Key Terms and Names 

Dante and Story of Ulysses (Odysseus) 
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) 
The Great Instauration (1620) 
Pillars of Hercules/Straits of Gibraltar 
  

Central America 
Mayan Civilization 
The Aztec Empire 
Tenochtitlan = Mexico City 
South America 
Francisco Pizarro (c. 1470-1541)
The Inca Empire (Spanish conquest, 1533-1548)
Peru 
Cuzco 
Potosi [Bolivian Highlands], silver mines
Millenarianism
Conversion of Nonbelievers 
Universality and Unity of Humankind 
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494)
Babel/ Disunity 
Logos = The Word (Christ; language) and Reason 
alogos = without language, without reason 
Chinese and the Jesuits 
Conquistadors 
Christopher Columbus = Cristoforo Colombo = Cristobal Colôn (1451-1506)
Printing Press/Compass/ Gunpowder 
Return of the Golden Age 
European as natural Discoverer 
Columbus as Odysseus
Pico and Man as Co-creator of his Nature 
Hierarchy of Human Natures and Cultures
Columbus = Colôn = Colon-izer 
Christopher = Christum ferrens = the Christ-Bearer
New World as Earthly Paradise 
Gold, Alchemy, and New Golden Age  
Bernal Diaz (c. 1498-c. 1580)
The Conquest of New Spain [Mexico]
Hernan Cortes (1485-1547)
Montezuma 
Bartolomé de las Casas  (1484-1566)
The Devastation of the Indies
Aristotle's "natural slave"
 

Map of China under the Ming Dynasty 

Image of Matteo Ricci 

Peking, Hall of Harmony 

Map of Europe ca. 1519 

The Conquest of Mexico (Selections) by Bernal Díaz del Castill  
Available through UB Online Course Reserve
HELP using Course Reserve 

The Destruction of the Indies (Selections) by Bartolomé de las Casas 
Available through UB Online Course Reserve 
HELP using Course Reserve

On Cannibals by Michel de Montaigne 
Available through UB Online Course Reserve 
HELP using Course Reserve

Response Paper Assignment 

Write a response paper COMPARING Bernal Díaz's The Conquest of New Spain [Mexico], Bartolomé de las Casas's The Devastation of the Indies, and Michel de Montaigne's "On Cannibals." Pay special attention to the portrayal of the Spanish conquerors and of the Native Americans, or "Indians," in these texts. How and why are the portrayals different in these texts? Also, discuss how the religious beliefs and cultural values of the Europeans and of the Native Americans enter into the first two texts' accounts of the Spanish conquests in the New World and into Montaigne's critical essay.