OTHER EXPLORERS

 Vasco Nuñez de Balboa(1475-1519)

He was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Ismuth of Panama to the Pacific Oceanin 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.

He traveled to the New World in 1500 and, after some exploration, settled on the island of Hispaniola. He founded the settlement of Santa Maria in present-day Panama in 1510, which was the first permanent European settlement on the mainland of the Americas.

         
Amerigo Vespucci(1451-1512):


Born in Florence on March 9 in 1451. He was a great Italian cartographer who worked in the service of Spain and Portugal. In 1489 he moved to Seville to work as manager of a bank branch of the Medici. Shortly after it was associated with Juanoto Berardi, and together helped in the preparations of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus (1492).He died in Seville on February 22, 1512

Ferdinand Magellan(1480–1521):

Born into a wealthy Portuguese family in around 1480, Magellan became a skilled sailor and naval officer and was eventually selected by King to search for a westward route to the "Spices Islands" Commanding a fleet of five vessels, he headed south through the Atlantic Ocean to Patagonia. Despite a series of storms and mutinies, the expedition reached the Spice Islands in 1521 and returned home via the Indian Ocean to complete the first circuit of the globe. Magellan did not complete the entire voyage, as he was killed during the Battle of Macta in the Philippines in 1521.


Juan Sebastián Elcano(1476–1526):


Elcano was born in 1476 to Domingo Sebastián Elcano I and Catalina del Puerto. He had three brothers: Domingo Elcano II, a Catholic priest, Martín Pérez Elcano, and Antón Martín Elcano.
Elcano settled in Seville and became a merchant ship captain. After violating Spanish laws by surrendering a ship to Genoan bankers in repayment of a debt, he sought a pardon from the Spanish king, by signing on as a subordinate officer for the Magellan expedition to the East Indies.

The printing press

The printing press is a device for evenly printing ink onto a print medium (substrate) such as paper or cloth.
The device applies pressure to a print medium that rests on an inked surface made of movable type, thereby transferring the ink. Typically used for texts, the invention and spread of the printing press are widely regarded as among the most influential events in human history, revolutionizing the way people conceive and describe the world they live in, and ushering in the period of modernity.
Until the middle of the 15th century, books were copied out by hand by monks and friars in monasteries.
This process continued until German Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press.
The famous Gutenberg Bible was printed in 1455 in the city of Mainz.

.MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS IN SPAIN.

The list of medieval universities comprises universities, which existed in Europe during the Middle Ages. It also includes short-lived foundations and European educational institutions whose university status is a matter of debate. The degree-awarding university with its corporate organization and relative autonomy is a product of medieval Christian Europe. Before 1500 more than eighty universities were established in Western and Central Europe. During the subsequent Colonization of the Americas the university was introduced to the New World, marking the beginning of its worldwide spread as the center of higher learning everywhere.

There were many institutions of learning in the Middle Ages. Historians generally restrict the term "medieval university" to refer to an institution of learning that was referred to as Studium Generale in the Middle Ages.

There is no official strict definition of a Studium generale, the term having emerged from customary usage. The following properties were common among them, and are often treated as defining criteria:

• (1) that it received students from everywhere (not merely the local district or region);
• (2) That it engaged in higher learning, i.e. that it went beyond teaching the Arts, and had at least one of the higher faculties.
• (3) that a significant part of the teaching was done by Masters.
• (4) that it enjoyed the privilege of jus ubique docendi, i.e. masters of that school were entitled to teach in any other school without a preliminary examination.
• (5) that its teachers and students were allowed to enjoy any clerical benefices they might have elsewhere without meeting the mandatory residency requirements prescribed by Canon Law.
• (6) that it enjoyed some degree of autonomy from local civil and diocesal authorities.

-THE HUNDRED YEARS´ WAR-

The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 between the House of Plantagenet rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois for control of the Kingdom of France. Each side drew many allies into the war.

For their French possessions, the English kings since the Norman Conquest were vassals of the kings of France. The French kings had endeavored, over the centuries, to reduce the possessions of their over-mighty vassals, to the effect that only Gascony was left to the English. The confiscation or threat of confiscating this duchy had been part of French policy to check the growth of English power, particularly whenever the English were at war with the Kingdom of Scotland an ally of France.

-THE WARRIOR NOBLE-

                                                     The Warrior Noble.


    In feudal society, the main function of the nobility and the king himself, was to be       warriors. The knights were engaged in soldiering.  

    The sons of noble families were educated and trained as warriors. 

    At eighteen years were named knights in the investiture ceremony in which they received their weapons: swords, shields ... From that moment, had to be faithful to his master  and defend the weak and women.

    The nobles waged war to defend their territory or ortho help the monarch or lord who owed allegiance. The war provided, if won, land and wealth which enhanced the power of the nobility. 

    Their social function allowed the nobility live with privileges. They had to work, did not pay taxes and were the only ones who could give them weapons and exercise control over the rest of the population.

    Women were subject to men, either the father or husband. In the absence of men, to be holders of fiefs, but usually their marriage was acting in concert with nobles and their lands passed into the property.   

The pillars of islam

The pillars of Islam are known as the fundamental precepts of this religion, obligatory for all Muslims.
There are five: profession of faith, prayer, alms, fasting and pilgrimage to Mecca.

The profession of faith, the first and most important pillar of Islam. Condenses the essence of Islamic doctrine in a short phrase that appears, and Islam slogan, in many decorative motifs, emblems and flags, and whose translation into Castilian is "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet."

Prayer is done in the direction of Mecca, the spiritual center of Islam, and within it to the Kaaba, temple situated in the center of the largest mosque in the city. The direction in which you look to pray in Arabic is called the qibla (قبلة), a word that has the Castilian 'Qibla'.

Muslims must give an annual alms to the poorest people in your community, starting with family and neighbors.

It is the fourth pillar of Islam and one of the most popular features of Islam among non-Muslims. Fasting is recommended during other times of the year, but during Ramadan is strictly mandatory for anyone who can do it. It takes place every day of the lunar month from sunrise to sunset. Significantly alters the lives of Muslims duration: one lives over night and the family gathers to share breaking the fast. Usually the time to return home for those who live far away.

The ritual of pilgrimage varies slightly as living in the region of Mecca or comes from outside, particularly the consecration, which are made at the entrance of the sacred territory. Also the legal schools of Islam mark their own nuances.

Muhammad

Muhammad was born in Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula in 571. He founded a new religion, called `Islam´. He come from a family of rich merchants. He was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets. Muhammad is almost universally considered by Muslims as the last prophet sent by God to mankind. Muslims consider him to have restored the unaltered original monotheistic faith. Non-Muslims regard Muhammad as the founder of Islam. Muhammad was orphaned at an early age. He occasionally he would retreat to a cave in the mountains for several nights of seclusion and prayer. In 622 Muhammad escaped from Mecca. He went to the city of Medina. This is Known as Hijra (flight in Arabic). It marks the beginning of Muslims  and the Islamic calendor. Muhammad converted the people of Medina to Islam.

The book of Islam is the Koram: