Joint Review of Two Monographs

Joint Review of Two Monographs

The following essay presents the comparison of two books, written on the history, by Alida C. Metcalf and Inga Clendinnen. The names of the books are Go-Betweens and the Colonization of Brazil, and Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570, respectively. The two books will be compared on the basis of their central idea, their target audiences, strengths and weaknesses, and summary of the context that were provided about the historical background in these books.

In the book, written by Alida C. Metcalf, a novel is written that presents the Brazil's colonial foundations to apply several of frontier theory. The novel, Go Betweens and the Colonization of Brazil, 1500-1600, she conceives the early era as it interacts between two different worlds, which are Europe and the Native America. She has focused between the two frontiers and emphasized on the significant role played by go-betweens in the historical development of the colony. The Colonization of Brazil is the name of the settlement process, exploitation and domination held by Portugal from the sixteenth century in the current Brazilian lands. It begins with the arrival of new settlers to the land, inhabited by various nations indigenous. It must not be confused by the colonization of Brazil to the time of colonial Brazil, since the process of populating and developing the territory started earlier and went beyond the Portuguese occupation, from the Indians to recent immigrants. Metcalf has pointed out that the colonization of Brazil is not understood by the world in the proper way because the left over questions was never answered by anyone. She has incorporated the variety of current data, which was collected in Bahia, Rome, Lisbon, and the Vatican archives, she provided a coherent narrative that went far towards filling in apparent lacunae. The process of colonization of Brazil was because of the already developed process conducted by the Portuguese maritime expansion. During the fifteenth century, the Portuguese occupied strategic regions of Asia and Africa that could be used as a focus for expansion. Subsequently, the control of these areas to make room for the earlier colonial practices was undertaken in the islands of Azores and Madeira.

The book, Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570, written by Clendinnen is a masterpiece of work that centers on the Spanish incursion of the Yucatan Peninsula, the various effects on civilization of Mayan, and the Spanish struggles to control these people. In the beginning, she focuses on the initial attempts made by Spaniards and final success that solidifies them within the Yucatan Peninsula. She tells that why many people were forced for looking a new place. Also, how they reached Yucatan and the initial disappointments they faced over there. Next, she focused on the ever changing ways of living among the native societies because of their Spanish masters. In addition, she focused more on the changes of Mayan and the forced acculturation to the Spanish ways of living. She also commented on the struggling life ...