Transcript Worldviews in Contact

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New religion
New economy
Creating the colony
The Independence
Movement
Mexico today
 Loss
of the war
• Spanish conquest forced Aztecs to change
their society
 Disease
• Smallpox epidemic forces society to change
because of loss of workers
 Loss
of religion
• The loss of the war and onset of smallpox
made the Aztecs question their religion
Aztecs felt their gods had abandoned them
during the siege of Tenochtitlan
 Cortes requested “religious persons of goodly
life and character.”
 After three years , priests of the Franciscan
order came off a Spanish ship at Veracruz
 Franciscan priests vowed to live in the
poorest conditions, never to get married, and
always to obey their superiors without
question
 Cortes kissed their robes which amazed the
Aztecs as they had never seen Cortes treat
anyone with such respect
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 Franciscans
converted many surviving
Aztecs to Catholicism
• The Franciscans destroyed the Aztec temples and
codices
 Just
as some Muslims and Jews had
practiced their faith in secret in
Christian Spain, some Aztecs continued
some of their religious practices after
conversion
 Catholic priests and missionaries take
over the education of the children
• Instruction is based on Catholicism
 Aztec
society had been based on war,
farming, trading and tribute to the gods
 Spanish introduced the encomienda system
 Similar to the systems used in other areas
under Spanish Control
 With each piece of land the Spanish were
entitled to a certain number of Aztec
workers
 The landowners were supposed to treat
them well and educate them in the Christian
religion, but most did not
 Economy
changed to
a ladder system with
the Spanish at the
top and the Aztecs at
the bottom
THE SPANISH CROWN
takes 20% of all gold and valuables
found in New Spain
GOVERNOR OR VICEROY
Collects taxes that support him, the
colonial government and the Spanish
crown
SPANISH
CONQUISTADORS
Given encomiendas with Aztec workers,
after paying taxes, they keep the
remaining profits
THE AZTEC PEOPLE
Do the actual work on the farms and
in mines for little more than the
basic needs
 Had
failed to deliver on the riches he had
promised to his loyal followers
 He put in place two attempts to solve this
problem
 Encomienda system
• Gave the settlers Aztec “slaves” and land
 Cortes passed the marriage law
• Every Spaniard had to bring his wife from
Spain or marry an Indigenous woman
• Failure to marry within six months meant
the loss of their encomienda
 Cortes
had shifted focus from shortterm goals, finding gold and
returning to Spain – to the long term
goal of colonizing Spain
 The children that resulted from the
unions of the Spanish and Aztecs were
known as the Mestizo
 Today Mestizo’s are the largest
portion of the Spanish population
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r
lCpEFdpXEA
ETHNIC ORIGIN
Mestizos 60%
Indigenous peoples
30%
European decent
9%
other 1%
 King
Carlos of Spain took the
governorship of New Spain
from Cortes
 Appointed Don Antonio de
Mendoza
 Became the Viceroy (royal
representative in New Spain)
 Widely believed King Carlos
feared that Cortes would
declare himself king of the
colony and separate from Spain
Mendoza deliberately limited
Cortez’s power and kept him
away from Mexico City
 The purpose of appointing the
viceroy was to ensure the
colony was under the direct
control of the Spanish crown
 King’s purpose of the colony
was to keep the flow of gold,
silver and farm products going
to Spain to pay for European
wars

 The
people of New Spain,
could soon see what was in
the interests of the King was
not necessarily good for them
 While wealth was flowing
back to Spain, shortages of
roads, schools, housing were
widespread in New Spain
 Disconnect arose from every
class of society
 The
indigenous peoples were the descendants
of the Aztecs
 Many Mestizos grew up in great poverty and
felt Spain was exploiting Mexico and giving
nothing in return
 Jose Maria Morelas was the Mestizo leader of
the Mexican independence movement in the
early 19th century
 His army of indigenous people was better
prepared than the Spanish forces often
 The Spanish eventually captured and
executed Morales
 Today he is a national hero in Mexico
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XGZ9-jGqZM&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIWPlbs_YXs&feature=relmfu&
 The
descendants of Spanish settlers in
Mexico were called Creoles
 They were the most privileged and wealthy
class in Mexico
 Tired of increasing taxes and inspired by the
French and US revolutions, they came to
support the independence movement
 Discontent was present across society, so in
1821 Mexico became independent from Spain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFNHayrnav8&
 an
estimated population of over 112 million, it
is the eleventh most populous country and the
most populous Spanish-speaking country.
 Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one
states and a Federal District, the capital city.
 Mexico has one of the world's largest
economies, and is considered both a regional
power and middle power.
 In addition, Mexico was the first Latin
American member of the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development
OECD in 1994
 Mexico
has the 13th largest nominal GDP
and the 11th largest by purchasing power
parity.
 GDP annual average growth for the period
of 1995–2002 was 5.1%.
 Foreign debt decreased to less than 20% of
GDP.
 From 2000 to 2004, the population in poverty
has decreased from 24.2% to 17.6% in the
general population and from 42% to 27.9%
in rural areas.
 According
to a 2008 UN report the average
income in a typical urbanized area of Mexico
was $26,654, a rate higher than advanced
nations like South Korea or Taiwan
 the average income in rural areas just miles
away was only $8,403, a rate comparable to
developing countries such as Russia or
Turkey
 In 2006, trade with the United States and
Canada accounted for almost 50% of its
exports and 45% of its imports.
 Mexico is the largest North American autoproducing nation, recently surpassing
Canada and the U.S.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJl-w3ECwGY&
HOT BUTTON ISSUE: NAFTA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0r2Owo5emA&feature=related&
 Mexico
is the twenty-third highest
tourism spender in the world, and the
highest in Latin America.
 The vast majority of tourists come to
Mexico from the United States and
Canada.
 Many other visitors come from Europe
and Asia.
 A small number of tourists also come
from other Latin American countries.
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
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SPz_Jpf3aA&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcEse_9US8c&feature=relmfu&
Mexico represents the largest
source of immigration to the
United States.
 About 9% of the population
born in Mexico is now living
in the United States.
 28.3 million Americans listed
their ancestry as Mexican as
of 2006
 Mexico is home to the largest
number of U.S. citizens
abroad


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-cWmzLAqbE&
HOT BUTTON ISSUE : MEXICAN IMMIGRATION