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How Spain Went from Conquered to Conqueror

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How Spain went from Conquered to Conqueror

Spain went through changes in the fifteen century that were very significant to its history. The Iberians changed the way they fought, their view of themselves as warriors, and they accepted that their culture was changing from a peaceful one to a conquering one. The flourishing ideas about war including how to fight and who to fight were great contributions to their success later as conquerors. Secondly, their refreshed belief in Christianity and its strength was also an enormous contribution to their success. Lastly, discovering the Americas gave Spain the territory and opportunity to conquer that had not existed in the West. The dynamics of the “new warriors” spirit and newfound Christian faith combined with the accidental discovery of the Americas gave the Iberians, enough impulse to go from conquered to conquerors. The Iberians did not have in mind to be an empire when they were fighting the Moors; all they were trying to do was to expel them from the Iberian Peninsula. When the Iberians started to fight the Moors fought on horses forcing the Iberians to learn and adapt their fighting skills to include cavalry. “Spanish saddles and techniques learned from the Moors in ancient wars, and well adapted to use on the vast expanses of the new world, were far better suited to frontier conditions.” The Moors had better metal guns, so the Iberians had to improve their metallurgy and fabricate metal guns that would match or surpass the moors. The Moors had ships, so the Iberians had to learn how to build ships and how to use them in battle. What was happening was that the Iberians were beginning to produce modern warfare technology by force just to be able to survive. By default they began to gain footing in the armaments race of the time, as well as they began to change their view of themselves to accommodate to what they needed to do. They were becoming warriors. They were creating tactics that would later be used by conquistadors. As when Pizarro copied a tactic by Tariq, a Moor, “Pizarro drew a line in the sand, saying: ‘There lies Peru with its riches; Here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian.” He used this to persuade his troops to move forward in their conquest. Tariq used a similar statement to his own men, “My warriors, whither would you flee? Behind you is the sea, before you, the enemy. You have left now only the hope of your courage and your constancy. Remember that in this country you are more unfortunate than the orphan seated at the table of the avaricious master. Your enemy is before you, protected by an innumerable army; he has men in abundance, but you, as your only aid, have your own swords, and, as your only chance for life, such chance as you can snatch from the hands of your enemy….you delay to seize immediate success, your good fortune will vanish, and your enemies, whom your very presence has filled with fear, will take courage….attack this monarch who has left his strongly fortified city to meet you….Do not believe that I desire to incite you to face dangers which I shall refuse to share with you. In the attack I myself will be in the fore, where the chance of life is always least.”
This was crucial to the chain of historical events that occurred in the Sixteen century. Fighting was no longer a poetic reality, something heard of only by bards singing of old wars and heroes stories. The old kind of fighting such as the one between a “Caballero andante “and wind mills” was no longer relevant, they were fighting real wars. Fifteenth century fighting was about men fighting for a cause instead of “heroes” recognition, people creating weapons and using them to fight wars that would shape the men into what is now known as a Spanish conquistador. The unification of the Iberians occurred with the blessing of the Catholic Church. Every feud that transpired was automatically assimilated to Catholicism and the Catholic mission. The Iberians were indirectly helping the church grow and in exchange the church was giving them their “divine blessing”. It was this “divine blessing” that was the driving force behind many soldiers fervent commitment to the Reconquista and more so to giving their lives for the cause and the King. The church also involved itself further by slowly taking over management of knowledge and the distribution of it. Bishops and monks started to create, preserve and direct the major education centers. Eventually all institutions were run by priests, one major and lasting example is “The order of Jesus”, also known as the Jesuits. “In a small ceremony in the year 1492 at the University of Salamanca…Queen Isabella of Castile was presented with the first copy, just off the press, of…the grammar of the Castilian language.” The Pontifical University of Salamanca was established as part of the University of Salamanca in 1940 under Pope Pius XII, who gave the day to day running of the university to the Dominican priests. The Dominican priests were also involved in the Inquisition. Finally the discovery of America was what gave Spain the opportunity to change completely from conquered to conquerors because it provide the territory not previous claimed by any power they knew of, the people that they expected to be there that would be conquered and converted to Catholics, and the riches that would surely come from the New World. Instead of going after the defeated Moors and capturing northern Africa and maybe Arab territories, Spain found that the Americas were enough to keep busy all the up and coming conquistadors and expand the empire greatly. The historical and cultural changes that occurred took the Iberians from conquered to conquerors. These changes occurred in response to the events occurring around them. This included the ongoing skirmishes with the Moors in their attempt to re-conquer the Iberian Peninsula, their renewed and strengthened Catholic faith, and the discovery of the Americas in their attempt to find a shorter route to India. It cannot be denied that if it had not been for the driving force to survive and overtake the Moors the Iberians would not have moved ahead in the armaments race. With the technology they borrowed or stole from the Moors to create their own and the inflamed faith and Catholic mission to convert all non-Christians mixed with the vast opportunities provided by the New World changed the Iberians standing in the World.

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