The Franciscan Invention of the New World

by Julia McClure

Overview

This book examines the story of the ‘discovery of America’ through the prism of the history of the Franciscans, a socio-religious movement with a unique doctrine of voluntary poverty. The Franciscans rapidly developed global dimensions, but their often paradoxical relationships with poverty and power offer an alternate account of global history. Through this lens, Julia McClure offers a deeper history of colonialism, not only by extending its chronology, but also by exploring the powerful role of ambivalence in the emergence of colonial regimes. Other topics discussed include the legal history of property, the complexity and politics of global knowledge networks, the early (and neglected) history of the Near Atlantic, and the transatlantic inquisition, mysticism, apocalypticism, and religious imaginations of place.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319430232
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	11/30/2016
Series:	The New Middle Ages
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	229
File size:	436 KB

About the Author

Julia McClure is a global historian interested in the history of poverty, charity and colonialism. She has specialised in the history of the Franciscans and the Spanish Atlantic. She gained her PhD at the University of Sheffield, had research fellowships at Harvard’s Weatherhead Initiative on Global History and the European University Institute in Florence, and is now at the Centre for Global History at the University of Warwick. 

Table of Contents

Contents

Abbreviations. 4

Prologue, The story. 5

Introduction. 7

Chapter One. 20

The Landscapes of Franciscan Poverty. 20

  The Franciscan attempt to disown the world. 20

  The colonial need for the concept of property. 20

  Freedom from property?. 21

  From property to rights. 27

  Necessity and Use. 30

  Property in Paradise?. 32

  Conclusion. 34

Chapter Two. 36

Feeding the Imaginative Landscape of the Franciscan Order 36

  The Franciscan attempt to ‘know’ the world. 36

  Franciscan global knowledge. 37

  Spiritual knowledge. 42

  The Franciscan ‘discovery’ of the New World. 45

  Losing the Canary Islands. 50

  Conclusion. 55

Chapter Three. 57

The Franciscan Atlantic. 57

  Planting the cross in the Atlantic world. 57

  The Canary Islands. 58

  The Spanish Atlantic coast 64

  The Caribbean. 67

  Mainland America. 71

  Conclusion: A Franciscan Map of the Early Atlantic. 74

Chapter Four 76

Franciscan landscapes of identity and violence. 76

  The Franciscan Invention of Coloniality. 76

  The Franciscans and the landscapes of power 78

  The Transatlantic Inquisition. 80

  Franciscan violences and the forging of a New World. 87

  The Multidirectionality of Coloniality. 91

  Symbolic worldmaking (1) 94

  Conclusion. 96

Chapter Five. 98

The New World at the End of the World. 98

  The Tale of the Dragon’s Tail in the Dragon’s Tail 98

  The construction of the Franciscan historical worldview.. 100

  The Franciscan historical invention of the New World. 109

  Symbolic worldmaking (2) 112

  Conclusion. 115

Conclusion. 117

Bibliography. 121

  Unpublished Archival Sources. 121

  Printed Primary Sources. 121

  Secondary Sources: Books. 128

  Secondary Sources: Articles and Chapters. 138

  Unpublished secondary sources. 145

  Websites. 145