Download Conquest of the Americas The Aztecs The Aztecs

• 1490s: America was discovered; Columbus seeks gold then
empire building. Missionaries join him. Encomienda system
began.
Conquest
of the
Americas
• Early 1500s: Some missionaries speak out about poor
treatment of Natives. Native temples are burned & churches
built on top of them. The Pope declares that Native Americans
have souls. Smallpox & Typhus epidemics ravage Native
Empires. The Aztecs were conquered (in part by smallpox).
The Hacienda System began. French, Dutch, begin exploring
the Americas. African slaves begin to arrive in the New World.
• Late 1500s: Missionaries debate whether or not Natives should
be converted by force. Smallpox & Influenza epidemics ravage
Native communities. European colonies in the Americas are
established.
• Early 1600s: Diphtheria & Measles Epidemics ravage Native
communities (95% of the Native population has been killed by
disease at this point).
• So how did Europeans conquer America??
Mayan Urban Centers - For trade mostly
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Chichen Itza
• Chichen Itza
Mayan Culture
• Religion:
Tikal (Guatemala)
Copan
Palenque
Uxmal
– (oosh-mal)
Conquest timeline
– Pantheistic; good & bad gods
– Ceremonies involved dance, competition,
performance, prayer, & sacrifice
• God’s needed nourishment from humans to work.
• offerings of food, flowers, incense, gold, jade,
humans, etc. Pierced and cut bodies to make blood
offerings
– Elaborate afterlife
• Developed an accurate solar calendar
Chichen
Itza
Tikal
– Partially due to maize growing
– World created five times and destroyed four times.
• Developed advanced math & astronomy.
• Only advanced writing system in the
Americas
Palenque
– 800 hieroglyphic symbols
– Wrote books on bark-paper (3 survive today)
• Physical Beauty
Copan
Uxmal
The Aztecs
• Homeland: Valley of Mexico (Mountain base
7500 ft. above sea level)
– Long, backward sloping forehead
– Crossed-eyes
The
Aztecs
• Arrived 1200 CE &
adopted local ways
(including warring &
blood sacrifices)
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The Inca
• Homeland: South
American.
Andean
Mountains.
Centered in
Southern Peru.
Incan Urban Centers
• Master engineers: no iron tools, no wheel, huge block stone
walls, no mortar, still standing
• Machu Picchu, Cuzco
• All roads led to Cuzco (through mountains from Ecuador to
Chile; tunnels, bridges)
• Aqueducts
• Advanced medicine & surgery
• Kingdom
established
around 1200 CE.
Incan Dominance
• 1438 Incan King conquered neighboring land.
• By 1500 – empire was 2,500 miles long, 80 provinces,
16 million people
• Conquered through diplomacy & military force.
– Allowed territories to keep customs & surrender promising
loyalty to Incan state
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Created extensive roads to tie empire together
One official language: Quechua
Founded schools to teach Incan ways
Government controlled all economic activity
– Regulated production & distribution of goods
– Little to no private trade allowed
• All subjects: forced labor (mita) for certain number of
days each year
– Public works projects: state farmland, craft goods for state
warehouses, Incan roads
Three Complex Cultures Disappeared
• 1521: Aztecs conquered by Spanish
through War & Disease, led by Cortez.
• 1532: Incas conquered by Spanish
through War & Deception, led by Cortez’s
cousin, Pizarro.
• 1697: Maya (with no centralized political
center) had been subdued in the Yucatan
& Guatemala through multiple Wars &
Disease.
Incan Culture
• Social Structure = inflexible &
Hierarchical with emperor at the
top.
• Government took care of its
people
– Stored surplus food for famines
– Dependent on central authority
• Kept records on knotted strings
(quipu)
• Developed elaborate calendar
• Religion:
Top: Quipu
Bottom: Incan Mummy
– pantheistic, Incan ruler considered
descendent of sun god
– religious orders like monks & nuns
– Heaven, hell, resurrection of body
after death
After the conquest of the Aztec & Inca
• Former Aztec & Mayan lands = Viceroyalty of
New Spain
– Viceroy: governor (vice roi = assistant to the king)
• Former Incan lands = Viceroyalty of Peru
• Spaniards made themselves regional
chieftains
– 1/5 of wealth discovered/stolen belonged to Spain
– Remainder belonged to conquistadores
– Agriculture (new crops + free labor!)
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Economic Systems
• Encomienda System
– 1493 until 1791
– Spanish had the right to demand
uncompensated labor & tribute
– Riches of the land should belong to
Christians
– Led to the abuses discussed by Las
Casas & the “Black Legend”
– Ended partially due to Mestizo
population & disease
• Could not be enslaved
• Became harder to tell who was
Native and who was European.
Economic Systems
• Trade
– Goods from Spanish colonies had to be carried in Spanish ships
twice a year
• Tried to prevent piracy
• Restricted what was taken from colonies
– Once a year a shipload of gold/silver to Spain
– Much more silver than Aztec gold until 1640s
• So much Spanish silver was used to buy goods from China, that for a
while pesos were accepted as legal tender.
• Caused inflation & decline in Spain
Economic Systems
• Hacienda System
– Hacienda = a grant of land
• Can refer to plantations, mines,
even factories (later)
• More about Status than creating
real wealth
• Owner of the land = Patron
• Those who worked the land were
serfs = Peones
– 1529: Spanish crown gave Cortes
Oaxaca (current day Moralos)
• right to all Indians on the land &
power of life/death over them
– Catholic Church was given huge
haciendas
• Linked the Church with the
landowning class
– Existed until 1917 when abolished
during the revolution (but traces still
exist today)
Political Systems
• Started with unlimited
power being given to
conquistadors
• Then replaced by royal
council & governor
(viceroy)
– Military and judicial matters
= council
– administration dominated
by peninsulares (nobles)
– Avenue for upward mobility
– Europeans filled top tier
positions
2nd Viceroy of Peru
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Society & Culture
A Class System based on purity of Spanish blood
• Peninsulares
– born in Spain
– felt superior to criollos
– Held highest positions in society
• Criollos
– Many descendants of conquistadores
• Pure Spanish, but born in Americas
– Owned haciendas and mines
– Often richer
– Focused on intellectual and literary
pursuits; read works of the
Enlightenment (although banned by
Church)
Society & Culture
A Class System based on purity of Spanish blood
• Women (Criollo)
– Patriarchal society
– No legal status
– Family Honor depended on good behavior
– Tried to marry daughters of criollos to new
peninsulares
– Educated by tutors at home, no higher education
– Widows had considerable power; often ran family
business successfully
Society & Culture
A Class System based on purity of Spanish blood
• Mestizos
– Created roles for themselves in
society
– Originally despised; “mongrols”
– Became intermediaries and
interpreters between elites and
Indians
– Excluded from universities, church
positions, gov’t
– Could be soldiers; not officers
– Could be artisans apprentice; not
master
– Could be tenant farmers or
hacienda managers
– Many other categories of “mixed
blood” people had less rights
Society & Culture
A Class System based on purity of Spanish blood
Virgen de Guadalupe
• African Americans & surviving Indians
– At the bottom
– Enslaved
– Non-Spanish women less restricted because Indian &
African societies were less patriarchal
– Some Indians lived in remote towns whose only contact was
priests and tribute collector, until needed for labor
– Indians were seen as “children” in the eyes of the Church
– Eventually adopted Christianity
• Identified with consoling figure of the Virgin Mary (like their earth
goddess)
• Identified with crucified Christ (suffering was like their own)
• Catholic saints blended with pre-Columbian gods
• Sometimes Incan or Aztec deity sculptures were hidden under
statue's skirts
• Legend:
– Seen by Juan Diego (saint) in 1531
– Spoke Nahuatl
– Told him to build an Abbey
• Mexico” "La Virgen Morena“
– "The brown-skinned Virgin"
• meant to represent both the Virgin
Mary and the indigenous Mexican
goddess Tonantzin
– a way for 16th c. Spaniards to gain
converts
– may have allowed 16th c. natives to
practice their native religion
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After the conquest of the Aztec &
Inca
• Native American populations did not start to
recover until the mid-17th c.
• 19th c. population of Americas recovered, but
as a mix of black, white, and native population.
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