catgirlforeskin:atiredhedgehog: storywonker:15th and 16th-century Spain, famous for its lack of reli
catgirlforeskin:atiredhedgehog: storywonker:15th and 16th-century Spain, famous for its lack of religiosity. “explorers” cool euphemism using the scientific method to find the best way to spread small pox to natives Ok friends, we’re going to talk about history, georaphy, and a little bit of common sense: First, take a note of where Italy and Spain are on this mapNote that Italy is largely in the centre of this projection of the map, while Spain is waaay off to the side? Cool. That’s important going forward. Prior to the age of exploration (starting in 1419), most European trade was centred around the mediterranean, between areas that were previously part of the roman empire. Italy sat in the centre of this network (The mediterranean literally means “centre of the world”, and the romans called it “Mare Nostrum” or “ Our Sea”), and thus reaped the benefits of all this commerce in the form of plentiful food, wealth, and cultural/intellectual exchange. This is the economic engine that fuelled the renaissance, as well as the Ottoman and Byzantine empires before it. Spain ( as with the rest of Iberia) is on the periphery of this economic engine, and really didn’t have much going for it as it had just been the site of 700+ years of brutal war and ethnic/cultural cleansing. Those “explorers” Dr. Tyson was referring to were part of a tradition of privateers and coastal raiders who just so happened to be around at the time naval technology ( developed it the mediterranean trade engine) allowed them to utilize sea routes down the coast of Africa and across the Atlantic Ocean. Italy built cathedrals because their powers that be were going through an economic boom and wanted to show off how great they were, Spain commissioned explorers because their powers that be were shut out from the trade and success of their neighbours and were desperate to find a revenue stream to exploit. Both were done to feed into the values of the ruling class, one just happened to employ artisans and architects for urban enrichment, while the other used pirates to seek out new lands of people to turn into slaves/peasants. While I can assume Dr. Tyson’s statement is reinforcing his overall position of “ We need to focus more on space exploration”, holding up the a legacy of colonialism and genocide as come kind of meterstick for success is just in bad taste, and bodes very poorly for how he thinks our expansion out into space might be accomplished. -- source link
#history stuff