...civilizations of Central America. 2. Sapa Inca- the Inca was the powerful emperor and leader of the Inca people, which basically means emperor. 3. Cannibal Law 1503- In 1503 Queen Isabella of Spain, created a law that prohibited the arrest or capture of her new children stating further that, no harm or evil was permitted against their person or possessions. 4. Royal Fifth- An old royal tax that reserves to monarch for metals acquired by subjects as treasure or extracted mining, instituted in Muslim states. III. Specific Identifications: 1. Hernan Cortes- Spanish conquistador, who defeated the Aztecs and conquered Mexico, led an expedition and brought large portions of mainland Mexico. 2. Hernando De Soto- Spanish explorer and conquistador while leading the first European expedition into territory of the modern-day United State. 3. Montezuma II- Last Aztec emperor in Mexico and was overthrown and killed by Hernando Cortés. 4. Francisco Pizarro- who conquered the Inca Empire or what is now called Peru or founded the city of Lima. 5. Ferdinand & Isabel- Known for funding conquistadors to expand their empire overseas or uniting disparate kingdoms into what eventually became modern Spain. They were a religious couple in a since it took them 10 years to conquered the last Muslim stronghold to convert their land under...
Words: 601 - Pages: 3
...Mayan , Aztecs , and Inca were influential in both the past and present. There's a lot of details to this topic and supporting details. All 3 were different and there civilization was different. Nobody had the same ideas. Here are some intersting facts about the Mayans , Aztecs , and Incas. Mayan civilization flourished in central america. Aztec society was strictly hierarchical , ruled over by a godlike emperor. Inca civilization was wiped out , but they left behind plenty of evidence of their achievements. The Mayan civilization first settled in the region as early as 1500 BC , growing maize and living in small argicultural communities. The Aztec had harsh rulers ; they demanded high tributes and were constantly fighting in order to keep up a study of captives to use as a human sacrifice. The Inca city was never known to the spanish invaders , but you can visit it today. The Mayan were never a empire. Although the cities shared the same culture ,...
Words: 533 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 314 - Pages: 2
...Jalissa H. Professor Green History 101 INCAS The Incas became a definite group near present-day Cuzco around 1200CE. They were American Indian people. They were a small tribe in the Southern highlands of Peru. It was not until about 1400 tht they expanded and became one of the largest and morst tighly guarded empires the worl has ever known, under Pachacuti Inca. About 1532, the Spanish had arrived, at the time their empire was known as TYawantinsuyu. This is also known as the four Quarters, which spreed across the Northern Ecuador to the Central Chile, spanning some 3,500 kilometers in distance. Their skilld in governmebt matched their feat in engineering. They constructed roads, walls, irrigation system which is still being utilized in our society today. In 1532 the Spanish conquerors captured the Inca empires and it began to crumble. The Incas came out of conflicts between a number of competing communities in Southern Peru and Bolivia. It was the help of the military that caused success against the Chanca. This caused the Inca to believe they were under the protection of the sun God, Inti. Inti was known for being the emperor who was an earthly manifestation. The Incas thought they were on an all-powerful assignment to bring the civilization to those they had defeated. They inhabited some of the world’s arid dessert. Close by were the flat coastal lands and the jagged peaks of the Andes Mountain. The natives lived under the rule of one man, the emperor they called...
Words: 1686 - Pages: 7
...Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España, however, many years later, in his old age. Malintzin may have been afforded some privileges and education because of her status by birth. Unfortunately, for Malintzin her father died, her mother remarried and had a son; in order to pass Malintzin’s inheritance to her husband and son; her mother either sold or gave her to Mayan traders. Her death was faked by showing the townspeople the body of a dead child who had belonged to a slave. There is no way to possibly know how she was treated while being a slave. I believe she may have been useful to the Mayan traders because of her ability to learn languages. Being quite beautiful and intelligent she was given as tribute to Cortez in 1519 upon the defeat of the Cacique of Tabasco Mayans; she was among 20 young women. Malintzin then became a gift from Cortez to Alonzo Hernando Puertocarrero, a well born member of his expedition. When Puertocarrero went back to Spain, Cortez took her for himself. Besides her native tongue of Nahuatl, the common language of the Aztecs, she also learned several dialects of the Mayan languages from the time she had spent with them. Another member of Cortez expedition was a priest who could speak...
