...esta tierra de Mexico, llegaron a aquel puerto con navios, con que pasaron aquella mar."1 Historia precolombina[editar] La región Huasteca se encuentra en el norte de Veracruz, el sur de Tamaulipas y partes de los estados de San Luis Potosí e Hidalgo. En mucho menor medida comprende algunas zonas de los estados de Puebla y Querétaro. En la época precolonial la huasteca estaba poblada por diversos grupos: huastecos, tepehuas, otomíes y totonacos, ubicados en el sur y suroeste. En el norte y noroeste se hallaban los nahuas entreverados con guachichiles, pames y diversos grupos chichimecas. La región era conocida con el nombre de Xiuhcoac, que significa "serpiente de turquesas". Los nahuas han sido identificados con los aztecas o mexicas, estos constituían la sociedad dominante en Mesoamérica antes y durante la llegada de los españoles. El náhuatl era reconocido como la...
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...En México, desde el principio, el sistema político ha consistido en muchas transmisiones de poder de un grupo a otro. La historia del político de México empezó con tres pueblos antiguos e importantes: los toltecas, los olmecas y los mayas. Muchos años después, los aztecas siguieron el símbolo de la serpiente y el águila y conquistaron las otras naciones alrededor del lago Texcoco en el siglo XIV y formaron un gran imperio. De su capital de Tenochtitlán, el líder, el Huey Tlatoani, gobernó con la ayuda de los calpullis en una forma de gobierno casi democrático. En 1519 Hernán Cortés y sus fuerzas españoles y su aliado el Tlaxcala conquistaron el imperio azteca y imponían a los mexicanos la regla española. Durante los siguientes 300 años Nueva España, el actual México, era debajo el control de los cabildos y haciendas de los españoles, una virreina de España. Había muchas rebeliones antes de los ciudadanos de México ganaron su independencia. En 1810, el padre católico Miguel de Hidalgo empezó una rebelión para independencia en su pueblo de Dolores e inició una guerra contra España. Aunque sufrieron muchos percances, México finalmente consiguió su independencia en 1821. Un general criollo del ejército que luchó para la independencia, Agustín de Itúrbide, se declaró imperador de México en 1822. Él invitó a los centroamericanos a juntarse con el imperio, pero el imperio disolvió muy poco después. Antonio López de Santa Ana, un líder de la rebelión contra Itúrbide proclamó a México...
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...En primer lugar debemos preguntarnos qué era la religión mayas? Se caracterizaban por dioses de la naturaleza, tales como la adoración al dios de la lluvia, el sol y el maíz. Parte de sus creencias practican el ritual de la muerte maya. Los antiguos mayas creían que la vida y la muerte son cíclicos, como las estaciones y los ciclos astronómicos. Estos ciclos en espiral a través del tiempo sin principio ni fin, y cuando uno se acabaría otro comenzaría. La muerte se entrelazan estrechamente con la vida, para que ellos creían era un primer muerto, antes de que uno nació (es decir, tenía la vida). La muerte era una puerta a la vida, y la vida era una puerta a La muerte, por lo tanto rituales de la muerte y la muerte misma eran bastante importante en esta sociedad. Una parte de las creencias de los mayas era que las personas que murieron por suicidio, el sacrificio, las complicaciones del parto y en la batalla fueron pensados para ser llevados directamente al cielo. La culpa y el mal sufrido eternamente en Xibalbá, el inframundo maya. El nombre de Xibalba significa "Lugar del Miedo" o "Lugar de fantasmas". La entrada al Xibalbá se pensaba tradicionalmente como una cueva. Se describe como una ciudad o un reino que existía debajo de la superficie de la Tierra. Rituales mayas para el entierro fueron elaborados. A medida que los arqueólogos descubrieron, la persona muerta por lo general tenían una máscara mortuoria hecha de jade, que garantizaba el reconocimiento del difunto...
