The Iberian Background of Latin American History. Recent Progress and Continuing Problems (Bishko, C.)

The Iberian Background of Latin American History: Recent Progress and Continuing Problems
Author(s): Charles Julian Bishko

Source: The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Feb., 1956), pp. 50-80
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2508626
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REVIEW ARTICLES
The Iberian Background of Latin

American History: Recent Progress
and Continuing Problems
CHARLES JULIAN BISHKO*
H ISTORIANS of Ibero-America,confronting a civilization

that in regionally varying proportions incorporates ele-
ments of European, Indian and African origin, tend to
be peculiarly conscious of "backgrounds" and of the flaming con-
troversies that surround their analysis and evaluation; yet they have
given surprisingly little attention to the scientific formulation of what
might be called a backgrounds philosophy or methodology. This is espe-
cially true of the Iberian Background, despite universal recognition, by
friends and foes alike, of the necessity for studying the Iberianization
of much of the Western Hemisphere in the light of the historical forma-
tion of the Luso-Hispanic peoples. Does the concept embrace the whole
body of Spaiiish and Portuguese history down to 1492 (or, alterna-
tively, 1598, 1810, 1898 or 1956) ? Or does it inelude only those human,
institutional and cultural elements demonstrably transplanted to the
New World? Cail these latter legitimately be studied outside the
total complex of Iberian eivilization from which they may have been
selected, in the colonizing of America, by historical precedent, local
exigency, official decision or mere accident? And, finally, how can
what is ill any case a discouragingly large mass of historical materials
be organized to meet the needs of the specialist in Latin American
history ?
The fact that in Ibero-Americanist historical circles the air does
not yet ring with anguished cries for answers to these and related
methodological questions can, I think, be attributed to a continuing
(if largely unwarranted) faith in certain traditional practices. These
take the form of either (1) complete or virtually complete avoidance
of the Iberian Background, presumably as too large or too well known
* The author is professor of history at the University of Virgina.-Ed. [To
the Editor of HAHR, who while in Spain indefatigably forwarded to me recent
publicatioins I would Inot otlherwise have seen, I am deeply indebted.-C. J. B.]
THE IBERIAN BACKGROUND OF LATIN AMERICAN HISTORIY 51
to require the attention commonly extended the Indian Background;
or (2) brief, sporadic references to Iberian origins in describing the
genesis of specific Ibero-American institutions or ideas; or (3) a
Background survey genuine but conceived in terms of an inadequate,
often arbitrary and largely outworn nineteenth-century table of con-
tents which displays little regard for chronological or topical rele-
vance.1 Furthermore, the failure to conceive a sound methodological
approach has been compounded by confusions due to other factors:
doetrinaire stands for or against hispanismo and lusitanismo; the
influence of dated interpretative works like those of Oliveira Martins,
Ganiivet, Blanco-Fombona and Juderias;la the relative uniderdevelop-
ment of historical research in the Portuguese and Spanish fields; the
paucity of bibliographical tools and periodicals; and the poor com-
munication between compartmentalized historians. This last lack
has led the Luso-Hispanic specialist to neglect subjects of prime in-
terest to the Ibero-Ainericanist, while the latter in turn, unaware of
the advance of research in peninsular history, or failing to make
known his needs, has relied unduly upon the works of Herculano,
Altamira, Ballesteros, Merriman and others despite their inevitable
need for revision at many points in the light of subsequent investi-
gation.
Against these ancient obstacles to proper understanding of the
' Examples of the first procedure are Carlos Pereyra, Historia de la Am6rica
espaiiola (Madrid, 1920-26), R. Levene, ed., Historia de Arnmrica (Buenlos Aires,
1947-49), A. Ballesteros y Beretta, Historia de Am6rica y de los pueblos ameri-
canos (Bareeloiia-Buenos Aires, 1936- ); of the seconid, Demetrio Ramos
P6rez, Historia de la civilizaci6n espaitola en Am6rica (Madrid, 1947); of the
third, Ricardo Levene, ed., Historia de la naci6n argentina (2nd ed. Buenos Aires,,
1939), vol. II, or the Iberian Background chapter of most textbooks in Latin
American- history. Despite certain basic weaknesses and the detrition of time, the
first volume of Roger B. Merriman 's The Rise of the Spanish Empire (New
York, 1918) still stands as the most successful effort yet made to define and meet.
the problem. A recent useful but far too coinveiitioiial attempt is Jose Tudela's.
El legado de Espana en A'm&rica (2 vols. Madrid, 1954); cf. also Luis Weckiiann,
"The Middle Ages in the Coniquest of America," Spcetlumt, XXVI (1951), 130-
141; Juan P6rez de Tudela, "Castilla ante los comieinzos de la coloiiiza.ci6ni de las.
Iiidias,"' Revista de Indias, XIV (1955), 11-88.
la Joaquini Pedro Oliveira Martinis, Hist6ria da c'ivilisacio ib 6rica (Lisboii,
1879); Anlgel Gaiiivet, Ideariumn espanol (Granada, 1897); Rufinlo Blanco-Foni-
bona, El conquistador espaflol del siglo XVI (Madrid, 1922) ; Juli,ln Juderias,,
La leyenda negra (Madrid, 1914). Amonig nlumerous other dissections of nmedieval-
early moderni Iberian imianl,see Manluel Gallvez, El solar de la -aza (Buenos Aires,.
1912) ; Manluel de Montoliu, El alma de Espana y sus reflejos en la literat'tra del
Siglo de Oro (Barcelona, 1942); Ramonl Menl6nldez Pidal, ''Los espalioles enl la
historia," in his Biistoria de Espaiia (4 vols. ini 6 parts. Madrid, 1935- ), tonio
I, vol. I, vii-ciii (translated into Enlglish as T7he Spaniards in Their History
[New York, 1950]); William L. Schurz, This Newv World (NeAv York, 1954).
52 HAHR FEBRUARY CHARLES JULIAN BISIEHKO
Iberian Background of Latin Americani history, however, significant

progress has beeni registered in the last fifteen years on both sides
of the Atlantic. In the Western Hemisphere, the spread of ideological
movemelnts stressilng Iberian roots; the stimulating effects of residence
on Americani soil of topdrawer peninsular scholars like Altamira,
S'nehez A]bornioz,Ots Capdequl, Americo Castro anid Millares Carlo ;2
the growing study of Ibero-American history in Latin America as
well as in the United States; have all stirred a strong new interest in
the Iberian Background anid posed numerous new problems of his-
torical gelnesis. The scholarly effects of this can be seen in the activi-
ties of the Colegio de Mexico and the Spanish section of the Instituto
de Investigacionies Historicas of the University of Buenos Aires; the
appearaniee of such periodicals for peninlsular stuidies as the outstand-
iiig Ctader-nos de Historia (le Espai-a of Buenios Aires and the Revista
de Hist6ria of So Paulo; anid the readiness of Latini American
presses like Losada or the Fondo de Cultura Economica to publish
books of the caliber of Salchez Albornoz' La Espaiia mrtsutlmana,
Americo Castro's Espaiia en su historia, Marcel Bataillon 's Erasno
y Espa-ia, anld Fernand Braudel's El Mediterradneoy el mundo medi-
terra'neo en la epoca de Felipe II.
In the Iberian Peninsiula itself, fur therm:iore,historical produLic-
tivity since 1940 in precisely those fields most closely related to the
Iberian Background has been abundant. The Portuguese octo-ter-
centennial of that year provoked numerous multi-volumed historical
sets, special studies, and new national and regional historical periodi-
cals; and while this tide has since inevitably ebbed, important work
continues to be produced at the Instituto de Estudos Hist6ricos Dr.
Antonio de Vasconcelos of Coimbra, by the Faculdades de Letras of
Lisbon and Coimbra, and in provincial historical centers. In Spaiii,
where enthusiasmi for the Iberian Middle Ages, the Siglo de Oro aiid
Hispanic America dolinates the historiographical scene, the govern-
ment-directed Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas has
spawned a staggering seqtela of national and regional historical
Institutos, Instituciones, Centros, Escuelas, and Congresos, organized
under the Patronatos MIen'ndez Pelayo de Filologia, Historia y Arte;
Jose Maria Quadrado de Estudios e Investigaciones Locales; and
others. From these as from the universities and historical societies
has come a flood of books and journals in which the old dividing line
between Spanish and Hispanic Americani history hardly exists; and
A revised edition of Julian Amo and Charmnian Shelby, La obra impresa de
los intelectuales espaitoles en Ame'rica, 1936-1945 (Stanford, 1951) would denion-
strate how extenisive this influeincQ continues to be in the historical field.
THE IBERIAN BACKGROUND OF LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY 53
this cross-fertilization of the two fields is further attested by the small
but growing number of scholars who, like Virginia Rau or Florentino
Perez Embid, contribute authoritatively to both.3
To the historian of Latin America this fruitful ferineiit in Portu-
guese and Spanish historical studies inevitably poses a major chal-
lenge. It calls upon him to define more carefully than he has yet done
the concept of the Iberian Background, if only as a defensive measure
enabling him to extract from a growing body of historical information
what is pertinent to his own needs. And it imposes uponl him the
necessity of becoming familiar with a wide range of niew discoveries
and interpretations contained in new books, periodicals and biblio-
graphical guides. This seems then a good moment to attempt a brief
and necessarily incomplete appraisal of the present state of Iberian
Background studies, which, if it accomplishes nothing else, will at
least serve to call attentioln to the problems involved, the genieral
progress in the field, and what areas still await investigation.
It is necessary to begin with a profession of faith. In the writer 's
opinion, the Iberian Background is by no means identical with, but
cannot possibly be understood apart from, Spanish and Portuguese
history as a whole. To limit attention exclusively to the specific
ethnic, institutional and cultural elements Spain and Portugal trans-
planted across the Atlantic from 1492 on, is to ignore the crucial his-
torical process by which these, and not other, elements were selected
for overseas survival or adaptation, and to be unaware of hitherto
unenvisaged factors in problems of historical origins. Yet certain
distinctions or priorities of relevance must unquestionably be estab-
lished. Broadly speaking, from the chronological standpoint, the
Background stretches from the first human habitation of the Penin-
sula right down to present-day Spanish and Portuguese influence upon
Latin America. But the pre-Roman, Roman and Germanic epochs
before 711 so substantially antedate the emnergenceof the peoples aild
civilization transmitted to the New World, that for the most part
they fall outside the frame of referenee.4 On the other hand, for the
Ibero-American historiaii, the death of Philip II in 1598 marks the
effective terminus of the basic epoch of the discovery, conquest and
colonization of the Spanish and Portuguese Indies; thereafter metro-
politan ilnfluences operate in an already firmly established American
society. This leaves two periods as central to the Iberian Background
of Latin American history: first, the six medieval centuries between
3 And note also, among non-Iberians, Richard Konetzke and Marcel Bataillon.
4 This is not to fall into Americo Castro's error of denying the Hispanicity
[or Lusitanicity] of pre-711 Iberia, which is indefensible.
54 HAHR I FEBRJUARY I CHARLESJULIAN BISHKO
711 and 1300, the era of the formative evolution of the institutional
and intellectual bases of Iberian civilization; and, secondly, the three
transitional centuries between 1300 and 1600 of the Later Middle
Ages, Rellaissance and Reformation, i.e., the era of the national con-
solidation and explosive overseas expansion of the Luso-Hispanic
peoples. Acceptance of some such scheme of chronological relevanee
should minimize the present tendency to discuss Celt-Iberian tribalism.
prehistoric Basque origins, Roman municipalities or Visigothic king-
ship (all in themselves important matters, surely) in connection with
Background surveys, to which such subjects as Minhotan and Beiran
agriculture, Basque familial law, the late medieval Castilian concejo
or Extremaduran population pressure would be much more pertinent.
In the second place, the Iberian Background must be marked off
from the European background in general, which affects Latin Amer-
ica through the medium of the metropolitan countries, although of
course direct contacts, as with Elnglish piracy in the Caribbean, Flem-
ish missionaries in early Peru, German miners in Tierra Firme or
French trespassers at Sao Sebastiao, also occur. The Spanish empire
in Europe or Portuguese commercial relations with the Italian trading
cities and northern Europe bear more directly upon the American
expansion. In the Peninsula itself Navarre and, much more, the
Crown of Aragon-especially in the light of recent studies claiming
for it strong administrative and institutional influence upon the
Ilndies-possess still more immediate significance.5 But within this
broad and necessary fraiimeworkthe central focus of Iberian Back-
ground studies must inevitably be the colonizing states of Portugal
and Castile, not only in their own proper historical development but
also, after 1400, in that projected conquest and colonization of the
Afro-Atlantic area which is the direct prototype of the twin eilter-
prises of the Indies.
To the definition of the Iberian Background thus delimited in
time and space three corollaries may be added. First, that the subject
should be studied not merely in terms of politico-military history and
biography, but as broadly as modern historians treat Latin America
itself, in its social, religious, economic, cultural and juridical aspects.
Second, that the overworked mechanical formula of tracing Ibero-
American ideas or institutions to their metropolitan ancestors should
be expanded to include the larger problem of why, how and from
what general colntext these and not other forms were adopted for use
For example, J. Vicerns Vives, I Precedentes mediterraiieos del virreina-to
F
colombino," Anuario de Estudios Americanos, V (1948), 571-614; Manuel Gimenez
FernAndez, Bartolome de las Casas (Seville, 1953- ), I, chaps. 1-5.
in the Indies. Third, that interpretations of the Background should
recognize in medieval and early modern Spain and Portugal highly
complex, unstable societies moving, in the midst of violent internal
change and conflict, from an original dynamic diversity towards the
more static ethnic, religious and constitutional uniformity and cen-
tralization of the arteriosclerotic seventeenth century, to which, not to
earlier periods, so many of our glib generalizations about Spain and
Portugal really apply.
From these general considerations we turn first to the basic biblio-
graphical guides and general historical works that chart the advances
since about 1940 in Iberian Background studies. These are largely
identical with those for Luso-Hispanic history between 711 and 1600.
On the Spanish side, Benito S'anchez Alonso's Fuentes de historia
espanola e hispanoamericana, indispensable despite incompleteness,
inadequate classification and lack of comment upon titles included,
has reached a third edition (Madrid, 1952); and Homero Seris 's
large-scale Manual de bibliografta de la literatura espaniola (2 vols. to
date. Syracuse, N. Y., 1948-1954) lists numerous new titles on his-
tory as well as general culture. Historical books sponsored by the
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientlficas are listed in its an-
nual Memnoriasand its Boletin Bibliografico, while for the thousands
of articles published during the first decade of the Consejo's countless
journals harried historians are now blessed with a massive author and
subject index, Amadeo Tortajada and Carmen de Amaniel, Materiales
de investigacidon. Indice de articulos de revistas (1939-1949) (Madrid,
1952) .6 Important new selective bibliography appears in the latest
editions of Pedro Aguado Bleye, Manual de historia de Espana (Ma-
drid, 1947-1954) ; Antonio Ballesteros y Beretta, Iistoria de Espania
(Barcelona, 1944), vols. I-III; and in the bibliographical essays in-
cluded in the Diccionario de historia de Espana, ed. by German
Bleiberg (Madrid, 1952), II, 1493-1519, and in Luis Gareia de Valdea-
vellano, Historia de Espania (Madrid, 1952), I, 25-96. For current
titles, replacing the discontinued bibliographies of fispania and the
Bibliograftia de ciencias historicas (Madrid, 1941-44), edited by Ramon
Paz, Spain now possesses a first-class periodical of historical bibliog-
raphy, the Indice Historico Espainol, published by the University of
Barcelona's Centro de Estudios Historicos Internacionales under the
direction of Jaime Vicens Vives; this aims to list all titles of books,
periodical articles and significant book reviews within three months
6 Cf. also E. Segura Covarsi, Indice de la Revista de de
Occidente, Colcei6ii
indices de publicaciones peri6dicas, XV (Madrid, 1952) and other works in this
valuable series.
56 HAHR I FEBRUARY I CHIARLES JULIAN BISHKO
of their appearance, together with summary of content and objective

