...1. What factors enabled the Spaniards to take over the Aztec and Inca empires? The factors that enabled the Spaniards to take over the Aztec and Inca empires were that all three were similar in administrative structures and had a similar link between secular and religious power. Moreover, the people of the Aztec empire hated the Aztec conquerors, which made it easier for the Spanish to make allies to overthrow the Aztec. Also, the Spaniards benefited from total chaos due to disease. 2. What is the mita? How did the Incas use it? How did the Spaniards use it? Mita is the forced labor draft imposed by the Inca then the Spaniards on the indigenous people. The Inca used it to build roadways and public buildings. The Spanish used 1/7th of the adult...
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...How did civilizations prior to 1600 obtain, consolidate and maintain power in Africa and the Americas? Africa, is the third continent by its extension after Asia and America located between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. On the other hand this America is the second largest continent of the earth and extends from the Arctic Ocean to the islands of Diego Ramirez. It is possible to be said that these two continents had enough to see in the creation of the Maya empire, Azteca and Inca, since in specific places of these lands they themselves developed their civilizations. The Mayan Empire, a civilization developed by the Mayan peoples, was developed between the years 250 and 900AD in Mexico in the Yucatan Peninsula. The Maya were very skilled...
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...Discuss these reasons. There were multiple reasons the Spanish conquered the Aztecs. Due to Aztec mythology, Cortes, the Spanish conquistador, was god. The main reason for the Aztecs’ loss was the huge difference in weaponry. While the Spanish had cannons, the Aztecs were still using clubs, spears and arrows. Therefore, the Aztecs were clearly outmatched. How did the Cortes, with only 600 men, 16 horses and a few cannons conquer the Aztec empire with millions? Cortes had an Indian woman who became his interpreter, and on the way he fought into Tenochtitlan, he allied with the local tribes Montezuma had oppressed. Later, he formed an army of thousands. However, Cortes did not directly attack the empire, instead, he was welcomed into the heart of Tenochtitlan by Montezuma because he was believed to be a god. Cortes was given gold and silver jewellery when he was welcomed, but one week later, he repaid the generosity by chaining Montezuma up in his palace. In addition to this, the Aztec sacrificed approximately 20,000 people each year, and that was a cost of huge numbers who could have...
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...conquest in the Americas starting around the 1400s. Hernán Cortez was a landowner in Cuba. He came to the coast of Mexico planning to conquer the Aztecs. As he traveled to the capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan, he conquered people who were in his way. His army grew as he captured people such as the Native Americans. Montezuma was the leader of the Aztecs and had conquered several city states in order to grow his empire. Under his leadership, the aztecs built the powerful city of Tenochtitlan. These two leaders were alike in the ways that they conquered villages and people but are different when it comes to personal life. Reading about these two leaders gave me the impression that they would do anything to get what they want. To me, it seemed like they did not care if their actions were right or wrong, as long as they were the ones coming out on top. Not only were Cortes and Montezuma alike because they were both leaders, they were also similar in the way that they led their people. Hernan Cortes captured anyone who was in his way when he was trying to get to Tenochtitlan. For example, he captured and befriended some Native Americans. Montezuma...
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...Skylar Holly IAS8 Ancient Americas To what extent were civilization of the Americas shaped their environment? I will be focusing on three different civilizations, the Incas, the Aztec empire and the mound builders. Each civilization had different environmental settings that shaped their way of life. Hence, the civilizations of the Americas were largely shaped by their environment. The Mound Builders, a North American tribe, were known for building mounds out of mud. These mounds were valued and served as temples and houses. They also used complex earthwork mounds to build river systems for food and agriculture. They made use of their environment by having their diets consist mostly of fish and deer, as well as available plants. This shows...
