Christopher Columbus

El autor incide el modelo de implantación urbana de Santo Domingo a partir de los restos arqueológicos recuperados en las últimas campañas. Se define, a partir de un discurso sobre la distribución del agua, un modelo renacentista de ciudad y se dan nuevas pinceladas sobre la familia Colón; ya sea el escudo de la familia en la "Fuente del Almirante" o la vivienda que debió mandar construirse el mismísimo Cristóbal Colón en la ciudad, antes de retornar de su cuarto viaje.

"Autumn of the Middle Ages" or the beginning of the "Long 16th century"? The second half of the 15th century is located, according to the classical division of epochs, at the interface between the Middle Ages and modern times. Besides the question of the meaning and purpose of such epochal divisions and designations, this lecture will focus on persistent and future-oriented factors in this period. In addition to political history, the main features of politics, constitution, society, economy, church and culture will be the focus.


„Herbst des Mittelalters“ oder Beginn des „Langen 16. Jahrhunderts“? Die zweite Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts befindet sich nach klassischer Epocheneinteilung an der Schnittstelle zwischen Mittelalter und Neuzeit. Neben der Frage nach dem Sinn und Zweck solcher Epochenteilungen und -bezeichnungen soll in dieser Vorlesung der Fokus auf beharrende und zukunftsweisende Faktoren in diesem Zeitraum gelegt werden. Dabei werden neben der politischen Geschichte Grundzüge von Politik, Verfassung, Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft, Kirche und Kultur im Mittelpunkt stehen.


Literatur:

Abbattista, Guido: Europäische Begegnungen im Zeitalter der Expansion, in: Europäische Geschichte Online (EGO), hg. vom Institut für Europäische Geschichte (IEG), Mainz 2011-03-14. URL: http://www.ieg-ego.eu/abbattistag-2011-de URN: urn:nbn:de:0159-2011020117  [20. 02. 2019].

Coatsworth, John [u. a.]: Global Connections. Politics, Exchange, and Social Life in World History, Bd. 1 (bis 1500), Cambridge 2015.

The New Cambridge Medieval History, Bd. 7: C. 1415-c. 1500, hg. v. Christopher Allmand, Cambridge 1998.

Die Welt 1250 – 1500, hg. v. Thomas Ertl und Michael Limberger, Wien 2009 (Globalgeschichte. Die Welt 1000 – 2000, Bd. 2).

Weltdeutungen und Weltreligionen. 600 bis 1500, hg. v. Johannes Fried und Ernst-Dieter Hehl, Darmstadt 2010 (WBG Weltgeschichte 3).

At its simplest level the landfall debate can bc broken down into three separate elements: the transAtlantic crossing; the nature of the landfall island; and the passage from Guanahani to Cuba. It is the intcntion of this study to confine itself to the geographical issues relevant to the first landfall, but including thc navigation and seaman_ ship involved in approaching it. The three islands undcr investigation are San Salvador (once called Watlings Island) Samana Cay (once called Atwood Cay) and Grand Turk (Figure 1). In this instance the first issue conccrns the navigational approach to the island, and the first sightings of land from the sea. Wc are told that Columbus approached Guanahani at night, stcering a westerly course,r and thcre is reason to believe the wind was from the east or north east. They saw the land about 5-6 miles away at night, and according to Oviedo, many islcts *ere seen about Guanahani, and they were called White islands because of their appearance.

In this book the author considers valid many of the arguments proposed by the Peruvian historian Luis Ulloa Cisneroa in order to demonstrate a possible Catalan origin of Columbus, instead a Genoese one. Nevertheless several of Ulloa's points of view have been discarded as false, when new documents have been retrieved from Spanish historical archives.

The Roman edition of the letter of Columbus to Gabriel Sánchez, printed in May 1493, was complemented with a fine epigram in honour of king Ferdinand signed by "R.L. de Corbaria Episcopi Montispalussi". The author proposes Reverend Lleonard de Corbera, son of Bernard de Corbera, a merchant in Barcelona, as the writer of that epigram.

Cristóvão Colombo não é Português. E bem o poderia ter sido por via do casamento ou da residência, caso alguma vez tivesse procurado esse estatuto, facto que nenhuma fonte atesta. É ponto assente ser natural da República de Génova, pese embora todo o esforço vão que há mais de 100 anos alguns autores têm feito no sentido de reclamar para Portugal a nascença e criação do descobridor do Novo Mundo. De facto, nenhum episódio ou circunstância da vida do navegador tem sido imune à narrativa alternativa. Nenhuma fonte ou testemunho da naturalidade italiana ou genovesa do descobridor tem sido dada como fidedigna. Tantos são os detalhes minados com ligeireza no esforço de encaixar Colombo na naturalidade portuguesa que refutá-los um a um é trabalho árduo e extenuante e que hoje muitos tomam por inútil, pensando não haver racionalidade que demova crença. Mas a realidade é que o Cristóvão Colombo Português é uma construção sem fontes, sem testemunhos, sem historicidade. Pretende-se fazer o historial desta ideia, demonstrando como partindo dum erro dificilmente se chegará a uma verdade e ainda menos se conseguirá saltando de engano em desacerto. Vai-se provar que, desde Patrocínio Ribeiro até aos mais variados autores contemporâneos, os pressupostos são os mesmos, com novos acrescentos e recuperação de velhas ideias, recusando as provas existentes e afirmando sem base documental, reproduzindo erros de facto e de análise com muita fantasia à mistura.