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...* "El orígen de la celebración del Día de Los Muertos puede ser trazado hasta la epoca de los indígenas de Mesoamérica, [los Aztecas, Mayas, Purepechas, Nahuas y Totonacas]". Los rituales que celebran las vidas de los ancestros se realizaron por estas civilizaciones por lo menos durante los últimos 3,000 años. "En la era prehispánica era común la práctica de conservar los cráneos como trofeos y mostrarlos durante los rituales que simbolizaban la muerte y el renacimiento". * "Cuando los conquistadores españoles llegaron a América en el siglo XV, ellos estuvieron aterrados por las practicas paganas de los indígenas, y en un intento de convertir a los nativos americanos al catolicismo movieron el festival hacia fechas en el inicio de noviembre para que coincidiesen con las festividades católicas del Día de todos los Santos y Todas las Almas". Los españoles luego combinaron las costumbres de Halloween con el festival similar mesoamericano, creando de este modo el Día de Los Muertos. * En nuestra comunidad, mucha gente arreglan altares para los seres queridos disfuntos. En estos altares se puede poner flores, fotos de las personas que han muerto y calaveras de azúcar. Las comidas que son típicamente preparadas para la ocasión son molé, arroz y tamales . También se ornea pan de azúcar y chocolate caliente. * El Día de Los Muertos es más celebrado en Mexico. Las personas hacen ofrendas con una base de lentejas, nopales, y dulces de tejocote y calabaza. Son acompañadas...
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...conversations however because they had trained a woman called la Malince, to be an interpreter. This gave the Spaniards the ability to have open conversations, while the Mexican could not. The Spanish knew what the Mexica were saying all of the time, while the Mexica only knew what the Spaniards wanted them to know. An example of this would be during negotiations with Montezuma’s emissaries, Cortez could issue orders to his troops in the middle of negotiations to do things like fire cannon, and tactically this gave the Spaniards an advantage Another difference between the two cultures was religion, even though both parties had a religion based on human sacrifice, the Mexica actively sacrificed people in a ceremony of blood, while the Spanish religion was based upon a single sacrifice. The Spanish were monotheists while the Mexica were polytheists. However while the Mexica believed in active human sacrifice and bloodletting, the Spanish had no problem spilling the blood of thousands of Mexica and Amerindians. The Aztecs thought that the Spaniards might be the reincarnation of one of their gods, as they had a legend of this god returning. Therefore they were initially reluctant to immediately attack the Spanish. The fear that this was their god returning was reinforced by the Mexica priests, soothsayers, magicians’ messengers and spies. Further, they believed that...
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...their religion, spread their nationalism, expand their power, and fulfill their desires for gold and glory. This all began when Cortez had tricked the Mexica into believing that he was Quetzalcoatl; a prophecy that stated the return of Quetzalcoatl to the Mexica people. Soon after, the Spanish invaded the Mexica on a night that is now known as “La Noche Triste”. This was the night that the Spanish took over the Mexica temple along with its people. With the conquest, the Spaniards brought along with them their culture, beliefs, and customs; this greatly affected the Indigenous people’s culture by changing their religious beliefs, language, and social class. La conquista altered Indigenous culture in the aspect of religion by converting many indigenous people to Christianity. Cortez had ordered his soldiers to destroy all of the religious symbols and writings that belonged to the indigenous people. In 1524, Franciscans were brought to Latin America in order to begin the religious conversion. These methods were sometimes forceful and executed by means of torture. These methods were called “Religion Conversion Programs” (Covarrubias & Gamboa, Lecture 10/5/15). In 1531, many Indigenous people were converting to Christianity more easily because of the encounter between Juan Diego and Tonantzin. Many Mexica believed for this to be a Mexica goddess while the Spaniards thought she was Virgin Mary. This kind of confusion became known as “religious syncretism”; this religious syncretism resulted...
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...How and when did the Aztec and Inca empires fall? . The Aztec and Inca names do not necessarily refer to people who inhabited the Americas but they reference the empires themselves. The empires were made up of many groups. The Aztec Empire encompassed the ethnic groups of the Acolhua, the Tepanecs and the Mexicas. The Aztec Empire was ruled by the Mexicas. The Mexicas were warriors. They built their capitol in a city called Tenochtitlan. It was located where central Mexico is today (Chasteen 28). Hernan Cortes was a Spanish leader who had a lot of experience with the indigenous people by the time he came upon the Aztec empire. The Mexica had no clued what the Spanish wanted or their intentions. After the Mexica accepted the Spanish into their land, Cortes took their leader Moctezuma hostage. Next Cortes made allies with long time Mexica enemies (a common tactic by the Europeans) and waged war on the Mexica. The Mexica also suffered from a rapidly spreading sickness which worked to Cortes advantage to decimate the Aztec Empire. The Inca Empire was located in the areas of what today makes up Columbia, Peru and Chile. It was south of the Aztec Empire and its capitol was called Cuzco. It was made up of a federation of four governments. The Chinchay Suyu , Anti Suyu, Kunti Suyu, and Qulla Suyu (Wikipedia). A distant relative of Cortes by the name of Franscisco Pizarro used similar techniques to defeat the Inca Empire. Pizarro took the Incan leader hostage and eventually killed...
