Conquistadors

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Conquistadors
Hernando Cortes
Francisco Pizarro
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Hernando Cortes and the Aztecs

• Hernando Cortes was a Spanish conquistador who
  landed in Mexico in 1519.

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• The Aztec emperor was named Moctezuma. (commonly
  referred to as Montezuma)

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• The Aztecs thought that he was a God and sent
  him gifts.
• Aztec Greetings - start at 619

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• Cortes led the Spaniards and their Native
  American allies to the Aztec capital,
  Tenochtitlan.

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• Outnumbered, hundreds of Spaniards were killed
  in 1519.

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• In 1521, Cortes defeated the Aztecs, and
  Tenochtitlan was renamed Mexico City, which today
  is the capital of Mexico.

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Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan
Mexican capital of Mexico City
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How did Cortes defeat the Aztecs?

• The Spaniards had superior technology, such as
  guns and cannons.

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• Smallpox killed hundreds of Aztecs.

Aztec drawing representing patients affected by
smallpox at different stages.
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• The Aztecs wrongfully believed that Cortes was a
  God.

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• The Spaniards had Native American allies on
  their side.

The final conquest of Tenochtitlan by Cortes and
his allies.
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Francisco Pizarro and the Incas

• Francisco Pizarro was the Spanish conquistador
  that attacked the Incan Empire in 1532.

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When Pizarro arrived, the Incans were in the
midst of a civil war
Atahualpa was the more powerful Incan Emperor
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Leading about 150 men, Pizarro landed on the
northern coast of the Inca Empire in early 1523.
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• Dont 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. 

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• After his capture, Atahualpa gave gold and
  silver to the Spanish in return for his freedom.

Dont WriteAtahualpa offered the Spanish a room
filled with gold up to where his arm reached, and
two more with silver in exchange for his release.
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• 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.
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• Pizarro then founded the city of Lima, which
  today is the capital of Peru.

Statue of Francisco Pizarro, Plaza de Armas,
Lima, Peru
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Coffin of Francisco Pizarro, the Tomb of the
Conquistador, the Cathedral, Plaza Mayor,
Lima, Peru
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• Dont 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.

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Two Empires Destroyed Why so quickly and easily?
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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.
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"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.
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The Aztec, with bronze and copper shields, stone
knives, and cloth armor, were no match for them.
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Second, the Spanish and the Aztec came from very
different cultures. Dont 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Portuguese in Brazil
Portuguese built an empire in the
Americas Because of treaty, their empire was not
as large as the Spanish one
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Spain Builds an Empire

• Scramble to establish colonies and empires in new
  lands
• Spain first to successfully settle in the
  Americas

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• 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

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• 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

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Triangular Trade
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Middle Passage passage across the Atlantic
Ocean from West Africa to the Americas this was
the route of the African American slave trade
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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.
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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.
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• Africans were crowded and chained cruelly aboard
  slave ships.

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"...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.
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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.
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"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.
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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.
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• 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
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