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Conquistadors
Hernando Cortes
Francisco Pizarro
Hernando Cortes and the Aztecs
• Hernando Cortes was a Spanish conquistador
who landed in Mexico in 1519.
• The Aztec emperor was named Moctezuma.
(commonly referred to as Montezuma)
• The Aztecs thought that he was a God and sent him
gifts.
•Aztec Greetings - start at 6:19
• Cortes led the Spaniards and their Native American
allies to the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.
• Outnumbered, hundreds of Spaniards were killed in
1519.
• In 1521, Cortes defeated the Aztecs, and
Tenochtitlan was renamed Mexico City, which today is
the capital of Mexico.
Aztec capital of
Tenochtitlan
Mexican capital of
Mexico City
How did Cortes defeat the Aztecs?
• The Spaniards had superior technology, such as
guns and cannons.
• Smallpox killed hundreds of Aztecs.
Aztec drawing representing patients
affected by smallpox at different stages.
• The Aztecs wrongfully believed that Cortes was a God.
• The Spaniards had Native American allies on their
side.
The final conquest of Tenochtitlan by Cortes and his allies.
Francisco Pizarro and the Incas
• Francisco Pizarro was
the Spanish conquistador
that attacked the Incan
Empire in 1532.
When Pizarro arrived, the
Incans were in the midst of a
civil war
Atahualpa was the more powerful Incan Emperor
Leading about 150 men, Pizarro landed
on the northern coast of the Inca Empire
in early 1523.
• Don’t write:
•The Spanish told Incan messengers that they
wished only to admire the Incan ruler
Atahualpa.
•Pizarro decided that only a quick, brutal
attack would give his men an advantage over
the thousands of Incan warriors. With this plan
in mind, he called for a meeting with
Atahualpa. But Pizarro waited safely behind
with his army and sent a Spanish monk in his
place.
•The monk offered Atahualpa a Bible and told
the chief that he should give up his Inca
beliefs. Atahualpa was angry and threw the
Bible to the ground saying, "I will be no man's
slave. I am greater than any prince upon the
earth…. As for my faith, I will not change it."
•When the monk reported that the Inca chief
would not become a Christian, Pizarro and his
troops came out of hiding , killing more than
5,000 Inca. Atahualpa was taken prisoner.
• After his capture, Atahualpa gave gold and silver to the
Spanish in return for his freedom.
Don’t Write:Atahualpa offered
the Spanish a room filled with
gold up to where his arm
reached, and two more with
silver in exchange for his
release.
• Atahualpa was killed after the Spanish received their riches.
Atahualpa was declared a heretic for refusing to recognize
Christ's faith and for proclaiming himself Son of the Sun.
Atahualpa was sentenced to be burned at the stake, against the
wishes of Pizarro.
• Pizarro then founded the city of Lima, which today is
the capital of Peru.
Statue of Francisco Pizarro,
Plaza de Armas, Lima, Peru
Coffin of Francisco Pizarro, the Tomb of the Conquistador,
the Cathedral, Plaza Mayor, Lima, Peru
Don’t Write:
•In February 1536, an army of 200,000 Inca warriors went to
fight the Spanish.
•But the Inca failed because most supplies had been used up
in a civil war only a short time before the Spanish arrived.
•The Inca retreated into the Andes Mountains.
•There they continued to fight the Spanish until 1572, when
the Spanish finally defeated them.
Two Empires Destroyed
Why so quickly and easily?
First , the Spanish weapons were
better.
They fought with cannons
and crossbow
as well as metal armor, horses, spears
and swords made of iron and early
firearms.
"Their skin is white, as chalk…. Their dogs are great
monsters with flat ears and long tongues which hang
out."
These are the words used by Aztec messengers who tried
to describe what they saw when they met the Spanish for
the first time in Mexico.
"A ball of stone flies out of their bellies and
rains fire…. If the ball hits a tree, it blows
away in splinters, as though a magician had
blown it away from inside."
"Their battle dress and their weapons are all
made of iron…. They are carried on The backs of
large deer [horses] wherever they like to go.
The Aztec, with
bronze and copper
shields, stone
knives, and cloth
armor, were no
match for them.
Second, the Spanish and the Aztec came from very different
cultures. Don’t Write: They had different ways of living and
believing. Moctezuma believed that Cortes might have been a
god, so he allowed Cortez to walk freely into the capital city. But
Cortes saw the Aztec culture as something evil to be destroyed
and replaced by the Christian faith. The two groups even fought
by different rules. The Aztec usually took captives to kill as
sacrifices to their gods. The Spanish, however, fought to kill their
enemies on the battlefield.
Third, the Spanish took advantage of the weakened
and rebellious condition of the Aztec and Inca
empires. Many tribes were angry against the Aztec, so
they were willing to guide the Spanish through their
territory and help them win their battles. Tragically, the
Spanish then turned and fought those helpful tribes once
the Spanish got what they wanted.
Finally, disease brought by the Europeans killed many Aztec and Inca.
Smallpox and measles, which the Aztec and Inca had never been exposed to, spread
rapidly through their empires. Disease killed off many in their armies, and killed off many
leaders too, leaving the Aztec and Inca even weaker.
In some areas more than 90
percent of the population died
as the result of the Spanish
takeover.
With no one to stop
them, rich Spanish nobles took
over the land and forced the
Aztec into slavery on farms and
in silver mines.
The chart on the right shows the
population decline among the
Aztec and the Inca after the
arrival of the Spanish.
The Portuguese in Brazil
Portuguese built an empire in the Americas
Because of treaty, their empire was not as large as the Spanish one
Treaty
• 1494, Treaty of Tordesillas
drew imaginary line through
Atlantic Ocean
– Everything west, including
most of then-undiscovered
Americas, would belong to
Spain
– Everything to east would be
Portuguese
– Only Brazil remained as
Portuguese colony
Colonization
• Heavy Brazilian jungles made
mining, farming difficult
• Portuguese in no hurry to settle
• 1530s, colonists slowly moved
in, mostly along Atlantic coast
– Established huge farming
estates, as in Spanish lands
– First used Native American,
then African slave, labor to
work on farms
Spain Builds an Empire
• Scramble to establish colonies and empires in new lands
• Spain first to successfully settle in the Americas
Spain in Caribbean
• First areas settled
by Spanish,
Caribbean islands,
Hispaniola, Cuba
• No gold
• Spanish introduced
encomienda
system there
Encomienda
Millions Died
• Conquistadors given
land by Spanish
King and Native
Americans are
forced to work the
land
• Disastrous system
for Native Americans
• Rebels were killed
• Mistreatment,
overwork took toll on
population
• Europeans spread
new diseases
Life in the Spanish Empire
• With Mexico & Peru, Spain gained control of huge empire in Americas
• Spanish king chose officials, or viceroys, to govern American holdings
• Spanish colonial economy based on gold, silver mining, farming
• Spanish drafted Native Americans for labor in mines, on farms
Beginnings of Slavery
• Disease, mistreatment took toll on native population
• Some appalled at treatment
• One reformer, Bartolomé de Las Casas recommended replacing Native
Americans as laborers with imported African slaves
• Slave labor soon became common practice in Americas
Triangular Trade
Middle Passage – passage across the Atlantic Ocean from
West Africa to the Americas this was the route of the African
American slave trade
The slave ship Brookes with 482 people packed onto the decks. The
drawing of the slave ship Brookes was distributed by the Abolitionist
Society in England as part of their campaign against the slave trade,
and dates from 1789.
Interior of a Slave Ship, a woodcut illustration from the
publication, A History of the Amistad Captives, reveals how
hundreds of slaves could be held within a slave ship. Tightly
packed and confined in an area with just barely enough
room to sit up, slaves were known to die from a lack of
breathable air.
• Africans were crowded and chained cruelly aboard
slave ships.
"...the excessive heat was not the only thing
that rendered their situation intolerable. The
deck, that is the floor of their rooms, was so
covered with the blood and mucus which had
proceeded from them in consequence of the
flux, that it resembled a slaughterhouse."
-Alexander Falconbridge, a surgeon aboard slave
ships and later the governor of a British colony for
freed slaves in Sierra Leone.
Frequently, slaves were permitted on deck in small groups
for brief periods, where the crew would encourage, and
many times force, captives to dance for exercise.
"Exercise being deemed necessary for the
preservation of their health they are
sometimes obliged to dance when the
weather will permit their coming on deck. If
they go about it reluctantly or do not move
with agility, they are flogged…”
Taken from Alexander Falconbridge, An Account of
the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa.
Heading for Jamaica in 1781, the ship Zong was nearing the
end of its voyage. It had been twelve weeks since it had sailed
from the west African coast with its cargo of 417 slaves. Water
was running out. Then, compounding the problem, there was
an outbreak of disease. The ship's captain, reasoning that the
slaves were going to die anyway, made a decision. In order to
reduce the owner's losses he would throw overboard the slaves
thought to be too sick to recover. The voyage was insured, but
the insurance would not pay for sick slaves or even those killed
by illness. However, it would cover slaves lost through
drowning.
The captain gave the order; 54 Africans were chained together,
then thrown overboard. Another 78 were drowned over the next
two days. By the time the ship had reached the Caribbean,132
persons had been murdered.
• Diseases, such as dysentery, malaria, and smallpox
killed thousands of Africans.
• From 13% - 20% of the Africans aboard slave ships
died during the Middle Passage.
• Between 1699 and
1845 there were 55
successful African
uprisings on slave
ships.
William Snelgrave,
from A New Account
of Some Parts of
Guinea, and the Slave
Trade