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Summary
Travel is an act for human beings to visit new places and experience different cultures and histories. Through travel, people can actually feel historical events and people’s lives by visiting historical places and cultural heritage sites, and can gain a deeper understanding of history and broaden their own perspectives. In this section, we will discuss the historical background of the trip and the places visited based on Ryotaro Shiba‘s “Kaido yuku” (On the Road) about this journey and history.
From the 22nd volume of the Road to the Streets, Volume 23. In the previous article, we discussed the This time, it is a journey through France/Spain/Portugal. This time, we will follow in the footsteps of Francis Xavier, a great influence on Japan during the Warring States period, and visit Paris, France to the Basque Country in Spain, and then to Spain and Portugal, countries called “Nanban” by the Japanese during the Warring States period.
Spain will be a country located in southwestern Europe, covering most of the Iberian Peninsula. (The capital is Madrid, and the official language is Spanish (Castilian).) Spain has been influenced by many civilizations since ancient times. The first is the Cro-Magnon people, who left animal paintings on the walls of the Altamira Cave in northern Spain,
In the 12th century B.C., the Phoenicians entered the Iberian Peninsula. The Phoenicians built the oldest city in Europe, Cadiz, and introduced numbers and alphabets. Around 1000 B.C., Celts from Gaul crossed the Pyrenees Mountains and entered the Iberian Peninsula, and Greeks also began to visit the Iberian Peninsula, from which time the Iberian Peninsula began trading with numerous regions. From that time on, the Iberian Peninsula traded with many regions.
In the 2nd century B.C., the Iberian Peninsula was the target of the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage, and the Iberian Peninsula was the scene of fierce battles between the two sides, until it finally fell to the Romans in 205 B.C., and was ruled for a long time by Rome. The Iberian Peninsula was the target of fierce battles between the two sides.
After that, Roman rule continued for a while, but in 415, the Visigoths migrated southward and founded the Visigothic Kingdom, and in 560, the Visigothic Kingdom moved its capital to Toledo. Here, the Islamic Empire in North Africa crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and landed in the Iberian Peninsula in 711, destroying the Visigothic Kingdom in the Battle of Guadalete, followed by a period of rule by Islamic powers, and Spain was strongly influenced by Islamic culture.
Later, the Kingdom of Spain was established through the merger of the remaining Catholic powers in Spain, including the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon, which destroyed the Islamic powers in the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, leading to the present-day Spain. This activity by Catholic forces is also known as the Reconquista (reconquest movement).
After the unification of Spain, Spain turned its attention outward to the discovery and colonization of the New World by Christopher Columbus of Genoa (Cristóbal Colón), who destroyed the Aztec civilization in 1521, followed by Pedro de Alvarado’s destruction of the Mayan civilization in the mid-1520s. Francisco Pizarro destroyed the Inca civilization in 1532. Three civilizations were destroyed by the Spanish, and the mainland Americas became almost entirely a Spanish colony.
アステカ文明の翡翠の仮面
マヤ文明のピラミッド
インカ文明の空中都市マチュピチュ
These great sacrifices brought a large amount of silver to Spain, and led to the establishment of the Spanish Golden Age. The large amount of silver that flowed from the Americas to Europe caused inflation in Europe, which led to the Industrial Revolution. However, since these industrial revolutions took place in the emerging countries of the time, such as the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, they did not accumulate or form industries in Spain, but only supported the process of intrinsic accumulation of capital in these advanced Western European countries. Ryotaro Shiba speculates that this historical trend was caused by the difference between Catholicism, which valued the given order, and Protestantism, which valued self-effort.
During this period, which was the Warring States Period in Japan, Spaniards who visited Japan were called “Nambanjin” and were responsible for bringing information from around the world to Japan.
The period from the middle of the 16th century to the first half of the 17th century was a time of prosperity for Spain, and is known as the “Golden Century (Siglo de Oro)” in Spanish history. During the reign of King Felipe II of Spain, the country reached its peak with the wealth brought from the New World, and the capital was moved to Madrid, where El Escorial Palace was built.
By annexing Portugal in 1580, Spain had also acquired its colonies that had spread to Brazil, Africa, and the Indian Ocean, and had come to be known as the “Empire on which the sun never sets.
In contrast, after Spain‘s invincible fleet was defeated by the English navy at the Battle of the Armada in 1588, Spain gradually lost control of the seas, and its power declined.
After visiting El Escorial Palace, Ryotaro Shiba and his group headed for Portugal. They used the Lisbon Express, which was made into a movie starring Alandron in the 1970s.
Portugal, like Spain, is located at the western tip of the Iberian Peninsula, with its capital in Lisbon, and its official language is Portuguese. Geographically, Portugal faces the Atlantic Ocean, is surrounded by the sea to the west and south, borders Spain, and has the Atlantic coastline to the north. Inland, the country is characterized by rugged mountainous terrain, and the Algarve region is characterized by its beautiful coastline.
Portugal is a country open to the sea, and as a result, various ethnic groups such as Celts, Romans, Germans, and Arabs migrated to Portugal, resulting in a country with a high level of intermixing. Until the rule of Islam, Portugal had a history similar to that of Spain, a country on the Iberian Peninsula, and established the Kingdom of Portugal around 1100 during the Reconquista (reconquest movement). The Portuguese economy reached its peak with the revitalization of domestic and international trade activities, and played a central role in the Age of Discovery, especially with the exploration of the coast of Africa and the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of the African continent, and the discovery of the Indian route by Vasco da Gama, among others, through the aggressive overseas expansion of Don Enrique (Prince Enrique the Navigator) and his followers. Vasco da Gama played a central role in the Age of Exploration.
As described in “Karatsu, Hirado, Sasebo and Nagasaki on the Road to Nagasaki” and “Tanegashima, Yakushima and Amami Islands on the Road to Tanegashima, Yakushima and Amami“, European contact with Japan has been deeply related to the introduction of guns, Christianity, and trade in a variety of European goods.
The words we use today, such as “bread, compote, marmelo, flask, beadro, button, kappa, cloak, jivan, racha, shabong, carta, tobacco, saffron, kanakin, castella, compass, melias, and sarasa organ,” are all derived from Portuguese, which is the language of the medieval period. They were brought to Japan through the medieval Nanban trade.
When the struggle for the succession of the king of Portugal broke out in 1580, the king of Spain came forward as one of the successors and won the battle, leading to the annexation of Portugal by Spain, and all Portuguese colonies abroad became Spain‘s. This incident led to the Portuguese influence in Portugal. The incident caused Portugal‘s influence to quickly wilt.
The year 1580 was 20 years before the Battle of Sekigahara in Japan, and because of this trend, there were no more Portuguese in Japan, and instead, English and Dutch people entered Dejima Island in Nagasaki during the period of national isolation.
In Portugal, Ryotaro Shiba and his group visited historical sites around Lisbon and
The trip will also end with a visit to Cape Sagres and Cape San Vincente, at the southwestern end of Europe.
In the next article, we will discuss our trip to Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture.
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