism. Well, there'd been another major institution during that period, well, the church. The Catholic Church. It was the only international organization in Europe.

A King might govern his country. The Nobleman up in his castle might govern just a few square miles around his castle. His peasants. But the Church, the power of the Church extended through every country. It was [Singing.] the only organization that even talked about decency and how you ought to conduct your life. Talked about doing something for the peasant. if not in this world, then in the next; put up with this one, and we'll promise you something much better in the next one, or much worse, as the case may be. The Church had great wealth. It could build a magnificent cathedral that dot the European countryside. Employs sculptors and other artists and masters of stained glass. That put together these master creations. The Church is something you have to think of when you think of Europe in the Middle Ages. It was the predominant organization. A third group was just beginning to make its appearance. That was the merchant class. The towns.

They died out pretty much since the fall of the Roman Empire. But just. now you're beginning to get the beginnings of merchants, towns, of people making things in cities. So ? you're ? before Columbus, you really can symbolize it with three things: a castle, with the nobleman and his peasants; the Church; and the townsmen. And it's that last [Music begins to play.] group that's going to get the desire to make more money, the desire to increase its wealth, that's going to contribute to the Age of Discovery. The question is how do you get from this isolated Europe to the Age of Discovery? What changes the setup, with the balance between town, Church and Feudalism? What suddenly causes Europe to begin

its expanding and get interested in exploration? Now, there are several factors there. One of them was a series of wars known as the Crusades, and it is not necessary to really know what the Crusades were. Actually, they were a series of wars over a 200-year period in which Europeans went down to the Near East to try to regain the Holy Land from the Moslems. The Crusades are important because it created the desire in the minds of Europeans to get to the Far East. When the Crusaders went to the Near East, they found certain products there. That were not very well known in Europe. If they were known at all, they were very expensive. For example, spices. Now why would they be so excited over spices? People don't get worked up over that today. Because most of their food is about semi-rotten, most of their meat. You either ate meat smoked or dried. There was no way to keep meat once it was killed,

right then or you smoked it or you dried it. There was no refrigeration except, of course, in the winter, you could put out on the ice. So it rotted quickly, it didn't taste too good. Spices you could put it over that; it would kill the taste. People wanted those things; they didn't like to eat rotten meat. But spice it up, it tastes better. They found those goods in the Near East. They wanted to get to those spices. Perfume. Perfume, well, you know what they would use it for. But in the Middle Ages, they didn't bathe very much. Some doctors actually said that bathing was injurious to your health. It softened your skin. It made you susceptible to disease. So in comes Prince Charming in his suit of armor stinking to high heaven. What does he do? He dumps the perfume over it. Let its stink out-stink your stink and everybody's happier. Women could use it too, with all their layers of petticoats and dresses and it was a real boon.

New types of cloth and dyes. Europeans generally wore wool, and they wore it the color that it was on the sheep, just kind of dirty off-white. Suddenly, they're bringing back muslin and other types of cloth in bright colors. Europeans wanted those things. And there are stories of even greater riches to be had. So the Crusades are significant because they create a desire to get to these new goods. Where were the new goods? They weren't in the Near East. That's not where they came from. They came from the Far East, from China, and the East Indies. So what Europeans want to do is get over there, and essentially in trying to get over there, they're going to bump into America. That's the tie-in between the Crusades and the Age of Discovery; in trying to get to the Far East, they start discovering things. What else made Europeans suddenly want to start exploring? Well, tales of people who had been there already to the Far East. Travelers' stories, like Marco

Polo. Marco Polo was Italian, went to China, stayed several years, came back, got thrown in jail. And while he was in jail, he wrote a book about his adventures, dictated it to his cellmate. Marco Polo was illiterate. Now the book was probably greatly exaggerated, or the stories in it. It may be that Marco Polo made things a little better than they were, and the cellmate thought, "Well, that's a good story, I'll make it better." And it was written out. It was the second book printed on the printing press. You know what the first one was. People read this book. They believed it. (The first book was the Bible, by the way.) You know, it doesn't make much difference what is actually true. It's what people believe is true that counts, and they believe all of that. Or they didn't believe at all. He told about a black liquid that would burn and black rocks that would burn. They didn't believe that. But when he talked about dishes of solid gold and silver, they did believe that.