appraisal of value. The Indice's first six issues covering the years
1953-1954 have just been republished in convenient book form, with
author and subject indices, as Bibliografia historica de Espana e
Hispanoamerrica (Barcelona, 1955), vol. I. The quarterly Bibliotheca
Hispanca contains an extensive historical subdivision, with brief sum-
maries of books anid articles listed, and the monthly Bibliografia
Hispanica often contains the first iiews of nevwbooks. Other sources
of current titles are the bibliographical sections of the Revue d 'His-
toire Ecclesiastique, the surprisingly comprehensive Revista de Filo-
logta Espaiiola, the Bulletin lispanique, the American Historical
Review, the Journal of Modern History, and, for special topics, such
Spanish journals as Analecta Sacra Tarraconensia, the Cuadernos de
Estudios Gallegos aiid the Cuadernos de Historia J. Zurita.
For Portugal the best guide for the last decade and a half is the
bibliography by Salvador Dias Arnaut in Revista Portuguesa de
Hist4ria, III (1947, published 1953), 314-328, which covers the period
1939-1945. Doris Varner Welsh's A Catalog of the TVilliamB. Green-
lee Collection of Portuguese History and Literature and the Portut-
guese Materials in the Newberry Library (Chicago, 1953) lists much
new historical literature and can be supplemented by Greenlee's own
"A Descriptive Bibliography of the History of Portugal," HAHR,
XX (1940), 491-516; the Exposigao de livros portugueses. Cata'logo
(Lisbon, 1950), which lists recent books and periodicals exhibited at
the memorable Luso-Brazilian Colloquiiuinheld in Washington in 1950;
the Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Luso-Brazilian
Sttdies (Atas do Colo6quiointernacional de estudos luso-brasileiros)
(Nashville, Tenn., 1953); and C. R. Boxer, "Some Notes on Portu-
guese Historiography, 1930-1950," History, Feb.-June, 1954. Recent
histories of Portugal, as listed below, by Damiao Peres (ed.), Gonzaga
de Azevedo, Ameal, Livermore and Nowell provide little bibliographi-
cal sustenance. For the most recent titles, in view of the irregular
appearance of the Revista Portuguesa de Historia, it is still necessary
to depend upon listings in such Portuguese journals as Biblos, Bro-
teria and the Revista de Guimaries, the Brazilian Revista de Historia,
and the foreign periodicals cited above for Spain.
From the rich accumulation of major contributionasto Iberian his-
tory over the past fifteen years only the merest cream can here be
skimmed. Certain outstanding developments may be mentioned as a
preliminary. First, the period has witnessed the birth of many new
historical journals, not only those of national scope like the Revista
Portuguesa de Histo6ria, Anais, the Revista de Historia of Sao Paulo,
THE IBERIAN BACKGROUND OF LATIN AMERIC.AN HISTORY 57
the Cuadernos de Historia de Espania, Hispania and the like, but also
good regional reviews such as Prtnctpe de Viana, the Revista de
Historia of Tenerife and the Cuadernos de Historia J. Zurita. In
addition there are now important annuals or quasi-annuals: the out-
standing Estudios de Historia Moderna, ed. by J. Vicens Vives (4
vols. Barcelona, 1951-54) and the Estudios de Edad Media de la
Corona de Aragon (5 vols. Saragossa, 1945-52), to name two. In an-
other quarter impressive progress is being made in producing excellent
catalogues and registers of Spanish archives and libraries in the series
of Gutas (or Catalogos) de archivos y bibliotecas subsidized by the
Ministry of Education; these are rapidly making known the contents
of the great collections at Madrid, Barcelona, Simancas and Pamplona,
and also of niumerous municipal and provincial centers.7 For the
Portuguese archives, Diffie and Rau have produced valuable and badly
needed guides.8 Publication of documents relating to the Background
period continues apace in book and periodical form, both in Spain and
Portugal; and under Juan de Mata Carriazo's able hand excellent
editions of the Spanish chronicles of the Later Middle Ages and the
sixteenth century have appeared in the Colecci6n de Cronicas Espa-
niolas. In Portugal progress is also being made, although more
modestly, in the editing of narrative and documentary sources.9
Lastly, in the fields of paleography and diploinaties important new
works have been produced by Millares Carlo, Floriano and other
scholars.91
7 Some exaimiples are: Guja de los archivos de Madrid (Maclrid, 1952); Luis
Sdnehez Belda, Documentos reales de la edad media ref erentes a Galicia (Madrid,
1953); Jose Maria Lacarra, Guia del Archivo General de Navarra (Madrid, 1954);
Jose Maria Madurell, Archivo General de Protocolos de Barcelona. Secci6n his-
t6rico. Siglos XIII-XIV y XVI (Barcelona, 1950); Demetrio AMansilla, Catdlogo
de los c6dices de la Catedral de Burgos (Madrid, 1952). Cf. also Felipe Mateu y
Llopis, "Los catalogos de los bibliotecas y archivos eclesiasticos," IEispania Sacra,
I (1948); Asuncion Mendoza, ''Las actividades del Archivo general de Simancas
en los uiltimos diez anos," Simancas, Estudios de Historia Moderna, I (1950),
447-455; Agustiin Millares Carlo, Notas bibliogrdficas acerca de archivos munici-
pales, ediciones de Libros de Aciuerdos y colecciones de docurnentos concejiles
(Madrid, 1952). There is much valuable informatioIn oIn certaini Imajor SpaIiish
archives in E. J. Burrus, "An Introduction to Bibliographical Tools in Spainish
Archives and Manuscript Collections Relatiing to Hispaiiic America," B[AHR,
XXXV (1955), 443-483.
8 Bailey W. Diffie, "Bibliography of the Principal Published Guides to Portu-
guese Archives and Libraries," Proceedings of the International Colloquium on
Lutso-Brazilian Studies, pp. 181-88; Virginia Rau, "Arquivos de Portugal: Lis-
boa," ibid., pp. 189-213.
'Examples are A. de Magalhaes Basto, ed., Cr6nica de Cinco Reis de Portugal
(Lisbon, 1945); Carlos da Silva Tarrouca, ed., Cr6nica de D. Dinis (Coimbra,
1950); idem, Crdnicas dos sete prirneiros reis de Portugal (3 vols. Lisbonl, 1952).
Da
Agustin Millares Carlo aind Jos6 Ignacio Mantec6n, Alburn de paleografia
58 HAHR f FEBRUARY I CHARLES JULIAN BISHKO
Thirdly, study of the Background period has been greatly stimu-
lated by the appearance of two major interpretative works, the in-
fluence of which is likely to be felt for some time. Americo Castro's
The Structure of Spanish History (Princeton, 1954; English trans.
of La realidad histo'rica de Espana [Mexico City, 1954]), which repre-
sents the revision of his controversial Espaiia en stn historia (Buenos
Aires, 1948) is an existentialist interpretation, based largely upon
literary rather than documentary evidence, of the origins of Spain
in the period 711-1600.10 Castro envisages Spanish society as perma-
nently moulded in the Middle Ages, first by the Reconquista, which
imposed reaction against and imitation of Moorish ways; and, see-
ondly, by the determination in the fifteenth century to assimilate the
Spaniish Jews by force or persuasion. In the drive for ethnico-religious
unity and the powerful influences of the Converso upon Spanish life
and psychology, he finds the explanation of the most conservative as
well as the most radical manifestations of Renaissance and Reforma-
tion Spain: the Biblicist religiosity, the Inquisition, the Alumbrados,
nationalistic messianism, monastic puritanism, mysticism, and many
aspects of literature and culture. Whatever the final verdict of
historians, this book will certainly spur much long-needed research in
Spanish and Portuguese social, religious and cultural history.
The second work, less controversial but also suggestive of new
insights, is Fernand Braudel's El Mediterraneo y el mundo medite-
rraneo en la e'poca de Felipe II (Mexico City, 1953).1" Here the
author undertakes to write the "geohistory" of the Mediterranean
region, devoting considerable space to Spain and the Spanish relations
with Italy, North Africa and the Ottoman empire. The lengthy sec-
tions on geographic, demographic, economic and military conditions
contain much useful information and fresh viewpoints on sixteenth-
century Spanish history, but it mnust be confessed that after this
interminable preparation the rather conventional survey of Philipist
political relations comes as something of an anti-climax.
hispanoamericana de los siglos XVI y XVII, Iistituto Paniamericano de Geograf ia