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...Question: Explain the development and the nature of the Byzantine institutions (church and state), social and urban life, and cultural achievements? Answer: Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire from about the 5th century until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. (The Roman Empire during this period is conventionally known as the Byzantine Empire.) The term can also be used for the art of states which were contemporary with the Byzantine Empire and shared a common culture with it, without actually being part of it, such as Bulgaria, Serbia or Russia, and also Venice, which had close ties to the Byzantine Empire despite being in other respects part of western European culture. It can also be used for the art of peoples of the former Byzantine Empire under the rule of the Ottoman Empire after 1453. In some respects the Byzantine artistic tradition has continued in Greece, Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day. The finest work, the most elegant, and the most accomplished technically, was, naturally enough, associated with the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, which was the very hub of the civilized world from the foundation of the city as capital around 330 till its conquest by the Turks in 1453. But there were other great centers too. In Rome, Milan, Ravenna, and elsewhere in the West works of the greatest importance that were in no way provincial were executed in the early years of Christendom...
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...American Empires assignment 15.1 1. The Spanish viceroy would have requested a history of the Aztecs to have a better understanding of the people him and his soldiers would be interacting with. 2. The purpose founding myths is to give the origin of that society, and to give a reason behind why the place exsisted. 15.2 1. Like the Aztecs some societies practiced the cannibalism and human sacrifice for religion, believing that their gods needed the human blood to survive and continue to be pleased with the people of their land. After the heart and blood was sacrificed they saw the body as holy so to them it is understandable why they would want to eat the left over body. But other societies practiced it because it was a source of food, or because when a tribe won a war against another they would eat the flesh of a powerful warrior (of the opposing tribe) thinking that they would gain the skills of the dead warrior. 2. The fact that the source comes from after the Spanish conquest does not particularly change how I approach it mainly because there is other proof of their sacrifices other than the Spanish reports. 3. A way you can tell that the person who drew the picture had never been the Americas is because the Aztecs did not have buildings that had characteristics of roman buildings! 15.3 1. One technological achievement is they had to have drainage systems for high altitude and it being in the mountains they were bound to get some wet weather! Also since it...
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...Aztec Questions and Statements - 1 Statements 1) Positive – Statement - SS 2) Positive – Statement - SS The Aztecs ruled over 500 small states and their population was over 5 to 6 million people. They expanded by conquest or commerce. Conquest is when you take over people by force. Commerce is when you take over people by negotiation/deals. The city of Tenochtitlan at its peak had over 140 000 people and the city was the most populated city in Mesoamerica. The Aztecs, the Texcobans and the Tacubans formed an alliance to conquer the Tepanecs’ city, Azcapotzalco. Tepanec is later then taken over by the Spanish to form their new colony of Cuba. 3) Positive – Statement - SS The Aztecs had a legend. The Aztecs believed that Huitzilopochtli,...
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...‘Assess the 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...
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...across the Atlantic Ocean, he was looking for such a route. Instead, he landed in the Americas. Columbus thought he had reached the Indies. In time, Europeans would realize that he had found what they called the ”New World.” European nations soon rushed to claim lands in the Americas for themselves. Early explorers often suffered terrible hardships. In 1520, Ferdinand Magellan set out with three ships to cross the Pacific Ocean from South America. He had guessed, correctly, that the Indies lay on the other side of the Pacific. But Magellan had no idea how vast the ocean really was. He thought his crew would be sailing for a few weeks at most. Instead, the crossing took three months. While the ships were still at sea, the crew ran out of food. One sailor wrote about this terrible time. “We ate biscuit… swarming with worms…. We drank yellow water that had been putrid [rotten] for days... and often we ate sawdust from boards.” Why did explorers brave such dangers? In this reading, you will discover some of the reasons for the Age of Exploration. Then you will learn about the voyages of explorers from Portugal, Spain, and other European countries. You will also learn about the impact of their discoveries on Europe and on the lands they explored. 2 © Teachers’ Curriculum Institute Reasons for the Age of Exploration hy...
