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A Native People, European
Motives for Exploration and
Conquests
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1. The First Americans

Ancient civilizations in the Western
Hemisphere
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A. First Americans: The Maya
Central Temple, Palenque
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A. First Americans: The Maya
Tikal, looking towards Temple I
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The Maya
The Maya make up the
largest homogenous
indigenous group north of
Peru, inhabiting a vast area
that encompasses Mexico's
Yucatan peninsula and
parts of the states of
Tabasco and Chiapas, as
well as Guatemala, Belize
and parts of western
Honduras and El Salvador.
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While not the earliest of the great
Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya
are generally considered the most
brilliant of all the Classic groups. The
culture's beginnings have been traced
back to 1500 BC, entering the Classic
period about 300 AD, and flourishing
between 600 and 900 AD.
The Classic Period
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Considered the most outstanding
intellects of ancient Mexico, the
Maya devised a complex style of
hieroglyphic writing that has yet to
be fully deciphered. They refined
the exact sciences learned from
other prehispanic civilizations.
Through their knowledge of
astronomy and mathematics they
calculated the lunar cycle, predicted
eclipses and other heavenly events
with great precision and formulated
a unique calendar system more
exact than the one we use today.
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Calendar from Altar V, Tikal
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B. First Americans: The Inca
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The Inca
The Mesoamerican
civilization known
as the Inca was
located in the Andes
mountains of what
is now Peru,
Ecuador, and Chile.
Incan civilization
dates to around
1100 A.D., when a
small warlike tribe
began to move into
the valley of Cuzco.
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The Incas began to expand their influence in the twelfth
century and by the early sixteenth century, they
exercised control over more territory than any other
people in South American history. The empire consisted
of over one million individuals and spanned a territory
stretching from Ecuador to northern Chile.
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A view of Machu Picchu, "the Lost City of the Incas." This was the last stronghold of
the Inca, and now an archaeological site.
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The Sun Temple complex at Písac. The stone surrounded by the building at the
right is called the "hitching post" of the Sun.
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Unlike the military empires in Central America, the Incas ruled by
proxy. After conquering a people, they would incorporate local
rulers into their imperial system, generously rewarding anyone
who fought for them, and treating well conquered people who
cooperated.
So, in reality, the Inca "empire," as the invading Spanish called it,
was not really an empire. It was more of a confederation of tribes
with a single people--the Incas--more or less in control. Each of
these tribes was ruled independently by a council of elders; the
tribe as a whole gave its allegiance to the ruler, or “the Inca,"
whose followers viewed as divine, a descendant of the sun-god.
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Children of the Sun
The Inca worshiped gods of
nature--the sun god, the god
of thunder, the Moon, and so
on. Like the ancient Greeks,
Incas believed the gods
intervened in human lives, for
good as well as ill. To avoid
problems, the Inca worshiped
all the gods every day.
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The Incas believed that the gods and their dead ancestors could
communicate with them through dreams, omens, and other signs.
The priests' essential function was the reading of those signs.
Like the ancient Egyptians, the Incas believed in an afterlife and
mummified their dead. The bodies and tombs of the dead were
carefully tended. The mummies of dead rulers remained in their
palaces. These rulers were treated as if they were still alive.
Servants brought them food; family members sought their advice
on daily affairs. On parade days and other special occasions,
mummies were carried through the streets.
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Even the very poor mummified
their dead. It was easy: They
simply set the dead body out in
the cold in above-ground
tombs.
The Incas entered and reentered
the tombs, leaving gifts of food
and belongings.
Inca Mummy
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The social structure of the Incas was
extremely inflexible. At the top was
“the Inca,” or ruler, who exercised,
theoretically, absolute power. Below
him was the royal family which
consisted of the Inca's immediate
family, concubines, and all his
children. This royal family was a
ruling aristocracy. Each tribe had tribal
heads; each clan in each tribe had clan
heads. At the very bottom were the
common people who were all grouped
in squads of ten people each with a
single "boss."
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Unlike European society at the same time, the Incan
social unit was based on cooperation and communality.
This guaranteed that there would always be enough for
everyone; but the centralization of authority meant that
there was no chance of individual advancement (which
was not valued).
It also meant that the system depended too much on the
centralized authority; once the invading Spanish seized
the Inca and the ruling family, they were able to conquer
the Inca territories with lightening speed.
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C. First Americans: Aztecs
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C. First Americans: Aztecs
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The Aztecs/Mexica
The Aztecs/Mexicas were a native American people who
