Philip II Of Spain Essay Example for Free

Philip II Of Spain Essay King Philip II of Spain (1527-1598) has cast a lengthy shadow over Spanish and European history for centuries. Though this might seem fitting, given that he was the first man to rule a truly global empire on which the sun never set, it is not entirely appropriate, for Philips enduring fame stems not so much from his achievements, as it does from misconceptions about his character and legacy. Within Spain itself, Philip can still be remembered to this day as a brooding, reclusive workaholic, who, despite his best intentions, poised his nation and empire on the brink of a precipitous and inevitable decline. Beyond Spains borders, Philips shadow has long been perceived as exceedingly dark and menacing. After all, how many other monarchs can claim the unhappy role of top villain in one of Schillers tragedies, or in a major opera, such as Verdis Don Carlo, which set the gloomy myth to music? In the English-speaking world Philip reigned supreme for nearly three centuries as the ultimate embodiment of the Black Legend: a sinister figure, cruel and devious beyond measure, a religious fanatic who could only be viewed through the smoke of the Armadas cannons and of the Inquisitions pyres. Philip II was present in Brussels when his father resigned to him the government of the Netherlands (October 1555) as well as of Spain itself (January 1556). International matters, mainly his marriage to Queen Mary of England and the war against France, kept him in northern Europe. In August 1557 the Spanish forces in Flanders, directed by the duke of Savoy and the count of Egmont, crossed the frontier into France and caused a crushing defeat on the French at St Quentin. Philip arrived in time to congratulate his army, however failed to follow up the advantage; negotiations started and were interrupted by the death of Mary in November 1558. Finally peace was agreed at Cateau-Cambresis in April 1559, one of the circumstances being the marriage of Philip to the daughter of Henry II of France, Elizabeth of Valois. The king sailed from the Netherlands in August 1559 and landed at Laredo in September. He never left the peninsula again. Domestic politics lapse into relative quietness during the reign, in order that events seem to depend more than usual on the personality of the king. Philip, though, was no less devoted to the problems of internal government than to the weighty matters of foreign policy. (R. Trevor Davies, 1957) Aged 28th at his accession, he was already an experienced ruler, having been regent for his father sporadically since 1543. His fair hair and blue eyes betrayed his Habsburg origin; however no ruler could have been more Spanish. Brought up in Castile and trained by brilliant tutors, he preferred Spaniards as advisers and spoke merely Castilian fluently, though he had a working knowledge of Latin. Pensive by disposition, and always unwilling to rush into decisionshence the tag of prudent kinghe had a deep sense of duty which governed both his personal and public life. His stern side as headed at the top by the council of State, shorn since 1559 of its non-Castilian members. The councils chief secretary until his death in 1566 was Gonzalo Perez, a cleric of converso origin; thereafter the post was divided between Gonzalos son Antonio as secretary for the south and Gabriel de Zayas for the north. True to his fathers policy of allowing differing views to develop, Philip tolerated a conflict of opinions, not always with fruitful consequences. The chief rivals in the council of State were the kings long-standing friend the Portuguese Ruy Gomez de Silva, and the duke of Alba. Ruy Gomez, created prince of Eboli and duke of Pastrana, married into the powerful Mendoza family, headed by the duke of Infantado, and thereby became linked with a clan of nobles from the highest grandee families, the Zuniga, Velasco and Guzman. Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, third duke of Alba and Philips most distinguished general, was head of the house of Toledo and had similar powerful connexions. The division in the council between these two a normal rivalry between clans, of the sort common both at government and at local levelalso extended to the secretaries, Antonio Perez being allied to Eboli and Zayas to Alba. Differences between the groups, as with all political factions, arose primarily out of a struggle for power. Given the complex problems that faced the Spanish monarchy, there were occasionally issues on which some took a hard line: Alba, as Charles V had warned Philip, was inclined to be authoritarian. It is however not convincing to categorise one groupAlbasas the war party, and its opponents as the peace party; even less, as we shall see, is it possible to distinguish any real difference of approach to constitutional problems. The problem over which the factions took most issue was the revolt of the Netherlands, which precipitated the famous affair of Antonio Perez. Immediately after Philips return to Spain in 1559 he began a massive effort to put the country into an adequate state of defence: Turkish expansion in the 1560s inevitably made foreign policy the first concern of government. At the same time difficulties in the Netherlands were brought to him in person when the count of Egmont arrived in Madrid in February 1565. From this period Spain was burdened by a dual commitment to northern Europe and to the Mediterranean, and the numerous mistakes made by Philip in his dealings with the Netherlanders can in part be blamed on priority given to affairs in the south. Aware, none the less, of his obligations, the king made preparations to visit Flanders in 1567. He was dissuaded from this by Alba, and in 1568 two personal crisesthe death of Don Carlos in July and then of Elizabeth of Valois in Octoberforced him to remain in the peninsula, where on Christmas Eve a major uprising of the Granada Moriscos began. The death of Ruy Gomez in 1573 made Antonio Perez effective head of the Eboli faction at court. A contemporary noted that Perez climbed so high that His Majesty would not do anything save what the said Antonio Perez marked out for him. Philip depended heavily for advice and policy on this brilliant and sinister young man whose fortunes were linked with those of Ana de Mendoza, princess of Eboli, the beautiful one-eyed widow of Ruy Gomez. Perezs arm stretched as far as Flanders, where the kings half brother, the famous Don Juan of Austria, was acting as governor. Don Juans personal secretary, Juan de Escobedo, had been a protege of Perez, who expected to be kept reliably informed of the plans and ambitions of the governor of the Netherlands. Don Juans proposals for policy in the north, however, were at variance with government intentions in Madrid, and Perez and Escobedo soon found themselves opposed to each other on a number of issues. Philip in turn was wary of the ambitions of his half-brother, the victor of Lepanto. Suspicious of the way his plans for Flanders were being blocked by Madrid, Don Juan sent Escobedo to Spain in 1577 to make enquiries. On arriving at the court it appeared to Escobedo that Perez had been duping Don Juan and presenting his case in an unfavourable light to the king. He apparently issued threats against Perez, accusing him rightly or wrongly of a liaison with the princess of Eboli, and of betraying state secrets. But Perez had already managed to convince Philip that Escobedo was the malign influence in the affairs of Flanders and in the end he persuaded the king that the only solution was to eliminate Don Juans secretary. In March 1578 hired assassins murdered Escobedo in a street in Madrid. (Townsend Miller, 1963) Popular rumour instantly pointed to Perez as the assassin, and Escobedos family, aided by Perezs rival the kings private secretary (from 1573) Mateo Vazquez, demanded justice for the murdered man. No action was taken, clearly because the king himself was implicated and had acted on reliable advice. In the spring of 1579, however, Philip was sent the private papers of Don Juan, who had died the previous October. On reading them Philip discovered that Perez had deceived him and that his brother and Escobedo were guiltless of the imputations against them. He encouraged Vazquez to make a secret enquiry into Perezs actions in office, and determined to make a clean sweep of his minister. Since his return from the Netherlands in 1573 the duke of Alba had been active in the councils at Madrid, but in 1579 was placed under house arrest for letting his son make an unauthorised marriage: he was called out only to undertake the invasion of Portugal. His disgrace was followed by Philips decision to place the direction of affairs in the hands of the Burgundian Antoine Perrenot, cardinal Granvelle, who had been withdrawn from the Netherlands in 1564 but had since served the crown with distinction in Italy. On 28 July 1579, the very day that Granvelle reached Madrid, Perez and the princess of Eboli were arrested.

