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| La Araucana |
La AraucanaLa Araucana is an epic poem in Spanish about the Spanish conquest of Chile, by Alonso de Ercilla; it is also known in English as The Araucaniad.
The author was a participant in the conquest and the story is based on his experiences there. Published in three parts—in 1569, 1578, and 1589—the story is considered to be the first or one of the first works of literature in the New World (cf. Cabeza de Vaca's Naufragios—"Shipwrecked" or "Castaways") for its fantastical/religious elements, it is arguable whether that is a "traveler's account" or actual literature; and Bernal Díaz del Castillo's Historia verdadera de la conquista de Nueva España (The Conquest of New Spain). It is considered to be an important work of the Spanish Golden Age (Siglo de Oro).
The work is deliberately literary and includes fantastical elements reminiscent of medieval stories of chivalry. The narrator is a participant in the story, at the time a new development for Spanish literature. Influences include Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. Also features extended description of the natural landscape.
The author was born into a noble family from the Basque country. He occupied several positions in the household of Prince Philip (later King Philip II of Spain), before requesting and receiving appointment to a military expedition to Peru to subdue rebellion by Spanish troops there. On arrival they found the rebellion already extinguished, so with Pedro de Valdivia they proceeded further south to continue the conquest and settlement of the territory: this is where the poem begins. Ercilla served two to three years in Chile before returning to Spain.
Valdivia was captured and killed by Mapuche (also known as Araucanian) Indians. Ercilla blames Valdivia for his own death, having mistreated the natives who had previously acquiesced to Spanish rule and provoking them into rebellion. However, having (allegedly) previously accepted the rule of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, they were now in revolt against their legitimate sovereign lord. This is the ethical position of Ercilla: sympathy for the Indians' suffering, admiration for the courage of their resistance, criticism of Spanish cruelty, but loyalty to and acceptance of the legitimacy of the Spanish cause (the legitimate rule of a duly-constituted prince and the extension of Christianity).
Key events include the capture and execution of Pedro de Valdivia; of Caupolicán and Lautaro, two chieftains of the Mapuche/Araucanians (thanks to betrayal by one of their own); the encounter with a sorcerer who takes the narrator for a flight above the earth to see events happening in Europe and the Middle East; and the encounter with an Indian woman (Glaura) searching for her husband amongst the dead after a battlefield. This last is an indicator of the humanist side of Ercilla, and a human sympathy which he shows towards the indigenous people. The narrator claims that he attempted to have the lives of the Indian chieftains spared.
There is an episode in the novel Don Quixote when a priest and barber inspect Don Quixote's personal library, to burn the books responsible for driving him to madness. La Araucana is one of the works which the men spare from the flames, as "one of the best examples of its genre", entirely Christian and honorable.
There is a province in Chile named after Ercilla.
Category: Spanish literature
Spanish language:This article is about the international language known as Spanish or Castilian. For other languages spoken in Spain see Languages of Spain.
Spanish or Castilian (Spanish: español or castellano) is an Iberian Romance language, and the fourth most widely spoken language in the world according to some sources, while other sources list it as the second or third most spoken language. It is spoken as a first language by about 352 million people, or by 417 million including non-native speakers (according to 1999 estimates). Some assert that, after English, Spanish can now be considered the second most important language in the world (probably replacing even French), due to its increased usage in the United States, the high birth rate in most of the countries where it is official, the growing economies of the Spanish-speaking world, its enormous influence on the global music market, and simply due to the broad number of areas on the Earth's surface that the language is spoken in.
"Spanish" or "Castilian"
Spaniards tend to call this language español when contrasting it with languages of other states (for example: in a list with French and English), but call it castellano (Castilian, from the Castile region) when contrasting it with other languages of Spain (such as Galician, Basque, and Catalan). In some parts of Spain, mainly where the people speak Galician, Basque, and Catalan, it is considered offensive to call the language español, as that is what Francisco Franco called it during his reign. For the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, speakers of the language in some areas refer to it as español, and in others castellano is more common. Castellano is the name given to Spanish language in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Perú, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Some philologists use Castilian only when speaking of the language spoken in Castile during the Middle Ages, stating that it is preferable to use Spanish for its modern form. Castilian can be also a subdialect of Spanish spoken in most parts of modern day Castile. It would have a series of characteristics and a specific pronunciation different to the one of Andalusia or Aragon for example, where they would speak different subdialects.
Classification and related languages
Spanish is a member of the Romance branch of Indo-European, descended largely from Latin and having much in common with its European geographical neighbors.
Spanish is related to several languages in terms of phonology, grammar and orthography. Of these, Portuguese is perhaps one of the most similar in terms of major languages. However, Spanish is also closely related to Catalan, Asturian, Galician and several other Romance languages. Spanish has fewer similarities with French and Italian but shares strong ties due to Latin roots.
Portuguese is orthographically similar in many ways to Spanish but it has a very distinctive phonology. A speaker of one of these languages may require some practice to effectively understand a speaker of the other (although generally it is easier for a Portuguese native speaker to understand Spanish than the other way around). Compare, for example:
:Ela fecha sempre a janela antes de jantar. (Portuguese)
:Ella cierra siempre la ventana antes de cenar. (Spanish)
Some less common phrasings and word choices have closer cognates in Spanish because Portuguese has managed to retain a much larger vocabulary, with stronger Latin heritage:
:Ela cerra sempre a janela antes de cear. (less common Portuguese)
(Which translates as "She always closes the window before having dinner.")
