Bernard Grunberg (ss. dir.), A European model at stake and its difficulties in the colonial societies, Cahiers d’Histoire de l’Amérique Coloniale n° 2, Séminaire d’Histoire de l’Amérique Coloniale, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2006

Evangelization dreamed and lived : the Historia de los Indios de Nueva España by Motolinía, Anaïs Gall The Historia de los Indios de Nueva España by Motolinia has been called a “work of propaganda”, a qualification which takes into account the political implications, and not the religious convictions, of its author. The Franciscan reconstructs certain events in such a way that they correspond with Biblical history and with the ideal of St. Francis. Clues indicate that Motolinia was strongly influenced by the writings of Joachim de Flore, and that he conceived the conquest of New Spain as one of the signs announcing the coming of the Age of Wisdom. The evangelization of the Central Mexico’s Indians during the sixteenth century, Eric Roulet The evangelization of the Indians in New Spain did not have the efficiency one usually thinks of for the 16th century. The spiritual conquest was moderate, because of the way it was done and definitely because of the men themselves, either clergymen or Indians. It was a hard task to fulfill and the native communities presented a whole range of different religious situations. Clergymen could not always serve as a model for them. Some were brutal, violent and did not really care about ethics and Christian values. Others used to soften their religious requirements in order to please those who supported them, as the traditional elite, and in order to back their economic interests. Indians did have some freedom of action in the end. They knew how to preserve their religious practices when they had to face Christianity. And when they decided to convert, they did not forget their economic, social and political interests. The Mexican Apostolic Inquisition and the Indian : an impossible mission (1521-1570/71), Bernard Grunberg The Mexican Apostolic Inquisition, rather than pursuing a multitude of Indians, was primarily aimed at those who governed the Indians: the caciques. Yet the Apostolic Inquisition rapidly showed its limits. After its outset in 1522 the movement enjoyed rapid and remarkable expansion during the period of Juan de Zumárraga. In 1547, the Inquisition was nearly through dealing with idolatry and tribal sorcery. Certainly, the Vatican reprimanded a handful of offenses, but these were not among the prerogatives of the Indians. In fact, the Apostolic Inquisition was barely concerned with cases involving natives : these represented less than 8% of total inquisitorial proceedings. In fact, since the Apostolic Inquisition had not been created with the goal of disciplining the native peoples, it was unable to effectively addness the issue.

Construction of an Imperial Culture : Zaragoza, Valladolid de Michoacán, Lima and Manilla mourn the Prince Baltasar Carlos (1646-1648), Thomas Calvo On October 9, 1646, the young Balthasar Carlos died in Zaragoza. The vast holdings of Philip IV found themselves deprived of a prince and heir. This is for us the occasion to follow, for two years, from Zaragoza to Manilla, and throughout the funeral processions - and moreover the sermons – dedicated to the deceased prince, the disarray of an entire “world”, but also the expression of an “imperial culture”. The latter expresses itself by nuance, by distance, by regional circumstances: space and particularities have their own contributions. But these do not prevent a real cultural unity, supported by the circulation of news (and printed texts), and most of all the imperial mold of clerical thought, which tended to oppose the monarchy. Trials and Spanish-indigenous parlamentos in colonial Chile: two interconnected forms of interventionism (1641-1647-1693), Jimena Paz Obregón-Iturra The object of this research is to show the deep-rooted links that exist between two events that took place in the southern part of central Chile during the last sixty years of the 17th century: the Indian-Hispanic parlamentos, and the criminal trials against the southern Bío-Bío Araucano-Mapuches native rebels. A comparative analysis of three cases that takes into consideration the new perspectives that the preliminary trial investigations offer at discerning the complexity of the parlamentos, and the untouched judicial archival material, can be of great significance to the field of Araucano-Hispanic studies. Examining and questioning the links between the criminal trials and the parlamentos opens the way towards a better understanding of the policies of the Spanish governors of the region. Colonial administrators in French Guyana at the 18th century: Prosopographic stakes, professional careers and system of solidarity, Céline Ronsseray We present one of the stakes of our work on French Guyana’s administrators, the subject of our thesis in progress. The object is to realize the collective biography of a corpus of men through the description of their individual paths and their social characteristics in a prosopographic perspective. The object of this communication will relate to the careers of King’s agents passed to French Guyana between 1720 and 1809. The character of the colonial administrator changed. After 1715, governor and intendant were attracted to the colonial property. We will be interested more particularly in their conditions, the place of the nomination in Guyana within their careers as well as the evaluation of their actions in the colony. Rethinking Slavery, or certain pitfalls to avoid: the example of Masters and Slaves, by Gilberto Freyre, Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau Based on a reading of Masters and Slaves, by Gilberto Freye, the present article invites a reflection on three types of mirror effects, which, functioning at times without our knowledge, distort analysis. The first involves a description of a system of slavery given not in function of what it actually is, but rather based on the image of other types of slavery, of other periods or of other places. The second involves evaluation the object in question from the context of the society meant to have caused its ulterior destruction. The third returns to a confrontation of slavery and the so-called domestic and patriarchal system. In all three cases, one generally ends up at a sort of calibration of slave systems, organized in function of their supposed harshness. In the end, this permits us to legitimize those which were perceived as the “softest”. Varia The Crónica X. Evaluation of a fundamental source on Aztec history, Sylvie Peperstraete The Crónica X is often regarded as a reference source on the history of the Aztecs. It is however necessary to handle it with circumspection. First of all, because it reached us only through “secondary sources” documents, particularly two Spanish adaptations of the last quarter of the 16th century, realized respectively by a Dominican friar of Spanish origin, D. Durán, and by one of Motecuhzoma II’s grandchildren, the Indian historian F. A. Tezozomoc. Secondly, because it shows an obvious partisanship regarding the Mexicas Tenochcas and an Indian version of facts, reorganized afterwards by the indigenous mythical thought. Mexica’s biais of the Crónica X : the example of Huexotzinco, Patrick Lesbre At the end of Moctezuma Xoyotzin’s reign, the Huexotzincas sought refuge in Central Valley of Mexico, staying there for about three years. This historic event allows us to detect the distortions of Crónica X. As