e Historia, Comisi6ni de Historia, 46 (Maniuales de TUciiica de la Investigaci6ni en
la Historia y Ciencias Afiiies, III) (3 vols. Mexico City, 1955), wNith excellicit
bibliographly of recenit researches; Aiitonio C. Florianio Curmbrenio,Carso general
de paleografia y diplo'indtica (2 vols. Oviedo, 1946).
1 On the Castro controversy see especially the review by J. E. Gillet in His-
panic Review, XVIII (1950), 169-184; M. Bataillon, "L'Espagne religieuse dans
soIi histoire,'" Bulletin Hispaniqque, LII (1950), 5-26; A. Castro, "'Quelques
precisions au sujet de Espanta en su Historia," ibid., LIII (1951), 1-12; Cl.
S'anchez Albornoz, "'Ante Espaina en su Historia,'" Cuadernos de Historia de
Espaina (cited hereinafter as Uitad. Hist. Esp.), XIX (1953), 129-145.
. First edition, Paris, 1949; for a good critique, cf. B. Bailyn 's review in
Journal of Economic History, XI (1951), 277-282.
Fiinally, there are the contributions to Iberian history as such.
Commencing with Portugal, there are four general works that have
appeared. Luiz Gonzaga de Azevedo's Hist6ria de Portugal (6 vols.
Lisbon, 1939) and Joao Ameal's Iistoria de Portugal (2nd ed. Porto,
1942), both strongly conservative in outlook, follow the traditional
paths of Portuguese historiography represented best by the standard
Historia de Portugal edited by Damiao Peres (7 vols. Barcelos, 1928-
35). Harold Livermore's very factual A History of Portugal (Cam-
bridge, 1947), which draws heavily upon the Peres Hist4ria, empha-
sizes to excess regnal compartmentalization and politico-diplomatic
events, while Charles Nowell's A History of Portugal (New York,
1952) virtually blackballs the Middle Ages and for the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries concentrates upon overseas expansion. In short,
the stimulating fresh approach to Lusitanian history as the interplay
of coastal commercial and interior agrarian forces, suggested by
Antonio Sergio de Sousa, has not yet borne fruit, although this thesis
is highly suggestive for Portuguese expansion in Africa, Asia and
Brazil.12 The commemorations of 1940 stirred considerable discus-
sion over the origins of Portugal, which has been carried on by Damitao
Peres, Paulo Merea, A. A. Mendes Correia and others;1-3 and a whole
volume of 0 Instituto (XCV, 1939) was devoted to the same subject.
Vols. IT-III of the Publicapoes do Congresso do Mundo Portugues (19
vols. Lisbon, 1940) contain articles, generally short and of limited
value, on the Avis period.'4
Among recent general works on Spanish history are: Antonio
Ramos Oliveira, Historia de Espan-a (3 vols. Mexico City, 1952), a
leftist, regionalist and original interpretation; a collection of essays
by well-known specialists published as Historia de Espanha: Estudios
preparados por la revista "Arbor" (Madrid, 1953); Fernando Solde-
vila, Historia de Espania (Barcelona, 1954); and Jaime Vicens Vives,
Aproximacioin a la historia de Espania (Barcelona, 1952), a shorter
but thoughtful analysis of the interplay between center and periphery
in qnq-nish histnrv. The alreadv cited Dirplinnarin de h.;idnr#ia do.
12 Historia de Portugal (Barcelona, 1929; Lisbon, 1941). On Sergio, as on
contemporary Portuguese historical work in general, cf. C. R. Boxer's wittily in-
formative "Some notes on Portuguese historiography, 1930-1950," History (Feb.-
June, 1954), 1-13.
13D. Peres, Como nasceu Portugal (Barcelos, 1938); P. Merga, De "Portu-
cale" (eivitas) ao Portugal de D. Henrrique (P8rto, 1944); A. A. Mendes Correia,
Raizes de Portugal (2nd ed. Lisbon, 1944).
14 Among other books of Background interest, note: Alfredo Pimenta, Idade-
Media (Problemas e solug6es) (Lisbon, 1946); J. M. de Queiroz Velloso, D.
Sebastido, 1554-1578 (3rd ed. Lisbon, 1945); H. V. Livermore and W. J. Ent-
wistle, eds., Portugal and Brazil: an Introduction (Oxford, 1953).
60 HAHR I FEBRUARY I CHARLES JULIAN BISHKO
Espaiia digests much recent material but the lack of bibliography and
unevenness of the articles make this a somewhat uncertain aid. It
should be noted also that the important Span ische Forschnngen der
Garresgesellschaft have resumnedpublication;15 and that the Estutdios
dedicados a Menendez Pidal (5 vols. to date. Madrid, 1950-4) conitain
numerous historical articles.
The Historia de Espaiia of Luis G. de Valdeavellano so far runs
only to the early thirteenth century, but already stands out as the
best work on Spanish history down to this period, being especially
strong on the institutional side. For the problem of the origins of
Castile, we are still awaitilng the lonig-promised Origenes de la nacion
espaniola of Claudio S'anehez Albornoz, numerous portions of which
have, however, been published as articles.16 Julio Gonzalez' collec-
tions of material in his works Regesta de Fernando II (Madrid, 1943)
and Alfonso IX (Madrid, 1944) show how much remains to be done
in later medieval Spanlish history. Evelyn S. Procter's Alfonso X of
Castile (Oxford, 1951) is useful but the badly needed biography of
Alfonso el Sabio remains to be writteni. A major contributioni to this
inexcusably neglected period is P. E. Russell's new The English In-
tervention in Spain and Por-tutgalin the Time of Edward 111 and
Richard II (Oxford, 1955), a superb clarification of the dyniastic
changes in fourteenth-century Castile and Portugal and of the origins
of the Anglo-Portuguese allialnce.l6a
Despite an endless output of books and articles on the Reyes Cato-
licos, no satisfactory general study of this reign has yet appeared.17
Isabel has been the subject of large-scale studies by Fernandez de
Retaila, Cortes, anld Ballesteios Gaibrois, but these al e lar gely parti ena
reinterpretations of well-known materials.18 Historically more sig-
16 Vol. IX (Miinster, 1954), ed. by Johaniles Vincke.
16r"Origenes de Castilla: como iiace ui1 pueblo,". Revista de la Universidad de
Buenos Aires, 4a epoca, II (1948), 275-296; "El nombre de Castilla," Estudios
a Menendez Pidal, II (1951), 629-641; "Sensibilidad politica del pueblo castellano
en la edad media," Logos, III (Buenos Aires, 1944), 77-111.
loa1For sonmestimulating suggestions, see Josiah C. Rlussell, 'Research Possi-
bilities in Late Medieval Spanish History," Histoi-ia, II (Ulniv. Puerto Rico,
1952), 77-86.
" Two inmportant works for the background of the reign are Baltasar Cuartero
y Huerta, El pacto de los Toros de Guisando y la Venta del mismo nombre
(Madrid, 1952); J. Vicens Vives, Juan II de Aragdn (1398-1479): Monarquia y
revoluzeion en la Espania del Siglo XV (Barcelona, 1953). For the international
relations of the period, see Jose Diaz de Villegas, ed., Curso de Conferencias sobre
la politica africana de los RR. CC. (3 vols. Madrid, 1951); Antonio de la Torre,
Documentos sobre relaciones internacionales de los BR. CC. (3 vols. Madrid, 1949-
1951).
"8Luis Fernandez de Retana, Isabel la Cat6lica, fundadora de la unidad
nacional espaniola (2 vols. Madrid, 1947); C6sar Silio Cortes, Isabel la Cat6lica,
nificant monographs have been devoted to Ferdinand, but again these
relate to restricted aspects of the reign and the comprehensive life is
still lacking.19 For the sixteenth century, Maria del Carmen Mazario
Coleto's Isabel de Porttugal, imperatriz y reina de Espalia (Madrid,
1951) is a valuable corrective to narrowly masculine views of Charles
V's reign. The principal contribution, however, to this period has
been the two volumes of Ramon Carande's superb Carlos V y sus
bangqueros(Madrid, 1943-1949), an exhaustive study from the archival
documentation not only of royal financial relations but also of Spanish
economic history at that time. Jose M. March, Niiez y ventud de
Felipe II (2 vols. Madrid, 1941-42), relates as much to Charles V as
Philip. El Rey Prudente has however attracted much more attention
than his father in recent studies. In addition to Gregorio Marafinon's
penetrating if biased Antonio Perez (Madrid, 1947) the reign is dealt
with in Angel Gonzalez Palencia, Gonzalo Perez, secretario de Felipe
Segundo (2 vols. Madrid, 1946); Alfonso Danvila, Felipe II y el rey
Don Sebastian de Portugal (Madrid, 1954); Manuel de Foronda y
G6mez, Estudios del reinado de Felipe II (Madrid, 1954). Valuable
for Background purposes are certain recent surveys emphasizing
Spanish civilization in the sixteenth century as a whole: Antonio Igual
Ubeda and Juan Subias Galter, El imperio espaiiol (Barcelona, 1954)
and the third revised edition of Eduardo Ibarra y Rodriguez, Espania
bajo los Austrias (Barcelona, 1955).
From this hasty survey of recent general works we turn to a con-
sideration of the constituent elements of the Iberian Background
proper. Onmittingfor reasons of space literature, the arts and intel-
lectual history, it seems possible to group under some eight rubrics
the principal subdivisions of Spanish and Portuguese civilization be-
tween 711 and 1600 that bear most intimately and significantly upon
the conquest and colonization of America. These are human geog-
raphy, social structure, the church, the frontier, economic develop-
ment, towns, law and government.
Descriptions of the physical geography of the Iberian peninsula,
along with more or less meaningful reflections upon its shaping of
Iberian man and its similarities with or differences from various
regions of the New World, are familiar to all students of the Iberian
Background. For both Spain and Portugal important geographical
studies have appeared in the last decade and a half. The Atlas de
fundadora de EspaAa (2nd edl. Madrid, 1951); Manuel Ballesteros Gaibrois, La
obra de Isabel la Catolica (Segovia, 1953).
1 Jaime Vicens Vives, Fernando el Catolico, principe de Arag6n, rey de Sicilia,
1458-1478 (Madrid, 1952); Jose M. Doussinague, La pol'tica internacional de
Fernando el Cat6lico (Madrid, 1944); Fernando el Cat6lico y Italia, V. Congreso
de historia de la Corona de Arag6n (Saragossa, 1954).
62 HAHR FEBRUARY CHARLES JULIAN BISHKO
Portugal (Coimbra, 1941), Geografia Humana (Porto, 1946) and