Words: 719 - Pages: 3
...It wasn’t long before this flood spilled into the heart of Mexico. The Spaniards rushed toward the majestic Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlán, along with allied Natives from Tlaxcala. Although the conquistadors captured the city, the Aztecs soon chased them out of the city. But, a disastrous smallpox epidemic swept over the city and central Mexico in 1520 and 1521. Seeing weakness, Cortés and his conquistadors again sieged Tenochtitlán and reconquered it. This victory launched an invasion of Mexico by the swift Spaniards. Mexico’s Pacific coast and Michoacán were taken over between 1522 and 1524. In 1524, Cristóbal de Olid and Pedro de Alvarado led incursions into Guatemala and Honduras. By 1532, the advanced Incan empire fell to Francisco Pizzaro’s conquistadors. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada directed his men in a conquest of the tribes living in the Columbian highlands from 1537 to 1543. The Mayans came next under the Spaniard’s crosshairs, and the invasion of the Yucatán started in 1551. Spain’s mass occupation of the Americas didn’t just include warring with Native Americans,...
Words: 565 - Pages: 3
...La Malinche played a crucial role in forming what is presently known as Mexico. During the century XVI the indigenous princess was born into an aristocratic family until she was sold “como un esclava a los aztecas.” Quickly the beauty and intelligence of La Malinche set herself apart from the other slaves. Thus when the Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortes, arrived Malinche was presented as a useful present. Her previous knowledge of the Nahuah and Mayan languages and her rapid proficiency in Spanish made her Cortes’s ideal translator and consultant. La Malinche continuously proved her loyalty throughout the Spanish conquest. Not only did Malinche warn Cortes of possible ambushes (emboscadas) but she also convinced gente to form an alliance against Montezuma, the Aztec emperor. Over time, Malinche formed a relationship with Cortes and eventually gave birth to his son. The son of Malinche and Cortes marks beginning of the mestizo race, which dominates the population of Mexico in this day in age. Malinche “fue testigo del fin de una civilizacion y el augue de otra nueva y se convirtió en la madre simbólica del Nuevo group étnico” que shapes Mexico today. The role of La Malinche in the construction of present day Mexico is both revered and condemned. Historically, the consensus was that the traitorous alliance between Malinche and the Spanish conquerors was unforgivable. Recently, however, many have attempted to rewrite the unjust reputation of la “Eva Mexicana...
Words: 1003 - Pages: 5
...Chapter 1 New World Beginnings 33,000 B.C. - A.D. 1783 225 Million Years Ago - Pangaea started to break apart. 10 Million Years Ago - North America was shaped by nature - Canadian Shield 2 Million Years Ago - Great Ice Age 35,000 Years Ago - The oceans were glaciers and the sea level dropped, leaving an isthmus connecting Asia and North America. The Bering Isthmus was crossed by people going into North America. 10,000 Years Ago - Ice started to retreat and melt, raising the sea levels and covering up the Bering Isthmus. Evidence suggests that early people may have come to the Americas in crude boats, or across the Bering Isthmus. Europeans Enter Africa People of Europe were able to reach sub-Saharan Africa around 1450 when the Portuguese invented the caravel, a ship that should sail into the wind. This ship allowed sailors to sail back up the western coast of Africa and back to Europe. The Portuguese set up trading posts along the African beaches trading with slaves and gold, trading habits that were originally done by the Arabs and Africans. The Portuguese shipped the slaves back to Spain and Portugal where they worked on the sugar plantations. When Worlds Collide Possibly 3/5 of the crops cultivated around the world today originated in the Americas. Within 50 years of the Spanish arrival in Hispaniola, the Taino natives decreased from 1 million people to 200 people due to diseases brought by the Spanish. In centuries following Columbus's...
Words: 514 - Pages: 3
...shapes, sizes and textures. Chocolate has a long history that dates back to two-thousand years, the production of chocolate is a very long and tedious process, there are many different varieties of chocolate, some chocolate has been found to be very healthy while other chocolate is very unhealthy, and chocolate is actually playing a great role in the failing economy right now. The tree that chocolate come from was discovered in the tropical rainforests of the Americas up to two thousand years ago. Chocolate actually comes from a pod that is filled with seeds that come off of a cacao tree. Chocolate started out as a popular Mesoamerican beverage and was transformed into a global sweet. The drink was mixed up mainly from the Mayan and Aztec people. The Mayans took the seeds and began to grow the trees in there own backyards. Once...
