Discovery and Conquest: Stage for a Global Transformation. Reflections on the Dawn of What is “Colonial” in Spanish America

Authors

  • Juan Pablo Cruz Medina Museo Colonial/Museo Santa Clara
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Abstract

This article focuses on the “Discovery” and “Conquest” of America as a process of transformation. Going beyond the commonplace accounts that prevail in its historiography and that connect the colonization of America with looting and destruction, what we suggest is an experience of global force that ends up transforming the world and thus questioning the very notion of what is “Colonial”. Here, the experience of the trip to America, together with the movement of people, ideas and products between the two Atlantic shores will be the central characters that define the gradual transformation of an old world into something completely new.

Keywords:

Discovery, Conquest, XV-XVI Centuries, American Colonial Period, Colonial historiography