The Conquest of Latin America
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11/25/04
12:18 PM
Page 7
On the same Track?
MOZAIK
2004/1
Sören A S M U S
The Conquest of Latin America: Europe and the External Other
It has taken a long time to realise how the respective peoples perceived the encounter between people from Europe and people from Latin America. Enrique DUSSEL describes the process of encounter between the European conquistadores and the indigenous people of the Americas from a European point of view in six forms: Invention, Discovery, Conquest, Colonisation, Spiritual Conquest, and Extermination. For the indigenous people of Central and South America, this process is seen in five forms: Parusia of Gods, Invasion, Resistance, End of Time, and the Age of the Sixth Sun. the imagination of the Renaissance European people. COLÓN opened the way officially and politically to ‘Asia.’ The characteristic European approach to the Other is a result of this. COLÓN, and accordingly the people of Western Europe, did not recognise those people they met as independent and unknown to them. The indigenous American people were seen as objects of European evangelisation and dependent upon Europeans to gain a history and an identity — in this case, that of a Hindu from India — who could not and were not expected to make contributions of any kind.
2. DISCOVERY
After the “Invention” of America, the “Discovery” was begun by VESPUCCI. Returning from his voyages to Brazil, he slowly realised that he in fact did not reach a fourth Asian continent, but rather a ‘New World.’ These areas are seen as a new part of the world — the old world being Europe. The known world is defined as the centre, from which the rest is defined. To ‘discover’ implies that the Europeans accept that they are confronted with something previously unknown.
CENTRE AND PERIPHERY
DUSSEL gives an impressive account of the historical process from the first arrival of Cristóbal COLÓN (COLUMBUS) on the American continent to the near-complete
11/25/04
12:18 PM
Page 7
On the same Track?
MOZAIK
2004/1
Sören A S M U S
The Conquest of Latin America: Europe and the External Other
It has taken a long time to realise how the respective peoples perceived the encounter between people from Europe and people from Latin America. Enrique DUSSEL describes the process of encounter between the European conquistadores and the indigenous people of the Americas from a European point of view in six forms: Invention, Discovery, Conquest, Colonisation, Spiritual Conquest, and Extermination. For the indigenous people of Central and South America, this process is seen in five forms: Parusia of Gods, Invasion, Resistance, End of Time, and the Age of the Sixth Sun. the imagination of the Renaissance European people. COLÓN opened the way officially and politically to ‘Asia.’ The characteristic European approach to the Other is a result of this. COLÓN, and accordingly the people of Western Europe, did not recognise those people they met as independent and unknown to them. The indigenous American people were seen as objects of European evangelisation and dependent upon Europeans to gain a history and an identity — in this case, that of a Hindu from India — who could not and were not expected to make contributions of any kind.
2. DISCOVERY
After the “Invention” of America, the “Discovery” was begun by VESPUCCI. Returning from his voyages to Brazil, he slowly realised that he in fact did not reach a fourth Asian continent, but rather a ‘New World.’ These areas are seen as a new part of the world — the old world being Europe. The known world is defined as the centre, from which the rest is defined. To ‘discover’ implies that the Europeans accept that they are confronted with something previously unknown.
CENTRE AND PERIPHERY
DUSSEL gives an impressive account of the historical process from the first arrival of Cristóbal COLÓN (COLUMBUS) on the American continent to the near-complete