Cardinals and the non-christian world

[Excerpt] The consequences of Christopher Columbus’s arrival on the small island of Huanahaní on 12 October 1492 will always be the object of new investigations. This chapter explains how cardinals contributed to, or interacted with, European activities in the New World. How and when did they become involved in the American conquest? In the first section, I outline the instances of cardinals – nearly all of them Castilian – who were involved in the “discovery,” and the later in the political and spiritual organization of the Spanish Americas. Later, I turn my attention to those cardinals who, in their capacity as the pope’s direct subordinates within the Roman Curia, involved themselves with the New World ex officio. This material summarizes what is known for the period from 1489 to 1600, considered the foundational period. Later we must also consider the cardinals of the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide (for which see Giovanni Pizzorusso’s contribution in this volume).