Transcript ( One Reed) 1519 - SCF Faculty Site Homepage

The Encounter
Hispanic Exploration and
Conquest
1492 -- 1542
•
In one generation Hispanics explored and
colonized over half the earth & waters
• During the period of exploration, in one
generation, approximately 300,000 Spaniards had
emigrated to the New World
• They established over 200 cities and towns
throughout the Americas.
• In one generation Hispanics acquired more new
territory than Rome conquered in five centuries .
Major Hispanic
Explorations and Conquests
• 1492- 1504: Columbus’s 4 voyages to New World
• 1500: Pedro Cabral discovered Brazil
• 1501-02: Amerigo Vespucci (Italian) after accompanying
Spanish conquistadors decided that what they had discovered
was not Asia, but new continents
• 1508-21: Juan Ponce de Leon explored Cuba, Jamaican and
Florida –Cuban conquest: 1508
• 1513 -Vasco de Nuñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of
Panama and named the Pacific ocean
Detailed chronology of Spanish explorations and conquests
Major Hispanic
Explorations and Conquests
• 1519- 22: Ferdinand Magellan's crew & ship,
completed voyage of circumnavigation.
• 1519-21: Hernando Cortez’s conquest of the Aztecs in
Mexico
• 1531: Pizarro’s conquest of the Incas in Peru
• 1540: Vasquéz de Coronado explores California,
Kansas, Arizona, New México, Texas, Oklahoma.
Detailed chronology of Spanish explorations and conquests
Central American Civilizations at
the time of the Conquest
MAYANS
• Although there was never such a thing as a Maya Empire,
the diverse peoples and politico-religious formations that in
the past occupied Yucatán and modern day Belize, Chiapas,
Guatemala and Honduras, all had common cultural
characteristics:
– a highly developed calendar
– a rich complex writing system, and sophisticated mathematics..
• Archeologists and historians recognize several periods in
the history of these cultures:
– Preclassic 2000 bce-100ce
– Classic 100 -900 ce
– Postclassic 900 ad-1500 ce
MAYA Classic Era
ca. 300-900 ce
“Shield Jaguar”
Lord of Yaxchitlan
Ritual Bloodletting
by Nobles
Sun God on mosaic collar
Barbed rope
Blood-spotted paper
Basket
Mayan Royal Audience
The Great Ballgame
• Olmec lords created a ritual ballgame.
• A rubber ball was hit back and forth between two teams.
The individuals could only return the ball by striking it
with their hip, thigh or a cushioned belt adorned around the
waist.
• The ballgame became so important that by 1500 bce an
Olmec ruler’s costume consisted of ballgame equipment as
well as rulership emblems and religious emblems of
fertility.
Mayan
Ball
Game
Mayan
Hieroglyphics
 The unit of the Maya writing
system is the glyphic cartouche,
which is equivalent to the words
and sentences of a modern
language.
 Maya cartouches included at least
three or four glyphs and as many
as fifty.
 There is no Maya alphabet.
 Writing considered to be a sacred
gift from the gods.
 Knowledge of reading and writing
was jealously guarded by a small
elite class, who believed that they
alone could interact directly with
the gods
• Maya glyphs were also
painted on codices made
of either deer hide or
bleached fig-tree paper
that was then covered
with a thin layer of plaster
and folded accordionstyle.
Codices
• Record rituals,
chronologies and
important events.
• Most were burned by the
Spanish during the 16th c.
4 Extant Codices:
Dresden, Madrid, Paris, Grolier
Popul Vuh
• Book of Council
• Sacred book of Quiche Maya
• Lords of the great kingdom of Quiche
had a way of seeing what could not be
seen with the physical eye.
• Their guide was Popul Vuh, a book that
could allow the lords to know past and
future events.
• The book speaks of occurrences before
the first sunrise.
Madrid
Codex
Popul Vuh
• Popul Vuh is titled “The
Dawn of Life” because
it describes the creation
of the morning star
along with the sun and
moon.
• Authors of Popul Vuh
were from three
families of lords, the
Cauecs, Great Houses
and Lord Quiches.
• All three families once
controlled the Quiche
kingdom.
The Hero Twins
• An imposter god named Gukup-Caqix appeared and claimed to be
the sun, moon and light all rolled into one.
• He was a giant with a sparkling face adorned with silver and
emeralds.
• The gods realized they had to get rid of this imposter before they
could continue their time on the humans.
• It was the hero twins, Hunapu and Xbalanque, who defeated the
imposter.
Hero Twins
• They also believed they had a duty to go into the
underworld and revenge their father’s death and challenge
the lords of the underworld to a ballgame.
• This ballgame had started many years ago when their
father, Hun-Hunapu, had not only been defeated but had
his head chopped off and hung on a tree in Xibalba as a
warning to any other challengers.
• In honor of their victory over the underworld and the evil
lords of Xibalba, the hero twins were reborn as the sun and
moon and they have enjoyed the new earth in light ever
since.
The Lords of Xibalba view the Ballgame
Aztecs
1350-1519
Aztecs
1350-1519
 Aztecs came into the Valley of Mexico during the
12th and 13th century and rose to be the greatest
power in the Americas by the time the Spaniards
arrived in the 16th century.
 According to myth, Huitzilopochtli told Tenoch to
lead his people to a place of refuge on a swampy
island in Lake Texcoco. When they reached their
destination, they were to look for an eagle perched on
a cactus.
 At that location, they were to build their city and
honor Huitzilopochtli with human sacrifices. The city
they built was called Tenochtitlán, the city of
Tenoch.
Aztec Foundation Myth
Tenochtitlan
Tenochtitlán
• Its site had been
fixed by the god
Huitzilopochtli,
who sent a sign
in the form of a
great eagle
Codex Mendoza
Offerings
to the Gods
• Images of the gods
Huehueteotl and Tlaloc,
presided over most of the
offerings found in the
Templo Mayor.
• Representing fire and
water respectively, they
symbolized the concept
of "burning water," a
metaphor for warfare
Human
Sacrifice
 Human sacrifice was conducted on a sacrificial stone with a flint
knife
 The most precious thing was offered, namely blood and life
itself, so that by way of death life arose anew.
Aztec Creativity
• Aztec art often reflects
the culture’s fierceness
• Coatlicue, goddess of
the earth embodies
Aztec belief in the
creative principal
Aztec Poetry
• “Flower-songs”
• Celebrated warriors
– Endurance of warriors
on the battlefield
– Endurance of women in
childbirth
At Aztec feasts guests were presented with flowers,
Florentine Codex,
late 16th century
The Conquest of Mexico
During the year Ce Acatl ( One Reed)
1519
Hernán
Cortés
• April 21, 1519 (Good Friday),
•
•
•
•
Cortés landed on an island off
eastern Gulf Coast with 11 galleons,
550 soldiers and sailors, and 16
horses
Staked claim for God and King and
founded a settlement Villa Rica de la
Vera Cruz
Sailed to Cozumel and rescued de
Aguilar from the Mayas – valuable
Mayan interpreter
Took Malintzin/Marina as Nahuatl
interpreter and mistress
Burnt the remainder of his fleet and
proceeded on to Tenochtitlán,
making allies of tribes hostile to the
Aztecs.
La Malinche
c. 1505- c.1529
• Malinalli (Malintzin)
was born to a noble
family, but sold to a
Tabascan chief by her
mother to ensure her
half-brother’s
inheritance
• Brought from her
native Nahuatl-speaking
home of Veracruz to the
Yucatan, she learned the
Maya language
La Malinche
• Given to the Spaniards by the Maya, she was baptized as
Marina in 1519.
• She began to work for the Spanish as an interpreter
between the Nahuatl and Maya and quickly learned Spanish.
La Malinche
• She became Cortés’s
interpreter, confidante
and mistress, called
"la lengua de Cortés"
(Cortés's tongue, or
interpreter)
• Bore him a son,
Martín, the first
mestizo of historical
note
• “After God we owe
this conquest of New
Spain to Doña
Marina.” – Cortés
José Clemente Orozco
Cortés and Malinche
La Malinche
Malina, the homonym of the
Spanish name, Marina, became
Malintzin (the Nahuatl suffix "tzin" denotes respect).
Then, attempting to pronounce this
Nahuatl name, Spanish-speakers
rendered the soft Nahuatl tzin-é
sound as ch; the result was
Malinche.
Today Mexican Spanish-speakers
use the word "malinchista" to
mean "one who prefers foreign
things," and for many Malinche
is synonymous with "traitor."
Others view Doña Marina, the
mother of mestizo children as
the Mother of the Mexican
Nation
Diego Rivera,
murales del Palacio Nacional
Malinche
Here I am
in the defendant’s seat
you call me traitor
whom have I betrayed?
