Search results for ""author eitan ginzberg""

It was not the original intention of the Spanish to harm the Hispanic-American natives. The Spanish Crown, Councils and Church considered the natives free and intelligent vassals entitled to be embraced by Christianity and by the Hispanic civil culture. However, at the same time it was the monarchys decision to exploit the natives as taxpayers and as a reservoir of forced labor that made its rule in America exceptionally destructive. The recruitment of the natives to serve the interests of the Spanish Empire under what can only be considered near to slave conditions, compounded by systematic annihilation of their cultures and by cyclical epidemics, led to the near total eradication of the Indians. The book narrates the story of the Spanish conquest and the widespread violations against the Hispanic-American natives. The author ponders on the question why the Spanish Crown and the Church failed to apply the necessary measures to effectively protect the natives, particularly during the first years of the conquest and its aftermaths, when exploitation practices were gradually formed and implemented. The author further enquires how exploitation on this scale was made possible despite a constant flow of reports emphasizing the clear and present danger to the very existence of the natives and the profound, ongoing debates, led by most prominent intellectuals of the time, challenging its justification. Based upon primary sources and current research on the relationship between colonialism and genocide, this book examines whether the Spanish actions were genocidal. What lies at the heart of the issue is whether the wide range of exploitative acts implies ministerial responsibility of the Crown and its Councils in Spain, Crowns agents in America, or whether the destruction of the native population resulted from unplanned but acute circumstances, making it impossible to place the blame on specific persons or institutions.

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Làzaro Càrdenas and Adalberto Tejeda, veterans of the Revolution and prominent governors of Michoacan and Veracruz from 1928 to 1932, strived to make Mexico a modern and just state on the basis of the revolutionary Constitution. Three key obstacles confronted them: the conservative approach of the political Center; the political weakness of their own power base; and the great opposing power of the farmers and their supporting elements, especially the Church and the army. This book discusses the different avenues to reform these leaders took and their short- and long-term implications. Càrdenas sought to strengthen his position through the ruling party (PNR), while reinforcing local agrarian forces and opening channels of direct empathetic communication with the Church and the army. Tejeda attempted to strengthen his position in the federative arena, bypassing the political Center via the National Peasant League (LNC -- Liga Nacional Campesina), whose establishment he was deeply involved in, making a sweeping radical reform while attacking uncompromisingly all the traditional elements of Veracruzan society. Both political projects had unprecedented success but totally different implications. The Càrdenista power base led its author to the next Presidency, during which he implemented a remarkable agrarian project. Tejeda's power base, however, led to the utter annihilation of his political power structure and many of his agrarian achievements, as well as to his failure in the struggle for presidency. From that point of view, only a heavy bureaucratic, centre-based reform initiative could succeed, while a local, radical, adventurous transformation was doomed to failure. The fate of the two governors corresponded to the fate of national revolutionary reformism and thus to the destiny of Mexico.

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