And cities that were so large you couldn't walk around them in a day. They believe that. And they want to get to that area. We can get there. We can get these spices we've seen in the Crusades. We can get to the places that Marco Polo has talked about. Well, now, desire is just fine. But it takes more than desire to pull something like this off. You have to have the technical skill to do it. And you get certain inventions coming along that will make it all possible. The compass. The Chinese already knew about the compass, but Europeans didn't. If you're going to go exploring, it's just as well to know what direction you're going. The astrolabe. The Astrolabe gave you your latitude and longitude, enabled you to calculate your position. You could see not only what direction you're going, but exactly where you were. The printing press. Why would the printing press help exploration? Two ways, really.

They can print out books of people who had travelled before which would then whet your appetite. And it printed out books on navigation. It printed maps and charts to teach you the skills you needed to go out there. [Ship noise] Ships were improved. A. Sailing ship originally had to have the wind behind them. They're designed now to where you could almost sail directly into the wind and still travel along. So that made it easier to get into the business of discovery. So you have invention and you have the desire. You also have the money. Now the first cities to get in on the trade were the Italian cities. Cities like Florence and Venice, on its many hundred islands. Genoa which had been Columbus's birth place. Those cities. Why them? Look at the map, it's pretty obvious. Geographically, they're located in the right place.

They can just go sailing across the Mediterranean Sea right to the Near East, get the goods and bring them back, and then sell it to the rest of Europe. That's a good racket. We'll go buy it here, bring it back, raise the price to make money. So the northern Italian cities are the first ones. But England and Spain and France and Portugal, they don't like making Italians rich. They want to make Englishman, Frenchmen, Spaniards and Portuguese rich. So they begin looking for a way to get to the Far East on their own. First they tried to go up north, north of Europe. Several people went up there, froze themselves to death trying to get to the Far East around the North Pole. Then they decided to try to go around the tip of Africa. They weren't too sure about that. Is Africa connected at Antarctica? Well, of course, it's not. But they didn't know that. Can we get around that way? They came down the coast, when they rounded that big hump there on Africa, of course, they thought they had it made. We're going to sail right straight to the Far East.

There was one minor drawback and that was 1500, 2000 miles of Central Africa lay in the way. The first country to find a water route to India will be Portugal. Portugal was a major country in the 15th century. Kind of hard to believe, they were a real power. I don't think too many people lie awake at night now worrying about what Portugal is going to do. But you would have in the 15th and 16th century, and they will be because they get in on the early trading and commerce. There was a leader in Portugal, the son of the king, there was Prince Henry, sometimes called Prince Henry the Navigator. And he did not go exploring himself but he encouraged others to do so. He built schools for navigation. He gave them ships, he paid them to go out, encouraged them to do so, and he sent them down the coast of Africa. They go creeping down a ways, chicken out, build a tower where they'd stop and go back. The next crew would go a little further. As long as you saw those towers along the coast, you

knew you were at least sailing in an area that somebody else had explored before you. What were they so scared of anyway? Well, The world was flat, many of them thought. You'll go off the edge of There's a giant waterfall out there somewhere, and if you go sailing out on the ship, you're just going to go off the edge of it. There are monsters out there. I know there are, the maps show them. The first Portuguese sailor to actually get around the tip of Africa is Bartholomew Dias. And he did it before the time of Columbus, he did it in 1487. He went around the Cape of Good Hope. He actually got lost in a storm, Before the storm started, Africa had been on his East, after the storm, it was to the west of him. He realized he had been blown around the tip of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope. He then turned around and went back to

Portugal. The first Portuguese sailor to get all the way to India by water and back would be Vasco de Gama, 1498, six years after the time of Columbus. And he opens up that route of trade to the Portuguese. He made a lot of money. Most of these explorers, they don't have a very long life span and they don't make much money. You take them altogether, a high percentage of them either had a crew that mutinied on them, ? let them drift ?, or they just got lost in the storm, or they came back and the King got all the money. But Vasco de Gama made money, Huge return on that trip, on that investment. He became the wealthiest man in Portugal. Now, Portugal has a neighboring Spain, and Spain is jealous of Portugal and she wants in on this. But what route is left? The Italians had the middle route, the Portuguese had the route around Africa. Well, Columbus suggests to the Spanish that they can get

to the Far East by sailing west because the world is round. That wasn't a new idea with Columbus. The ancient Greeks knew the world was round; they even had figured the circumference of it. But most sailors didn't know that, and they didn't believe it, and they were worried about it. But Columbus convinces the King and Queen of Spain, Isabella and Ferdinand, that the world is round, That it's only about 2,000 miles around. That he can get to the East by sailing West. Now, Columbus only made two mistakes. He thought the world was only a lemon when it's a grapefruit. He had the world far too small and he didn't know that the Americas were there. So, of course, he's going to go sailing west and he's going to hit the West Indies, and he's going to think the West Indies are the East Indies. So he called the people living there