Geografia de Portugal (2nd ed. rev. Porto, 1949-51) of Aristides de
Amorim Girao; Orlando Ribeiro's Portugal, o Mediterraneo e o Atlan-
tico (Coimbra, 1945); and Pierre Birot's little Le Porttugal (Paris,
1950) contain much of historical interest. So do the regional surveys
published for the Lisbon meeting in 1949 of the Congres Internationale
de Geographie, which include 0. Ribeiro, Le Portugal central (Lisbon,
1949); Virginia Rau and Georges Zbyszewski, Estremadtra et Ri-
batejo (Lisbon, 1949); Mariano Feio, Le bas Alentejo et l'Algarve
(Lisbon, 1949); and Jorge Dias, Minho, Tras-os-Montes, Haut-Douro
(Lisbon, 1949). Hermann Lautensach, Biblioteca geografica de Por-
tugal (Lisbon, 1949), which appeared under the auspices of the Centro
de Estudos Geograficos, is the guide to Portuguese geographical litera-
ture and can be supplemented from the Boletim da Sociedade de Geo-
grafia and the PublicaQ&esdo Centro de Estudos Geograficos of the
University of Coimbra.
On Spanish geography, the chief general works of recent date are
Leonardo Martin Echeverria, Espania, el pais y los habitantes (Mexico
City, 1940); Luis Sole Sabaris, Espania, geografica fisica (Barcelona,
1952; Geografta de Espana y Portugal, ed. M. de Teran, vol. I); and
the first volume (by G. de R. R.) of Jose Gavira, ed., Espana, la tierra,
el hombre, el arte (Barcelona, 1943), which also contains (pp. 9-134)
the best sketch ever published of the history of geographical studies
in Spain. The late Jose Dantin Cereceda's Regiones naturales de
Espania (Madrid, 1942) unifortunately does not go beyond the first
volume, but in addition to a detailed study of Galicia gives an intro-
ductory survey of the country as a whole; and Dantin's general ap-
proach is further clarified in his Resttunslen
fisiogr4fico de la peninsula
iberica (Madrid, 1948). Two Spanish geographical journals, the new
Estutdios Geograficos and the venerable Bolettin de la 1. Sociedad
Geogr'fica publish articles of historical interest.
To the extent, however, that descriptions by historians of Iberian
geography restrict attention in timeworn conventional fashion to the
Peninsula's climate and physical relief, their utility is limited. What
the historian of Latin America needs is not so much the geography
left behind in Spain and Portugal as that carried to the New World
by conquistadors and colonists in the form of adaptations of tradi-
tional Iberian ways to the diverse types of terrain, flora, fauna, and
human settlemlent. To appreciate how far Iberian human landscapes
were reproduced in the countryside and towns of the Indies, we ur-
gently require studies of the soils of the Peninsula; the historical
forms and techniiques of crop-farming, stock raising, mining, industry
and communication; the kinds and distribution of land holdings; and
the patterns of village and urban settlement-size, shape, topography,
street layout, public and private buildings. But such ecological
studies, which would throw much fresh light on the circumstances of
Iberian colonization overseas, on the effects of Andalusian or other
regional background among the colonists, and on the nature of the
interplay of Iberian and Indian elements in Ibero-American human
geography, have so far been rare.20 Some material along these lines
is contained in the four-volume Spain and Portugal of E. W. Gilbert,
R. P. Beckinsale and S. de Sa, prepared at Oxford in 1941-44 for
restricted official use by the Naval Intelligence Division of the British
Admiralty; but this valuable work was never released for commercial
publication and is hard to come by. The works cited above by Amorim
Girao, Ribeiro, Birot and Rau contain much information of this sort
for Portugal, but Spanish geographers have not much worked this
rich vein, which has attracted some able German scholars: for ex-
ample, Georg Niemeier, Problemas sobre la geograffa de los estable-
cimientos humnanosen la Baja Andalucta (Madrid, 1933); the same
writer's Siedlungsgeographie in Niederandalusien (Hamburg, 1933);
Hellmuth Hopfner, Die ldndlichen Siedlungen der altkastilischen
Meseta (Hamburg, 1939); and Wilhelm Giese, Nordost-Cadiz. Ein
-kulturwissenschaftlicher Beitrag zur Erforschung Andalusiens (Halle
a. S., 1937; Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fiir romanische Philologie, Heft
89).
Basic to any understanding of the formation of Latin-American
society is the complex social structure of medieval and early modern
Spain and Portugal. More neglected by contemporary scholars than
Indian or Negro sociology, this subject tends to remain at nineteenth-
century levels, plagued by fossilized generalizations and racial and
nationalistic prejudices, by embryonic research and neglect of modern
sociological techniques. Of promise here is the new Instituto Balmes
de Sociologia, which under Carmelo Vinias y Mey's direction has pro-
duced the Estudios de Hlistoria Social, containing significant articles
for both peninsular and Ibero-American social history, although this
excellent annual has bloomed only in 1949 and 1952.
For Iberian population history as related to overseas colonization,
almost all is yet to do. F. A. Roca Traver has recently outlined the
20 W. Giese, ''Los tipos de casa de la Peninsula Iberica,"I Revista de Dialec-
tologia y Tradiciones Populares, VII (1951), 563-601; Juan Dantin Cereceda, "El
clima seco de Espania y las formas de su agricultura, " Sitzungsberichte der
europdischen Geographen (Wiirzburg, 1942-Leipzig, 1943), pp. 271-297; C. A.
Lima Bastos and Henrique de Barros, Inqu6rito d habita,do rural. A habita,a-o
rural nas provincias do norte de Portugal (Lisbon, 1943).
problems and methods of research, and his brief suggestions can be

supplemented from Luis de Hoyos Sainz, La densidad de poblacion y
el acrecimiento en Espana (Madrid, 1952), two papers of Robert S.
Smith and some pages of Braudel.21 Vinas y Mey has begun the long
overdue publication of the outstanding statistical material for six-
teenith-cenitury Spaniish population, the Relaciones de los pueblos de
Espafna compiled on the order of Philip II; volumes on Toledo and
Madrid provinces have appeared. The Portuguese works of Orlando
Ribeiro, Geografia da populaSdo em Portugal (Lisbon, 1946) and
Ezequiel de Campos, 0 enquadranmentogeo-econ0mi4coda pop Ul1a(to
portuguesa (2nd ed. Lisbon, 1943) are pretty largely modern.
For understanding the Portuguese and the Spaniard as he appears
in the Indies, only limited assistance can be gailled from the standard
works oni prehistoric Iberian anthropology. Treatises like Arturo
Ramos's IntroduSao a antropologia brasileira (Rio de Janieiro, 1943-
47), Vol. II, poinlt the way, but a paramount need is more cultural-
anthropological studies of the type of Julio Caro Baroja's Los pueblos
del norte de la pentnsula ibe'rica (Madrid, 1943), Los pueblos de
Espa,lia (Bareelonia, 1946) anid Los vascos (San Sebastian, 1949),
although these are better for the earlier than the later medieval period.
Caro Baroja's various studies and his projected survey of Spanish
ethnographic writing should serve as a punta de salida for further
work on medieval Iberian regionalism.22 This is a subject discussed
almost to excess by modern regionalists, but the basic Iberian sectional
patterns and diverse cultural traditions in dress, architecture, lan-
guage, folklore, customs, and techniques that Beiranos, Alentejanos,
Andalusians, Basques, Gallegos and Extremadurans contributed to the
making of the patria chica and criollo society are still quite obscure.
The importance of the so-called ethnico-religious minorities in the
making of Spanish and Portuguese civilization needs no discussion.
By reason of the growing interest in Hispano-Islamic and Sephardic
studies, and Castro's and Bataillon's rediscovery of the role of medi-
eval Muslims and Jews, their influence will be further stressed in the
future. Qn the subject in general, Isidro de las Cagigas has in prog-
ress an excellent survey, Minortas etnico-religiosas de ta edad media
21 Francisco A. Roca Traver, ' Cuestiones de demografla medieval,"I Hispania,
XIII (1953), 3-36; R. S. Smith, "Fourteenth-century Population Records of
Catalonia," Speculmn, XIX (1944), 494-501; idem, "Spanish population thought
before Malthus," in Stuart Hughes, ed., Teachers of History: Essays in Honor
of Lawrence B. Packard (Ithaca, 1954), pp. 231-257; Braudel, Felipe II, I, 375-
388.
22 Cf. the 1951 Memoria of the Patronato Menendez y Pelayo of the Consejo
Superior (Madrid, 1952), pp. 29-30.
espaiiola (4 vols. Madrid, 1947-49), although this work is largely
political in emphasis and weak on social aspects.23 The pertinent
period, as the Latin Americanist sees it, for Spanish Muslims (Arabs,
Berbers, Hispano-Moors, Mudejars and Moriscos) is the later medieval
centuries; unfortunately, Hispano-Arabists have stressed the emiral
and caliphal epochs, although Evariste Le'vi-Provenqal's great Fistoire
de l'Espagne musulmane (3 vols. to date. Paris, 1950-1953) and
Cagigas' fifth volume aim to cover the Granadan era. Claudio San-
chez Albornoz in La Espania musulmana (2 vols. Buenos Aires, 1946)
assembles numerous extracts from Moorish writers of the later period,
and his brief introductory remarks, like several essays in his Espaiia
y el Islam (Buenos Aires, 1943), are illuminating. The Mudejars
form the subject of Cagigas' third and fourth volumes and have been
studied in the reino of Valencia but both they and the Moriscos re-
quire fresh treatmenit as important elements in fifteenth and sixteenth-
century society.24
In the field of Spanish Jewish history the journal Sefarad pub-
lishes articles and current bibliographical data. Two works of prime
importance have appeared since 1940: Abraham A. Neuman's The
Jews in Spain (2 vols. Philadelphia, 1948), which on the basis of
Hebrew rabbiniieal responsa inaccessible to n-oni-Seini-tistsrecolnstructs
the internal social, institutional and cultural life of Sephardic Jewry,
but is less satisfactory on royal and municipal legislation and external
relationis generally; anid a oeneral history of the miedieval Spanish
Jews by the chief authority on the subject, Fritz Baer, which has
been published in Hebrew under the title Toledot ha-Yahudim bis
Sefarad ha-Nasrit (2 vols. Tel Aviv, 1944-45). Of this latter work an
English translation is expected; meanwhile a lengthy summary by
Jose Mari'a Vallicrosa is available.25 Manuel Vallecillo Avila and
Francisco Vera have contributed two good studies, and Francisco
Cantera Burgos and Vallicrosa are outstanding Spanish writers in
thisi field26
23 For Cagigas' general views, see his " Problemas de minoria y el caso de
nuestro medioevo," Hispania, X (1950), 506-538.
24 Leopoldo Piles, "La situacion social de los moros cle realengo en la Valencia
del siglo XV, " Estudios de Historia Social de Espaiia (cited hereinafter as
Estud. Hist. Soc. Esp.), I (1949) 225-274; F. A. Roca Traver, ''Un siglo de vida
mudejar en la Valencia medieval (1238-1338)," Estudios de Edad Media de la
Corona de Aragon, V (1952), 115-208. Until the later Hispano-Islamic periocl
has been more adequately explored, it is often helpful to conlsult the Hispaiiic
sections of such hlistories of Morocco as Henri Terrasse, Histoire du Maroc (2 vols.
Casablanca, 1949-1950) and Manuel P. Castellanos andl Samuel Eijdni, Historia de
Marrutecos (4th ed. 2 vols. Madrid, 1946).
25 Cf. S. N. Stern in Romance Philology, V (1951-1952), 242.
26M. Vallecillo Avila, "Los judios de Castilla en la alta edad media," Cuad.
Among the smaller minority groups, French emigration to the