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...of leadership played a fundamental role the result of the conquest of Mexico. From the very beginning he to induced fear into the Mexicas with the usage of technology, he made them believe they were tueles by acting god like, he befriended many enemy states and most of all his military technique when they entered Tencohtitlan lead to their conquest of Mexico. Moctezuma’s leadership on the other hand lead to the conquest of Mexico, he would give gifts and praise the Spaniards not inflicting fear. He lost all power over the Mexicas once he was captured which lead to their conquest. Leadership, military and political strategies led to the conquest of Mexico. The Spaniards finally arrived at the Port of San Juan de Ulua, they were greeted by two ambassadors sent by Moctezuma. These ambassadors were accompanied with painters to take pictures back to their prince. Cortes saw this as a chance to make an impression of their technology and strength. “Cortes Ordered our gunner to load the lombards with great charge of powder so that they should make a great noise when they were fired” (Schwartz 87). This passage is an example of how Cortes used his leadership to their benefit. He also told the horsemen to get ready so Moctezuma’s servant would see them. Cortes ordered these actions to place fear on Moctezuma’s servants and on Moctezuma himself. The Mexicas never saw horses or heard these loud noises,...
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...In the Aztec civilization during the “Golden Era” Tenochtitlan was one of the biggest cities in the world. The city was contained within high mountains and was surrounding a lake and marshes, this is why one their most notable inventions they made, floating gardens or Campinas were made .By the early 1500s Tenochtitlan contained an array of pyramids, temples, palaces and market places. But in 1519 Hernán Cortés and his small Spanish army arrived and overthrew the Mexica ruler Moctezuma Xocoyotzin with relative ease. This was partly due to the latter's weakness, as well as the Spaniards' superior weaponry, their unfamiliar battle tactics and the devastation of the Mexica population by European disease. Mexico remained under Spanish rule until...
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...According to one legend,[14] the war deity and patron of the Mexica Huitzilopochtli possessed Mexitl or Mexi as a secret name. Mexico would then mean "Place of Mexi" or "Land of the War God." Another hypothesis[15] suggests that Mēxihco derives from a portmanteau of the Nahuatl words for "moon" (mētztli) and navel (xīctli). This meaning ("Place at the Center of the Moon") might then refer to Tenochtitlan's position in the middle of Lake Texcoco. The system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco formed the center, had the form of a rabbit, which the Mesoamericans pareidolically associated with the moon. The name of Mexico entails the origin, history, and use of the name Mexico, which dates back to 14th century Mesoamerica. The Nahuatl word Mexico means place of the Mexica but the ethnonym Mexicatl itself is of unknown etymology.[1] Mexico (country) did not name its capital after itself, as in Mexico City—the accepted name internationally—but the converse actually applies. Before Spanish times, the capital was formally named Tenochtitlan, but was the seat of the Mexica Empire which is known as the Aztec Empire. The flag of Mexico (Spanish: Bandera de México) is a vertical tricolor of green, white, and red with the national coat of arms charged in the center of the white stripe. While the meaning of the colors has changed over time, these three colors were adopted by Mexicofollowing independence from Spain during the country's War of Independence, and subsequent First Mexican...
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...The great Aztec flower war started with an Aztec emperor named Tlacaelel. In the 1400s Tlacaelel made the Aztec empire very powerful. With Tlacaelel being so powerful he started destroying every piece of evidence he had on the Aztec history and he preached over and over to his people that they were chosen from the gods. One of the most essential Gods for the Aztecs was Huitzilopochtli. Huitzilopochtli is also known as the god of war and the god of sun. The Mexicas were very religious and loved to battle and go to war. Because of the Mexicas characterizes men were hired as warriors and soldiers there presence were known and very useful, but the people feared them. The Aztecs honored over a hundred of different gods but Tlacaelel stressed the...