dominated northern México. According to their own legends,
they originated from a place called Aztlan, somewhere in
north or northwest Mexico.
At that time the Aztecs (who referred to themselves as the
Mexica or Tenochca) were a small, nomadic, Nahuatlspeaking aggregation of tribal peoples living on the margins
of civilized Mesoamerica.
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Sometime in
the 12th
century, the
Aztecs
embarked
on a period
of
wandering.
In the 13th
century,
they settled
in the
central basin
of México.
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C. First Americans: Aztecs
• Tenochtitlan
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Tenochtitlán, looking east. From the mural painting at the National Museum of
Anthropology, Mexico City. Painted in 1930 by Dr. Atl.
Continually
dislodged by the
small city-states that
fought one another
in shifting alliances,
the Aztecs finally
found refuge on
small islands in
Lake Texcoco.
In 1325, the Aztecs founded the town of Tenochtitlan (modernday Mexico City) on a small island in Lake Texcoco.
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Tenochtitlan
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C. First Americans: Aztecs
• Tenochtitlan
• Tribute
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Tribute
Tributes were an important part of Aztec public
administration and an important adjunct to a thriving market
economy. Tribute supported the ruler and nobles, as well as
religious and public institutions. Only nobles and slaves were
exempt from tribute.
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Conquered peoples bringing tribute to the Aztecs
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A tribute roll from the
Codex Mendoza (right).
On the left are nameglyphs for seven towns,
whose annual tribute to
the Aztec ruler included
over 4,000 mantles and
loincloths, 800 bales of
dried chilis, 20 bags of
down feathers, two wardresses and shields, three
strings of precious stones,
and two plates inlaid with
turquoise.
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Like most European empires, the Aztec empire
was ethnically very diverse but--unlike most
European empires--it was more a system of
tribute than a single system of government. The
Aztec empire was an "informal empire" because
it did not exert supreme authority over the
conquered lands, it merely expected tributes to
be paid.
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It was also a
discontinuous
empire because not
all dominated
territories were
connected.
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Among the positive achievements of the Aztecs :
the formation of a highly specialized and stratified society
and an imperial administration
the expansion of a trading network as well as a tribute
system
the development and maintenance of a sophisticated
agricultural economy, carefully adjusted to the land;
and
the cultivation of an intellectual and religious outlook that
held society to be an integral part of the cosmos.
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C. First Americans: Aztecs
• Tenochtitlan
• Tribute
• Human sacrifice
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Human Sacrifice
For most people today, and for the
European Christians who first met the
Aztecs, human sacrifice was the most
striking feature of Aztec civilization.
While human sacrifice was practiced
throughout Mesoamerica, the Aztecs, if
their own accounts are to be believed,
brought this practice to an
unprecedented level.
Aztec human sacrifice, from Codex
Magliabechiano, a post-conquest
document.
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For example, for the reconsecration of Great Pyramid of
Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed
84,400 prisoners over the course of four days. However, most
experts consider these numbers to be overstated. For example,
the sheer logistics associated with sacrificing 84,000 victims
would be overwhelming. A similar consensus has developed on
reports of cannibalism among the Aztecs.
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In the writings of Bernardino de Sahagún, Aztec "anonymous
informants" defended the practice of human sacrifice by asserting
that it was not very different from the European way of waging
warfare: Europeans killed the warriors in battle, Aztecs killed the
warriors after the battle.
Accounts by the Tlaxcalan, the primary enemy of the Aztecs at the
time of the Spanish Conquest, show that at least some of them
considered it an honor to be sacrificed. In one legend, the warrior
Tlahuicole was freed by the Aztecs but eventually returned of his
own volition to die in ritual sacrifice. Tlaxcala also practiced the
human sacrifice of captured Aztec warriors.
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Fr. Bernardino de Sahagun
After the fall of the Aztec empire,
Spanish friar Bernardino de Sahagun
learned the Nahuatl language in order
to record the Aztec view of events.
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C. First Americans: Aztecs
• Tenochtitlan
• Tribute
• Human sacrifice
• Quetzalcoatl
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Quetzalcoatl
Not an Aztec god , but a god
the Aztecs believed in,
Quetzalcoatl was the
feathered serpent god of death
and resurrection.
Unfortunately for the Aztecs,
Cortes’s arrival coincided
with the Aztec calendar’s
predicted return of
Quetzalcoatl to rule on earth.
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C. First Americans: Aztecs
•
•
•
•
•
Tenochtitlan
Tribute
Human sacrifice
Quetzalcoatl
Moctezuma II
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Moctezuma II
Aztec god/emperor (1466-1520), he ruled the Aztec empire at the time
of Cortes’s landing; he would also preside over his empire’s
destruction.
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C. First Americans: Aztecs
Fearless warriors and pragmatic
builders, by the 15th century the Aztecs
controlled an American empire
surpassed in size only by that of the
Incas in Peru.
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II. Discoveries and
Exploration
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A. First European Contacts

