Connections Between The Spanish Inquisition, The Renaissance, The European Age of Exploration And The Sudden Appearance of Maps in 15th Century Southern Europe
Posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2012
If Chinese Map Making Information Was Released Into Southern Europe In The Mid 15th Century Who Might Have Used It and Why Might They Have Then Plagiarized It?
Timeline
- The Imperial Chinese Isolation of China – 1433
- The Spanish Inquisition – 1478 – 1834
- The Renaissance – 1453 – 1650
- The European Age of Exploration – 1487 – 1787
- The Catholic Church’s Trial of Galileo – 1633
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that although we have been taught that the Renaissance was a fabulous time of tremendous enlightenment and acquisition of knowledge it was simultaneously a time of genocide and cultural cleansing using the harshest means imaginable. The Roman Catholic Church was the institution through which most of these expulsions, repressions and suppression of information were carried out. The Catholic Church was clearly in charge in Southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy) of the flow of information and of those who were able to express their ideas and when. The classic example of this control is the trial of Galileo in 1633 almost at the end of the Renaissance.
If the church and the Southern European culture allowed for the expulsion of all unconverted Arabs in Spain by 1492 followed immediately by the forced conversion, forced exodus or torture and execution of resident Jews does it take a leap of reason to believe that had maps and other scientific information coming into Europe from “barbarian” unbelievers in Asia primarily China when it shut down in 1433 that those Southern Europeans who were then taking gold, silver, and art treasures from departing or executed Jews and Arabs might take these maps and scientific information from Asia and claim it as their own work with the cooperation and consent of the Catholic Church. These confiscations were happening all over Spain and Portugal as they were first expelling the Arabs and then the Jews.
In an incredible stroke of coincidence in the middle and late 15th century Portugal and Spain somehow gained amazing navigational knowledge that enabled them to lead Europe into what we know today as The Age of Discovery. Does anyone smell “a rat in this woodpile”?
Jews and Arabs throughout history have been known as merchants trading far and wide. When China isolated itself in 1433 and outlawed maps and non essential scientific knowledge and equipment upon pain of death to Chinese violators and their families, does it make sense that these maps and information ultimately found its way into the possession of the prosperous Arab and Jewish trading families in Spain, Portugal, perhaps Italy. If this is true then along with the gold and silver that was being confiscated, there were also then maps and mapping information taken that quickly lead to the 1507 Waldseemuller Map done by a German Priest (interesting) and countless other Inconvenient Maps done by Catholic priests all over Europe.
Because of the early Spanish interest (obsession) with El Dorado and their willingness to spend today’s equivalent of tens of millions of dollars, nobles careers and hundreds of lives in the pursuit of El Dorado isn’t it likely that they had solid written evidence that ancient El Dorado was in fact a real location. Chinese historical documents for centuries have told of the golden cities located in the Eastern (Rocky?) Mountains. How about Ponce de Leon’s passion for locating the Fountain of Youth in Florida? That seems innocent enough until one realizes that Chinese began alchemy and for thousands of years had been seeking the secret of long life. What the Spanish called the Fountain of Youth the Chinese have called from ancient times “The Elixor of Life”.
Why would the Spanish be looking with such fervor on multiple occasions for locations and functions so closely related to China (Asia) unless they had “inside information” obtained from some mid 15th century reliable sources.
Recently the novel “The Da Vinci Code” entertained many with a fictional tale of documents stored in the Vatican that supposedly revealed unknown detail of the life of Christ.
It’s my belief that far more likely in those Vatican vaults are some of the original documents including world maps that have been suppressed and stored there since the days of the Spanish Inquisition. This map suppression is continuing today in our very own Library of Congress. Inconvenient Maps have disappeared in their vaults. I have been there and personally seen one such map on two different occasions. The 1507 Waldseemuller Map is another Inconvenient Map but it cannot be hidden because its recent purchase for $10 million by the Library of Congress is well known.
The suppression of ancient Asian cartography (map making) information has been refined to a fine art by most western scholars. You will hear them repeatedly speak and write of Ptolemy of Egypt who has become the “father of western cartography”. Although he lived shortly after the time of Christ his work fell into disuse and obscurity until the time of the Renaissance kept by Arabs in Arabic for hundreds of years until Europeans rediscovered “their man”.
But what about Zhang Heng and Phei Hsiu two master Chinese cartographers who lived in the 1st and 3rd centuries respectively. Rarely if ever will you hear a western scholar of cartography speak of these two brilliant Asian map makers. They are ignored by Eurocentric academics because to acknowledge their lives and their work and those of others used in China up to the 15th century would then provide a direct link to the mapping technology that suddenly showed up in the 15th century in Europe. Where did that mapping information come from? After reviewing this information what do you think?
Galileo Quote: Regarding the Church Scholars
“In order to convince those obdurate men, who are out for the vain approval of the stupid vulgar, it would not me (sp) enough even if the stars came down on earth to bring witness about themselves. Let us be concerned only with gaining knowledge for ourselves and let us find therein our consolation”.
Galileo was finally brought to trial in 1633 and disgraced by the Catholic Church because he taught that the earth was not the center of the universe but a planet orbiting around the Sun in contradiction to the then current Church Doctrine that directed academic doctrine. This academic doctrine that promotes European cultural and technological superiority still exists to this day!
The Catalan Atlas. Late 14th Century Predecessor to the Surge of Inconvenient Maps in the 15th Century. (The Catalan Atlas uses the same Chinese style (blocked backed) map format as the 1507 Waldseemueller Map.)
The Beak of the 10th Sun/Raven – STILL GLOWS
