...The conquest of the Aztec empire was a world-changing phenomenon that led to Spanish colonization and what know is known as modern day Mexico. Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez led the expedition in 1519 with his men in search for new territory to conquer. This event in history is significant because it brings history of past civilizations that went extinct after the terrorization of the Spanish conquest. To begin with, the Spanish had made several trips to Yucatan in 1517 with tales of gold and the Mayan civilization. These rumors gathered interest in the Spanish colonists, which made it all the way to Spanish governor of Cuba Diego de Velasquez. Diego de Velasquez provided Hernan Cortez with two or three ships and...
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...Jose Beltan Beltran 1 Dr. Karanovich History 100 August 2007 Mesoamerica: The land that witnessed it all, the peoples, the culture, and the conquest. The land referred to as Mesoamerica runs west from a point on the Gulf coast of Mexico above what today is the port of Tampico, then expands south to the central desert of highland Mexico, meeting the Pacific coast. On the southeast, the land extends from northwestern Honduras on the Caribbean across to the Pacific shore in El Salvador. About half of Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador are included in Meso-America. This land has great history to it, it is the land that fostered great civilizations and cultures, it is the land where great artifacts were built, where agriculture flourished to support thousands of civilians, and where a brutal and macabre conquest took place. This land witnessed it all. It is important that we understand the history of this land, because if we do, we can understand who founded its cities, who dominated this region, and what Gods influenced its peoples, and who explored it, invaded and colonized this land. It is very uncertain when we speak about the Mexica (people of Mesoamerica) people, because we know very little about them. Much of the information that has been gathered about them comes from large scale excavations, and archeological endeavors that have found ancient ruins, sculptures, temples and the like. But, the things that we...
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...Lexi Morton January 9th, 2013 Tom Jensen Honors World History Lesson 11 Main Assignment The story of the conquest of the Aztec Empire by a small band of Spanish conquistadors and their Indian allies is one of the most famous episodes from history. It is well known not only for its historical significance, but also for its outrageous and hair-raising feats of derring-do. Hernando Cortez, acting essentially on his own, with an army of only about 500 men overthrew the wealthiest, most sophisticated, and most powerful empire on the American continent. The Aztecs were not a passive, peace-loving people. They had enormous armies of experienced warriors and dominated the tribes and territories for hundreds of miles around. Their cities were large, complex and strongly fortified, and their civilization was prosperous and sophisticated. The Spaniards won a victory over the Aztecs against almost insurmountable odds through a combination of diplomacy, treachery, ferocious combat and good luck. So great was the conquistadors love of gold and glory that they stood firm in nearly impossible circumstances and their sheer audacity won the day. Cortez was unquestionably brutal and merciless at times, but on the whole, he was an exceedingly skilled tactician and a charismatic leader of men. He accomplished a great deal by diplomacy and treated his Indian allies fairly. He had several Indian children whom he acknowledged and provided for, and won the respect of many native leaders...
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...directions and color that dealt mainly with fear of nature, and of the world. The Aztecs are famous for their sacrificial rituals that were held in order to repay the gods for the sacrifices they had made in order to bring humans life. For instance the sun god Huitzilopochtil, who gave up movement to be the sun will stop if he is not appeased bringing the world to an end, something the Aztec people feared would occur every 52 years if they made one wrong step. The main city of the Aztec Empire was Tenochtitlan(Mexico City) where they ruled and were the military power until the Spaniards came in 1519. They formed alliances with the two other major cities Texcoco and Tlacopan. Government: .The family unit was the basic unit of the Aztec government .Nobles and priest had a large amount of power, and although nobility provided leadership, they weren’t automatically placed into government. .The true power belonged to the city councils. Each council had an executive council that consisted of four individuals. Of those four there would be a Hatcani or Leader of the city. (The city council of Tenochtitlan has been compared to the Roman senate) .The Huey Tlatcanin (emperor) was worshipped as a god who’s rule is supported by city councils, priests, judges, governers , etc. He has absolute power in a sense –could be removed by a democratic system. The Fall: .The last Aztec Emperor Cuitlahuac surrendered to Cortez on August 13, 1521. The Aztecs defeat was brought on by a number...
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...SOL Review Sheet (Objectives 1&2) OBJECTIVE 1: WORLD RELIGIONS During our first unit we studied 5 different religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Find information on 2 other important religions: Confucianism and Taoism. 1. Separate these religions into the following categories: |MONOTHEISTIC: |POLYTHEISTIC: |OTHER: | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2. Place the 5 major religions in the correct chronological order: BC AD 0 3. Which three religions consider Jerusalem to be their holy city? 4. What three religions are considered Eastern? (primarily practiced in East and Southeast Asia) 5. Fill in the following information: HINDUISM BUDDHISM Country of origin: ______________ Most Hindus today live in: Most Buddhists today live in: |Religion: |Primarily practiced in: (Regions/countries) ...
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...Hernan Cortes did not have the best interest of Mexico when he left Spain. When he left Spain in search of the New World, he only thought about his ambitions of greatness, and his search for more wealth, more gold, more power and more land. Despite this, however, his conquest of Mexico brought about many important benefits to it. One of the first major contributions of Hernan Cortes is Mexican civilization is his introduction of sugar. He then transferred cultivation of the cane to La Hacienda de Tlaltenango and installed the first known press in Mexico. There was also an exchange of technology between the Spaniards and the Native Americans. The Spaniards introduced to the Native Americans the use of plow which greatly helped in their farming. They also brought to Mexico techniques in the use of various traps, ax heads, knives, ice chisels, and muskets which helped in their hunting. Because of the different techniques, the Native Americans learned from the Spaniards, they were able to get more furs and subsequently improve their trading opportunities with the rest of the world. In addition, they were also able to improve cloth production which made them skilled weavers. Cortes can also be credited for introducing to Mexico the use of metals...
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...C. Mann’s 1491 talk about the facts of the before and after of the voyages of Columbus and how they are misinterpreted. Zinn’s and Mann’s views of the Americas before and after Columbus compare to the traditional more vague notions, because they present the idea that the Native Americans were as advanced as the Europeans , and that Columbus and his men oppressed the natives soon after interacting with them. Both Zinn and Mann have written in their texts that before Columbus came into contact with the New World,...
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...the one found in Gary Jennings “Aztec,” readers will find two different portrayals her but with the same dominance. Due to this extraordinary puissance, it leads me believe that she is a strong woman. Due to the diversity of works that showcase her I will be focusing on the following two representations of her as seen in Esquival’s novel, “Malinche” and Jose Limon’s ballet, “La Malinche.” Let’s begin by examining Laura Esquival’s interpretation in “La Malinche.” Written in 2006, I believe this novel characterizes Malinalli as a strong woman. Furthermore, as an ambassador and a genius. She is a woman struggling between the remnants of her native Aztec civilization and the culture of the invading Spaniards. Through these trials and tribulations, her character grows from the naïve slave girl to the mother of a new civilization. She didn’t begin as a strong woman. In the novel, Mallinali is constantly suppressing her of doubts Cortes nefarious nature, hoping that her intuition was incorrect until one faithful night, she confronts him upon realization that this vileness will never cease. It is this confrontation that facilitates her transformation into a strong woman. There were strict gender roles in this time period. Particularly for women...
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...remove a European power. In Africa the tribes of the Sudan region attempted to fight the British to stop them from taking their land. The battle is known as the Omdurman Massacre as thousands of Sudanese were killed. Of the three main responses to European incursions into Africa and Asia, it is obvious that cooperation was the most successful, over peaceful and violent opposition. Those that cooperated lived, while that opposed usually died. This time period is very similar to the earlier period of colonization in the New World. In the New World, there were native Americans that cooperated with the colonizers such as the Indians cooperating with the pilgrims. In these instances, the natives usually lived. Then there were the native Americans who opposed the Europeans such as the Aztecs that fought Cortez when he landed on their shores. In those instances, the natives died by the hundreds of thousands, as evidenced by the near eradication of the Aztec civilization. ...
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...Robert B. Marks, The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative Value of Book Wonderful synthesis of recent scholarship on Rise of the West literature with an economic and ecological focus. Uses Global Historical Context to address most issues addressed in the Modern World History course. Use as: Teacher background Use isolated quotes/ chapters for all levels Review book at end of AP curriculum for review Questions raised: 1. How did industry and European-style countries called nation-states—rather than highly developed agrarian empires like China and India—come to define our world? 2. How has the gap between rich and poor increased? 3. How and why have European ways of organizing the world come to dominate the globe? 4. Was the Rise of the West a temporary blip? Scope: Global look (but especially Europe, China and India) 1400 -1900 Chapter by chapter breakdown: Intro “In the space of just 200 years, the world has seen a great reversal of fortune: where once Asians held most of the economic cards, today it is primarily Western countries and Japan.” (p. 2) Concepts addressed/ introduced in chapter: Globalization Enlightenment Communism Nation-states French Revolution Weber-Protestant work ethic Disease Industrial Revolution “modernization” Exploration/ Encounter “Progress History” Colonialism Renaissance Capitalism Slavery Modes of Historical Inquiry Comparative units of analysis Definition of Eurocentrism ...
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...The Aztecs people of Central Mexico have been a controversial culture studied by many archeologist and anthropologist a like. The Aztec had an empire in central Mexico when the Spanish arrived in the 1500s. The Aztecs had a very controversial practice not seen in many cultures around the world and that is human sacrifice. To understand the practice of human sacrifice one must look at the reasons why the culture did such practices. There are three main ways of examining a cultural practice from a anthropological perspective. These ways are cultural relativism, ethnocentrism and critical cultural relativism. The purpose of the examining the human sacrifice the way of critical cultural relativism is the best and superior way to look at foreign...
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...Quet-zal-co-at) was one of the most important gods in ancient Mesoamerica… He was regarded as the god of winds and rain and as the creator of the world and mankind.” -Ancient History Encyclopaedia, Mark Cartwright Cartwright, M. (2014, February 26). Aztec Civilisation. Retrieved November 3, 2015, from Ancient History Encyclopedia: http://www.ancient.eu/Aztec_Civilization/ What does this sculpture of Quetzacoatl tell us about the Aztecs? The statue of the Aztec god Quetzacoatl tells us that Aztecs were religious people and that they worshipped gods. This statue also tells us that they had technology back then because they have equipment to mine/gather the stone and that they also had stone carving tools. Since it is attached to a wall of some sort it might be a decoration of some sort, it might have been attached to the edges of the Aztec pyramids. 3) Positive – Question - SS Why were the Pre-Columbian Aztec civilization so successful? The Aztec empire was so successful because they had a system of agriculture which allowed them to plant loads and loads of crops in their land and their water irrigation techniques were also very helpful. The Aztecs also had a big army because they have a big population, so with the Aztecs power, the Aztecs forced people to join the army....
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...were important to world history. But he wasn’t heroic in the sense of displaying great moral qualities. Courage, while generally a good character trait, isn’t necessarily heroic or even highly honorable and praiseworthy unless it’s deployed in certain kinds of actions or causes. But he also wasn’t especially villainous in the sense of displaying particular evil qualities. His arrival in the Americas caused a great deal of death to American Indians, chiefly from disease. And it caused the subjugation and literal or virtual enslavement of the Indians. But this didn’t stem from Columbus’s being an unusually evil person. It stemmed from the brutality of the time, coupled with the contact between one culture that was much more powerful than another (and that carried many communicable diseases to which members of the other culture lacked resistance). I’m inclined to say that we shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day, precisely because such national celebrations should be focused on honoring people who did things that were both especially important and especially honorable (such as veterans, President Washington, or Martin Luther King, Jr.) and not just on people who did things that were especially important. This might conceivably include not-necessarily-good people who did things that were unambiguously good. But European expansion into the Americas alone, important as it obviously has been (especially to the U.S. and to Hispanic culture, but also to the rest of the world) doesn’t qualify...
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...North American Indians: A Comprehensive Account In her book North American Indians: A Comprehensive Account, Alice Kehoe appears to give a straightforward account of the history of North America from the point of view of the Native Americans. The textbook covers the periods from when humans first inhabited the North American continent, some fifteen thousand years ago, and continues through to the present. Due to the immense size and diversity of the North American continent, the text is written so that each chapter covers a geographical region of the continent. The regions covered range from the rich lands of Mexico, through the eastern and western United States, through the forests of Canada, and concluding at the Arctic Circle. Each chapter covers the region’s history, people, culture, ways of life, and the circumstance that caused its cultural identity to collapse. The book culminates with chapters on the trials and tribulations that the Native American nations will face as they enter into the twenty-first century and a chapter on how anthropologists view American Indians. The author emphasizes several key points and occurrences in the history of the natives of North America and their impact on the Indian populations. While her book discusses the heritages, languages, knowledge, technology, arts, and values that have been passed down through generations; it seems that Ms. Kehoe’s intention is to point out the injustices that have been perpetrated on the Native...
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...A Review of North American Indians North American Indians: A Comprehensive Account In her book North American Indians: A Comprehensive Account, Alice Kehoe appears to give a straightforward account of the history of North America from the point of view of the Native Americans. The textbook covers the periods from when humans first inhabited the North American continent, some fifteen thousand years ago, and continues through to the present. Due to the immense size and diversity of the North American continent, the text is written so that each chapter covers a geographical region of the continent. The regions covered range from the rich lands of Mexico, through the eastern and western United States, through the forests of Canada, and concluding at the Arctic Circle. Each chapter covers the region’s history, people, culture, ways of life, and the circumstance that caused its cultural identity to collapse. The book culminates with chapters on the trials and tribulations that the Native American nations will face as they enter into the twenty-first century and a chapter on how anthropologists view American Indians. The author emphasizes several key points and occurrences in the history of the natives of North America and their impact on the Indian populations. While her book discusses the heritages, languages, knowledge, technology, arts, and values that have been passed down through generations; it seems that Ms. Kehoe’s intention is to point out the injustices...
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