Peninsula has been described by Mareelin Defourneaux in his Les
franQais en Espagne aux XIe et XIIe siecles (Paris, 1949), but the
later period remains untouched. Charles Verlinden has often drawn
attention to the Italian colonies in Portugal and Spain; these influen-
tial enclaves, however, have not been studied as social communities.27
Except by philologians, the Maragatos have been neglected (but cf.
Ricardo Gareia Eseudero, Por tierras maragatas. Estudio e historia
de Maragaterta [Astorga, 1953]); and so have the Gypsies, although
the deep gitano influence upon Andalusian folk culture makes them
exceptionally interestilng from the Latin American viewpoint. The
history of the Negro in Spain has received scant investigation, yet
Andalusian Negro slavery may well be the forerunner of Caribbean.28
The importation of Negroes into Portugal is better known as the ante-
cedent of Negro slavery in the Brazilian capitanias, but the inade-
quate accounts in Freyre and Pierson indicate the narrow limits of
our present knowledge.29
For social groups and classes the available materials are quite
uneven. The Portuguese and Spanish middle classes are a field un-
plowed, so that the Iberian Background for Th. R. Crevenna's study
of the Latin American middle class is little known.30 No Huizinga
has yet appeared to analyze the behavior, values and characteristics
of the peninsular aristocrats who dazzled the conquistadors and par-
venus of the New World. Alfonso Garcia Valdecasas, El hidalgo y el
honor (Madrid, 1948) skirts this subject lightly; Bernabe Martinez
Ruiz delves more deeply but stops in the thirteenth century. But
Jose' Luis Romero explores to advantage fifteenth-century noble ideals
and Maria Rosa Lida de Malkiel's La idea de la fama en la edad media
Hist. Esp., XIV (1955), 17-110; Francisco Vera, Los jitdios espanoles y sit con-
tribuci6n a las ciencias exactas (Buenos Aires, 1948); cf. also Yakov Malkiel,
"The Jewish Heritage of Spain (oni the occasion of Americo Castro's Espan,a en
su Historia)," Hispanic Review, XVIII (1950), 328-340.
27 Charles Verlinden, "Italian Influenlces in Iberian Colonization, HAH R,
XXXIII (1953), 199-211; idem, Pr6cedents m6dilaunx de la colonie en Am6rique,
Instituto Panamericano de Geografia e Historia, Comisi6n de Historia, 70 (Pro-
grama de Historia de America, II, 5) (Mexico City, 1954), pp. 19-24.
28 See the Background commnents in R. Konetzke, ''La esclavitud de los indios
como elemento en Ia estructuraci6n social de Hispanoam6rica," Estud. Soc. Hist.
Esp., I (1949), 441-479.
29 Gilberto Freyre, Casa Grande e Senzala (8th ed. Rio de Janeiro, 1954),
chap. 3; Donald Pierson, Neqroes in Brazil (Chicago, 1942), pp. 31-32.
20 Tlh. R. Crevenna, eq., Materiales para el estudio de la clase media en la
Am6rica Latina (4 vols. Washington, 1950); but see, for both Spain and Portuga.l,
M. J. Aragoneses, "Los movimientos y luchas soci.ales en la baja edad media.,"
Estud. Hist. Soc. Esp., I (1949), 376-389; 409-414.
castellana (Mexico City, 1952) traces the history of a concept later
powerful on transatlantic shores.3' On the other hand, Konetzke has
unicoveredpeniinsular nobles engaged in commercial aetivity.32 A rich
field for research would be the great aristocratic families, so often
represented by adventurous members in the Indies; valuable here
would be such works as E. Fernandez-Prieto Dominguez y Losada,
Nobleza de Zamora (Madrid, 1953), Francisco Layna Serrano, His-
toria de Guadalajara y sus Mendozas en los siglos XV y XVI (3 vols.
Madrid, 1942-3), or the claii histories lurkinig in the pages of Hidal-
guia. Of the legal status of serfs and slaves we shall speak later; at
the moimentit suffices to observe that we know next to nothing of their
lives beyonid their obligations.33 Finally, Julio Perez Llamazares,
Clerigos y monjes (Leon, 1944) has undertaken some much needed
study of the medieval Iberian churchman; and there have been two
studies of that neglected figure, the Iberian woman: Bertha Leite, A
Milher na historia de Portugal (Lisbon, 1940) and P. W. Bomli, La
femme dats 1'Espagne dii siecle d'or (The Hague, 1950).
The central place of the church in Latin American history renders
especially necessary full information regarding the ecelesiastical sector
of the Iberian Background, but the abundant publication over the
last decade anid a half in this field largely fails to deal with funda-
mental questions, and the field itself is in a state of stimulating dis-
order, partly as a result of the revisionist writings of Bataillon and
Castro. The principal guide to recent works is Ricard 's chapter in the
Fliche-Martin listoire de l'Eglise and the extensive bibliographies
of Analecta Sacra Tarraeonensia.34 The only new general history,
Miguel de Oliveira's tistoria Eclesiastica de Portugal (Lisbon, 1940),
is too brief and oldfashionied in outlook to supersede Almeida. No
major studies, either comprehensive or intensive, have appeared on
the peninsular churches during the epochs of the Avignonese papacy,
the Great Schism and the Conciliar Movement, although these events
31 B. MIartiniezRuiz, "'La vida del caballero castellano segun los
cantares de
gesta,"' Cuad. fHist. Esp., XII (1949), 130-144; J. L. Romero, "Sobre la biografia
espaiiola del siglo XV y los ideales de vida," ibid., I-II (1944), 115-138; and cf.
Carmelo Vinias y Mey, "El espiritu castellano de aventura y empresa y la Espafna
de los RR. CC.," Archivo de Derecho P,'dblico, V (1952), 13-83.
""Entrepreneurial Activities of Spanish and Portuguese Noblemen in Medi-
eval Times," Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, VI (1953), 115-120.
" But see Luis de Hoyos Sdinz, I Sociologia agricola tradicioiial: avaiice
folkl6rico etnogr6fico,'' Es tud. fHist. Soc. Esp., I (1949), 17-43; J. Caro Baroja,
"La vida agraria tradicionial reflejada en el arte espaiol," ibid., 45-138.
"Roger Aubenas and Robert iRica.rd, L 'Eglise et la Renaissance, A. Fliche
and V. Martin, Histoire de 1'Eglise, XV (Paris, 1951) ; current titles are also to
be found in the valua.ble Hispania Sacra.
68 IIAHR I FEBRUARY I CHARLES JULIAN BISHKO-
clearly stirred powerful new religious forces, and we have Bataillon's

assurance that until we know the fifteenth century we shall never
understand the sixteenth.35 Mansilla Reoyo and Rius Serra have pub-
lished important studies on papal relations with the Peninsula, and
certain large works on Luso-Hiispanic participation at Trent have
appeared.36
The Spanish and Portuguese monastic orders merit particular at-
tention because of the way in which new investigations are uncovering
the background of their role in the evanigelization and championing of
the Indians. These recent researches, on which Ricard's footnotes
contain essential bibliography, bear primarily upon the rise of mo-
nastic reformism in the Later Middle Ages, the struggles between
Observants and Conventuals, the Cisnerian monastic measures, and
the whole great current of mystical, Paulinist, and humanitarian
religiosity that sweeps the Spanish and Portuguese churches both
before and after the Protestant Revolt. These new trends, which
find expression in outlets as diverse as the Jeronymite Order, the In-
quisition, the Castilian mystics, the Alumbrados, and the Jesuits, lie
back of the great late medieval revival of Luso-Hispanic missionary
interest and the ideological controversies over the rights of the Ca-
narian, African and American Indian peoples. Bataillon's Erasmo y
Espana, which contains a new chapter, not in the original French
edition, on Erasmism in America, is, along with that master's nu-
merous contributions to the Bulletin Hispanique and his Etudes sur
le Portugal au temps de l'hutmanisme (Coimbra, 1952) the principal
key to this subject. It is, however, essential to observe that Bataillon
himself conieludes in the new Mexican edition that he has not so much
described Erasmism or proto-Protestantism as the powerful wave of
Paulinist religious interiorism in Iberian Christianity. The earlier
roots of this same movement have been studied in Americo Castro's
brilliant essays on the peculiarly Iberiani Jeronymite Order, the history
of which is almost entirely unwritten.37 The inaccessibility of Spanish
Franciscan anidDominican archives has impeded scholarly exploration
of mendieant history but certain revealing' studies have been made that
3 Marcel Bataillon, Erasmnoy Espana (2 vols. Mexico City-Buenos Aires, 1950),
I, xiii.
36 Demetrio Mansilla Reoyo, Iglesia castellano-leonesa y Curia romana en los
tiempos del rey San Fernando (Madrid, 1945); Jose Rius Serra, Regesto iberico
de Cali'to III (Barceloina, 1948); Jose de Castro, Portugal em Rorna (2 vols.
Lisboni, 1939); idem, Portugal no Concilio de Trento (6 vols. Lisbon, 1944-1946);
C. Gutierrez, Espanoles en Trento (Valladolid, 1951).
" A. Castro, Aspectos del vivir hispdnico (Santiago de Chile, 1949).
link monastic reform with the revival of missionary activity.38 For
the Augustinians, Mercedarians, and lesser orders of interest to Ibero-
Americanists, almost no work has been done. Luis Sala Balust's edi-
tion of the writings of Juan de Avila, the sixteenth-century reformer
who seems a southern counterpart to -Loyola and the early Jesuits,
shows the strength of the new ideas in the Spanish region most closely
linked to early American colonization.39 On Jesuit history Juan
Creixell, San lgnacio de Loyolta (2 vols. Manresa, 1946); M. de la
Pinta Llorente, Actividades diplomaticas del P. Jose de Acosta (Ma-
drid, 1952); and Francisco Rodrigues, Historia da Companhia de
Jesus na assistencia de Portugat (3 vols. Porto, 1931- ) may be
cited. The works of Bernardino Llorea have thrown much fresh light
on the history of the Spanish Inquisition, while Mario Brandao does
the same for that of Portugal.40
The bearing of these vigorous developments upon the controversies
over the nature, rights anid treatment of the American Indian con-
nected with the Espaniola Dominicans, Las Casas, the Laws of Burgos
and the New Laws, remains to be determined, although it must of
course be related to other Background influences: the grossly under-
studied problem of Spanish and Portuguese relations with conquered
Moorish populations in the period 1200-1492; the Aristotelian, Roman
law and scholastic doctrines on native peoples, as studied by Hanke,
Zavala and others; and, finally, the unduly neglected late medieval
controversies over salvation, free will, grace and the like among anti-
Aristotelian and anti-Thomist Scotists and Occamites. On this last
aspect, the two volumes of Tom'as and Joaquin Carreras y Artau,
Historia de la filosofta espanola (Madrid, 1939-1943) and Venancio
Carro, La teologia y los teologos-juristas espanioles ante la conquista
de Amirica (2 vols. Madrid, 1944) have much to offer.
To the effects of a highly variegated social and religious environ-
ment upon the shaping of the future colonizers of Ibero-America must
be added the strong influeenee of the fronitier, the long southward
38 VRente Beltran de la Heredia, listoria de la ref orma de la Provincia de
Espania, 1450-1550 (Rome, 1939); idemr, Las corrientes de espiritualidad entre los
Dominicss de Castilla durante la primera mnitaddel siglo XVI (Salamanca, 1941);
Mario Martins, "O ciclo franciscano na nossa espiritualidade medieval," Biblos,
XXVII (1.951), 142-247; E. Asensio, "El eiasmismllo 3 las corrienites espirituales
-fines. Conversos, Franciscanos, Italianizantes," Revista de Filologia Espantola,
XXXVI (1952), 31-99.
39 L. Sala Balust, ed., Obras completas del Beato Juan de Avila (2 vols. Madrid,
1952-1953); M. Bataillon, "'Jean d'Avila retrouve,'" Btll. Hlisp., LVII (1955),