In some places, Spanish and Portuguese are spoken almost interchangeably. Portuguese speakers are generally able to read Spanish, and Spanish speakers are generally able to read Portuguese, even if they cannot understand the spoken language. In fact, the number of bilingual speakers in Brazil (where Portuguese is the official language) has greatly risen because nearly every nation bordering Brazil is Spanish speaking.
History
The Spanish language developed from vulgar Latin, with influence from Celtiberian, Basque and Arabic, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula (see Iberian Romance languages). Typical features of Spanish diachronical phonology include lenition (Latin vita, Spanish vida), palatalization (Latin annum, Spanish año) and diphthongation (stem-changing) of short e and o from Vulgar Latin (Latin terra, Spanish tierra; Latin novus, Spanish nuevo). Similar phenomena can be found in most other Romance languages as well.
During the Reconquista, this northern dialect was carried south, and indeed is still a minority language in northern Morocco.
The first Latin to Spanish dictionary (Gramática de la Lengua Castellana) was written in Salamanca, Spain, in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija. When Isabella of Castile was presented with the book, she asked, What do I want a work like this for, if I already know the language?, to which he replied, Ma'am, the language is the instrument of the Empire.
From the 16th century on, the language was brought to the Americas, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marianas, Palau and the Philippines by Spanish colonization.
In the 20th century, Spanish was introduced in Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara.
For details on borrowed words and other external influences in Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language.
Geographic distribution
Spanish is one of the official languages of the United Nations and the European Union. The majority of its speakers are confined to the Western Hemisphere, Europe and the Spanish territories in Africa (Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla).
With approximately 106 million first-language and second-language speakers, Mexico boasts the largest population of Spanish-speakers in the world. The four next largest populations reside in Colombia (44 million), Spain (c. 44 million), Argentina (39 million) and the United States of America (U.S. residents age 5 and older who speak Spanish at home number 31 million) [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_program=ACS&_lang=en&_ts=134303235020].
Spanish is the official and most important language in 20 countries: Argentina, Bolivia (co-official Quechua and Aymara), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea (co-official French), Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay (co-official Guaraní), Peru (co-official Quechua and Aymara), Puerto Rico (co-official English), Spain (co-official Catalan/Valencian, Galician and Basque), Uruguay, Venezuela, and Western Sahara (co-official Arabic).
In Belize, Spanish holds no official recognition, however, it is the native tongue of about 50% of the population, and is spoken as a second language by another 20%. It is arguably the most important and widely-spoken on a popular level, but English remains the sole official language.
In the United States, Spanish is spoken by three-quarters of its 41.3 million Hispanic population. It is also being learned and spoken by a small, though slowly growing, proportion of its non-Hispanic population for its increasing use in business, commerce, and both domestic and international politics. Spanish does hold co-official status in the state of New Mexico, and in the unincorporated U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. See Spanish in the United States for further information.
In Brazil, Spanish has obtained an important status as a second language among young students and many skilled professionals. In recent years, with Brazil decreasing its reliance on trade with the USA and Europe and increasing trade and ties with its Spanish-speaking neighbours (especially as a member of the Mercosur trading bloc), much stress has been placed on bilingualism and Spanish proficiency in the country. On July 07 2005, the National Congress of Brazil gave final approval to a bill that makes Spanish a second language in the country’s public and private primary schools [http://www.mercopress.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=5996]. The close genetic relationship between the two languages, along with the fact that Spanish is the dominant and official language of almost every country that borders Brazil, adds to the popularity. Standard Spanish and Ladino (Judæo-Spanish spoken by Sephardic Jews) may also be spoken natively by some Spanish-descended Brazilians, immigrant workers from neighbouring Spanish-speaking countries and Brazilian Sephardim respectively, who have maintained it as their home language. Additionally, in Brazil's border states that have authority over their educational systems, Spanish has been taught for years. In many other border towns and villages (especially along the Uruguayo-Brazilian border) a mixed language commonly known as Portuñol is also spoken.
In European countries other than Spain and Andorra (where it holds no official status), it may be spoken by some of their Spanish-speaking immigrant communities, primarily in the Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom where there is a strong community in London. There has been a sharp increase in the popularity of Spanish in the UK over the last few years. It is spoken by much of the population of Gibraltar, though English remains the only official language. Yanito, an English-Spanish mixed language is also spoken.
Among the countries and territories in Oceania, Spanish is the seventh most spoken language in Australia. It is also spoken by the approximately 3,000 inhabitants of Easter Island, a territorial possession of Chile. The island nations of Guam, Palau, Northern Marianas, Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia all once had Spanish speakers, but Spanish has long since been forgotten, and now only exists as an influence on the local native languages.
In Asia the Spanish language has long been in decline. Spanish ceased to be an official language of the Philippines in 1987, and it is now spoken by less than 0.01% of the population; 2,658 speakers (1990 Census). However, the sole existing Spanish-Asiatic creole language, Chabacano, is also spoken by an additional 0.4% of the Filipino population; 292,630 (1990 census). Most other Philippine languages contain generous quantities of Spanish loan words. Among other Asian countries, Spanish may also be spoken by pockets of ex-immigrant communities, such as Mexican-born ethnic Chinese deported to China or third and fourth generation ethnic Japanese Peruvians returning to their ancestral homeland of Japan.
Spanish is also spoken by segments of the populations in Aruba, Canada, Curaçao, Israel (both standard Spanish and Ladino), northern Morocco (both standard Spanish and Ladino), Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey (Ladino), and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In Antarctica, the territorial claims and permanent bases made by Argentina, Chile, Peru and Spain also place Spanish as the official and working language of these enclaves.
