Transcript File

Changing a Worldview
Today, Mexico City, the site where Tenochtitlan once stood, is one of the
largest and busiest cities in the world.
Imagine you are visiting the bustling centre of Mexico City with a Spanishspeaking friend. You have visited many excavated Aztec ruins, but all day
you have not seen a single monument honouring the conquistador Hernan
Cortes.
Then late in the day, you come to a small square with a grassy area that is
kept neat and clean. There, something catches your eye – a metal plaque,
an historical marker, set into a stone wall. You ask your friend to tell you what
the writing on the plaque says. “The place where the slavery began,” she
reads. “Here the Emperor was made prisoner in the afternoon of 13 August
1521.”
You realize you are standing on the very spot, 500 years ago, where Cortes'
men captured the last Aztec emperor.. You have discovered one of the few
monuments in the city referring to the defeat of the Aztec Empire by the
Spanish.
Q: From which perspective is the text on the historical marker written?
Q: What does this suggest about Mexico's society today?
Q: Why do you think there are few monuments about the fall of the Aztecs?
Introduction
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Think-Pair-Share: Can you
think of a person or event that
has changed your worldview?
Who? What? How?
What can cause a whole
society to make substantial
changes to its worldview?
The conquest of the Aztecs
was a huge catastrophe which
forced them to rethink the way
they looked at the world
How can losing a war affect a
conquered people's
worldview? How so?
Abandoned and Disillusioned
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During the siege of
Tenochtitlan, the
Aztecs prayed and
sacrificed to their
gods
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They were hoping the
gods would bring
them victory
Ultimately, the Aztecs
lost and suffered
greatly – many felt
the gods had
abandoned them
We are crushed to the ground; we lie
in ruins.
There is nothing but grief and
suffering in
Mexico and Tlatelolco, where once
we saw
Beauty and valour.
Have you grown weary of your
servants? Are you angry with your
servants, O Giver of Life?
Q: How does this poem show a
change in worldview for the Aztecs?
A New Religion
•
After the conquest of Tenochtitlan, Cortes
wrote to King Carlos
–
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Three years later, Franciscan monks
arrived in Veracruz
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Send “religious persons of goodly
life and character.”
Vowed to live in poverty, to never
marry and always obey superiors
They began the long trek to Mexico City
on foot
–
They were barefoot and incredibly
thin
–
It was a 500km march
Upon their arrival, Cortes knelt on the
ground and kissed the hem of their robes
–
The Aztecs were astonished at this
action
Conversion and Destruction
•
Over time, the
Franciscans and others
began to convert the
Aztecs to Catholicism
•
They also destroyed
Aztec temples, calendars
and burned any codices
they could find
Q: Why do you think this was
necessary from the
Franciscan perspective?
Q: How might this destruction
have affected Aztec sense
of identity?
We took the children of the caciques
(Aztec Chiefs) into our schools, where
we taught them to read, write, and to
chant. The children of the poorer
natives were brought together in the
courtyard and instructed there in the
Christian faith. After our teaching, one
or two brethren took the pupils to some
neighbouring temple, and, by working
at it for a few days, they levelled it to
the ground. In this way they
demolished, in a short time, all the
Aztec temples, great and small, so that
not a vestige of them remained.
- Bernardino Sahagun, Franciscan
priest
New Economy
•
The Aztecs were also forced to be
part of a new economic system
•
What elements were in the Aztec
economy before contact?
•
The encomienda system was
introduced
–
•
It was used in all of the
Spanish colonies
Each settler was allotted a piece of
land and some Aztec workers
–
These workers were not paid,
but they were supposed to
have legal rights
•
–
Education and fair
treatment
However, many workers (i.e.
slaves) were treated horribly
Encomienda
•
The Spanish Crown
Receives the “king's fifth”
Governor or Viceroy
Collects taxes, leader in the
colony
Spanish Conquistadors
And Settlers
Given land with Aztec workers, they
keep the remainder of their profits.
The Aztec People
They do all the actual work on the farms and in the
mines. They only receive basic necessities.
Laws were passed in
Spain to stop
mistreatment, but the
colonies were so far
away that it was hard to
enforce
Q: Who do you think this
system benefitted?
Q: What effect(s) did this
arrangement have on
Aztec identity and their
ability to create wealth
for themselves?