5-44.
40B. Lorca, La Inquisici6n en Espaina (3rd ed., Barcelona, 1954); idem, La
Znquisici6n espaiiola, estudio critico (Univ. de Coniillas, 1953); M. Brand6o, A
Inquisiedo a os professores do Col6gio das Alrtes (Coinibra, 1948), vol. I.
70 HAHR I FEBRUARY / CHARLES JULIAN BISHKO
advance against powerful military foes, the acquisition of abundant

territory and the necessity of its colonization. As the Reconquista,
this historic medieval frontier movement has been treated in many
scattered books and articles, but its history as a whole remains to be
written. The only recent work on the subject is a collection of essays
by specialists published under the title of La Reconquista espadola y
la repoblacion del pats (Saragossa, 1953), to which can be added for
Portugal Rui de Azevedo 's chapter in Historia da expansao portuguesa
no mundo (3 vols. Lisbon, 1937), I, 7-64.41 The great need of course
is not merely for political and military history on this subject, im-
portant as this is, but for the history of colonization and institu-
tions-methods of conquest, land partitions, repopulation by Portu-
guese and Spaniards, relations with the conquered Muslims, estab-
lishment of ecclesiastical, economic and social cadres. For conven-
ience, the frontier process is best considered chronologically in three
principal stages. The Early or Alta Reconquista (711-1000) repre-
sents the first great advance from the humid Cantabrian-Pyrenean
base onto the Iberian tableland with its radically different geo-
graphic conditions. In this period not much progress has been made
beyond Sanchez Albornoz' essay on Asturo-Leonese repopulation,42
although Justo Perez de Urbel's Ilistoria del condado de Castilla
(3 vols. Madrid, 1945) collects much useful material. The Middle
Reconquista (1000-1250) includes the dynamic expansion of Por-
tugal from the Minho to Algarve and of Castile from the Duero to
Andalusia. Here the most significant recent works have been Julio
Gonzalez' study of the colonization of the Leonese Extremadura and
his definitive edition of, and commentary upon, the Repartimiento de
Sevilla, a remarkable picture of Castilian occupation of this great
Andalusian city.43 The Andalusian frontier warfare with the Moorish
kingdom of Granada is treated in certain aspects by Mata Carriazo
and in Antonio de la Torre, Los Reyes Cat6licos y Granada (Madrid,
1946).44
For the Late or Baja Reconouista (1250-1550) which includes
"See also F. Mateu y Llopis, "Consideraeiones sobre nuestra Reconquista,">
Hispania, XI (1951), 3-46.
42 I La repoblaei6n del reino astur-leon6s,' Humanidades, XXV (Buenos Aires,
1936), Ia parte, pp. 37-55; of. his "Observaciones a la Historia de Castilia de
Perez de Urbel," Cuad. Hist. Esp., XI (1949), 139-152. Important on frontier
land occupation in this period is Ignacio de la Concha y Martinez, La "presura"
(Madrid, 1946).
"Repoblaei6n de la 'Extremadura I leonesa," Hi8azia, X (1943), 195-273 ;
Repartimiento de Sevilla (2 vols. Madrid, 1951).
"Juan de Mata Carriazo, "Cartas de la frontera de Granada," Al-Andaluz,
XI (1946), 69-130.
Portuguese expansion ill Africa and the Atlantic Islands and Span-
ish colonization of Granada and the Canaries, and links directly to
the conquest and settlement of America, two things may be noted.
The first is that, on the whole, the ever popular geographical dis-
coveries theme aside, little significant work on occupation of this area
has appeared. An important exception is the Canary Islands, where
historians connected with the Revista de Historia of Tenerife like
Elias Serra R'afols and the late Buenaventura Bonnet y Reveron have
revolutionized Canarian history by able researches and editions of
basic source materials in the Fontes Rerum Canariarum. Secondly,
since the older standard literature dealing with this late medieval
expansion in the Peninsula, North Africa and the Atlantic Islands
appears to be both somewhat obsolescent and a discouragement to
further research along old lines, investigation ought to begin with the
findings of Ibero-American historians on the sixteenth-century Indies
and work backwards. Zavala's comparative study of the conquests of
the Canaries and America shows how rewarding for the Iberian
Background, as well as for Latin American history, such a method
can be.45 One aspect, the papal interest in Africali anld Atlantic ex-
pansion, has been much emphasized as the forerunner of Alexander
VI's bulls Inter caetera of 1493. A study of this topic by Luis Week-
mann, Las bulas alejandrinas de 1493 y la teoria polttica del papado
medieval (Mexico City, 1949), seeks to link these bulls to the feudal
suzerainty of the medieval papacy, but the thesis is weakened by mis-
understanding of the basic documents and by an effort to confine to
islands the claims medieval popes applied to continental areas as
well.46
Portuguaeseand Spanish economic history is notoriously deficient in
good modern studies. On the Portuguese side, J. LIucio de Azevedo's
Epocas de Portugal economico (2nd ed. Lisbon, 1947) and his eco-
nomic chapters in the Peres Hist6ria de Portugal (II, 393-444) are
broad surveys of real value but without the benefit of the monographic
research by which alone traditional views can be corrected. Jaime
Carrera Pujol's Hiistoria de la economia espanola (5 vols. Barcelona,
1943-1947) only commences in the sixteenth century and rests largely
upon familiar doctrines and materials. Easily the most important
recent work for the sixteenth century is Ramon Carande 's Carlos V y
4 Cf. Silvio Zavala, "Las conquistas de Canarias y America: estudio com-
parativo, " in Estutdios Indianos (Mexico City, 1948), pp. 7-94.
" See also Ch.-M. de Witte, "Les bulles pontificales et 1'expansion
portugaise
au XVe siecle, ' Revue d'Histoire Eccl6siastique, XLVIII (1953), 683-718. See
also, P. Perez Emnbid,Los descubrimientos en el Atldntico y la rivalidad castellano-
portuguesa hasta el Tratado de Tordesillas (Seville, 1948).
sits banqueros (Madrid, 1943-1949), of which two volumes, based on

archival research, have appeared. The first volume surveys the
Spanish economic scene in general under Charles V; the second deals
more specifically with the Hacienda Real de Castilla, analyzing in
detail the financial system of the Spanish Crown and its ordinary
and extraordinary revenues.
Aside from Carande's valuable chapters on Spanish industry and
V. Rau's A exploragdo e o commercio de sal de Setubal (Lisbon, 1951),
little important work on peninsular industrial history in the Back-
ground period has appeared. Mining, so prominent in the Indies, has
been almost totally neglected. Little again has been done with the
rich field of Luso-Hispanic craft guilds except for some of the con--
tributions to As corporag&esdos ofticios mecanicos, edited by Franz-
Paul de Almeida Langhans (2 vols. Lisbon, 1943-1946), the same
writer's A Casa dos vinte e quatro de Lisboa: subsidios para a sita
historia (Lisbon, 1948) and A. L. de Carvalho, Os mesteres de Gui-
mardes (6 vols. Braga, 1939-1946). In another direction, there are
Abbott Payson Usher's The Early History of Deposit Banking in
Mediterranean Europe, Harvard Economic Series, LXXV (Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1943) and Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, The School
of Salamanca (Oxford, 1952), a collection of readings in Spanish
monetary theory. For the background of the Ibero-American fairs of
Porto Bello, Jalapa, Salta, Sorocaba and others, V. Rau's Substdios
para o estudo das feiras medievais portuguesas (Lisboni, 1943) is of
prime value, although the actual continuity of Brazilian with Portu-
guese fairs remains to be traced. Casas Torres and Abaseal Garayoa
for Navarre, and Basterrechea for the Basque provinces, have studied
regional fairs, but the Spanish fairs as a whole have not been studied,
and in the recenit initernational survey volume of the Societe Jean
Bodin, La Foire (Brussels, 1953) the fairs of both Spain and Portugal
were unhappily not included.Y
The literature of Spanish and Portuguese trade before 1598 is
rapidly growing. Verlinden 's bibliography of medieval Spanish trade,
published in 1940, now needs revision, but his studies on Italian in-
fluence in the Iberian Peninsula collect some of the more important
titles. The background of the Consulado of Seville, as of those of
Lima and Mexico City, has been well described in Robert Sydney
Smith's The Spanish Guild Merchant: A History of the Consulado,
1250-1700 (Durham, 1940) a far superior study to Ibarra y Rodriguez'
4 Jose Manuel Casas Torres and Angel Abascal Garayoa, MerLados geogrdficos
y f erias de Navarra (Saragossa, 1948); J. Basterrechea Ichazo, " Mereados