I was still a child
when my father –
my stepfather really –
fearing his son
would not inherit the lands
there were mine
took me to the south
and gave me to strangers
who did not speak my language.
I grew up in that tribe
Serving as a slave
And the white men arrived
And they gave me to the whites.
What do you mean
By the word treason?
Was I not the one betrayed?
Which of my people defended me
when I was raped by the first white man,
when I was forced to kneel
and kiss his phallus,
when I felt my body sundered
and with it my soul?
You demand that I be loyal
even though I’ve been unable
to be loyal to myself.
Before I flowered
my love withered:
a child in my womb
who never saw the light.
How did I betry my homeland?
My homeland is my people
and they abandoned me.
To whom am I responsible?
To whom?
Tell me.
To Whom.
Claribel Alegria (1924-)
Translated by D.J. Flakoll
Moctezuma
17th C. portrait, artist unknown
• Emperor of the Aztecs,
Moctezuma was aware of
Cortés’s approach
• He sent Cortés a cordial
message and gifts but
warned against approaching
Tenochtitlan
• The gold and finery whetted
the Spaniards’ greed
• Although Moctezuma
commanded a huge army, he
feared to greet Cortés with a
hostile force because of
ancient legend
The Prophecy of
Quetzalcoatl’s
Return
• Ancient legend
prophesied that
Quetzalcoatl, the
Plumed Serpent, the
bearded, fair-skinned
Toltec ruler-god
would return in the
year Ce Acatl to
reclaim his kingdom.
http://www.cedarcreekclay.com/
Omens of Return
• Lake Texcoco flooded Tenochtitlan
• The temple of Huitzlopochtli caught fire
• The voice of woman wailing in the night
disturbed the city
• Immense comets shot through the sky
• A column of fire appeared every night for
a year
Tenochtitlán
A great white city, lightly moored to the shores by three long
causeways, floating on a shimmering lake.
Tenochtitlán
• The last city the Spanish had seen was
Seville, the largest in Spain, population:
60,000.
• London, Europe’s largest city, had a
population of 100,000.
• Tenochtitlán was almost four times as
large as Seville, with thousands more
people clustered in the "suburbs" fringing
the mainland.
• Tenochtitlán, unlike the cramped muddle
of houses, streets, and byways that made up
medieval Spanish towns, had been planned.
Tenochtitlán
• Priests were everywhere. Like
Spanish priests, they wore long dark
robes. But the robes were stained
with human blood, and their long
hair was clotted with it, and while
some of the blood was their own,
most came from the human victims
they slew daily.
• An essential part of the rituals
conducted in the shrines crowning
the shining pyramids was human
sacrifice.
Sacrifice of Prisoners
To Huitzlipotchli
Códice Magliabecchi.,
siglo XVI
The Beginning of the End
• Cortés met little resistence and on November 8, 1519 he crossed
the causeway over Lake Texcoco to enter Tenochtitlán.
• Moctezuma personally went out to meet Cortés and his men.
Doña Marina interpreted what Moctezuma said for Cortés:
"Lord, you are weary. The journey has tired you, but now you
have arrived on earth. You have come to your city of México."
• Then Cortés responded through Marina: "Tell Moctezuma that
we are his friends and that there is nothing to fear. We have
waited long to meet with him." (Florentine Codex)
• Within a week Cortés seized the emperor, put him in chains and
held him hostage.
Death of Moctezuma
• Cortés had to leave Tenochtitlan to deal with a
Spanish rival
• In his absence, the Spanish attacked the citizens
during a religious festival
• The Aztecs rebelled
• Cortes tried to use Moctezuma to appeal for
peace, but the people hurled stones and arrows at
him
• The Spaniards threw the body of Moctezuma into
a canal
La Noche Triste
• Cuitláhuac, Moctezuma’s successor,
besieiged the Spaniards
• June 30, 1520, the Spaniards tried to escape
but were attacked by the Aztecs – hundreds
died
• Cuitláhuac died of smallpox, succeeded by
Cuauhtemoc
• Cortés regrouped with Tlaxcalan allies
Cuauhtemoc
Last Aztec Emperor
•
•
•
•
•
January, 1521, Cortés reentered
valley of Mexico and demanded
surrender
Cuauhtemoc refused
Cortés attacked with a newly built
fleet and besieged Tenochtitlan
After a valiant resistance and an
80 day seige, the Aztecs, overcome
by smallpox and famine,
surrendered
The Spaniards lay the Aztec
Empire to waste, burned
Tenochtilan, and levelled the
temples.