The Clash of Cultures: Europeans in the Americas

1
The Clash of Cultures Europeans in the Americas

• Readings http//faculty.fullerton.edu/nfitch/neh
  aha/index.htm
• Spodek, pp. 452-458

2
Aztecs/Mexica--Mexico

• Nahuatl
• Mayan
• Quetzacoatl
• Tenochtitlan
• Lake Texcoco
• Montezuma II takes power (1502)

3
Cortes Decides to Conquer Mexico

• Spaniards Conquer Cuba
• 1517Spaniards begin to explore Mexico
• Aztecs may have experienced bad omens, but an
  invention?
• February 10, 1519 Hernan Cortes defies Governor
  Diego Velasquez
• June 3, 1519 Spaniards arrive at Cempoala with 11
  ships, 600 soldiers, 200 native servants, 16
  horses, 32 crossbows, 13 muskets, and 14 cannons
• Cortezs translator, Jerome de Aguilar spoke
  Mayan.

4
Cortes finds a Translator and Mistress

• Dona Marina is also known as La Malinche or
  Malintzin.
• Dona Marina spoke Mayan and Nahuatl.
• She became Cortezs translator and mistress
• Mexica called Cortez El Malinche in some documents

5
Cortes Route to Tenochtitlan
6
Cholula Massacre

• September 2-20, 1519the Spaniards fight with the
  Tlaxcalans but end by winning Tlaxcalan allies
• October 1519Massacre at Cholula

7
Cortez and Moctezuma

• November 8, 1519 Cortes enters Tenochtitlan
• Does Moctezuma believe hes Quetzacoatl? Modern
  historians no, documents ambiguous
• Panfilo de Navaez May 1520
• Cortes leaves Pedro de Alvarado in Charge

8
Moctezuma Killed

• Pedro de Alvarado attacks Mexica during festival
• June 1520 Moctezuma killed
• Ultimately replaced by Cuauhtemoc

9
La Noche Triste

• Spaniards forced to flee
• La Noche Triste June 30, 1520
• Cortes loses 2/3 of his men and many horses
• Spanish conquest not inevitable

10
Cortes takes Tenochtitlan

• July 1520Spaniards reach Tlaxcala and are
  welcomed
• July 1520-May 1521 Cortez regroups with Tlaxcala
  helpbuilds brigantines
• October 1520Smallpox decimating the population
  of Tenochtitlan
• Mexica fortify Tenochtitlan like European cities
• May 1521Spaniards lay siege to Tenochtitlan.
• July 1521After failing to take Tenochtitlan,
  Cortez decides to destroy it.
• August 13, 1521Cuathemoc either surrenders or is
  captured and the Battle of Tenochtitlan is over
  with the city in ruins.

11
Peru

• Inca Huayna Capac ruled generally well from
  1493-1525.
• He had an army of 50,000 loyal followers.
• The Incas thought he was a god or god-like
• Problem Religion and Ancestor Worship of Incas
  (The name was given to the people ruled as well
  as the ruler.)

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Peru (continued)

• When Capec died, he was preserved as a mummy and
  housed in a sacred chamber with other mummified
  Incas.
• The mummified Inca retained possession of all
  estates and properties held in life. Inca
  nobility managed the property of the dead Incas.
• By 1525, so much property in hands of dead Incas,
  almost none available for live Incas

13
The Incas

• Huascar (1525-1532) succeeded his father as Inca
  and was crowned at Cuzco.
• Proposed burying the mummies and selling their
  property so living could have land.

14
Incas

• Atahualpa (1532-1533)
• Atahualpa was Huascars half-brother
• He had tried to get Huascar to agree to share
  power
• Huascar refused
• Atahualpa not legal heir but had support of
  nobility upset at mummy proposal.
• There was a civil war and Atahualpa won.

15
Spanish Conquest of Peru

• Francisco Pizarro (c. 1475-1541)
• May 13, 1532 Alahualpa wins, Pizarro reaches
  northern Peru
• Did Atahualpa think Pizarro was the God
  Virachocha, who he believed would return? Or, a
  Spanish invention?
• Pizarro tricked Atahualpakilled him after he got
  Atahualpas gold
• Fierce resistance for at least 100 years

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How did the Spaniards control the Americas?

• Disease (especially smallpox) was one control
  not intentional at first
• Perus population fell from 1.3 million in 1570
  to 600,000 in 1620.
• Mexicos population fell from 25.3 million
  Indians in 1519 to 1 million in 1605
• Native population had no immunity because of
  isolation from the population networks of Africa
  and Eurasia.

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Economic Control

• Natives were also treated poorly by the
  Spaniards. They were forced to work on mines and
  sugar plantations after Spaniards took land from
  them.
• In 1511 King Ferdinand concluded that one black
  could do the work of four Indians. That started
  the birth of Slavery and massive imports of
  Africans into the Americas.
• Encomienda Plantation/Fazenda
• New agriculture
• New livestock
• New labor

18
Cultural Control

• Paper
• City Building
• Race
• Language of Color-based racial thinking
• Gender
• Religion
• Government