Mrs. Dalloway :: essays research papers

Mrs. Dalloway (1998) presents a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class English woman. Clarissa Dalloway is the wife of Richard Dalloway, a Conservative Member of Parliament. The story takes place in London on a day in June 1923, a day when Clarissa is giving a dinner party. She walks to the florist shop to buy flowers for the party. Admittedly, it's no easy task to make a silly woman's foolish choices an engrossing cinematic experience. For that reason alone the people who tried to make a film of Virginia Woolf's novel, "Mrs. Dalloway" get an "E" for effort. It has a sumptuous look, excellent supporting performances, and I wish I could have liked it more. The title character, Clarissa Dalloway, is played by Vanessa Redgrave while she plans a party at her impressive home. As she does, she begins to recall the choice she made years ago when pursued by two suitors who could not have been more different. Rather than reckless passion, her choice, born of cowardice, was for the security of a quiet life full of privilege. Peter Walsh, an old and close friend of Clarissa’s, has returned to England after five years in India, and comes to visit her. Peter Walsh once loved Clarissa, but she had refused to marry him. Clarissa introduces Peter to her daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth is 17 years old, and has an older friend and tutor named Doris Kilman. Elizabeth goes to lunch with Miss Kilman. Miss Kilman is poor and physically unattractive, and resents the upper-class Mrs. Dalloway. Miss Kilman is a desperate and fanatically religious woman, who wants to take Elizabeth away from her mother, but conceals her feeling under the guise of religiosity and strident charity. Septimus Warren Smith and his wife Lucrezia happen to be walking on the street. Septimus Warren Smith never meets Mrs. Dalloway, but their lives are connected by external events, such as the sight of an airplane overhead, and by the fact that they are both sensitive people who feel empty. Septimus Warren Smith commits suicide the same day that Mrs. Dalloway is giving her dinner party. Clarissa Dalloway as a character in the novel is upper-class and conventional. She knows her life is shallow; her former lover Peter Walsh had called her the perfect hostess. She feels that her only gift in life is in knowing a person through instinct.

Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples Essay

The Native Americans were slaves from the north to the South of the Americas and right across the North American continent. The percentage of Native American slaves was larger than black slaves and they were enslaved far longer than Black slaves. Native Americans were slaves for about 500 years, from the 1400s to the 1900s. Native Americans slaves were for 200 years before African Americans made it to the new world. The slaves of Native American were shipped to several areas around the world, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East. [1] Native Americans were slaves even after slavery was removed because they were not citizens and the laws did not apply to them, the first Native American group was under Columbus, about 200,000 natives were harshly enslaved by him. Only 500 survived by the year 1550 and the group were extinct before 1650. [2] When Christopher Columbus discovered the New World in the late 1400s, his goal was to take all it natural resources and take it to Spain, he named it the new resource for Spain. Columbus figured an opportunity to convert the natives to Christianity, to provide another trade point with his mother country, and to learn about a vast extent of the agriculture and animals, as well as interesting cultures that the Old World had ever seen. However, one of the strongest causes of this difference in objectives was Hernando Cortes. Hernando Cortes’s purpose for the occupation of present-day Mexico was the conquest of the native peoples. Through harsh force and dishonesty, he destroyed the native tribes, making the Aztec Empire his own empire. In Bartolome de Las Casas writing about the indigenous peoples, witnessed a massive murder of the original people of Cuba, and became an opponent to the violent conversion of the Native Americans. He is considered the Father of Liberation Theology, arguing with Juan Gines de Sepulveda. De las Casas argued that Native Americans should be treated as other Spanish subjects of the king. He suggested that instead of making the Native Americans slaves, the Spanish should ship Africans to the New World for use as slave labor. [3] Alonso Zuazo said in his writings about the native Americans that the. Indians would serve as slaves for the Europeans in the sugar cane plantation in the coasts of Northern Africa. The main thing he was focused on was when the enslaving of the natives was failing in the sixteenth century; they wanted to replace them with slaves from western Africa. He found out that Africans were better slaves than the Native Americans because they came from agricultural societies and they know about agriculture more than the Native Americans. [4] Native Americans interacted with enslaved Africans in every way possible. Native Americans were enslaved along with Africans, They worked together, lived together in the same houses, produced recipes for food, shared herbal remedies, myths and legends, and in the end they breed together. Because both races were non-Christian, Europeans considered them under the Europeans. They worked to make enemies of the two groups. In some areas, Native Americans began to slowly engage with white culture. Africans were not affected with the conditions and diseases. It was because the Africans were already in contact with the Europeans when they had started trading with one another. Europeans felt they could handle the climate because of their skin color. Many Native Americans started to die because of the diseases. A lot of the Native Americans also started to escape and fight back, and many of them died. They also felt that Africans were cheaper. The Native Americans were less resistant to the diseases that the Europeans brought with them. In North America, the conquerors at first weren’t thinking of taking take Native Americans as slaves because they lived a harsh life that needed to be at peace with the Natives to continue. There were more Africans available and the Europeans found it more meaningful to buy Africans from Africans than to attempt to capture Indians. [5] Bibliography: Ivison, Duncan, Paul Patton, and Will Sanders. Political Theory and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 2nd ed. publication place: Cambridge University Press, publication year. http://books. google. com/books? hl=en&lr=&id=JkqahTHpUmUC&oi=fnd&pg=PA36&dq=exploitation+of+indigenous+peoples&ots=DojNLSzhZd&sig=oW_5zCg8jDjBuKeOQbRVDVO9x9Q#v=onepage&q=exploitation%20of%20indigenous%20peoples&f=false (accessed November 23, 2012). Saco, J. A. â€Å"Alonso de Zuazo (1518). † http://www. digitalhistory. uh. edu. http://www. digitalhistory. uh. edu/active_learning/explorations/spain/spain_zuazo. cfm (accessed November 23, 2012). TAINO-L. â€Å"Bartolome de Las Casas and His Defence of the Indians. † http://www. hartford-hwp. com. http://www. hartford-hwp. com/archives/40/186. html (accessed November 26, 2012). Columbus, Christopher. â€Å"Letter to King Ferdinand of Spain, Describing the Results of the First Voyage. † www. xroads. virginia. edu. http://xroads.virginia. edu/†¦ hyper/hns/garden/columbus. html (accessed November 26, 2012). ———————– [1] Duncan Ivison, Paul Patton, and Will Sanders, Political Theory and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2nd ed. (publication place: Cambridge University Press, publication year), 36-39, http://books. google. com/books? hl=en&lr=&id=JkqahTHpUmUC&oi=fnd&pg=PA36&dq=exploitation+of+indigenous+peoples&ots=DojNLSzhZd&sig=oW_5zCg8jDjBuKeOQbRVDVO9x9Q#v=onepage&q=exploitation%20of%20indigenous%20peoples&f=false (accessed November 23, 2012). [2] TAINO-L, â€Å"Bartolome de Las Casas and His Defence of the Indians,† http://www. hartford-hwp. com, http://www. hartford-hwp. com/archives/40/186. html (accessed November 26, 2012). [3] J. A. Saco, â€Å"Alonso de Zuazo (1518),† http://www. digitalhistory. uh. edu, http://www. digitalhistory. uh. edu/active_learning/explorations/spain/spain_zuazo. cfm (accessed November 23, 2012). [4] Christopher Columbus, â€Å"Letter to King Ferdinand of Spain, Describing the Results of the First Voyage,† www. xroads. virginia. edu.