Variations
There are important variations among the various regions of Spain and Spanish-speaking America. In Spain the North Castilian dialect pronunciation is commonly taken as the national standard (although the characteristic weak pronouns usage or laísmo of this dialect is deprecated).
Spanish has three second-person singular pronouns: tú, usted, and in some parts of Latin America, vos (the use of this form is called voseo). Generally speaking, tú and vos are informal and used with friends (though in Spain vos is considered a highly exalted archaism that is now confined to liturgy). Usted is universally regarded as the formal form, and is used as a mark of respect, as when addressing one's elders or strangers. The pronoun vosotros is the plural form of tú in most of Spain, although in the Americas (and some particular southern-Spain cities such as Cádiz) it is replaced with ustedes. It is remarkable that the informal use of ustedes in southern Spain does not keep the proper pronoun-verb agreement: while the formal form of "you go" would be ustedes van, in Cádiz the informal form would be constructed as ustedes vais, making use of the second person of the plural instead of the third (which constitutes the formal construction).
Vos is used extensively as the primary spoken form of the second-person singular pronoun in various countries around Latin America, including Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Uruguay. In Argentina, Uruguay, and increasingly in Paraguay, is it also the standard form used in the media, whereas media in other voseante countries continue to use usted or tú. Vos may also be present in other countries as a limited regionalism. Its use, depending on country and region, can be considered the accepted standard or reproached as sub-standard and considered as speech of the ignorant and uneducated. The interpersonal situations in which the employment of vos is acceptable may also differ considerably between regions.
Spanish forms also differ regarding second-person plural pronouns. The Spanish dialects of Latin America have only one form of the second-person plural; ustedes (formal/familiar). Meanwhile, in Spain there are two; ustedes (formal) and vosotros (familiar/informal).
The RAE (Real Academia Española), in association with twenty-one other national language academies, exercises a controlling influence through its publication of dictionaries and widely respected grammar guides and style guides. In part due to this influence, and also because of other socio-historical reasons, a neutral standardized form of the language (Standard Spanish) is widely acknowledged for use in literature, academic contexts and the media.
Grammar
Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but small noun declension and limited pronominal declension. (For a detailed overview of verbs, see Spanish verbs and Spanish irregular verbs.)
As for syntax, the unmarked sentence word order is Subject Verb Object, though variations are common. Spanish is right-branching, using prepositions, and with adjectives generally coming after nouns.
Spanish is also pro-drop (allows the deletion of pronouns when pragmatically unnecessary) and verb-framed.
Sounds
The consonantal system of Castilian Spanish, by the 16th century, underwent the following important changes that differentiated it from some nearby Romance languages, such as Portuguese and Catalan:
- The initial , that had evolved into a vacillating , was lost in most words (although this etymological h- has been preserved in spelling).
- The voiced labiodental fricative (that was written u or v) merged with the bilabial oclusive (written b). Orthographically, b and v do not correspond to different phonemes in contemporary Spanish, excepting some areas in Spain, particularly the ones influenced by Catalan/Valencian and some Andalusia.
- The voiced alveolar fricative (that was written s between vowels) merged with the voiceless (that was written s, or ss between vowels).
- The voiced alveolar affricate (that was written z) merged with the voiceless (that was written ç, ce, ci), and then evolved into the interdental , now written z, ce, ci. But in Andalucia, the Canary Islands and the Americas these sounds merged with as well. Notice that the ç or c with cedilla was in its origin a Spanish letter, although is no longer used.
- The voiced postalveolar fricative (that was written j, ge, gi) merged with the voiceless (that was written x, as in Quixote), and then evolved by the 17th century into the modern velar sound , now written j, ge, gi.
The consonantal system of Medieval Spanish has been better preserved in Ladino, the language spoken by the descendants of the Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain in the 15th century.
Lexical stress
Spanish has a phonemic stress system — the place where stress will fall cannot be predicted by other features of the word, and two words can differ by just a change in stress. For example, the word camino (with penultimate stress) means "road" or "I walk" whereas caminó (with final stress) means "he/she/it walked". Also, since Spanish pronounces all syllables at a more or less constant tempo, it is said to be a syllable-timed language.
Writing system
The pronunciation of any Spanish word can be perfectly predicted from its written form.
Spanish is written using the Latin alphabet, with the addition of ñ (eñe). Ch and ll also have their own places in the alphabet (a, b, c, ch, d, ..., l, ll, m, n, ñ, ...). Since 1990, however, words containing the letters ch and ll have been alphabetized as though spelled with the separate letters c - h and l - l.
The letter u sometimes carries diaeresis (ü) after the letter g, and the stressed vowel carries an acute accent (á) in many words.
Exclamatory and interrogative clauses begin with inverted question and exclamation marks.
Examples of Spanish
Note, the third column uses the International Phonetic Alphabet, the standard for linguists, to transcribe the sounds. There are several examples of travellers' vocabulary and one literary reference.
You can listen to these words being read out. Both the transcription and the recording represent standard Castilian pronunciation.
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (opening sentence).
