Global Encounters and the Shock of the Reformation

1492–1560

In the late fifteenth century, Europe stood on the threshold of profound transformations within its borders and beyond. Portuguese fleets had opened up new trade routes extending along the West African coast to Calicut, India, the hub of the spice trade. Their success whet Europeans’ appetite for maritime exploration, with Spain ultimately taking the lead. The Spaniards’ colonization of the Caribbean was in full gear by 1500, and from there they moved westward into Mexico. The first two documents illuminate aspects of the Spanish conquest of Mexico from both Spanish and native perspectives. As they suggest, European colonization permanently changed the lives of native peoples of the Americas, often with devastating results. The third document reveals that some Europeans openly criticized colonization while at the same time embracing the opportunities it provided to spread Catholic Christianity. Catholicism had long been a unifying force in the West. In the early sixteenth century, however, the religious landscape shifted dramatically. Problems within the Catholic church combined with the spirit and methods of the Renaissance to usher in the Protestant Reformation, a time of questioning, reform, and revolt. The fourth and fifth documents allow us to see the Reformation through the eyes of two of its leaders, Martin Luther and John Calvin. Together, their ideas helped to shatter the religious unity of Europe forever. As the final document attests, despite the many challenges it faced, Catholicism underwent its own process of change and renewal.