Major Factors Affecting the Increase in Population Growth

†¢ Review of related Literature As can be seen in Figure 1, the worlds population grew very slowly until about 1750. There was a long period of stationary growth (no growth) until 1000 B.C.E., when the worlds population was approximately 300 million; this was followed by a period of slow growth from 1000 B.C.E. to approximately 1750, at which time global population was an estimated 800 million. Until this time, the worlds population was kept in check by high death rates, which were due to the combined effects of plagues, famines, unsanitary living conditions, and general poverty. After 1750, the worlds population grew substantially; by 1950 it had tripled to around 2.5 billion. In this 200-year period, the doubling time was 122†¦show more content†¦As a result, the world witnessed unprecedented rapid population growth between 1950 and 1985, owing, in large part, to third world increases. FIGURE 2 Further, the phenomenal increase in human numbers over the past 250 years is largely the consequence of mortality declines—not fertility increases. The first deaths to be reduced were those due to infectious diseases, the victims of which were most often children. The old killers of the past were to be replaced by chronic and degenerative diseases; the primary victims shifted from the young to the old. The rate of global population growth has declined significantly from its 1970s highs (see Figure 2). Current estimates anticipate a continued decline to about 0.5 percent in 2050. This corresponds to a doubling time of 140 years, a rate that has fostered concern about how the world will cope with 18 billion people in 2190. It is in the less developed countries that the continued growth in population will occur in the twenty-first century. Even though mortality is much higher in less developed countries (e.g., life expectancy at birth in 2000 was 75 years in the more developed countries and 62 to 64 years in the less developed countries), fertility remains even higher, thus accounting for relatively high growth in the third world. However, projections are not guarantees. Population may grow more slowly if, optimistically, fertility declines more quickly than expertsShow MoreRelatedPopulation Growth And Urban Road Emissions1738 Words   |  7 PagesPOPULATION GROWTH AND URBAN ROAD EMISSIONS Toh Xinyi Cindi1 1Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke St. W., xinyi.toh@mail.mcgill.ca Abstract This paper describes how world population growth is the most challenging factor in affecting urban road emissions. 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