Study with us. A new way of meaningful breakthrough.
As of this saga, Eleonora Escalante Strategy will change its emblematic methodology for instruction. One of our core purposes is to help our readers regain their reading proficiency. Additionally, we aim to help our audience increase and boost their reading to a proficient level 6 of PISA. And we role model with our example. We do not use artificial intelligence tools to read. With the ubiquitous advent of the NAIQI devices and/or applications (combined jazz of Nanotechnologies, Artificial Intelligence – here we include robotics and automation, Quantum Sovereignty, and the Internet), the brains of our civilization commenced to lose the omnipresent past habit of reading in paper for understanding, interpretation of facts, analysis, evaluation, losing its imagination powers. All these competencies only develop when we elevate the quality/quantity of our reading, with lengthy and complex vocabulary books. So we are trying to show you the way to enhance your reading capabilities again. The same happens when learning a language. For example: If a student is at level B1 (intermediate), the only way for him/her to improve is to explore substantial material at B2 or C1-C2 (advanced), otherwise, the pupil will never catapult to speak, read, comprehend, and write with perfection.

The choice is yours.
With this in mind, we will experiment to activate the desire to learn and read with us.  In consequence, we will use this episode to offer all the questions that have come to our mind, when designing this chapter. And we will not give you the answers. It is up to you to search for the answers. Our bibliography will be given in our next publication. The choice is yours. If you wish to learn, you must search, filter, read, and do the homework as much as we do daily. So, let´s begin.

Reality is not what it seems.
The discovery of America has thousands of edges and views that no one can still decipher with certainty. Hundreds of historians, authors, and researchers have tried to convince us of a reality that we truly do not know how it happened. It is hard to look back to our ancient reality, when the genuineness of that past has been hidden, or in some cases, it was destroyed with premeditation and treachery. Academic researchers have tried to gather public evidence that most likely ended up burnt by fire, buried under stones or rubbish after an earthquake, or sunk after a hurricane or tropical storm. What was recuperated and mended is probably one source but not the rest. It is undoubtedly possible, that there are remains of the truth in several old libraries of the studious creoles, monks, the Vatican, or maybe in the house of an inheritor of information who is still waiting for authors of our generation who could write history as it was.  Can you imagine the behemothic meaning of rewriting history? Can you reckon the significance of knocking on the door to those who have shielded these files for 500 years? The Inquisition, territorial wars, and religious persecution were enough reasons for anyone to shut up their mouths then, and even after the Enlightenment, I am convinced that there is still important evidence that has not emerged to us yet.

Our consulting house is convinced that several pages and artistic representations have been kept well hidden by the ageless guardians of the American Indigenous extinct populations, by the custodians of the expulsed Spanish Jews, and by the protectors of the Iberian Moorish human rights. We dare to believe that some worthy good people were watching what was happening in the Iberian Peninsula and Europe during the discovery of Spanish America. And they truly left that truth safeguarded. We must acknowledge some pious honest people who have been storing those tales for centuries.  And guess what, in the XXI century, I assert that we still don´t know all the truth of the Discovery of America, despite the efforts of those history hunters who have risked their days to find it. I am convinced, that some historical sentinels have protected thousands of pages of what happened, and we all still don´t know. I would be a fool if I launched this saga with what is available in public sources. I dare to affirm, that there are still document caretakers who have kept the reality of the Spanish Kingdoms at the time of Columbus and further Empires who have sealed under confidentiality what occurred a few years before 1492 up to 1821. Probably, there will come a time when the truth will emerge and rebuke all our misconceptions about Castile & Aragon’s and Habsburgs’ moves to discover America.

The Official History of the Discovery of Spanish America.
All of us have studied the official history of the Discovery of Spanish America. Most of us were taught about it in our K-12 learning phase. It is not my responsibility to repeat the same old story. There are thousands of websites that you can visit about the “official” history of Columbus and the Catholic Kings. And I won´t spend my time on that. As a strategy educator, I am interested in provoking a distinct new research agenda that could potentially drive several hypotheses for history researchers. At the same time, for those readers who want to elevate their level to PISA 6, we invite you to do online research by trying to find out new aspects of the context in which the leaders of Spain Habsburg  (Europa Regina territorial empire) allowed what truly occurred in the conquest of the new America paradise lands.

Strategic innovation efforts in our quest to understand the context of Spanish America Discovery.

We would like to list some questions for you to find an answer during the following week. Here we go:

1. Do you still believe the idea that Christopher Columbus was the first explorer who touched base in American territories?
2. Could it be possible that other merchants or traders knew in advance that there were other lands in America? What about Portugal navigators? What about other Venetian or Viking expeditions that never returned from America? From our research, we certainly can state that Columbus and his team knew something more.
3. Spain wasn´t a country then. In 1492, the official records of history tell us that the kings of Castile-Aragon sponsored Columbus’s voyage. However, during the 100 years before the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, there were at least 5 main separate kingdoms: Portugal, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Granada.
4. History usually raises the role of the Castile kingdom above the Aragonese kings. But in reality, if we observe the movements of the Aragonese kings in the later Middle Ages, they were extending their kingdom by adding the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, and Sicily. On top of that, the Aragonese royal Family conquered the kingdom of Naples which was next to the Papal Church States in the Italian territory. Trading in the Mediterranean was easy, and the Catalan and Valencian Merchant interests were included within the Aragonese crown. Can you perceive the extension and opportunities of the Aragon kingdom, beyond the Castile one which was liberating a war with Moorish Granada?
5. What consequences had the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469?  Was it only in terms of a better power consolidation of the foundations much needed for accessing the riches of the future newly discovered continent? Let´s remember the “Hundred Years War” between England and France occurred between 1337 and 1453, and it touched Navarre, Scotland, Burgundy, and the rest of the kingdoms in and around the Spanish Peninsula given the intermarriages of the dynastic families. At that time the concept of sovereignty was being trashed on and on and on. The first who could dominate the opponent through wars was the rule of thumb.
6. 1492 is a year of three important situations: (1) The year in which the Moorish Granada was added to Castile; (2) The first expedition of Columbus to America; (3) The culprit of the Inquisition: the expulsion of all Jews from the Spanish Kingdoms and the persecution of conversos (moriscos and Marranos/crypto Jews). Are these three events connected in between? Who were in reality the members of the troops coming with the conquerors of Spanish America?
7. The kingdom of Aragon had the potential to know and learn from all the territories of the Mediterranean Sea. The Crown of Aragon, through Catalonia´s merchants, had straightforward access to the Italian Peninsula, Venice, and all the Mediterranean Islands. Even they could extend their voyages easily from Iberia to the zone of the Levant, and the Byzantium. Were these voyages open doors to access information about America, that Columbus from Genoa studied before his interactions with the Catholic Kings?
8. Was the figure of Ferdinand II (1479-1516) hidden from all of us, when in reality he was moving the decision-making behind Isabelle? Was he aware of the implications and repercussions that could hold the conquest of the new American paradise?
9. Were Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon manipulated by other kingdoms in Europe, such as the Habsburgs, the Venetians (Columbus was closest to Venice than to Iberia), or the Tudors from England? Did they defend the new territories through the marriages of Catherine with Henry VIII (Tudor) and Joanna with Philip the Handsome (Habsburg)? Were these marriages more than games of thrones, but the clear intent of the Catholic kings to keep America apart from greater foes? How can we connect the following wars in Europe with a defensive strategy taken by Charles V (grandson of the Catholic Kings)?
10. Was Charles V (the grandson of the Catholic Kings) the expected leader who could create the foundations of America under Spain’s control? How he did it?
11. What was the role of the Catholic Church? Particularly the new order of the Jesuits (founded by Loyola in the middle of the 16th century) in the development of the Spanish Habsburg in America? Did they come too late to save the indigenous populations?
12. Where were standing the other family dynasties of Lisbon, London, Amsterdam, and Antwerp in the middle of this new religious context?
13. What was the original plot of Isabella and Ferdinand II (and later Charles V) to keep their newly discovered and conquered land under their corporate decision-making? Did Charles V decide to share the cake of America between his descendants, who covertly traveled to supervise the development of the new vice-royalties: The Indies in Santo Domingo, New Spain in Mexico, Peru in Lima, and later Rio de la Plata in Buenos Aires, and New Granada in Santa Fé de Bogotá. Is there a possibility that this might have happened?
14. How did the Ottoman Empire expansion influence the conquest of Spanish America? Let´s not forget that in 1453, the city of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), the capital of the Byzantine Empire, was captured by the Ottoman sultan Mehmet II.
15. Was Spanish Habsburg America able to keep the rest of the empires busy in Asia, while they settled in Latin America between 1492 to 1821?
    
    Many questions come to my strategic mind, but I think I have covered the most important ones that will guide us in our next episode. Try to answer them using the books or papers that you can find on the Internet. I encourage you to visit a good library please. It will be a nice trip to remember the beauty of the paper books.

Announcement.

Next Friday 18^th of October, is the turn of the next Episode 3 “Castile & Aragon and the Holy Roman Empire”. We will explore some of these questions as soon as I can process our core textbooks and papers waiting for my brain. We can´t promise to give you the right answer, but at least we can converge in you the desire to read without AI, think by yourself without the help of digital devices, and try to explore beyond the myths of history. Be kind to me during this season. I am against AI when preparing our content for you. Everything I do is genuinely brain-made: designing our outline, searching for information,  filtering it, selecting the documents, reading page by page, writing, editing, preparing the slides, and painting the watercolors attached to our lovely slides.

Musical Section.

Our melodious selection of music during this saga will be served with songs and concerts that could have been listed on the most important Billboard during the century of our themes. Today, we have chosen the following one: “On Earth as it is in Heaven”. Composed and directed by Ennio Morricone for the film The Mission (1986).

Thank you for reading http://www.eleonoraescalantestrategy.com. It is a privilege to learn. Blessings.

Sources of reference and Bibliography utilized today. All will be posted on our next episode.

Disclaimer: Eleonora Escalante paints Illustrations in Watercolor. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY. All are used as Illustrative and non-commercial images. Utilized only informatively for the public good. Nevertheless, most of this blog’s pictures, images, or videos are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images unless otherwise stated.