...The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (begun February 1519) was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The conquest must be understood within the context of Spanish patterns on the Iberian Peninsula during the Reconquista by Christians, defeating the Muslims, who had ruled the peninsula since 711. These patterns extended to the Caribbean following Christopher Columbus' establishment of permanent European settlement in the Caribbean. The Spanish authorized expeditions or entradas for the discovery, conquest, and colonization of new territory, using existing Spanish settlements as a base. Many of those on the Cortés expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before. In fact, Cortés had never commanded men in battle before. However, there was a whole generation of Spaniards who participated in expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme (Central America), learning strategy and tactics of successful enterprises. The Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents with established practices.[2] The Spanish campaign began in February 1519, and was declared victorious on August 13, 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor Cuauhtemoc and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. During the campaign, Cortés was given support from a number of tributaries and rivals of the Aztecs, including the Totonacs, and the Tlaxcaltecas, Texcocans...
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...Does the Spanish Conquest constitute genocide? Do you agree or disagree? The late 1400’s brought about the period of colonial expansion, initiated under the crown of Castile and the Spanish Conquistadors. This expansion continued over the next 4 centuries, seeing the Spanish Empire expand over most of Central and South America. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and the Incas spanned over decades and was not a peaceful conquest without bloodshed. The Conquista unleashed violence, death and destruction on a scale unknown until then. Charny acknowledged that it was possible for genocide to occur during the process of colonisation, as seen in the colonising of North America and similarly in Australia. This essay will discuss the various elements of genocide as defined by the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, as well as other sources. Through this discussion, the essay will relate it to circumstances and events related to the Spanish Conquest of Latin America, discussing the possibility of a connection between the conquest and genocide. There are a number of elements that must be satisfied in order to find a case for genocide. When defining an act of genocide, the UN definition is the internationally recognised and the framework by which this essay will follow when referring to an act of genocide. As found in the UN definition of genocide; the act committed must have the intent to destroy the target, in whole or in part, a national, ethical,...
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...On October 20th 1492, Christopher Columbus and what will become the Spanish empire landed on a shore they have never seen in search for a shorter route to Asia. Only, this shore was the in the Bahamas, and the two worlds that had been separated for all of history had now been connected. Throughout nearly the next 200 years, the New World would be changed and in the Spanish minds at the time, for the better. However, those that were not Spanish and the good Catholic they held so highly in their society, this world was no longer home. This severe change has come through the use of an iconic Spanish greed. The term iconic Spanish greed is used to explain the values in their socioeconomic society which had three main categories: gold, God and glory;...
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...The Spanish conquistadors were some of the greatest conquerors and explorers in the America region, even after the death of Christopher Colombus, one of the most successful Spanish conquistadors during his time. The conquistadors were motivated by money, glory, and religion, and all conquistadors weren’t just explorers, but came from various backgrounds. Some were originally priests, soldiers, scientists, it didn’t matter what you were previously, they all were driven and motivated by the same things. There were many conquistadors from Spain that were successful, including people such as Francisco Pizarro and Hernan Cortes, known for exploring the Americas, as well as conquering the Aztecs and Peru. These conquistadors benefited and took advantage of many things over the native...
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...World History The Spanish conquests in the Americas seem like impossibilities. The Spanish in Mexico and South and Central America, it is believed were out numbered by more a thousand to one. Their adversaries were people well skilled in war and killing, with strong well organized societies. So how did the Spanish manage to be victorious in the face of such odds? One of the fundamental differences between the Spanish Conquistadors and the Mexican was language. The Spanish were able to control the 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...
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...colonies followed by the English, French, and Spanish? By Columbus’s discovery, Spain got a religious justification fro conquest and an army of seasoned soldiers, named conquistadores. Also, rulers in Spain developed efficient techniques for controlling new colonies. The conquistadores left a trail of destruction by attacking native villages and killed or captured the inhabitant since they preferred seeking gold and slaves to creating permanent settlements. In 1519, some Spanish soldiers landed on the coast of Mexico. Three years later, these Spanish soldier conquered Aztec empire. The three factors of Spanish victory were technological advantages, division within the Aztec empire, and disease. Later, some other Spanish soldiers conquered a richer empire, Inca empire. By 1550, Spain’s New World empire, which stretched from the Caribbean through Mexico to Peru, was administered from Spain by the Council of the Indies. The council enacted laws for the empire and supervised an elaborate bureaucracy to maintain political control and extract wealth from the land and its people. Then, two expedition went to north America to find gold and silver but they did not find any gold and silver. So Spain stopped to extend its empire and just maintained two precarious footholds in north of Mexico. By a large number of gold and silver flowing into Spain, it became the richest and most powerful state in Europe. However, these American treasure undermined Spanish predominance. Many leading merchants who...
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...Bernal Díaz del Castillo was born circa 1495 at Medina del Campo, Castille. He died in 1584 in Guatemala city. Even though Díaz claimed to have been in poverty as a young child, his family could read and write which was a mark of higher class. He originally began exploring because he wanted to get a fortune and he heard that he would be able to as a soldier because of the great deal of spanish conquests. He was married to the daughter of a Spanish conquistador. Díaz went on multiple expeditions to both the New World and Mexico. He was intrigued by treasures and fortunes in America so he traveled there with Pedrarias. He also went on multiple expeditions to the Yucatán and traded with unfriendly natives. Díaz was present at numerous historically important battles as a Spanish soldier. He was also there during the conquest of Mexico, when the Aztec Capital fell. Díaz wrote a book titled The True History of the Conquest of New Spain. His book displayed the life of a soldier during expeditions as opposed to solely the views of the leader....
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...the origins of the Spanish language and describe how the language spread. Latin has significantly influenced the creation of the Spanish language as well as the development of many other Western languages. I will also discuss the ways in which Latin has influenced Western language development. History of Vernacular Language Spanish has one of the richest and longest histories of any of the world’s languages. It is the fourth most-spoken language in the world after Chinese, Hindi and English. Native Spanish speakers exist throughout Europe, the United States, Pacific Islands and Africa (Penny, 2002). Spanish originated on the Iberian Peninsula which is located in the southwestern region of Europe. The vernacular language was not originally known as Spanish, it was referred to as Vulgar Latin. The Celts were a nomadic tribe from central Europe who moved into the peninsula towards the end of the sixth century. The Celts mixed with the peninsula’s residents, the Iberians resulting in a new people known as the Celtiberians who spoke a form of the Celtic language. By the nineteenth century B.C.E., the region in southwestern Europe was known as Hispania and the inhabitants learned Latin from Roman settlers, traders and soldiers. Soon after the people in Hispania learned Latin, a new language was created as a mixture of the Celtiberians language and classical Latin (Penny, 2002). The new language became known as Vulgar Latin which developed into modern Spanish. Vulgar Latin was...
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...significance of the leadership of Cortes for the conquest of Mexico and its immediate consequences’ Cortes is a man who historians have studied for a long time and there is a vast amount of evidence about him and the conquest that he led to Southern America. The evidence clearly indicates that Cortes was the driving force behind the conquest of Mexico. In 1519 Hernan Cortes and his men landed in Tenochtitlan in search of power and wealth. Word quickly spread to the king, Montezuma. He heard that men had arrived from a faraway land with ‘sticks that spit fire and deer as big as houses’ had landed on the coast. This panicked the Aztec people as they believed in a fatalistic religion that predicted that Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of war, would return in that exact year to punish them. This set up an instant tension between the two oppositions that meant Cortes would have to lead his men if they were going to conquer this land in the name of God. It’s obvious that Cortes was a very confident and cunning man, as he disobeyed the rulings of the Governor of Cuba and went unbeknownst to the current ruler of Spain, Charles V. This put a huge amount of pressure on Cortes because he either succeeded in his campaign for power or he would be sentenced to death. Leading a group of five hundred men into a strange and unknown land was never going to be a simple task but the characteristics of Cortes’ leadership were a driving force in the conquest of Mexico. This becomes evident from the examination...
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...following statements most accurately describes Europe’s global position in 1450? a. Europe had climbed to relative equality in Eurasian commerce. b. Europe had little trade contact with Africa or Asia. c. Europe remained marginal in Eurasian commerce. d. Europe had come to dominate Eurasian commerce. FEEDBACK: The determination of European elites to progress beyond their marginal position in Eurasian commerce was a main incentive for European exploration after 1450. (See section “The European Advantage” in your textbook.) 3. What was the single most important factor that aided the European conquest of the Americas? a. Gunpowder b. Disease c. Horses d. Superior organization FEEDBACK: The peoples of the Americas had no immunity to European disease and up to 90 percent of the population died after contact with the Europeans, greatly easing the process of conquest. (See section “The Great Dying” in your textbook.) 4. Which of the following is an old-world crop that was soon established in Europe’s American colonies? a. Tobacco b. Potatoes c. Corn d. Rice FEEDBACK: Rice is a Eurasian product that soon became an agricultural staple in many locations in the Americas. (See section “The Columbian Exchange” in your textbook.) 5. Which of the following was a consequence of the introduction of horses to the North American West? a. A male-dominated hunting and warrior culture displaced farming cultures in many areas. b. New hunting capability led to the...
