Konkwistadorzy, misjonarze, kosmopolici. Europejczycy doby nowożytnej wobec "reszty świata"

• Autorzy: Tadeusz Cegielski

Warianty tytułu

Conquistadors, Missionaries, Cosmopolitans. Modern Europeans and "the Rest of the World"

• Języki publikacji: PL

Abstrakty

Autor przedstawia sylwetki wielkich zdobywców odkrywających nowe lądy. Wspomniano podbój Ameryki przez Hiszpanów i Portugalczyków oraz francuską misję do Chin.

EN

The Inauguration Lecture: the 29th September 2005, in the Old University Library In his famous letters addressed to Carol V, the Spanish king and the Roman-German emperor, a Spanish hidalgo, and a head of an expedition to Mexico, Hérnan Cortéz (1485-1547) describes the conquested country as the great and flourishing empire, sensible organized, well governed, and wealthy; the people as "rational and of a good organization". "However they are barbarians, and far-away to the knowledge of the God, and to other intelligent nations - he adds - they have reached astoundingly high level in every area". This opinion presented by the man whose name engraved on a posterity memory as the perpetrator of the extermination of Mexico Indians, seems to be worthy of notice. There are more historical problems and real riddles concerned the conquest of Mexico by Cortéz (or the conquest of Peru by Pizarro): if the people of Mezoamerica had had reached so high civilization level, why their conquest was so rapid, and the future extermination so easy? And, even more important, how Cortéz, Pizarro and other conquistadors justified crimes they did or they permit to be done? The lecture presents different attitudes of European mind, shortly described by the Author as conquistadors, missionaries, cosmopolitans; it shows a future evolution of this attitudes, also. The 18th century explorers as James Cook (1728-1779), Louis Antoine de Bougainvilee (1729-1811) or a scientist Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-1798) probably where the first Europeans who understood that their travelling to Pacific Islands, and their relations to local people are in the reality a kind of Journeys to the Past", for example to long-ago times of Trojan wars. Brilliantly comparing people of Tahiti with ancient Greeks, Forster showed not only his understanding to the relativity of historical processes, but also his consciousness of responsibility for a civilization which was discovered. Also captain James Cook, despite all the mistakes he made in his relations with Tahitians, was trying to save aborigines from a lethal influence of European culture, illnesses etc. He did not succeed in accomplishing his purpose, and his death in 1779 was a result of his conflicts with aborigène people.(original abstract)

Słowa kluczowe

PL

Historia cywilizacji; Badania historyczne; Odkrycia naukowe

EN

Civilization history; Historical research; Scientific discoveries

• Czasopismo: Studia Europejskie / Centrum Europejskie Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
• Rocznik: 2006
• Numer: nr 1
• Strony: 9--22

Twórcy

autor

Tadeusz Cegielski

Bibliografia

• Carter H., Sir Joseph Banks, 1743-1820, London 1988.
• Diaz del Castello B., Pamiętnik żołnierza Korteza czyli prawdziwa historia podboju Nowej Hiszpanii, Warszawa 1962.
• Cegielski T., Kurkowska M., Człowiek i historia. Czasy nowożytne do 1815 r. Warszawa 2003.
• Cortéz H., Listy Hérnana Cortéza do króla i cesarza Karola V o wydarzeniach w Meksyku w latach 1519-1521, Gdańsk 1997.
• Forster J.R., The Resolution Journal of Johann Reinhold Forster 1772-75, vol. Ill, London 1982.
• Hazard P., Kryzys świadomości europejskiej 1680-1715, Warszawa 1974.
• Horwitz T., Błękitne przestrzenie. Wyprawa śladami kapitana Cooka, Warszawa 2005.
• Hough R., Captain James Cook, New York 1995.
• Mańkowski M., W oczach zdobywców. Obraz cywilizacji prekolumbijskiej Ameryki Środkowej i jej społeczeństw w relacjach konkwistadorów, maszynopis, Warszawa 2005.
• Pizarro F., Relacja o odkryciu i podboju królestwa Peru, Gdańsk 1995.