geogrdaficos y ferias de Vascongadas," Pirineos, VII (1951), 49-307.
unimpressive search for the origins of the Casa de Contrataci6n.48
For the whole subject of the American trade, the pressing need is for
muLchfurther study of Portuguese and Spanish mercantile capitalism
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A. Marchant has properly
insisted upon the central role of capitalistic enterprise in the lati-
fundial economy of early Brazil; and Rau and Diffie's remarkable
paper has clarified for the first time the degree of maturity in Portu-
guese capitalistic machinery in the period of the discoveries, clearing
away the dense underbrush of past error and the confusions deriving
from confidence in H. Fitzler 's highly unreliable studies.49 Verlinden,
on the other hand, emphasizes the decisive influence of Italian busi-
nessmen and methods as the key to the overseas expansion and activi-
ties of Spain and Portugal in the Afro-Atlantic and American areas;
his thesis however fails to carry conviction for several reasons. One is
the failure to distinguish adequately between commercial penetration
of the type pursued by the Portuguese along the African coasts and
in the Far East (except Goa), and authentic colonization such as
occurred in the New World, immediately for Spain, a bit later for
Portugal. Verlinden again seeks to apply to the peninsular and
Ibero-American fields the dubious, controversial doctrines of Henri
Pirenne on external mercantile stimulus as the mainspriing of economic
advance, and long-range trade as the basic dynamic of historical
change.50 This is to exaggerate the importance of a more or less
Italianized Luso-Hispanic bourgeoisie at the expense of equally or
more powerful forces of a non-commercial order: demographic sur-
pluses, flexible social structure, monarchical ambitions, religious ex-
pansionism, land hunger and the continuing thrust of the counter-
offensive of the Reconquista.
In peninsular agrarian history interest is rising; however, attention
is still chiefly directed to questions of tenure and juridical status,
48 " Los precedentes de la Casa de Contrataci6n de Sevilla," Bevista de Indias,
II (1941), nos. 3-5. A similar study for Portugal badly needs doing austhe neces-
sary foundation for studies such as Damido Peres, Regimento das Cazas das
Indias e Mina (Coimbra, 1947) and F. Mendes da Luz, Regimento da Caza da
India (Lisbon, 1951).
4'Alexander Marchant, "Feudal and Capitalistic Elements in the Portuguese
Settlement of Brazil," HAHB, XXII (1942), 493-512; Virginia Rau and Bailey
W. Diffie, "Alleged Fifteenth-Century Joint-Stock Companies and the Articles of
Dr. Fitzler," Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XXVI (London,
1953), 181-199.
5 See especially his HAHB article and Precedents medievaux cited above, note
27; and his "Les influences medievales dans la colonisation de 1'Amrique,'"
Revista de Historia de Am6rica, XXX (Dec., 1950), 440-450, and "Le probleme
de la continuite en histoire coloniale. De la colonisation medievale a la colonisa-
tion moderne," Revista de Indias, XI (1951), 219-236.
74 HAHR FEBRUARY CHARLES JULIAN BISHKO
with research still rudimentary in the technological, economic and

social areas. Francisco Tolsado Picazo 's Bibliografia espalnola de
agricultura, 1495-1900 (Madrid, 1953), is virtually the only guide;
but many of the older works are listed in Robert S. Smith's brief
survey of medieval Spanish (but not Portuguese) agriculture in The
Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. I (Cambridge, 1942).
One type of recent study exemplifying what is needed is Eduardo
Ibarra y Rodrlguez, El problema cerealista en Espaiia durante el
reinado de los Reyes Catolicos (Madrid, 1944). Julio Caro Baroja's
articles on agricultural implements (plows, hoes, sickles, flails, etc.)
and Luis de Hoyos Sainz' folklore studies ilndicate how valuable such
an approach caln be for Ibero-American agrarian techniques and tra-
ditions.51 Similar exploration in the Portuguese field, like F.-P. Lang-
hans, Apontamentos para a historia de azeite em Portugal (Lisbon,
1949) would be illuminating for Brazil. For pastoral backgrounds
Klein's standard treatise on Spanish sheep ranchilig and the Mesta
can now be supplemented on the Portuguese side by Ribeiro; and on
cattle ranchilng a preliminary survey of problems has appeared.52
After Ots Capdequl and Chevalier, both of whom stress Background
ties, the importance of investigating questions of peninsular land
tenure and labor relations is manifest.53 Most work, however, relates
to the earlier mnedievalperiod. Verlinden 's surveys of the great estate
in Spain and Portugal are useful but, like Redonet y L6opez-Doriga's
essay, they offer little on late medieval latifundismo in southern Spain
and Portugal, whenee it spread to the New World.54 On the later
period an excellent but unduly juridico-fiscal study is Carmelo Viiias
y Mey, El problema de la tierra en la Espaiia de los siglos XVI-XVII
(Madrid, 1941). V. Rau 's careful analysis of the Portuguese ses-
marias has obvious implications for royal land grants in Brazil;
and it is to be hoped that she will continue this admirable study into
51 Cf. note 33, above; and also Hoyos Scdinz' Mantal de Folklore (Madrid,
1947).
52 Orlando
Ribeiro, Contribu'idao para o estudo do pastoreio na Serra da
Estrela (Lisbon, 1941); C. J. Bishko, " The Peninsular Background of Latin
American Cattle Ranching," HAHR, XXXII (1952), 491-515.
J. M. Ots Capdequi, El Hgibnen de la tierra en la Avt6rica espa'iola, Publi-
eaciones de la Universidad de Sainto Domingo, XLIII (Ciudad Trujillo, 1946),
pp. 7-28; Franqois Chevalier, La formation des grands domaines au Mexique,
Travaux et Memoires de 1'Institut d 'Ethnologie, LVI (Paris, 1952), passim.
S C. Verlinden, " Quelques aspects de 1 'histoire de la tenure an Portugal,''
La Tenure, Reeeuils de la Soeiete Jean Bodin, III (Brussels, 1938), 231-243;
idemn, "Le grand domaine dans les 6tats iberiques au moyen age," Le domaine,
Ree. Soc. J. Bodin, IV (Wetteren, Belgium, 1949), pp. 177-208; L. Redonet y
L6pez-D6riga, " El latifundio y su formaci6n en la Espania medieval," Estud.
Hist. Soc. Esp., I (1949), 139-203.
the Atlantic Islands and America.55 Two other lines of much needed
inquiry are the history of rural labor, whether tenant-farming or
wage-earning peasants or the servile and slave workers of hereditary
descent or Reconquista annexation; and the bewildering variety of
leaseholds and rents developed in the medieval Peninsula. On the
former subject, related to the rise of the Indian forced labor system,
Robert S. Chamberlain's excellent monograph suggests a broad pro-
gram for future research, particularly on the relations between the
Luso-Hispanic conquerors and the subject Moorish or Morisco farming
classes.56
Over the past decade and a half some progress has been made in
reconstructing the municipal institutions lying back of the towns and
cabildos of the New World. Although no general work on the Luso-
Hispanic municipalities can yet be written, important studies have
appeared on the problem of their medieval origins, notably Jose Marla
Font Rius, Ortgenes del regi,men municipal de Catalunia (Madrid,
1946). This book contains a valuable review of the controversies
among urban historians over town origins, with particular reference
to Spain, and provides much institutional material of general signifi-
cance for the whole Peninsula.57 For the Iberian Background, munici-
pal evolution in the Later Middle Ages involves important transfor-
mations of the earlier concejos which are too often depicted as the
immediate ancestors of the towns of the Indies. Represa, Bo and
Carle, Laguzzi, Gibert, Caetano and others have written on the domi-
nation of the late medieval towns by the aristocratic linajes, while
Fernando Albi has studied royal domination through the correaidor.58
Virginia Rau, Sesmarias medievais portugmesas (Lisbon, 1946).
I
"Castilian Backgrounds of the Repartimiento-Encomienda,'" Contributions
to American Anthropology and History, V (1939), pp. 19-66.
5 The last props under the so-called Romanist theory of the derivation of
Spanish and Portuguese municipal institutions from the Roman period were
knocked out for good by Claudio Sanchez Albornoz in his Ruina y extinci6n del
municipio romano en Espaita (Buenos Aires, 1943). For some important Portu-
guese studies of meldieval municipal institutions in the Early Reconquista period,
cf. Torquato de Sousa Soares, I Notas paro o estudo das instituiloes miulnicipais da
Reconquista," Revista Portuguesa de Hist6ria, I (1941), 71-92; II (1943), 265-
291; idem, "Les bourgs dans le nordouest de la Peniinsule iberique," Bulletin des
Etudes Portuigaises, IX (1943), 5-1 5.
" A. Represa Rodriguez, "Notas para el estudio de la ciudad de Segovia en
los siglos XII-XIV," Estudios Segovianos, I (1949), 273-319; A. B6 and M. del
C. Carle, I Cuando empieza a reservarse a los caballeros el gobierno de las ciudades
castellanas," Cuad. Hist. Esp., IV (1946), 114-124; M. del P. Laguzzi, 'Avila a
comienzos del siglo XIV,'' ibid., XII (1949), 145-180; Rafael Gibert y Sanchez
de la Vega, El concejo cle Madrid (Madrid, 1949); Marcelo Caetalio, A adlmlinis-
traVao municipal de Lisboa ditram1te a Ia dinastia (1.170-1383) (Lisbon, 1951);
Fernando Albi, El corregidor ent el rnnnicipio Cspafiol ba,jo la montarquia absoltta
(Madrid, 1943).
76 HIAHR I FEBRUARY I CHARLES JULIAN BISHKO
Pitt-Rivers' unique sociological analysis of the modern Andalusian
town of Aleala de la Sierra merits the attention of all students of
Iberian and Ibero-American municipal history for the light it throws
upon age-old social and psychological elements in Spanish community
organization commonly disregarded in institutional and economic
studies.58a Among new editions of fueros should be especially noted
the outstanding edition and study of the fueros of Sep'ilveda, a work
throwing much fresh light upon the evolution of Castilian municipal
law and organization.59 Agustfn Millares Carlo has compiled valuable
checklists of works on municipal archives and of published editions
of Libros de Acuerdos and other municipal documentation.59a The
representation of towns in the Cortes has been examined by Gaines
Post, who rejects the early dates usually given for municipal proctra-
dores and coneludes that they cannot be proved to have existed before
the thirteenith century.60 The town leagues or hermandades of Castile
prior to the Reyes Catolicos are the subject of an article by Luis
Su'arez which corrects current exaggerations of their number, dura-
tion and importanee.61 Urban geography has been pursued by Ricard
in a study of the plaza mayor; and Torres Balbas (who publishes
profusely o0n medieval urban topography) and Cervera contribute
lengthy sections on the Middle Ages and sixteenth century to an
importaiit new work on Spaiiish urbanism.62 The social and economic
aspects of town life still suffer neglect; in this direction Chevalier and
Sancho de Sopranis are making contributions.63
58
J. A. Pitt-Rivers, The People of the Sierra (Londoni, 1954; also, New York,
1954).
" Emilio Saez, Rafael Gibert, Mantuel Alvar and A. G. Ruiz-Zorilla, Los futeros
de Sepuilveda (Segovia, 1953).
59 A. Millares Carlo, ' Notas bibliograficas acerca de archivos nunmicipales,
ediciones de Libros de Acuerdos y colecciones de documentos concejiles, ' in Rafael
Altamira et al., Contr-ibutciones a la historia municipal de America, Instituto Pan-
aimericano de Geografia e Historia, Comision de Historia, 14 (Estudios de Historia,
II) (Mexico City, 1951), pp. 179-338 [also, separately, Madrid, 1952]; "'Notas
bibliogr'aficas acerca de archivos mlunicipales, etc. Adiciones y rectificaciones,''
Revista de Bistoria de Amdirica, XXXV-XXXVI (1953), 175-208.
60 " Romani law and Early Representation in Spain and Italy," Speculum,
XVIII (1943), 211-232.
61 Luis Suarez Fernandez, "Evolucion historica de las hermandades caste-
Ilanas," ICad. Hist. Esp., XVI (1951), 5-78.
62 Robert Ricard, "La plaza mayor en Espagne et en Amerique espagnole,"
Annales: Societ6s, Economies, Civilisations, II (1947), 433-468; L. Torres Balbas,
E. Cervera, F. Chueca, P. Bidagor, Resumen historico del urbanismo en Espaiia
(Madrid, 1954); Erwin W. Palm, "Los origenes del urbanismo imperial en Ainer-
ica, ' in R. Altamira et al., Contribuciones a la historia municipal de Am6rica,
pp. 239-263, and references there cited to Stanislawski, Kubler and other recent
writers.
63
F. Chevalier, "En lisant les ' novelas ': la vie a Seville au siecle d 'or,"
In the final field for consideration here, that of derecho or direito
in the hospitable Iberian sense of law proper and constitutional and
institutional history, output primarily in the form of periodical ar-
ticles has been formidable. The guide to this vast literature is the
Anuario de Hiistoria del Derecho Espaniol, a first-class journal with
extensive bibliographical bulletins for Roman, canon, medieval and
modern law, as well as articles often of monograph proportions. The
outstandinlg contemporary authority in Spanish legal history, Alfonso
Gareia Gallo, is publishing an Historia del derecho espaiiol (2nd ed.,
2 vols. to date. Madrid, 1941-1944), which so far goes only to 711; his
Curso de historia del der-echoespanol (3rd ed., 1 vol. to date. Madrid,
1948) reaches into the later periods, and his many articles on derecho
espanlol and derecho indiano in the Anuario, including notably an
exhaustive study on the Siete Partidas, have great Background value.64
On the Portuguese side, the venerable Paulo Merea has collected some
of his numerous periodical studies in his Estudos de direito hispanico
medieval (2 vols. Coimbra, 1952-1953). Another important collection
of legal studies is Luis Cabral de Moneada, Estudos de historia do
direito (3 vols. Coimbra, 1948); and for Brazilian backgrounds might
also be mentioned G. Braga da Cruz, 0 direito de troncalidade e o
regime jurtdico do patrimo'nio familiar (2 vols. Braga, 1941) and
Manuel Bento, Substdios para a historia do direito portugue's (Lis-
bon, 1941).65
In the field of Portuguese institutional and constitutional history,
the classic work of Henrique da Gama Barros, Histo'ria da adminis-
tragdo pu'blica em Portugal nos se'culos XII a XV, which first ap-
peared in 1885-1896, has now been republished in a valuable revised
edition by Torquato de Sousa Soares (9 vols. Lisbon, 1945-1953). 66
No such genleral treatise of receilt date is available for Spanish insti-
tutions; the little book of Jose Maria Font Rius, Instituciones medi-
evales espaiolas (Madrid, 1949) amounts to a textbook survey.67
Annales, ibid., pp. 353-360; Hipolito Sancho Sopranis, I Estructura y perfil
dernografico de Cacdiz en el siglo XVI,'I Estud. Hist. Soc. Esp., II (1952), 533-
612.
64 "El 'Libro de las leyes' de Alfonso el Sabio. Del Especulo a las Partidas,'
Anuario de Bistoria del Derecho Espaiiol, XXI-XXII (1951-1952), 345-528.
65 For an initial survey from the Background angle, see Teresa S. Davidson,
"The Brazilian Inheritance of Roman Law,," in Brazil: Papers Presented in the
Institutte for Brazilian Studies, Vanderibilt University (Nashville, 1953), pp. 59-90.
66 The fourth (1949) and fortheoming fifth volumes of the Revista Portuguesa
de Hist6ria will be an Homenagem a Gama Barros; in the one volume now avail-
able Sousa Soares gives a biography and an appraisal of the Hist6ria, and various
scholars contribute articles on aspects of the great treatise.
67 J. Lopez Oliv'an, Repertorio diplorndtico espaiiol (Madrid, 1944) provides a
useful collection of Spanish treaties from 1125 to 1935.
A naumberof Background problems await the constitutional his-