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...Portuguese and Spanish, from 1500-1700, changed the character of both old and new societies. In the fifteenth century, European global expansionism was the driving force that kept the English motivated to expand. Europeans set out on a cycle of overseas voyages that would lead to the organization of European trading posts and colonies in both the Americas and the East. Colonialism is defined as a structure in a colony with a specific linkage; meaning economic, political, cultural, and social ideologies. The colonies linked England to the United States. England, being the mother country, also had a very important role play. The mother country was responsible for providing money for supplies for voyages such as ships, food, soldiers, and weapons etc. Also, England was responsible for the processing and manufacturing of raw materials. Settlers of the colonies needed markets to sell their goods and labor. They also needed a source of labor for the production of raw materials. This new labor force was made up of Native Americans, indentured servants (white slaves who served terms of up to seven years as slaves), and Africans. Columbus and his crew stated that when they arrived in the Americas they found Africans already there. In 1502, the Spanish were the first Europeans to enslave Africans in the Americas. Yet the local population died from European diseases like smallpox and from overwork. Thus in 1502, ten years after Columbus' landing, the Spanish brought the...
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...After Hernan Cortez’s victory over the Aztecs, the Spanish expeditions focused primarily on the vast territory to their north. With legends of gold and great wealth, more and more Spanish explorers launched expeditions to what is now the American southwestern region as well as Florida. Map 1 demonstrates the exploration and colonization efforts that took place in the North America from the middle of the 16th century until 1675. It is very evident that Spanish authorities put an enormous focus on the area of present day New Mexico, which they heavily settled after Juan de Oñate’s arrival in 1598. For the settlers, the territory of New Mexico was their opportunity to gain riches, but also it puts them in direct contact with the area’s native population, the American Indians. While at first, Indians and settlers coexisted without any major conflicts; soon distinct cultural and religious differences would result in a full-blown revolt by the region’s Pueblo Indians. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 has been characterized as a landmark event of the American history and has attracted...
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...In the years 1450-1650 European Exploration and Conquest took a big part in expanding kingdoms and empires in Europe. Today's Americas became a source that allowed new materials to be brought over to Europe that shaped culture and the life of the Europeans. Many things like The Columbian Exchange caused a significant change whereas religion had somewhat remained the same when brought to the new land. While those may believe not much had changed in Europe when Exploration and Conquest rose, there is proof of this era's effect on Europe still existent today and all over the world. The Columbian Exchange, the birth of Global Economy, religion, racism and the slave trade are all things that represent continuity and change in Europe during this...
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...identified the key variables that allowed some societies to develop highly complex, material-rich societies, while others developed at much slower rates. Guns, Germs, and Steel uncovers how Europeans came to dominate every other group on the planet by virtue of their access to what Diamond terms the “Agents of Conquest”: Guns, Germs, and Steel. Jared Diamond’s journey of discovery began on the island of Papua, New Guinea. There, in 1974, a local named Yali asked Diamond a deceptively simple question: "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo (material goods), but we black people had little cargo (material goods) of our own?" Diamond realized that Yali's question penetrated the heart of a great mystery of human history -- the roots of global inequality. Why were Europeans the ones with all the cargo? Why had they taken over so much of the world, instead of the native people of New Guinea? How did Europeans end up with what Diamond terms the Agents of Conquest: Guns, Germs and Steel? It was these agents of conquest that allowed 168 Spanish conquistadors to defeat an Imperial Inca army of 80,000 in 1532, and set a pattern of European conquest which would continue up to the present day. Diamond knew that the answer had little to do with ingenuity or individual skill. From his own experience in the jungles of New Guinea, he had observed that native hunter-gatherers...
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...lead the people. There is such a wide spectrum in which women can fill any role in society that when comparing the distinctive effect that women have in specific cultures is important in understanding how women have changed from the past to their present roles within our own society. The diverse significance of women in society can be seen when comparing the women of Mali culture in Sundiata by D.T. Naiane, to the women in Aztec and Spanish culture in The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz, by examining...
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