Indians. He made four trips to the New World, apparently never realized that he was not in the East Indies. If he did, he never admitted it to himself. [Music plays.] At the time he died, he'd have probably been surprised to know that within one generation much of that new world would be inhabited and controlled by the Spanish. [music] This is a Spanish colonial home of very modest means but typical of those found in their empire scattered out over the southwestern part of the United States. It has a rather unusual fireplace but a very

common bed. This was called a shepherd's bed. It was built above the hearth so it was always warm. No coming in on a cold night, climbing into icy covers. Shepherd's bed. The floor would be of hardened dirt. Very simple, but very common. That empire, one of the largest in history, really. The Spanish had trudged across the deserts and crossed endless plains, hacked their way through jungles and scaled mountains, and in one generation they put together a larger empire than Rome had in 500 years. What area did they control? Well, the southwestern part of the United States, Mexico, Central America, South America except for Brazil. Brazil was controlled by the Portuguese which is why Brazilians speak Portuguese today. The West Indies,

and Florida. They not only control that area, they organized it and administered it. About 33 years before the English are able to get their first little primitive colony at Jamestown going, the Spanish had 200 towns large enough to be called cities. They had built cathedrals. They'd imported printing presses. They were giving awards for literary excellence. They had two universities, one in Lima, Peru and one in Mexico City. It'll be 85 years before the English build their first university, Harvard in Massachusetts. Now, they, of course, transplanted their culture into this area. They brought the first horses to the New World. Horses that were run off on expeditions such as Coronado completely changed the lifestyle of the Plains Indians. The Great Indian horsemen hunter would not have been possible without horses brought in by the Spanish or at least by somebody later. But it was done by the Spanish. The Indian had hunted buffalo

before, but he'd had to do it on foot. This obviously makes it much easier. Livestock, they brought sheep. [Sound effects]. Sheep-raising became a backbone of the Southwestern economy for 200 years. People still come to New Mexico and Arizona to go to woolen shops to buy rugs made by Indians or by Spanish weavers. It was a major importation brought from the very earliest days of the Spanish, continued on to the present. The cattle industry. The [background cowboy noises] Cowboys, his attire, the rodeo, the roundup, the lariat, all of that was introduced by the Spanish. They changed the diet of America. They introduced virtually every citrus fruit, also apples, barley, sugar cane, wheat. They not only brought wheat to the Indians, they taught them how to make bread out of it and taught them how to build a special sort of oven in which to bake that bread. [music] Their religion was certainly one of their major contributions. The Spanish were Catholic.

The Spanish always came with the sword in one hand and the cross in the other. In some cases, the sword might have predominated, but the Franciscan missionary was always there. They built their missions. Missions were not only a church, that was the center of it, the church, but around that church would be buildings in which they taught the Indian certain crafts, blacksmithing, European carpentry, the Spanish language, and, of course, religion. Some of these became towns: San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, San Antonio, Saint Augustine. In New Mexico, Santa Fe, established in 1610 by the Spanish.

Now, when the Spanish came, of course it was a mixed blessing. Many of them were good-hearted and did good things, but there were bad things. They brought diseases, smallpox and measles. Almost decimated the population of the West Indies, reduced the population of Mexico to one-tenth of what it had been before the Spanish came. They were often cruel to the Indians, attempted to enslave them. I don't think you would want to live under the government of the Spanish colonies, or the French, for that matter. Colonies tended to have the same type of government they had back home. The English which were used to electing their representatives, so they expected to do that in the English colonies.

The Spanish didn't do it at home; they didn't expect to do it over here. The government was run by the King who appointed a viceroy who came over here to manage things, and they told you pretty much what to do. You could not grow crops that were grown in Spain. You could trade only with Spain. One-fifth of all the gold that has found went directly to the King of Spain. But in spite of all that, when you look at the overall Spanish achievement. It's incredible! It's been said that there's been no other conquest in the annals of human history to equal that which implanted Spanish culture in the New World. The historians Marson and ? Conagher ? called it amazing! Stupendous! That the results made Spain the envy of every European power. If you compare their empire to that of the English, well, the Spanish was larger, it was richer and it lasted almost a quarter of a century longer.