The Reconquista was a period of about 800 years in the middle ages in the Iberian peninsula, which began in the immediate aftermath of the Islamic conquest and culminated in 1492 when Muhammad XII, better known as Boabdil surrendered Granada to Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille. By then, moorish power was completely repulsed in modern day Spain and the resultant Christianisation prompted many Muslims and Jews to flee to North Africa.
In present times, the word Reconquista has been used in a different, contemporary context X. Although X is in no way a result of any grievances follwing the original Reconquista, they share many parallels in their causes and cultural significance. Proponents of viewing X as Reconquista point to the events surrounding and follwing "The treaty of Guadalope Hidalgo" in the 19th century as a cause for which "redress" is continuing to this day and even accelerating. Although the apparent motivation for X is different from that of the original Reconquista, proponents of this view, including aggressive nationalists on one side and doomsdayers on the other, see Reconquista as an ulterior motive of X.
Although phenomena like X are a concern in places as far flung as the Russian far east, Palestine, north-eastern India, western China etc.. X has a unique connection to the original Reconquista which, I think, will be quite apparent when you have X. So, I am looking specifically for X and why it is Reconquista, and not just the wider phenomenon. Good luck :)
Since internet aids will render this question rather trivial, they are not permitted. For those of you with the luxury of time this sunday, I can just offer some interesting puzzles at this link which does a good job of keeping me intrigued through the week!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
8 comments:
My guess would be that X is the phenomenon of migration/ settlements in all these regions you cite? More specifically Jewish settlements in Plaestine?
proselytize? Christian Missionaries? Mother Teresa some claim was an agent for proselytizing to Christianity. She was from Albania.
So X is either Missionaries or proselytizing
I did take help of a thesaurus to remind myself of the word proselytize. GRE was ages ago, also around when I was trying to demystify (for my own self) Mother Teresa! Anyway, my best take...
The 2nd para hints at this being the Mexican immigration into the US. The connection with the original Reconquista is obvious (Hispanics moving in). For me the other big clue was "aggressive nationalists on one side and doomsdayers on the other" which hinted at this being an US thing...
ethnic cleansing?
Illegal Immigration?(guess thts a general guess)
If I had to guess a place it would be somewhere in South America (Peru/Chile border?) based on the "Treaty of Hidalgo" which sounds like a Spanish name.
Pogrom
Are we talking about separation movements? The connection to Reconquista is the notion of people involved in them of getting back what they believe is rightfully theirs - specifically, the land on which they live. The Reconquista was about over-throwing Islamic rulers in favour of local, Christian rulers; separation movements are about over-throwing the national governments in favour of an independent local government.
X is the phenomenon of the sharp increase of Mexican American population in the United States, especially in the American South west, most of which was ceded by Mexico following the treaty ending the Mexican-American Wars in the 19th century. This relates to Reconquista in the sense of recovering lands that a community feels is rightfully theirs, and specifically so because of the cultural paradigm Mexico shares with Spain.
The larger phenomenon is that of massive immigration changing the demographics of communities and hence causing conflicts, of which the examples given were Chinese migration into the Russian far east, Han Chinese settlement in East Turkestan/Xinjiang, Bangladeshi immigrants in NE India and Israeli settlers in the west bank. Many Mexican nationalists and American alarmists like Samuel Huntington have seen increasing Hispanic, and particularly Mexican immigration into the US through similar eyes...
Congratulations to Nikhil for a well reasoned and correct answer. Kiran got the wider phenomenon and Sailesh got close to it, but neither had X right. Good efforts all around. Thank you!
-Rahul
Post a Comment