Martin Luther on the European Discovery of America

Reinhard Schwarz

Article Type: Article

Publication Date: 1/1/1994

Issue: Baptism (Vol. 14, No 1, Winter, 1994)

Media contributions reflecting on 1992 as the “year of Columbus” were plentiful. Most of these spoke of the conquest of the new world, the subjection of the original inhabitants, and their forced conversion to Christianity. But what were the first impressions of the European discoverers? What was the nature of the first reports received by the contemporaries of Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci? The politics of conquest, introduced by the Spanish and Portuguese kings rather quickly following the discovery, apparently did not become publicly known as rapidly as the initial reports of the surprising discovery itself.

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