Bjarni Herjulfsson
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Bjarni Herjulfsson
• Norse explorer
• Blown off course in a storm sailing from
Norway to Iceland to Greenland in 986 or
987
• Reported seeing low-lying hills covered with
forests somewhere to the west.
• Managed to regain his course
• believed to be the first European to view
mainland North America.
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A. First European Contacts
• Bjarni Herjulfsson
• Leif Eriksson
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Leif Eriksson
• 1010, Leif Eriksson explored the routes of
Herjulfson and Erik the Red.
• Discovered and named land in present-day
Canada: Helluland, Markland, Vinland.
• Attempted to permanently settle Vinland
but failed.
• Eriksson became the 1st person of
European origin ever to set foot on the
North American mainland.
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The
Vikings’
“West”
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B. Causes of Exploration
Events in Europe fueled interest in western
exploration and conquest.
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2. Causes of Exploration
A. The Crusades
For some,
westward
exploration was
the means of
spreading religious
beliefs.
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The Crusades

Wars fought between
1095 and 1291
between the religions
of Christianity, Islam,
and Judaism for
control of the city of
Jerusalem.

Ended Feudalism 
rise of Nation States
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B. Causes of Exploration
1. The Crusades
2. International Trade
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B. Causes of Exploration
1. The Crusades
2. International Trade
For others, expanding westward
was the means to financial gain.
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B. Causes of Exploration
•The Crusades
•International Trade
* The most important trade
goods were spices…
Vasco da Gama sailed to India
to bring back spices
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Spices
• Most valuable items of trade in the ancient and medieval world: cinnamon,
nutmeg, cloves, pepper
• Middle Ages (700-1000 AD)
• Spices from the East were a luxury item
• Spice trade largely controlled by Muslim merchants, w/ European
merchants confined to trading mostly within Europe.
• Examples:
• Marco Polo's expedition to China - attempt to open up a "spice route"
with the East.
• Portuguese navigator Vasco Da Gama sailed to India primarily for
spices.
• When Christopher Columbus happened upon the New World, he was
quick to describe to investors the many new spices available there.
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B. Causes of Exploration
1. The Crusades
2. International
Trade
The most important
trade goods were
* Spices;
* Gold
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Gold
 Portuguese initially went to West Africa in search of
gold funded by Prince Henry, the famous Portuguese
patron wanted:



