Pugna Columbum & Francicum Poresium XIV

Title

Pugna Columbum & Francicum Poresium XIV

Description

Depiction of the conquest of Jamaica by Christopher Columbus.

ca. 1594

Artist

Bry, de (1528-1598)

Theodorus de Bry (1528-1598) Frankfurt a.M. Around 1570, Theodorus de Bry, a Protestant, fled religious persecution south to Strasbourg, along the west bank of the Rhine. In 1577, he moved to Antwerp in the Duchy of Brabant, which was part of the Spanish Netherlands or Southern Netherlands and Low Countries of that time (16th Century), where he further developed and used his skills as a copper engraver. Between 1585 and 1588 he lived in London, where he met the geographer Richard Hakluyt and began to collect stories and illustrations of various European explorations, most notably from Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues. Depiction of Spanish atrocities in the New World, as recounted by Bartolome de las Casas in Narratio Regionum indicarum per Hispanos Quosdam devastatarum verissima. In 1588, Theodorus and his family moved permanently to Frankfurt-am-Main, where he became citizen and began to plan his first publications. The most famous one is known as Les Grands Voyages, i.e., The Great Travels, or The Discovery of America. He also published the largely identical India Orientalis-series, as well as many other illustrated works on a wide range of subjects. His books were published in Latin, and were also translated into German, English and French to reach a wider reading public. The two collections of travelogues published by Theodor de Bry in Frankfurt are among the most important of the early modern period and established his reputation for posterity: He created The Arrival of Columbus in the New World in 1594. The West Indian Voyages (ed. 1590-1618) chronicled the discovery and conquest of the Americas by Europeans, while the East Indian Voyages followed the rise of Holland as a trading power in Asia around 1600. Both series appeared in German and Latin, were intended for a European audience, and were richly illustrated with copper engravings. Theodor de Bry was only able to publish six parts of his complete works. After his death, his sons Johann Theodor and Johann Israel and then Johann Theodor's son-in-law Matthäus Merian continued the work until 1634. In the end, it contained 25 parts and over 1500 copper engravings. The brothers were succeeded as engravers and publishers by Sebastian Furck.

Historical Description

In the 7th century BC the first Taíno (a people belonging to the Arawak) from South America reached the island. They lived in tribal communities and practiced agriculture and fishing. They built their houses out of reeds and straw. Small groups of the Caribbean came to Jamaica in the course of the 15th century. In contrast to the practice on many other islands, they did not expel the Taíno, but lived with them. When Christopher Columbus landed on Jamaica as the first European in 1494 during his second trip, about 100,000 people lived there. After a long dispute between Diego Columbus, the son of Christopher Columbus, and the Spanish crown over the possession of some Caribbean islands, he finally became viceroy of all the islands discovered by his father. He was given the right to keep a share of the gold found there and to levy taxes. In 1509 he had Jamaica taken over by Juan Ponce de León and called it Santiago. This name never became natural. The Spaniards also used the original Indian names Chaymakas or Xaymaca, which they twisted in Jamaica. Due to the enormous size and the difficult geographical conditions, Spain could never really protect its possessions in America - especially in the Caribbean. In the decades after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, but especially since the final decline of Spanish supremacy in the second half of the 17th century, the English, French and Dutch entered the Spanish sphere of power more and more. On 1655, English troops under Robert Venables and Admiral William Penn sen landed. in the place of today's Kingston. They had been sent by Oliver Cromwell to conquer bases in the Caribbean as part of the Western design. The administration in Spanish Town surrendered the next day, some of the remaining Spaniards fled to Cuba without a fight. In the hope of an uprising, they had previously freed their slaves and equipped them with weapons. There was no fighting at first, as the former slaves retreated to the inaccessible interior where they lived under the name of the Maroons. Despite the surrender, the last Spanish governor, Cristobal Arnaldo de Ysassi, gathered guerrilla troops on the north coast and inland. He received support from Cuba twice, but had to give up after two defeats against the English army in 1657 and 1658. In 1664, an elected assembly was established to perform local administrative functions. Jamaica formally became the property of Great Britain in 1670 through the Madrid Treaty.