See also
- Real Academia Española
- Common phrases in Spanish
- List of English words of Spanish origin
- Names given to the Spanish language
- Spanish proverbs
- Spanish language poets
- Spanish Creole
- Portuñol
- Papiamento, Chavacano language, Spanglish, Yanito, Palenquero
- Rock en español
- Latin Union
- Islenos
Local varieties
- Argentine Spanish
- Colombian Spanish
- Cuban Spanish
- Mexican Spanish
- Panamanian Spanish
- Puerto Rican Spanish
- Rioplatense Spanish
- Spanish in the United States
- Spanish in the Philippines
- Venezuelan Spanish
- Central American Spanish
External links
About the Spanish language
-
- [http://www.rae.es Official page of the RAE] (in Spanish)
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=spa Ethnologue report for Spanish]
- [http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/i.e.mackenzie/index.html Spanish Language & Linguistics Website]
- [http://assets.cambridge.org/0521805872/sample/0521805872WS.pdf PDF: A history of the Spanish language]
- [http://www.sispain.org/english/language/worldwid.html Numbers of speakers by countries]
- [http://www.vistawide.com/spanish/why_spanish.htm Why learn Spanish?] 10 reasons for learning Spanish
- [http://spanish.about.com Spanish Language] Collection of lessons and other resources
- [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/2444/splatin.html Spanish evolution from Latin]
- [http://www.trustedtranslations.com/spanish_language.asp Spanish Language Characteristics] Some characteristics of Spanish Language
Dictionaries
- [http://buscon.rae.es/diccionario/drae.htm DRAE, Dictionary of the RAE] (Spanish-spanish)
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Spanish-english/ Spanish — English Dictionary]: from Webster's Rosetta Edition.
- [http://www.diccionarios.com Diccionarios.com]
- [http://www.my-spanish-dictionary.com/ An English-Spanish Dictionary]
- [http://www.tododiccionarios.com/ Tododiccionarios.com] a directory of reference works in English or Spanish, classified by subject, with several thousand links.
- [http://spanishdict.com/ Spanishdict.com] Another Spanish-English dictionary.
- [http://wordreference.com/ Wordreference.com] Comprehensive Spanish-English-Spanish dictionary.
- [http://www.tomisimo.org/ Tomísimo.org] A Spanish-English dictionary.
Grammatical help
- [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Spanish Spanish grammar Wikibook]
- [http://www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm Spanish Grammar Tutorial - with quizzes, tests, and oral activities]
- [http://tchaidze.com/spangram/tenses.html#correspondence Usage of Tenses]
- [http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/courses/accents.htm Use of written accent marks in Spanish]
- [http://verbs.obrist.org Spanish Verb Forms] — Search and conjugate Spanish verbs.
- [http://www.helloworld.com.es/english/quick%20reference/grammar.htm Grammar and more] Examples, Uses, Explanations of Grammar Points and a Free Personal Spanish Verb Conjugator
Tutorials
- [http://www.declan-software.com/spanish Spanish vocabulary learning software with audio]
- [http://spanish.mypage.org Spanish for beginners and travelers]
- [http://learno.com/spanish/index.html Free Learno.com online Spanish tutorial]
- [http://www.listenandlearn.org Practice Spanish Online with Audio Stories]
- [http://www.studyspanish.com/ StudySpanish.com] Popular website for beginners
- [http://www.angelfire.com/ego/pdf/ng/argentina/arsp.html Rioplatense Spanish] Spanish from the River Plate basin
- [http://www.spanish-kit.net Spanish-kit.net] Free Downloadable Spanish grammars, and vocabulary learning tools.
- [http://www.fridaspanish.com Fridaspanish.com Learn Spanish] Mexican Spanish
- [http://www.ielanguages.com/spanish.html Free Spanish Language Tutorial at ielanguages.com]
- [http://www.quiz-tree.com/Spanish_Language_main.html Free Spanish quizzes with audio by a native speaker]
- [http://www.spanicity.com/ SpaniCity] Free Spanish lessons, sounds, grammar and dictionary
- [http://www.loecsen.com/travel/discover_pop.php?lang=en&to_lang=14&learn-Spanish/ Learn and listen to useful expressions in Spanish] Each expression is presented with an audio recording and an illustration
- Spanish phrasebook on Wikitravel
Resources
- [http://www.spanishblogger.com Spanish Blogs & Weblog Directory]
-
Category:Languages of Spain
Category:Languages of Argentina
Category:Languages of Belize
Category:Languages of Bolivia
Category:Languages of Chile
Category:Languages of Colombia
Category:Languages of Costa Rica
Category:Languages of Ecuador
Category:Languages of El Salvador
Category:Languages of Guatemala
Category:Languages of Honduras
Category:Languages of Mexico
Category:Languages of Nicaragua
Category:Languages of Panama
Category:Languages of Paraguay
Category:Languages of Peru
Category:Languages of Uruguay
Category:Languages of Venezuela
ja:スペイン語
ko:에스파냐어
simple:Spanish language
th:ภาษาสเปน
Alonso de ErcillaAlonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga (Madrid August 7, 1533 – November 29, 1595 in Madrid), Basque nobleman, soldier and poet.
In 1548 he was appointed page to the heir-apparent, afterwards Philip II. In this capacity Ercilla visited Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, and was present in 1554 at the marriage of his master to Mary of England. Hearing that an expedition was preparing to subdue the Araucanians of Chile, he joined the adventurers. He distinguished himself in the ensuing campaign; but, having quarrelled with a comrade, he was condemned to death in 1558 by his general, García Hurtado de Mendoza. The sentence was commuted to imprisonment, but Ercilla was speedily released and fought at the Battle of Quipeo (14th of December 1558).