Cristoforo Colombo è certamente uno dei personaggi storici più noti e studiati di ogni  tempo. Eppure, in questa enorme mole si fa fatica a trovare qualcosa che abbia resistito al passare del tempo o che comunque sia considerata valida dagli storici  contemporanei.  Ciò  perché  le  ricerche  e  gli  studi  dell’ultimo  secolo  hanno apportato un gran numero di nuovi elementi di conoscenza, modificando moltissimo la visione tradizionale. Di  questi  nuovi  elementi  si  è  servita  Ilaria  Luzzana  Caraci  per  scrivere  una “nuova” storia di Colombo, pubblicata come e-book in lingua inglese, che adotta una forma  narrativa  usata  pochissime  volte  nella  letteratura  colombiana,  quella  del romanzo storico. Questa tipologia letteraria limita a pochi accenni i dati teorici su cui Colombo  basò  il  suo  progetto  e  la  complicata  evoluzione  delle  sue  concezioni geografiche,  bene  analizzati  dalla  bibliografia  scientifica  più  recente,  vivacizzando tutta la storia, nei suoi momenti felici e sereni, in quelli tristi e tragici. Alla base di tutto c’è naturalmente la matura esperienza di Ilaria Luzzana Caraci, ben nota e affermata colombista,  che  ha  dedicato  gran  parte  della  sua  vita  proprio  allo  studio  di  questo personaggio e della quale il libro è in qualche modo un’immagine.

José Manuel Losada comparte sus reflexiones en torno a las macroestructuras de piedra que componen el conjunto escultórico del Descubrimiento de América, creado por Vaquero Turcios en la plaza de Colón (1977). Su análisis del bloque dedicado a las "profecías" de Séneca, san Isidoro y el Chilam Balam invita a profundizar en el carácter escatológico del mito, en su capacidad de vaticinar el futuro y en nuestra cotidiana concepción del tiempo.

José Manuel Losada shares his reflections on the stone macrostructures that make up the sculptural set of the Discovery of America, created by Vaquero Turcios in the Plaza de Colón (1977). His analysis of the block dedicated to the "prophecies" of Seneca, Saint Isidore and Chilam Balam invites us to deepen in the eschatological character of the myth, in its ability to predict the future and in our daily conception of time.

Following Pierre Nora's idea of lieux de memoire, monuments have been often considered as  immutable symbols marking the boundaries of specific national, cultural, or ethnic groups. However, as Astrid Erll suggests, critics and viewers should stop regarding these collective mementos as “cultural containers” and consider them instead as emblems of transculturality, as entanglements of collective histories and memories reaching across and beyond cultures. As a cubist artwork, each monument asks the viewer to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the multi-faceted historical and cultural dimensions fragmenting its seemingly unitary meaning.
By considering recent developments in Memory Studies,  my essay aims at investigating the idea of transcultural monuments from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. In particular, I will discuss the  inflamed debate about the removal of Christopher Columbus' statues and murals in New York, showing how the image of Columbus needs to be inscribed within a wider discourse about Italian-American myths of migration and identity, folk heroes and collective emotions. Instead of trying to solve the cultural impasse created by the recent (but old) debate about the figure of Columbus, this essay intends to demonstrate the transcultural nature of monuments and the overwhelming force of myths, which, as Roland Barthes claimed, are able to drain facts—and, I suggest,  monuments—of their historicity.

The article looks specifically at the impact of fourth industrial revolution technologies (such as robotics, AI, bio-engineering) on Geopolitics.

My contention is that the West only gained real global dominance in the late 19th century. Prior to that there was a period from 1482 to about 1860 of intense globalization sparked mostly by Columbus and his colleagues, but it was globalization, not Western dominance (because this was also the time of the rise of the Ottoman empire, the Mughals, Persians and others), until the invention of repeating rifles, machine guns, telegraph, electricity, dynamite, barbed wire and Bessemer steel etc in the mid to late 19th century, at which time the West (UK, US, Europe) dominated the globe through till WWII.

There was a brief period of Western (US) dominance again at the end of the Cold War, but that is now being rapidly lost again due to the diffusion of advanced 4IR technology.

Technology is now democratized and threatens Western geopolitical dominance.