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Spain is the place where the future of the world is being determined. It’s not just another local difficulty. Professor Mike Gonzalez, cited An Anarchist’s Story
When has it ever happened, either in ancient or modern times, that such amazing exploits have been achieved? Over so many climes, across so many seas, over such distances by land, to subdue the unseen and unknown? Whose deeds can be compared with those of Spain? Not even the ancient Greeks and Romans. Francisco Xeres, report on discovery of Peru
When I set out to write for the people of today and of the future, about the conquest and discovery that our Spaniards made here in Peru, I could not but reflect that I was dealing with the greatest matters one could possibly write about in all of creation as far as secular history goes. Where have men ever seen the things they have seen here? And to think that God should have permitted something so great to remain hidden from the world for so long in history, unknown to men, and then let it be found, discovered and won all in our own time! Pedro Cieza de Leon, Chronicles of Peru
Your emperor may be a great prince; I do not doubt it, seeing that he has sent his subjects so far across the waters; and I am willing to treat him as a brother. As for your pope of whom you speak, he must be mad to speak of giving away countries that do not belong to him. As for my faith, I will not change it. Your own God, as you tell me, was put to death by the very men He created. But my God still looks down on His children. Atahualpa, Inca Chief, on hearing Pope Alexander VI declaring Peru a possession of Spain
I wish your Your Majesty to understand the motive that moves me to make this statement is the peace of my conscience and because of the guilt I share. For we have destroyed by our evil behaviour such a government as was enjoyed by these natives. They were so free of crime and greed, both men and women, that they could leave gold or silver worth a hundred thousand pesos in their open house. So that when they discovered that we were thieves and men who sought to force their wives and daughters to commit sin with them, they despised us. But now things have come to such a pass in offence of God, owing to the bad example we have set them in all things, that these natives from doing no evil have turned into people who can do no good. I beg God to pardon me, for I am moved to say this, seeing that I am the last to die of the Conquistadors. Mansio Serra Leguizamon
The divine master of 12,000,000 subjects was confined ... His ransom: this room filled with gold to a height he could reach and two other rooms with silver. In today’s money it would amount to more than $250,000,000. Christy Kenneally, The Lost Gods
The Inca genius for stone is everywhere, from the steep staircase to the terraced fields ... The cut stone blocks are set without mortar; they are an architectural wonder only matched by the engineering ability that brought them from a quarry eight kilometres away on the other side of the river. ibid.
By 1570 the Spaniards had stripped the Inca of language, land and worship of their gods, everything that made them unique. ibid.
Things could have been very different: in the summer of 1588 Elizabeth and the people of England faced an overwhelming threat. The country was on the verge of invasion. Dan Snow, Armada: 12 Days to Save England, BBC 2015
Drake was England’s most brazen pirate. ibid.
Summer 1588 England was under attack from the most powerful naval force on Earth. Dan Snow, Armada: 12 Days to Save England II
125 ships carrying 23,000 men. More than just an invasion this was a religious crusade sent to crush a heretic nation. ibid.
Summer 1588: Philip II, Catholic King of Spain, was on the verge of shaping Europe. The most powerful naval force on Earth, the mighty Spanish Armada, had sailed through the Channel. Its aim to crush heretic England and take the crown off Queen Elizabeth. Dan Snow, Armada: 12 Days to Save England III
Philip assumed his army and his Armada could simply send notes to one another saying when and where they should meet. ibid.
Monday 8th August 1588 has gone down as the down of one of the greatest naval battles in history ... It was a bloodbath. ibid.
9th August: The wind direction suddenly changed. ibid.
In Spain a long effort by the Freemasons also brought revolution. Deschamps wrote in 1881 that the revolutions which since 1812 have succeeded each other in Spain have been caused for the most part by the rivalries of the different Masonic factions which always unite in order to fight Christian social order. It began in 1728 when a delegation from the English Grandmaster opened a lodge in Spain. By the time Charles III came to power, his own courtiers were full of Masons, and pretty soon the influence over government itself was like a stranglehold. Philip Gardiner, Angels, Demons and Freemasons
This is a filmed essay in human geography made in Spain in 1932. Until 1922, when the first road was opened, Las Hurdes was almost unknown to the rest of the world, as well as the people of Spain. Luis Bunuel, Las Hurdes, Land Without Bread 1933
This village is located in one of the poorest valleys of the region. ibid.
The stream is used for all purposes. ibid.
When we came back to this village two days later and asked about her we were told she had died. ibid.
Malaria caused by the Anopheles mosquito is everywhere. ibid.
As we go through the streets we see many ill people. ibid.
Another idiot – they are almost wild. ibid.
The only luxurious thing that we saw in Las Hurdes were the churches. ibid.
Spain: Al-Andalus, Iberia, Hispania, many names for the same country. Spain has had more diversity and more manifestations than any other country in western Europe. It’s a peninsula almost surrounded by water: that’s its blessing and its curse. The road to Spain has always been the sea. Simon Sebag Montefiore: Blood and Gold: The Making of Modern Spain I: Conquest, BBC 2017
Only fourteen kilometers from Africa. ibid.
For centuries this was Europe’s wild west. ibid.
Temple complexes like this were central to ancient life. ibid.
Harnessing Spain and Africa, Hannibal would attack Italy. ibid.
Spain became a provide of Europe, not Africa. Of Rome, not Carthage. ibid.
The Muslim conquerors wanted to keep Spain for themselves. ibid.
Cordoba became a cosmopolitan metropolis. ibid.
These people are re-enacting the long battle between Christendom and Islam. This, not the Middle East, over many centuries was the final frontier between Christendom and Islam – the long war. Simon Sebag Montefiore: Blood and Gold: The Making of Modern Spain II: Reconquest
Ferdinand and Isabella would claw the nation together in a blood-soaked embrace. ibid.
Spain was the plaything of hostile warlords. ibid.
In 1086 they raised an army of 15,000 and they set out from Africa in rafts … King Alfonso rushed to stop them … totally routed … The Almoravids nicknamed it the Slippery Field. ibid.
The ultimate warlord, the ultimate opportunist, El Cid – he managed to conquer his own private kingdom. ibid.
In 1248 the King of the King of Castille captured Saville. ibid.
Isabella for the last reckoning, the last stronghold – Granada was doomed. ibid.
Spanish Muslims were Isabella’s next target. ibid.
The Inquisition was often used to settle personal scores and rivalries. ibid.
They sent back enough gold to fund Spain’s Catholic mission and to make Spain the dominant military power in Europe for almost a century. ibid.
The father was Charles V: Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, and the son Philip II would be the champion of Catholicism, the ruler of a world empire and king of Spain at the very apogee of its golden age. Simon Sebag Montefiore: Blood and Gold: The Making of Modern Spain III: Nation
In 1571 Philip put together a holy alliance which annihilated the Ottoman fleet. Yet the biggest threat didn’t come from Islam it came from within Christendom itself: the tide of Protestantism. ibid.