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...capital was Cuzco. The Inca civilization was in the highlands of Peru. The Aztecs were located in Mexico. The Aztec Empire was based in the Valley of Mexico, a high elevated valley in the mountains of Central Mexico. Tenochtitlan was the Aztec city and the capital. It had canals and causeways that supplied hundreds of thousands of people who lived there. The Mayans lived in Mexico and Central America. The Palenque was once known as the red city, because the buildings were all painted red. The Maya capital was Tikal. For the Mayans the early preclassic was 1800-900 B.C. Middle Preclassic was 900-300 B.C. Late preclassic was 300 B.C-250 A.D. For the Aztecs in 1248 Mexica settled near lake Texcoco but they were soon expelled by the Tepanecs. In 1299 Mexica settled in Tizapan, and in 1325 Tenochtitlan was settled by the Mexica. Lastly the Inca Empire was a short life, it lasted just about 100 years. The Mayans and the Aztecs had similar economy as the Inca had a totally different Economy. The Mayan economy mainly consisted of trade and agriculture. The Mayans had a fairly good trading system, they mainly traded obsidian, jade, feathers, serpentine, ceramic vessels that were traded throughout Mesoamerica. Just like the Mayans the Aztecs traded, it was an important part of their economy. They also relied heavily on agriculture and farming. Aztec farmers grew beans, squash, avocados, tobacco, hemp, and peppers, but their main crop was corn. As for the Incas they had an economy without...
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...All these mythologies have the same belief that the moon’s surface was a bunny that the gods put there themselves. In Mexica (Aztec) culture one of the gods grabbed a rabbit by its ears and threw it into the lunar surface fearing that the moon would make it too bright for humans if there was both the Sun’s and Moon’s light shining down. There is also a different variation of the Lunar Rabbit in Mexica culture, one day Quetzalcoatl went on a journey, after walking great distances he started starving and he couldn’t find any source of water or food, he was searching for food but he couldn’t find anything to eat so he thought he was going to die, but miraculously a rabbit sacrificed himself so the honorable lord will not die, so Quetzalcoatl elevated the rabbit to the heavens and then lowered her and told her "You may be just a rabbit, but everyone will remember you; there is your image in light, for all people and for all times.". In Chinese poems theirs is a toad and a rabbit on the moon that constantly...
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...The Spiritual World of the Aztecs Religion can be described as a shared set of fundamental beliefs and practices. “The Aztec religion was a complex set of beliefs, rituals and gods that helped the Aztec/Mexica to make sense of their world, reality and death (Maestri Nicolette, 2013)”. Today, we will explore the famous Aztec world of gods, sacrifice, and magic in an attempt to better understand their culture and worldview. The traditional Aztec religion was on that focused on the services provided by a series of gods, all to whom a debt was owed. The debt was perpetual and came to be when the gods made the decision to sacrifice themselves to enable human life. “Life for humankind was only possible with a moving sun, and this the gods provided. It then became the responsibility of humanity to feed the sun thereafter, lest it stop and the universe stop with it (Holly Peters-Golden, 2012)”. The Aztec’s shared belief in this theory gave rise to a number of traditions and ceremonies involving human sacrifice. These ceremonies were conducted frequently and were often scheduled in accordance with their ritual calendar. These rituals were sacred to the Aztecs and were performed without hesitation or remorse. In every situation, those who were to be sacrificed were held in high regard for their contribution to the continuity of human life entitled them to great honor and the promise of a rewarded afterlife. In addition, the remains of the sacrificed individuals were...
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...La Malinche was born circa 1500 CE, the exact date of her birth or death, 1527 (?), is not known for sure. She was born to a noblemen in Oluta, a city in the eastern edge of the Veracruz region of Mexico, on the commemorative day dedicated to the Goddess of Grass; who’s name she was given, Malintzin. Later Tenepal, which means “one who speaks much and with liveliness” was added to her name. Most of the details we have of her life come from two letters Hernan Cortez wrote to the King of Spain and the writings of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a soldier who was with Cortez. Bernal Diaz wrote eye-witness stories from his time with Cortez and Malinche, in Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España, however, many years later, in his old age. Malintzin may have been afforded some privileges and education because of her status by birth. Unfortunately, for Malintzin her father died, her mother remarried and had a son; in order to pass Malintzin’s inheritance to her husband and son; her mother either sold or gave her to Mayan traders. Her death was faked by showing the townspeople the body of a dead child who had belonged to a slave. There is no way to possibly know how she was treated while being a slave. I believe she may have been useful to the Mayan traders because of her ability to learn languages. Being quite beautiful and intelligent she was given as tribute to Cortez in 1519 upon the defeat of the Cacique of Tabasco Mayans; she was among 20 young women. Malintzin then became...
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