Non-fiction: Massacres – in the old and new world

Global history is booming. She takes the whole world into view. In the new book by Dresden culture professor Marina Münkler, however, the focus is on Europe in the “dramatic 16th century”. That’s not a little. “Three major lines of conflict characterized the century: the advance of the Spanish and Portuguese into the American continent and the Indian Ocean, the expansion of the Ottoman Empire and the disintegration of Christianity into two irreconcilable camps in the wake of the Reformation,” states the author in their detailed, profound representation.

In the first complex she deals with the penetration of the European naval powers Spain and Portugal, especially in America. It shows how arrogant the Europeans were when they met the indigenous people there, not recognizing their great cultures. They defamed as “savages” those who it was lawful to oppress, rob and murder. Marina Münkler also reports on the first approaches to the development of modern international law. Special recognition is given to the Dominican Bartolomé de Las Casas, who fought a courageous battle for years to protect the “Indios” against the brutal plunder and extermination policies of the Spanish crown.

The Europeans’ attitude towards the Ottomans, who had created a large empire that stretched from the Near East through North Africa to the European continent, was equally ignorant. Their political, administrative and military superiority was vilified with the specter of “Turkish danger”. The sultan was an absolute ruler “whose power far exceeded that of the European kings and the emperor.” And while the European armies were still led by fighting knights, the Janissaries were well-trained infantry troops who could be successful even when outnumbered. Ottoman victories also owed their artillery, which decided many battles. At sea alone, the Turkish armed forces were no match for the European naval powers. They lost almost their entire fleet in the naval battle of Lepanto (1571). The author puts this success, which was exaggeratedly exploited for propaganda purposes by Western historiography, into perspective: He was not able to completely pacify the Western Mediterranean and the Eastern Mediterranean at all.

The third major theme of the book is closely linked to the name of Martin Luther. Marina Münkler sheds light on the grievances in the Roman Catholic Church that were the last straw. The sale of indulgences, which enabled believers to cleanse themselves of their sins by paying money in order to be spared from purgatory after death, not only served to finance the so-called Turkish wars, but also and above all the extremely lavish appanage of the Curia. Luther put his finger on this wound and reached a wide audience with his pamphlets – thanks to Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. The author does not limit herself to Wittenberg’s 95 theses, but rather calls out the entire polemics of Luther and his opponents. Finally, she turns to the farmers as well as parts of the urban middle classes and the lower nobility, who, to Luther’s displeasure, pushed Luther’s reformatory approach into a social revolt. They were no match for the superior armies of the sovereigns: “In the reports, thousands of slain farmers contrast with at most a few dozen deaths on the side of the sovereign military. The Peasants’ War in Germany was a war of massacres, and in this respect it was not unlike the Spanish warfare in the conquest of the New World.”

Marina Münkler: Dawn of the new era. The dramatic 16th century. Rowohlt, 539 p., hardcover, €34.

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