to expand European geographic knowledge
to obtain African gold
locate a possible sea route to valuable Asian spices.
 1441 - first Portuguese sailors to obtain gold dust from
traders on the western coast of Africa.
 1442 - Portuguese explorers returned from Africa with
more gold dust and another cargo: ten Africans.
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B. Causes of Exploration
1. The Crusades
2. International
Trade
The most important
trade goods were
* Spices;
* Gold; and
* Slaves
Gustave Boulanger's painting “The Slave Market.”
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Slavery - Background
Slavery is found in every ancient civilization, including Egypt, Greece, and
Rome. Ancient slavery was a mixture of debt-slavery, punishment for crime,
the enslavement of prisoners of war, and child abandonment.
As Rome expanded outward, entire populations were enslaved. Roman slaves
came from all over Europe and the Mediterranean. Such oppression by an elite
minority eventually led to slave revolts. Greeks, Africans, Germans, Gauls
(Celts), Jews, Arabs, and many more were enslaved not only for labor, but also
for amusement (e.g. gladiators). If a slave from Rome ran away, he was
crucified. By the late Republican era, slavery had become a vital economic
pillar in the wealth of Rome. Slavery was so common that slaves in Rome
outnumbered Roman citizens.
In the Viking era (starting c. 793), the Norse raiders often captured and
enslaved their opponents. In Norway and Iceland the slaves were called thralls;
they came mostly from Western Europe and included Franks, Irish, AngloSaxons, Germans, and occasionally southern Europeans. Norse slavery came to
an end with the breakthrough of Christianity and national laws in the
Scandinavian countries.
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By the time
Christopher
Columbus appeared in
Lisbon in 1477, an
Old World slave trade
was already thriving
in the eastern Atlantic,
human cargo moving
in a wide loop
between West Africa,
the Atlantic islands,
and Europe.
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B. Causes of Exploration
1. The Crusades
2. International Trade
3. New technology
• “caravel” – better designed
ship with triangular sails
• Compass
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Stop
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III. Worlds Collide
A. The Conquistadors
* Christopher Columbus
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Christopher Columbus
-
1451 – 1506, Italian
Sponsored by the Spanish Monarchs
Search for Northwest Passage
•
Europe previously enjoyed a safe
passage to China and India—(under the
Byzantine and Mongol Empires.)
•
Constantinople fell to Ottomans in 1453
•
Land route to Asia was no longer an
easy/cheap.
•
Portuguese sailors took to traveling
south around Africa to get to Asia.
•
Columbus wanted travel by sailing
directly west.
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The First Voyage
 September 6, 1492 left canary islands for a five-week
voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.
 October 12, 1492 sighted land (now the Bahamas
 Indigenous people he encountered were the Arawaks,
Lucayan, or Taíno
-
were peaceful and friendly.
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Christopher Columbus’s Caribbean ports of call
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A depiction of Columbus claiming possession of the New World in a
chromolithograph made by the Prang Education Company in 1893.
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The Second Voyage
 Loaded 500 Indian slaves aboard returning caravels.
 On the last leg of his voyage to Cadiz, “about two hundred of
these Indians died,” a passenger recorded, appending, “We
cast them into the sea.”
 In this manner the “discoverer” of the New World launched
the transatlantic slave trade.
 Value of Sugar Cultivation realized  brutal conquering of
Native people  conquered Caribbean islands
 Many natives died of diseases (1/3 of Hispanola)
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III. Worlds Collide
1. The Conquistadors
* Christopher Columbus
* Francisco Pizarro
* Hernan Cortes
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Francisco Pizarro

(c. 1475–June 26, 1541)

Spanish conquistador, conqueror of the Inca
Empire and founder of Lima La Ciudad de los
Reyes, capital of Peru.
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Hernan Cortes

(1485–December 2, 1547)

Led the military expedition that initiated the
Spanish Conquest of Mexico.

Arrived spring of 1519, 11 ships and 400 men
– Awed by Tenochtitlan
– “They picked up the gold and fingered it like
monkeys. They hungered like pigs for that gold.”

Native Ally

Cortés executed a successful strategy of
allying with some indigenous peoples against
others.

Cortes awarded for overthrow of Aztec
empire
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Cortes’s route to Tenochtitlan
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IV. How did the Spanish win?
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IV. How did the Spanish win?
• Superior weapons
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IV. How did
the Spanish
win?
•Superior weapons
•Horses
Natives had never seen horses,
much less mounted warriors.
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IV. How did the Spanish win?
•Superior weaponry
•Horses
•Indian Allies
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Indian Allies
The Spanish
defeated the
traditional enemies
of the Aztecs, like
the Tlaxcalan, who
then fought with
the Spaniards
against
Moctezuma’s
warriors.
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Indian Allies
Cortes also gained invaluable
assistance from Malintzin, a
bright 14 year old slave girl
who quickly learned Spanish.
Able to interpret Mayan
dialects as well as Aztec
motives and actions, Cortes
would call her “Mi Lingua”
(“my tongue”). Malintzin
later bore Cortés a son,
earning her place in history as
both the betrayer of her
people (“La Malinche”), and
as mother of the Mexican
people.
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IV. How did the Spanish
win?
•Superior weaponry
•Horses
•Indian Allies
•Diseases
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European Diseases
Cortes received
unexpected assistance
from European diseases
unknown in the Western
Hemisphere, such as;
1. Measles
2. Small Pox
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Fray Antonio De Montesinos
Dominican Friar’s address to Spanish colonists in Hispaniola, 1511

“Tell me, by what right or justice do you
hold these Indians in such a cruel and
horrible servitude?... Why do you keep
them so oppressed and exhausted, without
giving them enough to eat or curing them o
the sicknesses they incur from the
excessive labor you give them?... Are you
not bound to love them as you love
yourselves? Don’t you understand this?
Don’t you feel this?”
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V. Results

Marriages between Spanish and Natives = Mestizo
population
– “It was neither Triumph or Defeat : it was the painful birth of the
mestizo nation that is Mexico today.”

Spanish Oppression
– Encomienda system: Natives forced to farm, ranch, mine for
Spanish landlord
– Death of Natives  African slaves

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