Galeano 11-31 and De las Casas (1/21)

Galeano's historical synopsis of the colonial encounter examines the effects of the desire for wealth and prestige on religious, political, and economic exploits in the New World. These exploits began in 1492 in a world contextualized by anti-Semitic tendencies, increasing religious expansionism and political volatility propagated by the new ideas of the Renaissance. The increase in Spanish exploration at the turn of the 1500s coincided with the desire for domestic religious purity; namely, the hegemony of Catholicism. Galeano notes in 1492 150,000 Jews were expelled from the country. This period also witnessed the expulsion of the Muslim element through war and inquisition. This model of conquest was exported to the New World, and was aided by distinct advantages in technology and religious piety (on the part of the Native tribes) which allowed the conniving Conquistadores to take advantage of foreign traditions and destroy pre-colonial society. The greatest aid, however, was undoubtedly disease. Bartolome de las Casas expands on this phenomenon in his Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indes at length to explain the rapid, tragic depopulation and destruction of a vibrant society. Ultimately, it comes down to despicable avarice on the part of the Spanish and the idea that the end of wealth accumulation justified the "unfortunate" destruction of Native society and culture. Those who survived both disease and massacre were forced into slavery. Galeano's example of Potosi corresponds to las Casas' chronicle of Caribbean decline. Potosi became the centerpiece of colonial hegemony and a gargantuan (for the time) monument to the splendors of colonial life (for the conquerors). The concentrated opulence was only matched by the severity of destitution for the oppressed. Galeano used the analogy that Spain was like the tongue that enjoyed all the taste and richness of good food, while the Latin American natives and slaves were like the organs who processed it in rudimentary and less desirable forms. Potosi was a cash cow for the Spain, and the rightful possessors of the land only received the worthless spoils. Essentially, Galeano describes this moment as the beginning of Eurocentric capitalist hegemony, or the establishment of the modern world order of global north and south. The global north functions like the horseman, directing the global south, the horse, toward a sudden death in battle. If the horse gets cut down, the horseman survives and finds another. The money that was not lost abroad was concentrated in the hands of clergy and an early form of the latifundia, comprised at that time mostly of merchants and mine owners.  They enriched themselves and left contemporary Latin America with its current development crisis: a lack of capital and a massive deficit of industrialized production materials.