He returned to Spain in 1562, visited Italy, France, Germany, Bohemia, and in 1570 married Maria de Bathn, a lady distantly connected with the Santa Cruz family; in 1571 he was made knight of the Order of Santiago, and in 1578 he was employed by Philip II. on a mission to Saragossa. He complained of living in poverty but left a modest fortune, and was obviously disappointed at not being offered the post of secretary of state. His principal work is La Araucana, a poem based on the events of the wars in which he had been engaged. It consists of three parts, of which the first, composed in Chile and published in 1569, is a versified narrative adhering strictly to historic fact; the second, published in 1578, is encumbered with visions and other romantic machinery; and the third, which appeared in 1589-1590, contains, in addition to the subject proper, a variety of episodes mostly irrelevant. This so-called epic lacks symmetry, and has been over-praised by Cervantes and Voltaire; but it is written in excellent Spanish, and is full of vivid rhetorical passages.
References
-
Ercilla, Alonso de
Ercilla, Alonso de
Ercilla, Alonso de
Ercilla, Alonso de
The Conquest of New SpainThe Conquest of New Spain is the first person conquistador narrative of Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492 or 1493 - 1581), a 16th century soldier, settler and conqueror who served with Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, Juan de Grijalva and Hernán Cortés in Mexico and Yucatan, and saw and participated in the fall of Moctezuma II and with him the end of the great Aztec empire.
Written at eighty-four years of age on his poor encomienda estates in Guatemala, having lost "both sight and hearing", Díaz saw his work as defending the common conquistador history of the conquest against Bartolomé de Las Casas, a fierce critic of the conquest of the New World, and the hagiographic biographers of Hernán Cortés, among them Francisco López de Gómara, who were accused of downplaying the role of the some 700 common soldiers and sailors, Díaz among them, who were instrumental in bringing down the Aztec empire. Accusing these chroniclers of speaking the truth "neither in the beginning, nor the middle, nor the end", Díaz vociferously defended the actions of the conquistadors, while at the same time bringing the elements of humanism and honesty to his eyewitness narrative, famously summarised in his famous throwaway line; "we went there to serve God, and also to get rich".
Díaz is not always charitable to Cortés. As with many of the other soldiers involved in the conquest, Díaz found himself among the ruins of Tenochtitlan little richer than when he had arrived, a state for which many of his comrades blamed Cortés, accused by some of taking far more than his previously-agreed 'fifth' of the Aztec treasury as loot. Certainly, the compensation many conquistadors received, both in land and gold, was a poor return for the months of marching and hard fighting across Mexico and Anahuac. Other readings of The Conquest of New Spain have noted that Díaz was one of a number of relatives serving with Cortés of Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, governor of Cuba and mortal enemy of Cortés, many of whom ended up plotting against the conquistador. Díaz may have deliberately played down this relationship because it played a more prominent role than he pretends in the text; his involved relationship with Cortés and his captains suggests that he may have been the representative of the Velázquez faction, and was one of the few who remained loyal to Cortés to the end. There has even been speculation among historical sources that Díaz's account was entirely fictional. But disregarding some of his possible omissions, Díaz's narrative is widely acknowledged to be a true one, and that his attitude to Cortés expresses no more ambivalence towards the conquistador's legacy than it has since inspired among many others.
The Conquest of New Spain is a vivid account of one of the most startling episodes in colonial history, and Díaz stands "among chroniclers what Daniel Defoe is among novelists". It is certainly an absorbing, fascinating, and above all comprehensive first-hand account of the Spanish conquest of the New World, and hence valuable both to historians and casual readers.
- Penguin Books edition, 1963, ISBN 0140441239
Conquest of New Spain
ChivalrySee also order of chivalry
order of chivalry
Chivalry refers to the medieval institution of knighthood and, most especially, the ideals that were/have become associated with it throughout literature. It was also often associated with ideals of knightly virtues, honor and of courtly love.
Chivalry was in essence a warrior code which was later appropriated and propagated by the Church which added the christian aspects. The Church intended to make the mounted soldiers of the Middle Ages into Christian knights who would protect society instead of ravage it.
The word comes ultimately from the Latin caballus, or "nag". (This word developed into the term for "horse" in languages descended from Vulgar Latin.) The French chevalier, the Spanish caballero, and the English cavalier derive their names from the same word. The intention, in all these cases, is to distinguish the aristocratic knight on horseback from the peasant infantryman walking with his pike and the artilleryman dragging his vulgar machinery.
In war, the chivalrous knight was idealized as brave in battle, loyal to his king and God, and willing to sacrifice himself. Towards his fellow Christians and countrymen, the knight was to be merciful, humble, and courteous. Towards noble ladies above all, the knight was to be gracious and gentle. The idealized relationship between knight and lady was that of courtly love.
Other meanings
In a contemporary context, chivalry denotes courteous behaviour, especially towards women.
Notes
- Etymology: English from 1292, loaned from Old French chevalerie "horsemanship," from chevaler "horseman" from Medieval Latin caballarius "horseman"; cavalry is from the Middle French form of the same word.
See also
- Bushido
- Chivalric order
- Chivalric romance
- Courtly love
- Court of Chivalry
- Don Quixote
- Feliciano de Silva
- Pas d'Armes
- Xia
External links
[http://www.shadowedrealm.com/articles/exclusive/article.php?id=2 Chivalry during the Reign of Edward III]
[http://www.almanachdechivalry.com Almanach de Chivalry]
[http://www.royaute-noblesse.com Web site listing, among others, the existing Orders of Chivalry and the sites relative to the history of the Chivalry]
Category:Warrior code
Category:Middle Ages
Category:Knights
Category:Virtue
Ludovico AriostoLudovico Ariosto (September 8, 1474 – July 6, 1533) was an Italian poet, author of the epic poem Orlando furioso (1516), "Orlando Enraged".
