Explore the medieval city of Burgos (Spain) and assess its history of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious and cultural coexistence.
This course is made available through the eLearnAfrica and Edx partnership.
This history course delves into the medieval history of the city of Burgos, from its inception in 884 c.e. as the homeland of the Spanish Kingdom of Castile and Leon, until the completion of the Spanish Reconquista in 1492. We will study complicated legendary heroes like Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, “The Cid”, both a champion of the Christian Reconquista and a friend of Islamic rulers, who lays buried in the Cathedral of Burgos. Like the Cid, medieval Burgos presented two competing views for Spain’s future – one centered on overt Castilian supremacy and another more nuanced one that incorporated religious minorities, especially Jews and Jewish converts to Christianity (conversos), into every element of political, economic, and even religious life.
This course will investigate the disastrous impact of the Plague and how it led to the death of King Alfonso XI and the ruinous civil war between the half-brothers, Pedro “The Cruel” and Enrique II of Trastamára. We will also appraise the collapse of the kingdom’s “Old Christian” nobility and the generation of new elite clans, some of whom hailed from Jewish ancestries. It was also the era of anti-Jewish pogroms, Christian fixations on “blood purity” and unsuccessful pleas for Christian harmony, and the last gasps of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim coexistence.
We will virtually-tour the Cathedral of Burgos, the Museum of Burgos, and what remains of the city’s medieval neighborhoods and structures. We will also study and transcribe intriguing vellum and paper manuscripts from the cathedral and municipal archives so that we discover new facets of this history.
No knowledge of Spanish is needed to participate in the course or in our transcription efforts.
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Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is an innovative public university committed to the improvement of society through teaching of the highest quality and cutting-edge research in line with stringent international guidelines. UC3M has three degree-granting Schools, in addition to a School of Graduate Studies and a Doctoral School.
Established in 1989, UC3M develops its activities in four campuses and enrolls about 18.000 students in undergraduate and graduate programs (18% are foreign students). UC3M has a large offer of programs taught in English and is the 1st university in Spain and the 3rd in Europe in terms of undergraduate students taking part in the Erasmus student exchange programs. UC3M is included in the QS Top 50 Under 50, a ranking of the world’s top 50 universities established within the last 50 years.
This institution is available on eLearnAfrica through partnership with Edx.
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Effective Date: September 22, 2016