Niezapomniana lekcja historii początków Ameryki Łacińskiej

Abstract

The inhabitants of the sun-scorched rocky Pyrenean peninsula could at least in some of the terrain of South America discover a new paradise, lost arcadia, a land of primeval bliss. The very names of the cities seem to bear out this impression: Buenos Aires (Good Air) or Costa Rica (Rich Coast). Still, it was the idea of continuity, i.e. building the new world with the cultural roots in the old, on the old continent. Both Spanish scholars and ecclesiastical authorities favoured this idea. The indigenous population was recognised as citizen with full rights and who as such were deemed able to take over the Spanish cultural heritage and enrich it with their own. This ideal design failed to be completed for a variety of reasons. The political stage in Europe absorbed the strength and attention that could otherwise have been directed to America. The golden age of cultural and economic development in Spain was followed by years of drawbacks, decline and implosion. America lacked the support from the old continent that it needed. No wonder then that the sinful side of the human nature took the upper hand over the virtues: these included greed and competition for power. The newcomers from Spain would attain affl uence at the cost of the Indians turning them into serfs. Nowadays their offspring has long been free, but they have also remained destitute. On the contrary, the America settled by Anglo-Saxons has always been the America of free colonisers. The Iberian America is a mix of colonisers and indigenous peoples, of the descendants of the free and the enslaved.