torian in the political mechanisms and doctrines of the later Middle
Ages and the sixteenth century. The medieval estado estamental,
i.e., the state conceived in terms of the dualism of the monarchy mov-
ing towards absolutism, on the one hand, and the Cortes, representinig
the anti-absolutist estates of the realm, on the other, has not yet re-
ceived in the Peninsula the attention it attracts elsewhere. Joaquim
Leitao has partially cleared the way for publishing the proceedings of
the Portuguese Cortes with his Cortes do reino de Portugal (Lisbon,
1940), which inventories existing documentation from the fourteenth
century on; but neither Portugal nor Spain is included in the special
number of Speculum devoted to medieval representation.68 Yet in-
vestigation along these lines is indispensable if we are to understand
how the conflicts between monarchy, aristocracy and middle class in
late medieval and early modern Iberia provide the necessary back-
ground for the trans-Atlantic struggle between regalist and seigneurial
forces, which Ots Capdequi, Zavala and others have emphasized as
basic to the formation of state and society in the Indies. Eduardo
d'Oliveira Franca, 0 poder real em Portugal a'sorigens do absolttismo
is a major Brazilian contribution to this problem;69 but for the mon-
archical organization of both Portugal and Spain what we need is a
comprehensive survey of the scope and calibre of R. Doucet 's Les
instituttions de la France au XVIe siecle (2 vols. Paris, 1948). Among
the few major recent studies of royal institutions there should be
mentioned, however, the valuable work of Atanasio Sinues, El merino
(Saragossa, 1954) a study of the evolution of this important royal
official of local government in his relations with towns, nobility and
adelantados. Floyd S. Lear's study of treason in medieval law has
much of interest on the Visigothic concepts of this crime embedded
in the Fuero Juzgo and Luso-Hispanic political theory.70
As for Spanish and Portuguese feudalism, it must be observed that
most of the important work here has been done in the earlier medieval
period and possesses rather limited utility for Latin America. Claudio
Sanchez Albornoz, En torno a los origjeines(del feudalismi,o (3 vols.
Mendoza, 1942) hardly strays beyond the eleventh century; Verlin-
deni's already cited essay on Portuguese land tenure is but a brief
"s XXIX (1954) no. 2, part 2, issued by Americani members of the Inter-
national Commission for the Ilistory of Representative and Parliamenitary Insti-
tutions.
69 Boleti'm da Universidade de Sdo Patlo, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ci6ncias e
Letras, LXVIII, no. 6 (Sao Paulo, 1946).
70 Treason and Related Offenses in Roman and Germanic Law, The Rice Insti-
tute Pamtipphlet,XLII, no. 2 (Houston, 1955).
introductory sketch; and, on the whole, Chamberlain's study of Cas-
tilian landholding and governmental feudalism still stands, together
with its bibliography, as a useful survey of the subject.71 An urgent
related question, that of the doetrine of vassalage as applied to the
Indians in their relationship with the Spanish crown, has also been
discussed by Chamberlain, and is further treated (for one limited
district) by Gareia y Gareia.72 Serfdom and slavery are two other sub-
jects still wrapped in considerable obscurity, although Verlinden's
recent book on the latter subject will mark a major advance.72a On
serfdom, Verlinden has some brief comments for Portugal, and
Gibert's long article on work contracts in Castile brings out other
aspects of this difficult problem.73
In the direction of political theory, Spanish writers have been
particularly active over the last fifteen years. Juan Beneyto Perez,
Los origenes de la ciencia polztica en Espana (Madrid, 1949) and H.
Rommen, La teorta del estado y de la comunidad internacional en
Francisco Suarez (Madrid, 1951) illustrate this trend. A contro-
versy over the origins of the concept of Spain and the Spanish empire
has been raging for years, in which Jose Antonio Maravall's El con-
cepto de Espa4a en la edad media (Madrid, 1954) marks a new high-
point; his detailed analysis, however, does not altogether replace the
writings on this subject of Menendez Pidal, Garcla Gallo and others
cited in his bibliography. For the sixteenth century, Parry and Morse
represent the other side of an unbridged gap with these medieval
researches, to close which the studies of Garcla Gallo, Manzano and
the rest assemble significant materials in connection with the con-
troversy over the lnature and significance of the incorporation of the
Indies into the crown of Castile.74
In this nartial and hastv vista de narlaroof the Iberian Background
71Cf. note 56, supra.
"'R. S. Chamberlain, " The Concept of the Seinor Natural as Revealed by
Castilian Law and Administrative Documents," HAHE, XIX (1939) 130-137;
Honorio Gareia y Garcia, Estado econo6mico-social de los vasallos en la gobernacion
foral de Castellon (Vich, 1943).
72a Charles Verlinden, L'eselavage dans 'Europe m6di6vale.. Tome premier,
P6ninsule iberique-France (Brugeso 1955).
7 Verlinden, Tenure au Portugal, pp. 239-243. R. Gibert, "El contrato de
servicios en el derecho medieval espafiol,"I Cuad. Hist. Esp., XV (1951), 5-131.
7' J. H. Parry, The Spanish Theory of Empire in the Sixteenth Century (Cam-
bridge, 1940); Richard M. Morse, " Toward a Theory of Spanish American
Government," Journal of the History of Ideas, XV (1954), 71-93; Juan Manzano
Manzano, La adquisici6n de las Indias por los BR. CC. y su incorporaci6n a los
reinos castellanos (Madrid, 1951); A. Garcia Gallo, "Los origenes de la adminis-
traci6n territorial de las Indias espafiolas," Anuario de Historia del D)erecho
Espaniol, XV (1944), 16-106.
80 HIAHR FEBRUARY CHARLES JULIAN BISHKO
of Latin American history, it has been necessary to omit whole sectors,

notably intellectual history, the arts, literature and, doubtless, many
others. If at many points the emphasis has been upon needs rather
than accomplishments, this will not surprise the Ibero-Americanist
who has so often vainly sought guidance in this field. Yet it should
be apparent that over the past decade and a half genuine advances,
have been and are being made; and it is safe to say that in the years
ahead this continuing progress will provide historians with fuller and
more aceurate information than ever before on the immense Portu-
guese and Spanish contributions to the making of Ibero-America.

The Iberian Background of Latin American History. Recent Progress and Continuing Problems (Bishko, C.)

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The Iberian Background of Latin American History: Recent Progress and Continuing Problems

Author(s): Charles Julian Bishko

The Iberian Background of Latin

CHARLES JULIAN BISHKO*

H ISTORIANS of Ibero-America,confronting a civilization

Iberian Background of Latin Americani history, however, significant

of their appearance, together with summary of content and objective

hispanoamericana de los siglos XVI y XVII, Iistituto Paniamericano de Geograf ia

Portugal (Coimbra, 1941), Geografia Humana (Porto, 1946) and

problems and methods of research, and his brief suggestions can be

Among the smaller minority groups, French emigration to the

clearly stirred powerful new religious forces, and we have Bataillon's

1952-1953); M. Bataillon, "'Jean d'Avila retrouve,'" Btll. Hlisp., LVII (1955),

advance against powerful military foes, the acquisition of abundant

sits banqueros (Madrid, 1943-1949), of which two volumes, based on

y f erias de Navarra (Saragossa, 1948); J. Basterrechea Ichazo, " Mereados

with research still rudimentary in the technological, economic and

A naumberof Background problems await the constitutional his-

of Latin American history, it has been necessary to omit whole sectors,

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