Words: 2070 - Pages: 9
...colonizing power. The Spanish conquerors came to the Americas in the service of God as well as in search of gold and glory. Due to the gold and silver deposits found in the New World, the European economy was transformed. The islands of the Caribbean Sea served as offshore bases for the staging of the Spanish invasion of the mainland Americas. By the 1530s in Mexico and the 1550s in Peru, colorless colonial administrators had replaced the conquistadores. Some of the conquistadores wed Indian women and had children. These offspring were known as mestizos and formed a cultural and biological bridge between Latin America's European and Indian races. The Conquest of Mexico In about 1519, Hernan Cortes set sail from Cuba with men and horses. Along the way, he picked up two translators - A Spanish prisoner of Mayan-speaking Indians, and an Indian slave named Malinche....
Words: 520 - Pages: 3
...dialect. Some of the more popular dialects were the Mayan dialect and the Náhuatl dialect. The northern tribes, known to be the Chichimecs, were hunters and gatherers. They were small, more isolated groups who roamed the dryer lands of the deserts and steppes. The agricultural tribes inhabited other regions of the country and allowed larger populations in their surroundings. Included in these agricultural tribes were the Mayans of the Yucatan, Totonac, Huastec, Zapotecs, Tlaxcalans, Aztecs, and others tribes. These tribes developed civilizations with highly structured temples used for religion, sacrifices, commerce, and their form of government. The Aztecs even used a sort of tribute system to collect taxes and treasures from conquered tribes. The well known symbol of the Aztecs was an eagle with a snake in its beak resting on a cactus. This Aztec symbol has become the national symbol of Mexico. In 1519, the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés, sailed along the eastern gulf coast and anchored off the island of San Juan de Ulúa. Over 500 Spanish soldiers stepped foot on the land, bringing with them a new animal species never seen by the native tribes; the horse. This was the beginning of the Spanish Conquest and the fall of the great Aztec Empire that lasted from 1519 – 1521. During a second expedition, Cortés set sail for Cozumel. There he met fellow Spaniard Gerónimo de Aguilar who had been living with the Mayans because of a shipwreck. He became the personal translator...
Words: 2093 - Pages: 9
...background: The site of advanced Amerindian civilizations, Mexico came under Spanish rule for three centuries before achieving independence early in the 19th century. A devaluation of the peso in late 1994 threw Mexico into economic turmoil, triggering the worst recession in over half a century. The nation continues to make an impressive recovery. Ongoing economic and social concerns include low real wages, underemployment for a large segment of the population, inequitable income distribution, and few advancement opportunities for the largely Amerindian population in the impoverished southern states. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time since the 1910 Mexican Revolution that the opposition defeated the party in government, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Vicente FOX of the National Action Party (PAN) was sworn in on 1 December 2000 as the first chief executive elected in free and fair elections.Geography Situated in the southwestern part of mainland North America and roughly triangular in shape, Mexico stretches more than 3000 km from northwest to southeast. Its width is varied, from more than 2000 km in the north and less than 220 km at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the south. Mexico is bordered by the United States to the north, and Belize and Guatemala to the southeast. Mexico is about one-fourth the size of the United States. Baja California in the west is an 1,250-km peninsula and forms the Gulf of California. In the east are the Gulf of Mexico...
Words: 3554 - Pages: 15
...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,...
Words: 1984 - Pages: 8
...time to look at their history and learn about it. In this paper, I’ve chosen to take a deeper, more in-depth look at Guatemala and the ways people lived prior to the 1800s in terms of transculturation, hegemony, and the Columbian Exchange. “Transculturation” is the merging and converging of cultures. According to Maureen Shea, author of Culture and Customs of Guatemala, when Christopher Columbus arrived, it was “an encounter between European and Mesoamerican worlds” (2). The Europeans had arrived to establish “dominance while the Mesoamericans fiercely resisted the invaders, especially initially”. However, they found it “advantageous to acculturate themselves to the ways of the native population”. After Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztec empire in 1521, “Cortes sent one of this most able and ruthless generals, Pedro de Alvarado, into Central America in 1523” which then he eventually “entered what came to be Guatemalan territory” (3). Alvarado, after defeating the Quiches leaders and enslaving hundreds of Quiches, “established...
Words: 1594 - Pages: 7
...None of the Spaniards were affected by the smallpox since they have encountered it before, but the natives have never been affected by such a disease. An estimated 95 percent of Native American casualties were due to disease rather than the military conquest. The smallpox was able to kill up to about 50 percent of the Incas first...
Words: 458 - Pages: 2
