TTC - Teofilo F. Ruiz - The Other 1492 Ferdinand, Isabella, and the Making of an Empire

General Information
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 Title.................: The Other 1492 :  Ferdinand, Isabella, and the Making of an Empire
 Author................: Professor Teofilo F. Ruiz
 Read By...............: Professor Teofilo F. Ruiz
 Genre.................: Audio Books
 Publisher.............: The Teaching Company
 Series Name...........: Great Courses
 Abridged..............: No

Original Media Information
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 Media.................: Tape
 Number................: 6
 Length each...........: 1:00
 Source................: Owned
 Condition.............: Very Good

File Information
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 Number of MP3s........: 12
 Total Duration........: 6:02
 Total MP3 Size........: 166,21 MB
 Parity Archive........: No
 Ripped By.............: Dane
 Encoded With..........: LAME 3.93
 Encoded At............: CBR 64 kbit/s 44100 Hz Mono
 Normalize.............: None
 Noise Reduction.......: None
 ID3 Tags..............: Set, v2.3

Posting
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 Posting Plan..........: All in one go.
 Reposting Rules.......: Only segments. Will be complete on EasyNews.-

Book Description
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"In 1492:

- There was no such country as ""Spain,"" and no language called ""Spanish.""   
- The biggest event of the year in the region that would become Spain was the surrender of the last Muslim stronghold, Granada. 
- The Edict of Expulsion gave Jews three months to either convert to Christianity or leave the Kingdom of Castile and the Crown of Aragon.

In other words, there is ""another"" 1492, one that is much richer than, and often different from, the one most of us know. This 1492 is a year that helps propel the Spanish Empire, but which predates Spain. It is a period in which the discovery of the New World is just one among a number of events that will affect the course of history. It is a time about which many of our beliefs are incomplete or inaccurate, or are entirely based on myth.

This 1492, The Other 1492, will greatly expand and often revise your understanding of one of history’s greatest dates. Over 12 lectures, Professor Teofilo Ruiz explores the full context of 1492: the centuries of historical developments that led up to it, and the diverse and longstanding consequences of the events that took place. 

These lectures will encourage you to reassess the meanings we attach to history, and to fully appreciate that progress can exact a terrible price. Today, we associate 1492 with a sense of wonder and discovery. But for many who were alive then, 1492 inspired only despair and terror. 

There is no more compelling or better-qualified professor for this course than Teofilo Ruiz, an award-winning teacher and author, and foremost expert on Spanish history. He lectures with an exceptionally high level of enthusiasm, immediacy, and authority.  Professor Ruiz’s method is, as Walter Benjamin said, ""to brush history against the grain."" ""I want to show that 1492 was not just a series of accomplishments,"" explains Ruiz, ""but that it brought about a series of events that completely transformed the nature of Spanish society."" This story ties together a wide variety of key themes and events, including: 

The importance of Castile. Events unfolded very differently in Castile than in the Crown of Aragon, the other important Spanish realm. This enabled Castile to exert a dominant influence on Spain’s political future. Castilian became the language of Spain and its conquistadors in the new world.

The end of pluralism. For centuries, the Iberian Peninsula had been a multicultural mix of Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Beginning with the Christian victory over Muslim forces at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, and continuing with such developments as the conquest of Granada and the Edict of Expulsion, both in 1492, Muslims and Jews were either forced to convert to Christianity or sent into exile. 

Shifts in values. Spaniards began to change their views toward property, the family, and the poor. These shifts created a growing sense of superiority by certain classes and groups over others.

The reforms of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Catholic monarchs restored order and centralized power in Castile through such measures as new taxes, control of the military, reform of the Church, the creation of universities and administrative bureaucracies, and the use of the Inquisition. Their popular and stable monarchy enabled Spain, led by Castile, to emerge as the most powerful nation in Europe.  
A major theme of this course is that history is not only written from ""above,"" but from below—by the defeated, the outsiders, by those seen as ""other."" The year 1492 can be seen as a symbol of the inability of those in Castile and Aragon to accept the ""other"" in their midst.   

Professor Ruiz conveys a palpable sense of the experiences of Muslims and Jews as they faced the choice of renouncing their religious beliefs or leaving lands that they had called home for centuries. This discussion touches on such topics as the significance of terms used by Christians to describe Muslims; the Muslim sense that their civilization was ultimately doomed after the defeat by Christian forces at Toledo in 1085; and the confusion felt by Conversos—Jewish converts to Christianity—who tried to mix elements of Judaism with their new religion and became prime targets of the Inquisition.  

Beginning with Columbus, Castilian attitudes toward ""others"" were exported to the New World. Spanish accounts of native peoples were ambivalent: praising their simplicity and seeming closeness to God, but labeling them with the same stereotypes that had been applied to Muslims and Jews, and questioning whether they were truly human.  

The Other 1492 provides a way to perceive events as contemporaries did and clear up misconceptions. For example, you will learn why Columbus’s voyages were not seen as the greatest of his time; why it was not believed the earth was flat; and how the first voyage did not actually produce doubts and fear among Columbus’s crew.  

You will gain an appreciation of the fact that the legacy of 1492 is a mixed blessing of triumph and tragedy. Progress in the 15th century created a Spanish Empire and a Golden Age of literature and culture, but resulted in drastic and oppressive social, economic, and political changes that would eventually cause Spain’s demise. "