He was born at Reggio, in Emilia. His father was Niccolo Ariosto, commander of the citadel of Reggio. He followed a strong inclination to poetry from his earliest years, but was obliged by his father to study the law--a pursuit in which he lost five of the best years of his life. Allowed at last to read classics under Gregorio da Spoleto. But after a short time, studying which he read the best Latin authors, he was deprived of his teacher by Gregorio's removal to France as tutor of Francesco Sforza. Ariosto thus lost the opportunity of learning Greek, as he intended.
Francesco Sforza]
His father dying soon after, he was compelled forego his literary occupations to undertake the management of the family, whose affairs were in disarray, and to provide for his nine brothers and sisters, one of whom was a cripple. He wrote, however, about this time some comedies in prose and lyrical pieces. Some of these attracted the notice of the cardinal Ippolito d'Este, who took the young poet under his patronage and appointed him one of the gentlemen of his household. This prince made a mockery of the character of a patron of literature. The only reward he gave the poet for Orlando Furioso, a piece dedicated to him, was the question, "Where did you find so many stories, Master Ludovic?" The poet himself tells us that the cardinal was ungrateful, that he deplored the time which he spent under his yoke, and adds, that if he received some niggardly pension, it was not to reward him for his poetry, which the prelate despised, but to make some just compensation for the poet's running like a messenger, with the work of his life yet to accomplish, at his eminence's pleasure. Nor was even this miserable pittance regularly paid during the period that the poet enjoyed it.
The cardinal went to Hungary in 1518, and wished Aniosto to accompany him. The poet excused himself, pleading ill health, his love of study, the care of his private affairs and the age of his mother, whom it would have been disgraceful to leave. His excuses were not well received, and even an interview was denied him. Ariosto then boldly said, that had his eminence thought to have bought a slave by assigning him the scanty pension of 75 crowns a year, he was mistaken and might withdraw his boon--which it seems the cardinal did.
The cardinal's brother, Alphonso, duke of Ferrara, now took the poet under his patronage. This was but an act of simple justice, Ariosto having already distinguished himself as a diplomat, chiefly on the occasion of two visits to Rome as ambassador to Pope Julius II. The fatigue of one of these hurried journeys brought on a complaint from which he never recovered, and on his second mission he was nearly killed by order of the pope, who happened at the time to be much incensed against the duke of Ferrara.
On account of the war, his salary of only 84 crowns a year was suspended, and it was withdrawn together after the peace. Because of this, Ariosto asked the duke either to provide for him, or to allow him to seek employment elsewhere. He was appointed to the province of Garfagnana, then without a governor, situated on the wildest heights of the Apennines, an appointment he held for three years. The place was no sinecure. The province was distracted by factions and banditti, the governor had not the requisite means to enforce his authority and the duke did little to support his minister. Yet it is said that Ariosto's government satisfied both the sovereign and the people given over to his care; indeed, there is a story about a time when he was walking alone and fell into the company of a group of banditti, the chief of which, on discovering that his captive was the author of Orlando Furioso, humbly apologized for not having immediately shown him the respect which was due to his rank.
In 1508 his play Cassaria appeared, and the next year I Suppositi.
In 1516, the first version of the Orlando Furioso in thirty cantos, was published at Padua.
The third and final version of the Orlando Furioso, in forty-six cantos, appeared on September 8, 1532.
External link
-
Ariosto, Ludovico
Ariosto, Ludovico
Ariosto, Ludovico
Ariosto, Ludovico
Ariosto, Ludovico
ja:ルドヴィーコ・アリオスト
Mapuche
Mapuche (Mapudungun; Che, "People" + Mapu, "of the Land") are the Pre-Hispanic Amerindian inhabitants of Central and Southern Chile and Southern Argentina. In the Spanish language they are also known as araucanos (Araucanians). Contrary to popular belief, the Quechua word arauco (rebel), is not the root of araucano.
The Mapuche had an economy based on agriculture; their social organisation consisted of extended families.
The Mapuche are a wide ranging ethnicity composed of various groups which shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic herritage. Their influence extended between the river Aconcagua and the Argentinian pampa. They can be divided into the Picunches who lived in the central valleys of Chile - these integrated with the Tawantinsuyu (Inca Empire) and later with the Spaniards. The Mapuches who inhabited the Valleys between the Itata and Toltén Rivers. As well as the Huilliches, the Lafkenches, and the Pehuenches. The northern Aonikenk, called Patagons by Ferdinand Magellan, were and ethnic group of the pampa regions that made contact with some Mapuche groups, adopting their language and some culture; they are the Tehuelches.
Mapuches successfully resisted many attempts by the Inca Empire to subjugate them, in spite of lacking a nationwide organization.
The Mapuche fought against the Spaniards, and, using the Bío-Bío River as a natural frontier, they resisted colonization from the 1500s through the 19th Century. This war is known as the War of Arauco, and is immortalized in the epic poem La Araucana. When Chile split from the Spanish crown, some Mapuche chiefs sided with the colonists. After Chile's independence from Spain, Mapuches coexisted and traded with their neighbors .
The Chilean Army put an end to the War of Arauco by the 1880s, and, using a combination of force and diplomacy, Chile's government and some Mapuche leaders signed a treaty to incorporate the Araucanian territories into Chile. The war, the internment of its survivors, and placement on tiny reservations wracked with starvation and disease reduced the Mapuches from a half million to 25,000 within a generation.
Mapuche descendants now live across southern Chile and Argentina; some maintain their traditions and continue living from agriculture, but a growing majority have migrated to cities in search for better economic opportunities. In recent years, there has been an attempt by the Chilean government to reddress some of the inequities of the past, by, for example, validating the Mapudungun language and culture by including them in the curriculum of elementary schools around Temuco.
