CATÓLICOS Y PURITANOS EN LA CONQUISTA DE AMÉRICA

by Jorge Cañizares Esguerra

Este libro expone las sorprendentes coincidencias entre los discursos coloniales hispanos y puritanos como exorcismo y cultivo espiritual, lo que apunta hacia una historia común atlántica. Estas similitudes aconsejan tomar la colonización puritana de Nueva Inglaterra como una continuación de los modelos ibéricos y no como una experiencia opuesta. El libro demuestra que una perspectiva panamericana más ancha puede alterar las narrativas nacionales más queridas y asentadas en los Estados Unidos, desde el momento en que sostiene que la colonización puritana de Nueva Inglaterra estuvo tan inspirada en la caballería medieval, la cruzada y la Reconquista (contra el diablo) como la propia conquista española.

Genres: History, Religion, Spain

408 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2006

Reviews

[Alexander Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Puritan Conquistadors, Canizars-Esquerra argues for a pan-Atlantic history of North and South America. The vast majority of the book is spent displaying how Catholic Spanish and Protestant British colonization were not nearly as different as is commonly believed. Chief amongst their similarities was the motivation that devil supplied in their colonization efforts. As Canizars-Esquerra asserts, “This quick survey of Puritan satanic epic in the Indies shows that there were remarkable similarities between how Iberian and Puritans understood their mission in the New World: both saw it is an epic struggle to uproot the devil” (71). The most likely candidate for the minions of the devil which needed to be conquered where the Amerindians, however, at certain junctures, both sides viewed Spanish colonization as creating hell in the Americas. “Creole patriotism in Spanish America was largely responsible for spreading the discourse of the colonial regime as demonic” (75). Creoles felt threatened by the peninsulars whom they thus characterized as demonic. Other Spaniards, like Bartolome de Las Casas, cast the Spanish colonization in a demonic light due to moral objections. Conversely, for the Puritans it was only natural to portray the Catholic Spaniards who were committing atrocities as being agents of the devil in the same way that justification through works and not grace made them reprehensible before God.
Two ways in which the Puritans and Catholics justified their colonization was by using crusading motifs and Biblical exegesis. “Europeans in the New World thus drew upon a store of medieval and early modern tropes of crusades and religious wars to justify colonization” (119). The crusade was against the minions of the devil. They firmly believed that the devil had claimed the New World for himself and that natives, especially the Aztecs, served the devil. The New World was a false paradise. The colonizers needed to destroy that false paradise of the devil and in its place create a spiritual plantation of righteousness. The other technique of justification available to the colonizers was using prefiguration. The colonizers were the new Israelites and the Amerindians were the Canaanites. Old prophecy was reinterpreted to apply to the present circumstances much in the same way that the Qumran inhabitants did in writing their pesherim in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Despite the perpetual delay of the Parousia, an eschatological agenda was often attached to battling Satan in the New World was well.
I liked very much how Canizars-Esquerra used his sources. Literature was used to describe a mindset. The epic poems reflected the motivations and goals of the colonizers. One could easily interpret the brutality of colonization of being a paradise that was lost.
One objection I have to the book is that he adds a chapter at the end calling for a broader pan-Atlantic history yet he only discussed two colonizing nations. How would French fur traders fit into his thesis? They appear to be less motivated by casting out the devil and more motivated by economics since they formed some peaceful relationships with Native Americans.
My other critique is not a critique of the book but of the Catholic colonizers. They fulminated so vociferously against ancestor worship yet they then went around parading prized relics of their saints. To an Amerindian, that would look like ancestor worship. Perhaps it was not the Amerindians who through the diabolical agency of the devil had mimicked Christians and stole their rites but the Christians who had imitated and seized upon pagan culture

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant and delightful academic read. For me, this book unifies a number of themes from all of my comps fields, as well as some interesting teaching ideas. Grad students may find it most useful to begin with the last chapter which not only summarizes all of his arguments, but gives an excellent summary of Colonial Latin American historiography.

I wish this had been a book I purchased, I think it will be an excellent future reference book to have on hand.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

the last chapter is a great statement about the need for comparative work in Atlantic history. I'm a fan.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting and compelling concept, but really weak evidence all around. Seemed like an idea rushed into a book to meet a deadline.

[Static · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente análisis que contextualiza de forma magistral el marco religioso-mental de la conquista y colonización de América. Una obra necesaria para llenar gran cantidad de vacíos historiográficos a nivel de detalles sobre este periodo trágico y convulso de la historia.

[Mike Emett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Required reading for the "Atlantic World" graduate seminar