usual, only Mexico and Moctezuma are implicated : the two other capitals of the Triple Alliance are mentioned but appear only as simples subjects. Then, the breaking of this confederation or alliance is of course attributed to the Huexotzincas, who are presented as men without honor who came to take advantage of Mexica’s hospitality and who end up by turning against the people. Finally, the fate of the Huexotzinca chiefs is censored: nothing is told about their assassination. This lie shows the full extent of Crónica X author’s cynicism. The French Translations of la Historia general de las Indias y conquista de México by F. López de Gómara, Matthieu Gerbault La Historia general de las Indias y conquista de México, by F. López de Gómara, knew great success in Europe following its publication in 1552. The very well-documented chronicle is still considered today as a primary source on the history of the New World. However, the translations 16th century translations of the work are not well known. Sometimes cited in current publications they are often presented as exact transpositions of the Spanish text, while the 16th century translators were not always loyal to the original. A study of the French Translations by M. Fumée (1568 and 1584) and G. Le Breton (1588) actually reveals two very different readings of Gómara, which could have distorted French readers’ interpretation of this chronical during the 16th century. Fumée, the first French translator of Gómara, rendered the Historia into French in 1568, followed by the Conquista de México in 1584. He translated not from Spanish (a language he had no notions of), but from the Italian rendering of A. di Craviliz. Craviliz’s translation, very complete when it comes to geographic passages, ignores on the other hand entire chunks of the Conquista de México: the accounts of battles, the feats of the conquistadors are almost systematically absent from the French text. Fumée, in sober style, retained only the strictly documentary aspects of the New World from the text of Gómara. In 1588, Le Breton offered another version of the Conquista de México. This translation is quite different from that of Fumée: with a pre-barroque style, that mixes picturesque formulas, a taste for the exotic, and refined expressions. Le Breton offers his readers a tale of voyages and adventures, wherein the dramatization of military scenes is clearly exaggerated in comparison to the original text. The difference between these two translations invites a prudent approach on the part of readers; they are but personal interpretations of the work of Gómara. From discovery to politics: Reflections on the circumnavigation of Magellan in the Historia de las Indias by F. López de Gómara (1552), Louise Bénat-Tachot In 1552, F. López de Gómara ordered the printing of his chronicle of the Indies, the success of which in Spain and across Europe was incontrovertible during the entire 16th century. The author, a humanist whose style is at once brilliant and concise, distinguishes himself from authors of his time by his broad scope and free thinking. In this chronicle, which is structured by a geographical plan, the author allows a medullar importance to the circumnavigation of Magellan-Elcano (1519-1522), as well as to the latter’s objectives: the discovery of a new route to the spice islands and the mastery of commerce bye the Kingdom of Spain. In sixteen chapters at the work’s center, Gómara retraces not only the episodes of the voyage but also its implications in geopolitical, scientific, and commercial domains. He alone has perceived and articulated the different facets of this story, in a way that is as concise as it is corrosive. The daring of the author and the ambition of his imperial project invite us to observe an example of the “art of history” close up. Life and death aboard Spanish ships in the seventeenth century. The men of the Carrera de Indias and the Manila Galleon as seen through the Bienes de Difuntos (1598-1717), Delphine Tempère This research is based on the study of 1046 autos de Bienes de Difuntos in order to grasp the social, cultural and religious aspects of life aboard ships in the Spanish fleets. The study of the Posthumous Estates Institution – which was in charge of recovering the legacies and wages of the seamen and passengers – reveals the genesis of an all-powerful state which extended its sphere of influence from Seville to Manila. The analysis of daily life structures examines the specificity’s of the navigation world as being both a reflection and a distortion of Spanish society. The study of the material, religious and symbolical representations of death aboard eventually casts a light on the strong ties which bound the seagoing community with the faithful left behind on dry land.