Universal Empire In time, the ancient Roman imperium retained its status only through the leadership of the pope He led a religious community that claimed they would one day cover the entire globePope Leo III conferred upon Charles I (Charlemagne) who had named himself sole ruler of the Frankish peoples By the mid-twelfth century, each king of Europe split the empire by claiming to be an emperor in his own kingdomThese princes, or “Holy Roman Emperors” used their status to keep uneasy peace Charles of Burgundy (V) set out to reunite the whole of Europe under a single rulerImperial public law had no common legal system, no single administration, and no common single languageThe Hadsburg Empire emerged and was unlike the Roman and Greek predecessors in that the greater part of its territory now lay overseas in AmericaThe direction of European territorial expansion was increasingly maritime

Conquering the OceanMaps were crude and inaccurate, and often relied on impressionism until the early fifteenth century when the vision of the world began to changePrince Henry hoped to discover new grounds and find direct access to the interior of Africa for gold – his ambitions changed the European imperial goals and European society for goodPortuguese colonizing powers sailed into waters that were believed to be unnavigable and returnedOctober 12th, 1492 – Columbus changed European perception of the planet when he landed on an unidentified island in the CaribbeanBefore then, America was a continent that had been wholly unknown, which led people to believe that there were other undiscovered continents to the south in the AntipodesThe “discovery” of America provided Europe with more mobility than ever before and brought them closer to the great civilizations of the Indian Ocean By Mid-seventeenth century, Europeans mastered the navigation of the Atlantic and were the most powerful traders in the Indian Ocean

Spreading the WordCharles V saw himself as the defender of ChristianityAll pagan Roman emperors had themselves deified, but the notion was destroyed by the French RevolutionPiety described qualities such a devotion, loyalty, trust, adherence to laws, and willingness to sacrifice ones self for the common good (much like warfare)Christianity became the empire's most valuable ally, and Christian Roman emperors took upon themselves the task of extending the religion to those who were denied access to the faithNo person would leave their home for an uncertain life if it was not for the hope of bettering his life and the lives of his fellow menMissionaries lived in an uneasy alliance with soldiers, merchants, royal officials, and lawyers of the colonizing voyagesLas Casas introduced a set of laws that aimed to return rights to the Indians and to curb the excess of the settlers (but was repealed a few years later)He is best remembered for his chronicle of all the horrors against the Indians (A Short Account for the Destruction of the Indies) and for his role in a debate with Juan Gines Seulveda on the rationality of the American IndiansHe challenged not only his words, but every bit of slander that had ever been written against the IndiansThe debate has become symbolic of the power of moral outrage to halt the process of the empire