According to Chilean statistics, most Chilean Mapuche possess some non-aboriginal ancestry, and more than 90% of Chile's non-aboriginal population possess Native American ancestry in varying degrees - deeming them mestizos - though very few Chileans would admit their Native American admixture. See also: Demographics of Chile.
The Mapuche were very capable with stone tools, allowing them to create forts and complex defensive buildings. They were quick to adapt, using the European's own offensive strategies against them.
Mapuche languages are spoken in Chile and to a smaller extent in Argentina. They have two branches: Huillice and Mapudungun.
References
#Ward Churchill, A Little Matter of Genocide, 109.
See also
- Lautaro
- Galvarino
- Colocolo
- Arauco War
Category:Chilean society
Category:History of Chile
Category:Indigenous peoples of South America
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V (Spanish: Carlos I, Dutch: Karel V, German: Karl V.) (24 February 1500–21 September 1558) is considered (the first) King of Spain though in fact his son was the first to use that title. He was king from 1516 to 1556 (in principle, he was from 1516 king of Aragon and from 1516 guardian of his insane mother, queen of Castile who died 1555, and the co-king of Castile 1516-55, full king 1555-56), and Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 to 1556. In Spain, he ruled officially as Charles I, though he is referred to by the ordinal he used as Holy Roman Emperor more often. He was the son of Philip and Joanna of Castile. His maternal grandparents were Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. His paternal grandparents were Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Marie, Duchess of Burgundy.
Charles V's reign also introduced the first documented use of the styles of His Majesty or His Imperial Majesty. Because of his far-reaching territories he was described as ruling an Empire "in which the sun does not set". His personal motto was "Plus ultra" (even further).
Family and nationality
It is hard to say what nationality Charles really held. He was a Habsburg on his father's side, but he was not German. His mother tongue was French, that being the language of the aristocracy in the Low Countries (modern-day Benelux and the French région of Nord-Pas-de-Calais), where he grew up. In his youth, he made frequent visits to Paris, then the largest city of Western Europe, which he thoroughly enjoyed, like most aristocrats of his day. In his words: "Paris is not a city, but a universe" (Lutetia non urbs, sed orbis). He also famously said: "I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse." Though his first language was French, in which he was known as Charles Quint (Charles the Fifth), he was a lifelong enemy of the Kings of France. His mother was Spanish, and Spain was the core of his kingdom, but he himself was not Spanish. He probably felt more at home in the Low Countries where he had spent his youth. In Spain, he always felt a foreign prince, and he was never totally assimilated.
Early life
Charles was born in Ghent and brought up in the Low Countries until 1517, where he was tutored by Adrian of Utrecht, later Pope Adrian VI. His three most prominent subsequent advisors were Lord Chièvres, Jean Sauvage, and Mercurino Gattinara. In 1506, on the death of his father, Charles inherited the Low Countries and Franche-Comté. After the death of his grandfather Ferdinand in 1516, Charles became joint-king of Castile with his mother Joanna of Castile (who was insane), and also inherited Aragon, Navarre, Naples, Sicily and Sardinia from his grandfather, and Castilian dependencies Granada and Spanish America (in the latter overseeing the conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires in the Americas, led by the Spanish conquistadors). Upon arriving in Castile and dismissing the regent Cardinal Cisneros, he had to fight the Castilian War of the Communities against the cities and petty nobles who disliked his appointment of Flemings for Castilian offices. He eventually won and from then on Castilian Cortes were keen on conceding him the vast resources needed for the numerous wars he waged in Europe. After the death of his other grandfather, Maximilian, in 1519, he inherited Habsburg lands in Austria and was elected Holy Roman Emperor on June 28, 1519.
1519
He married the Infanta Isabella in 1526, sister of John III of Portugal, who had shortly before married Catherine, Charles's sister.
He actually did not have a distinct nationality. He was: the Holy Roman emperor, archduke of Austria, duke of Milan, ruler of Franche-Comte; grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella on his mother's side and thus king of Spain (title there was Charles I); king of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia, and ruler of all the Spanish possessions in the New World
Wars against France and the Reformation
John III of Portugal
Charles V initiated many wars with France during his reign, first fighting against them in Northern Italy in 1521. Later in the Italian Wars, in 1527, his troops sacked Rome, causing Charles some embarrassment but enabling him to keep the Pope from annulling the marriage of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon, who was his aunt.
As Holy Roman Emperor, he called Martin Luther to the Diet of Worms in 1521, promising him safe conduct if he would appear. He initially dismissed Luther's idea of reformation as, "An argument between monks". He later outlawed Luther and his followers in that same year but was tied up with other concerns and unable to try to stamp out Protestantism.
In a war supported by Henry VIII of England, in 1525, known as the battle of Pavia, Charles captured François I of France, because one of the noblemen of his Empire, Cesare Hercolani, injured the horse of the French king (Francis I of France). So Hercolani was named "the victor of the battle of Pavia" and Charles forced Francis to sign the Treaty of Madrid, in which France renounced her claims to northern Italy. When he was released, however, François I had the Parliament of Paris denounce the treaty, because it had been signed under duress. The 1529 Treaty of Cambrai (signed with France) and the Peace of Barcelona (with the Pope) confirmed Charles as Holy Roman Emperor and also allowed him to keep the lands he had acquired in Italy.
1524 to 1526 saw the Peasants' Revolt in Germany and the formation of the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League, and Charles delegated increasing responsibility for Germany to his brother Ferdinand while he concentrated on problems abroad.
