Transcript aztec review

AZTEC / SPAIN REVIEW
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Both the Spanish and the Aztec worldviews were based on expansion
through conquest. (303-304)
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The Aztec took payments from those they conquered in the form of
tributes (goods, labour and military), taxes, captives for human sacrifice,
and profits from trade throughout their empire.
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The Spanish exploited their colonies for gold and other valuables,
converted indigenous inhabitants to Christianity, gained wealth for
themselves (conquistadors) and Spain, forced the indigenous people to
provide labour to benefit the conquistadors, and set up themselves as the
top of the political, economic, and social hierarchy.
In Spain, Catholicism was not simply a social system. It was very much
about power and politics. Violence and religious intolerance were
demonstrated through:
-Reconquista: Muslims and Jews were violently expelled from Spain.
-Spanish Inquisition: Judgment and violence against those who were
accused of not strictly following the Roman Catholic faith.
-Forced conversion of indigenous peoples and destruction of other religious
monuments or practices.
• The violent Aztec practice of human
sacrifice shocked and appalled the
Spanish.
• Moctezuma’s belief that Cortez could be
the god Quetzalcoatl returning to claim his
thrown of the empire led to the fatal error of
inviting the Spanish into Tenochtitlan.
• The conquistadors had firearms (guns,
cannon), superior steel armour and horses.
• The Spanish fought to kill and many were
hardened to battle during the Reconquista.
• Spanish ethnocentrism was a major part of
the Spanish worldview.
• The Aztec fought with more rudimentary
weapons.
• The Aztec did not fight to kill; instead the
goal was to take prisoners.
• Aztec ethnocentrism was a major part of the
Aztec worldview.
Tenochtitlan (tay-noach-tee-TLAHN)
The city of the Aztecs, Tenochtitlan, had up to 150 000 residents
with a population of over one million in the surrounding area. By
1500, it was larger than any city in Europe.
The Spanish were awed by the large population, beauty,
architecture, and wealth of Tenochtitlan.
• Cortes disobeyed Valasquez, the
governor of Cuba, to sail to Mexico,
where he had heard an ancient and
wealthy civilization existed.
• Cortes burned his ships to force his
men to go with him and explore the
interior with the intent of conquest.
• Cortez made alliances with groups that
had been previously conquered by the
Aztecs.
• After being invited into Tenochtitlan,
Cortes took Moctezuma hostage—leaving
the Aztec in disarray and confusion.
Violence and conquest followed.
The two largest kingdoms of
Spain were joined with the
marriage of Ferdinand V of
Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.
Spanish conquistadors played a
major part in the Reconquista—
a battle to claim all land in the
Iberian Peninsula for the
Catholic Church and to drive out
the Muslim Moors.
Ferdinand and Isabella sought to enrich Spain by establishing and
exploiting colonies. Explorers like Columbus and Conquistadors like
Cortes fulfilled this role. Their main economic motive was to obtain
gold and silver from the colonies.