Could you ever imagine an army of less than 200 people, would be about to conquer a civilization with millions of people? In the 16th century, a group of 160 Spanish Conquistadors conquered over the Inca Empire. How is this possible? Why didn’t the Inca’s have the same equipment as the Spanish? In the 1960’s, NASA was setting up to launch a rocket ship into space. During that same time period, the people of Papua New Guinea were still using stone tools. Why didn’t the technology from the US make it over to a civilization on the other side of the world? It all leads back to one thing: inequality and geography. Geography sets in motion the inequality in the world by determining a civilization’s climate, food sources, domesticated animals, immunity to germs, and availability of iron ore, which can be made into steel tools and weapons. …show more content…
Geography location affects crops, like sago and wheat, because of the climate in the area, which affects the development of the civilization.
In places like Papua New Guinea, where the climate is very wet and tropical, they can get crops like Sago. Sago is found in the center of Sago trees, the pulp of the tree. When a village is hungry, they chop down the tree, dig to the pulp, harvest for 2-4 days, then eat. Sago is low in calories and protein, and doesn’t last long, maybe 3-5 days at the most. In places like the Fertile Crescent, where the climate is very dry, they are able to grow crops, like wheat. The Fertile Crescent, they basically won the “Geographically lottery” by having the perfect weather for growing wheat. Wheat was high in calories and protein, easy to harvest, and could be kept for up to a year. By having an easy food to maintain, the Fertile Crescent were able to have more time on their hands, and that helped the civilization develop into using domesticated animals. While, Papua New Guinea were still in the hunter-gather
society. By having domesticated animals, civilizations could get tasks like, like farming, done faster, instead of doing all the work by hand. Domesticated animals are animals that humans control where the animals move, feed, and breed. Out of all the animals in the world, only 14 animals fit the requirements to be domesticated. The requirements for an animals to be domesticated are having a quick growth rate (being able to mature and reproduce quickly), the animals social structure (if they get the alpha of the pack, the rest of the pack follows), the animal's diet (eating plants and vegetation), if the animals has a nasty disposition or not (the way the animals acts, violent or skittish), and if they’re multi-purpose (food or drink, helps with farming, etc). 14 animals fit these requirements, 13 of them living in Eurasia, the last one (the Llama), being in South America. When a civilization has animals, the people can use the animals meat as food, it’s milk (if they can produce it) to drink, the hair and skin as warmth, it’s dung, or poop, as fertilizer, “grazing the stubble” (the last bits of wheat on the field) as animal food, and the animal muscle to help with farming and building. With the Fertile Crescent being right on the outskirts of Eurasia, the Eurasians would trade animals to crops with the people on the Fertile Crescent. Since Papua New Guinea was on a tropical island thousands of miles away from where domesticated animals were, they never got them until Europeans brought them over. When a civilization has animals, they can get tasks done quicker, easier, and more efficiently. By having more time on their hands, the Fertile Crescent and Eurasians would have people develop into having a strong immune system, while Papua New Guinea is still in the hunter-gatherer stage of development. The exposure to epidemic diseases affects the development of the people of Eurasia by having many people die if their immune system can’t handle the germs that come from having animals around them. The Spanish lived with their animals, sleeping right beside them every night. Spanish built up their immune system over the years, while the weaker ones died off. The Spanish who stayed alive, passed their strong immune system onto their children, which just got stronger over the years. When the Inca Empire got exposed to their first type of germ, smallpoxs, many died. When the Spanish army came over to South America, they brought their most powerful weapon, and they didn’t even know they had it; germs. The Incas had the one other animal that Eurasia didn’t have, the Llama. The Incas were around the Llama, but not as much as Eurasians. When the two came in contact, 95% of the Inca Empire died off. Besides germs, Spanish also brought over swords, which are made from steel. The Inca’s didn’t have steel. Places that had a lot of their population still alive, had people develop into people becoming specialists, around things like steel. Steel affects the development of civilizations by having advantages of being able to make more useful supplies, like swords, silverware, and plows. Civilizations developed steel by having specialists, Iron, Carbon, a climate that allows fire to burn for days, fast flowing water nearby, and a surplus of food. A society needs a surplus of food because without it, civilizations could never have the time for people to become specialists. Spain benefited