Wars against the Ottoman Empire
Ferdinand by Titian]]
He had been fighting with the Ottoman Empire and its sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, for a number of years. The expeditions of the Ottoman force along the Mediterranean coast posed a threat to Habsburg lands and the peace of Western Europe. In Central Europe, the Turkish advance was halted at Vienna in 1529, which they besieged unsuccessfully. In 1535 Charles won an important victory at Tunis, but in 1536 Francis I of France allied himself with Suleiman against Charles. While Francis was persuaded to sign a peace treaty in 1538, he again allied himself with the Ottomans in 1542. In 1543 Charles allied himself with Henry VIII and forced Francis to sign the Truce of Crepy-en-Laonnois. Charles later signed a humiliating treaty with the Ottomans, to gain him some respite from the huge expenses of their war.
The Council of Trent and other reforms
In 1545 the opening of the Council of Trent began the Counter-Reformation, and Charles won to the Catholic cause some of the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. He also attacked the Schmalkaldic League in 1546 and defeated John Frederick, Elector of Saxony and imprisoned Philip of Hesse in 1547. At the Augsburg Interim in 1548 he created a doctrinal compromise that he felt Catholics and Protestants alike might share. A more permanent settlement followed with the 1555 Peace of Augsburg.
Peace of Augsburg
In 1549 he made the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands (Low Countries) an entity separate from both the Empire and from France (the "Pragmatic Sanction of 1549").
In 1550, Charles convened a conference at Valladolid in order to consider the morality of the force used against the indigenous populations of Spanish America.
In 1555, his mother, the Queen of Castile, died. Thus, he finally obtained the full kingship of that country.
Abdication and later life
In 1556 Charles abdicated his various positions, giving his personal empire to his son, Philip II of Spain, and the Holy Empire to his brother, Ferdinand. Charles retired to the monastery of Yuste (Extremadura, Spain) and is thought to have had a nervous breakdown. In the last two years of his life he suffered from gout. He died in 1558. His grandson, king Philip III of Spain buried the emperor in the Royal Pantheon of The Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, northwest of Madrid.
See also
- Joan of Habsburg
External link
- [http://www.imperialcollegeofprincesandcounts.com Nobility of The Holy Roman Empire]
| width="30%" align="center" rowspan="2" | Preceded by:
Ferdinand II
| width="40%" align="center" | King of Aragon, Majorca and Valencia
Count of Barcelona
1516–1556
| width="30%" align="center" rowspan="4" | Succeeded by:
Philip II
|-
| width="40%" align="center" | King of Naples and Sicily
1516–1554
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| width="30%" align="center" | Preceded by:
Joanna
| width="40%" align="center" | King of Castile and Leon
1555–1556
(Guardian and Regent since 1516)
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| width="30%" align="center" | Preceded by:
Philip the Handsome
| width="40%" align="center" | Duke of Brabant, Guelders, Limburg, Lothier and Luxembourg
Count of Artois, Burgundy, Flanders, Hainaut, Holland, Namur, Zeeland and Zutphen
1506–1555
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Category:Habsburg
Category:Holy Roman emperors
Category:Spanish monarchs
Category:Kings of Sicily
category:Rulers of Austria
Category:Rulers of Styria
Category:Dukes of Carinthia
Category:Counts of Tyrol
Category:Counts of Flanders
Category:Counts of Hainaut
Category:Counts of Holland
Category:Dukes of Brabant
Category:Dukes of Milan
Category:Knights of the Garter
Category:Knights of the Golden Fleece
ja:カール5世 (神聖ローマ皇帝)
LautaroLautaro was a Mapuche military leader and protagonist in the War of Arauco. Some of his tactics are currently studied in several war academies around the world.
Lautaro was the son of a mapuche "Lonko" (chief for times of peace). When young, he was captured by some Spanish colonizers, and became the personal servant of Don Pedro de Valdivia, Spanish conqueror of Chile. Lautaro learned the military ways and skills of the Spaniards' army by observing Valdivia and his peers.
Lautaro escaped from Spanish captivity and rejoined the mapuches as a young adult. With the knowledge he had acquired, he introduced use of horses to the Mapuche, and designed improved tactics for combat against the Spanish. He attracted a large number of otherwise dispersed Mapuche warriors and formed a native army that could fight successfully against the Spanish conquerors.
Lautaro achieved several successes in the battlefield, destroying newly founded cities. After he obtained an important victory in the southern cities (including the death of Pedro de Valdivia in the Battle of Tucapel), he began a campaign for Santiago de Chile, the Spaniard's capital, and one of the oldest Spanish-founded cities. He was killed when he was only 200 km away from his destination.
He is considered an icon of the War of Arauco, for his revolutionary strategies and the responsibility in uniting the dispersed Mapuche people.
His name was used by Francisco de Miranda when he founded the Logia Lautaro, an American independence society of the end of 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Lautaro became a key protagonist in the epic poem La Araucana by Alonso de Ercilla, a major piece of literature about the Spanish conquest of America.
Category:Spanish literature
Category:Literature by nationality
Category:European literature
Literature
ko:분류:에스파냐 문학
Авраамий ФлоринскийАвраамий Флоринский — (умер в 1797), богослов.
Родом из малороссийских мещан. Обучался в Киевской духовной академии, в которой в 1752—58 гг. был преподавателем и проповедником.
По указу Синода исправил «Беседы» Иоанна Златоуста на Евангелия Матфея и Иоанна.
Категория:Персоналии по алфавиту
Категория:Богословы России
Категория:Умершие в 1797
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