Our program took a trip to Extremadura, a region in the west of Spain. What we thought would be a boring school trip became a fascinating look at the country’s long and storied history.
When we think of the word “empire,” more often than not we think of the expansive and imperialist British Empire. It conjures up images of colonization and genocide, but also images of grandiose living and ?industrialization.
I have found that in the United States we tend to focus on the British Empire, and we don’t often consider what happened before — mostly because we are a new nation and we have a short history, and Britain was the catalyst of our formation.
But before there was ?Britain, there was Spain.
Spain was, for all intents and purposes, the first world superpower and remained so until the economy collapsed after the Siglo de Oro.
Spain took over and was largely responsible for the colonization of the New World; having the Spanish Armada meant it had control over the sea, and easy access to the Middle East meant Spain was the capital of trade and commerce.
It also means you can’t walk outside your door without accidentally stepping on something that has cultural significance for anywhere from 10 to 15 different ?countries.
Spain is No. 3 on UNESCO’s list of countries with the most world heritage sites. Italy, being the birthplace of the Renaissance, is No. 1.
We went to three different cities in Extremadura: Merida, Caceres and Trujillo. The entirety of each city is protected by UNESCO, which means — like with Toledo and Segovia — very little has changed. They can be added onto, but the “old city” is ?intact.
But there is more to them than simply preservation. In America, we have very little touchable history. Our cities have adapted to our needs. We are only 200 years old, which means, compared with the rest of the world, we don’t have a very large ?history.
Being a new nation certainly has its benefits, but walking through medieval towns brings the vastness of human history home. We can see where we came from, and we can see where we are going.
It became, in a sense, a lesson about humanity.
ewenning@indiana.edu
