Agenda 2/5. Talk about the essay Aztec and Inca!! Conquest of the Americas. Homework: Quiz Friday! Notes due!

Transcription

1 Agenda 2/5 Talk about the essay Aztec and Inca!! Conquest of the Americas Homework: Quiz Friday! Notes due!

2 Colonization of the The The Americas Empires and Encounters

3 What is the image of the Pre-Columbian Americas? Think about it in your brains. How are native cultures viewed and taught in history classes?

4

5 The reality: Description of Tenochtitlán by Hernando Cortés. "This great city of Tenochtitlán is built on the salt lake, and no matter by what road you travel there are two leagues from the main body of the city to the mainland. There are four artificial causeways leading to it, and each is as wide as two cavalry lances. The city itself is as big as Seville or Córdoba. The main streets are very wide and very straight; some of these are on the land, but the rest and all the smaller ones are half on land, half canals where they paddle their canoes. All the streets have openings in places so that the water may pass from one canal to another. Over all these openings, and some of them are very wide, there are bridges.... There are, in all districts of this great city, many temples or houses for their idols. They are all very beautiful buildings.... Amongst these temples there is one, the principal one, whose great size and magnificence no human tongue could describe, for it is so large that within the precincts, which are surrounded by very high wall, a town of some five hundred inhabitants could easily be built. All round inside this wall there are very elegant quarters with very large rooms and corridors where their priests live. There are as many as forty towers, all of which are so high that in the case of the largest there are fifty steps leading up to the main part of it and the most important of these towers is higher than that of the cathedral of Seville...."

6 The Aztec The city featured numerous canals, causeways, and bridges. Public works projects such as extensive temple projects and the agricultural innovation of chinampas. Aztec leaders waged wars to gain territory renowned for their extensive artificial island gardens and utilized their construction techniques to encircle and expand the city of Tenochtitlan.

7 The Aztec

8 The Aztec

9 THE INCA Aka, Mrs. Pool s Favorite Empire of All Time

10 The Inca Inca means elite the people are the Quechua people The Inca had no slaves. Or currency. Or written language. Or law code outside of three basic principles. o -Those who broke one of the three main principles - don t steal, don t lie, don t cheat - were publicly executed in city squares. 15 million people at the civilizations height, and they made do with bartering and the mit a system, which was a mandatory system of labor to the state.

11 The Inca Inca stone work made without mortar Buildings could withstand earthquakes Made them all without significant beasts of burden - only the llama and alpaca, which both can only carry 40 pounds The Inca figured out the earth was round and that it rotated around the sun far before Galileo and Copernicus!

12 The Inca: cultural Inca rarely practiced human sacrifice o Only after bad natural disasters or on the holiest day (winter solstice) Sacrifices came exclusively from the Inca class o Elite were closer to the gods and could better appease them. Sacrifices were humane o Sedation and exposure - leave them on the mountain to succumb to the elements (or, in some cases, would sedate and then club the person to bring about quicker death).

13 The Inca: cultural The three holiest animals in Inca religion are the puma, the condor, and the snake. o Puma represents this earth and power. o Condor represents the heavens and freedom o Snake represents the underworld and wisdom.

14 The Inca: cultural Cusco, the political head of the Inca, was designed to resemble a puma. Machu Picchu, the Vatican City to Cusco s Rome, was designed to resemble a condor in flight. The Urubamba River, mirrored by the muya, or the celestial river of the Milky Way, connect the two, representing the snake.

15 The Inca: health The average Inca lived to be 70 years old in the 1400s. The average European lived to be 40 during that time. o Healthy diet of plant based foods (they only meat they ate was cuy, alpaca, and fish) and baked cooking No oil in the new world The Inca walked everywhere, which is why all their streets (and the Inca trail) are completely paved!

16 The Inca: beginning of the end Inca had one spouse for their whole life The last Incan king had one son in wedlock and one with a concubine - which was not allowed. o Huasca v. Atahualpa o Atahualpa won. But then Pizarro

17 The Inca: The End It took the Spanish 16 days to round up all the gold in the city of Cusco, and an additional 6 days to melt it all down and make it into bricks to be shipped back to Spain

18 Conquest of the Aztec Empire History is written by the winners.

19 How did a group of 400 Spaniards decimate the biggest empire in central America? Let s start with a prophecy

20 A prophecy?

21 I am Quetzalcoatl, and I vow to return and exact my vengeance in 1-Reed

22 Did Moctezuma initially believe Cortés was Quetzalcoatl returning after 600 years?

23 Maybe? The only surviving sources that tell this story are written by the Spanish. Why might the Spanish want to portray the Aztec emperor as a superstitious native who believed Cortés was a god?

24 Maybe? Or why might the Aztec have created this story?

25 Who were the barbarians?

26 Both? AZTECS Human sacrifice SPANISH Conquest through deceit and use of wholesale terror

27 Question: How did 400 Spaniards take down an empire of 11 million people?

28 Question: How did 400 Spaniards take down an empire of 11 million people? Answer: In terms of development, Europe simply had a head start.

29 How did 400 Spaniards take down an empire of 11 million people? Advanced weaponry o Guns, steel Military tactics o To the Aztecs, battle was ideally a sacred duel between matched warriors o The Spanish fought cowardly (shot weapons at a distance, avoided hand-to-hand combat, hid behind their cannons)

30 How did 400 Spaniards take down an empire of 11 million people? Allies DISEASE o Introduced before Cortés even arrived o Between 90-96% of humans living in the Americas died of disease

31 The Spaniards viewed the Indians in one of two ways As barbaric, evil animals who don t deserve to be treated like human beings. As innocent, naïve children who don t know any better. What types of Spaniards might choose to believe the first? The second?

32 The Spaniards viewed the Indians in one of two ways As barbaric, evil animals who don t deserve to be treated like human beings. - Conquistadores As innocent, naïve children who don t know any better. Priests/Missionaries Which of these is worse?