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...The discovery of “New World” did not begin with Christopher Columbus and colonizing did not end because of Roanoke. Despite the methods of colonizing, the Spanish and English both raced to the Americas to expand their empires and open up the world. The colonies established by the Spanish and the English were prosperous; however, their tactics for establishing these new regions were both akin and different. To begin with, the manner that the Spanish colonized the “New World” was different from the approach that the English colonized. The Spanish were cruel and brutal to the indigenous peoples. According The Black Legend, the Spanish were vindictive and they massacred the Aztec people by the thousands. Or they killed the people indirectly by smallpox and/or other diseases. The article continues to support this claim by stating "The 1492 arrival of the Spanish in the New World "was an invasion" fueled by greed and leading to "an annihilation" (The Black Legend). The Indians weren't the only people aware of the Spanish cruelty either, William of Orange describes that Spain, "committed such horrible excesses that all barbarities, cruelties and tyrannies ever perpetrated” (The Black Legend). William of Orange could not help the Natives suffering under the colonizing efforts of the conquistadors, because the other European countries were inferior to the Spanish power. Bernal Diaz, a soldier in the army of Cortes, wrote, "We came here to serve God, and also get rich", verifying that...
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...Chapter 1: Colliding Worlds, 1450-1700 Essential Questions: How were the economic systems of the Native Americans and the Europeans the same and how were they different? The economic systems between the Native Americans and the Europeans were the same by the way they were structured both had rulers and they were different by What impact did environment play in the development of Native American cultures? Was the Native American belief system (religion) more similar or different from the European belief system? Explain your answer. What led to the rise of the slave trade? Key People, Concepts, and Ideas: Term Significance Bering Strait A 100 mile wide land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska. Then the glaciers melted and the rising ocean...
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...become the worlds past superpower. There were two in fact in the European continent and these included England and Spain, which at that time were some of the best colonization’s the people had ever seen. At times they would go into fights and argue because of how good and powerful they were. Although England and Spain had their differences, they both were just as hungry as the other and that strived them to go on looking for new things, like discovering...
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...Spring Break Work Ch. 13 Section 1 1) Sui Wendi: First emperor of the Sui dynasty centralized government, restored order, created a new legal code, reformed Bureaucracy Tang Taizong: The founder of the Tang Dynasty, he expanded China to include all that the Han had had and more. Wu Zhao: The only woman to ever declare herself empress, she was a member of the Tang Dynasty. Grand Canal: The 1,100-mile waterway linking the Yellow and the Yangzi Rivers. It was begun in the Han period and completed during the Sui Empire. Zhao Kuangyin: Founder of Song dynasty; originally a general following fall of Tang; took title of Taizu; failed to overcome northern Liao dynasty that remained independent. Li Bo: Most famous poet of the Tang era; blended images of the mundane world with philosophical musings. 2) tributary state: A country that pays tribute in money or goods to a more powerful nation Pagoda: Buddhist temples with many-storied towers; this was adapted from the Chinese 3) The dynasties returned the Middle Kingdom back to its old glory. a) Under the Tang and Song dynasties the emperor ruled over a splendid court filled with aristocratic families. The two main classes of society were the gentry, wealthy landowners, which valued scholarship more than physical labor, and the peasantry, who worked the land and lived off of what they produced. Then the merchants had a lower status in society. Merchants had such a low status in society because according to Confucianism their...
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...religion and the drive to explore and expand territory. The first motive was wealth. Although Genghis Khan was best known for his bloody legacy, he had done wonders to improve the trade across Eurasia. He provided the security for travelers to cross what is now known as the Silk Road. This trade route extended over 5000 miles on land and sea with interconnected trade routes that connected with Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. The world had developed a taste for the spices and silks that had been brought back by the crusaders, and now men saw this as an opportunity to make their fortune. They traveled the Silk Road to bring back to the items that were in great demand and brought a large profit (Rossabi, n.d.). However, the Mongol empire eventually fell. China became Buddhist and a rising Islamic threat shut down travel on the Silk Road. Trade was restricted to the sea. Finally, in 1452, Constantinople, the last refuge for European trading in the East, was conquered by the Muslims. Europe fell into what might be considered a depression. Asian goods were no longer reaching the market even as the demand for these goods increased. The Italians had established trading posts in the Mediterranean and along the coast of the Black Sea. They...
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