SPAIN BEFORE 1492
I. Introduction
A. Questions
1. How did Spanish monarchs’ exercise political authority?
2. How did Spain’s history before 1492 set the stage for the invasion and colonization of America?B. Film: “The Buried Mirror: Virgin and the Bull” (Written and narrated by Carlos Fuentes; historical advisor Peggy Liss, Directed by Peter Newington, Produced by Sogetel and the Smithsonian Institution in 1991; available in Learning Resource Center of Walter Library, call number VTP 240.1 or CLA Language Center [in English or Spanish], 110 Jones Hall)
1. “Spain” as a multicultural society
2. Separate kingdoms, process of consolidation
II. Process of Unification
A. The Reconquest (711-1492)
1. Religious: Christians vs. Muslims: Growing intolerance late in period
1480: Inquisition
1492: Expulsion of Jews2. Territorial Expansion: occupation and settlement
Gender dimension:
Men: military fighters gain booty
Women: settlers, through marriage to women, men could acquire citizenship in town
B. Centralization of Royal Power
1. Bureaucracies, laws
2. Patronage
3. Marriage (1469) Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon
III. Conclusions
Fuentes’ Questions
1. Multiethnic society or racial purity?
2. Local power or centralized power?
Maps
I.D. Terms
Castile
Granada (1492)
Isabella and Ferdinand (1469)
The Reconquest
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