from the steel by making weapons, plows, and other items that helped them advance. The Inca’s didn’t have steel because of their geographical location. With the mountains and climate varying in different areas, they could never keep a fire going for days, or have fast flowing water everywhere, if they decided to move along their lines of latitude. The Incas were impacted when they came in contact with the Spanish because they only had gold. Gold isn’t the same as steel. Gold is much weaker, and easier to break when it comes in contact with other materials. The ability to make steel relates to geography because of how the continents lay. Since Eurasia runs East to West, people in this region can easily encounter the same climate by following the lines of latitude. it is not possible to do that in the Americas, because the the largest stretch of the continent runs North to South. This means that when a civilization migrates they won’t be able to use the same crops because of the climate change. A society’s geographical location determines the crops they grow, the animals they can domesticate, the germs they’re around, and the materials to be able to make steel. By having agriculture, a civilization can spend more time farming, and not hunting and gathering. Animals speed up the process of farming by using their muscle to plow a field. While the Eurasians were always in a close proximity to their animals, the developed a strong immune system to germs. When the Spanish went over to South America, they not only brought germs (their most powerful weapon), but Steel, which the Inca Empire didn’t have. The Fertile Crescent practically won lottery for having the best luck with geographic location. With the Fertile Crescent being quite dry, they were able to grow wheat, domesticate animals, fight off germs, and have the perfect location for creating steel. The inequality in the world has nothing to do with race, gender, religion, money, or ethnicity. It all has to do with one thing, geography.
Francisco Vazquez de Coronado served as the political liaison for the preliminary exploration. Francisco came from a prominent Salamanca family after the passing of his father and mother he did not inherit the families fortune, this put him in a position to make a shift to New Spain and hopefully chase the dream of making a fortune and becoming rich. At the age of twenty five Francisco arrived in New Spain in 1535, upon his arrival he was introduced and attached to a highly appointed officer Viceroy Mendoza. As time passed he went on to marry a wealthy women named by the name of Dona Beatriz de Estrada, his mother in law gave Francisco a large amount of money that is called “hacienda” which mean he received a large estate or plantation with a dwelling house. Around 1537 Francisco started to make a name for him when a rebellion just outside of México broke out; he successfully put down the rebellion and the following year Mendoza appointed him “regidor” which means a member of a council of municipalities. Then a year later in 1538 at the age of twenty ei...
Hernán Cortés intended to bring back riches from America not conquer a people, but he and his conquistadors, who coincided with the return of the god Quetzalcóatl, were responsible for the death of the Aztec emperor, Montezuma.
It is the 1450s. Foreigners have invaded your land, and they’re capturing the citizens living there for their lethal rituals. (Doc. A) You are unlucky enough to find yourself kidnapped, along with your family. Your mother is taken away quickly, but your father is forced to become a human sacrifice for the Aztec gods. What does this mean, exactly? According to The History of the Indies of New Spain by Friar Diego Duran, your father’s chest is severed, and his heart is taken out of his body. This is all while he is still awake, and before the time of pain medication. He slowly bleeds to death on the temple stairways - and you’re watching it all. This sounds terrible, does it not?
The outnumbered Spanish conquistadors were able to so easily defeat the natives of South and Central America for many reasons. These reasons include the spread of disease, the fear the Spanish spread, civil war, and the thought that Cortez was a God. The Natives were not immune to the European disease such as smallpox, influenza measles, typhus, plague, malaria, and yellow fever. This wiped out 85-90% of the Native population in 50 years. This was the largest demographic catastrophe in human history. (Document 4: The American Holocaust)
First to start out, we should get some facts straight. A conquistador is basically a Spanish conqueror. Their main goals were to search for gold and other riches from the Caribbean and draw them back to the mainland. The absolute most important conquistador in all of history is Hernan Cortes.
The Spanish began their movement to Southwest America in the late sixteenth century. From that point on, their influence both on the Native Americans and the environment was extraordinaire. The goal of the Spaniards with regards to the Native Americans was to transform them “into tax-paying Christians.” This is in contrast to the idea that their goal was to eradicate the Indians form the Americas. Consequently, the Spaniards took many Indians so that they may plant their religion in the Natives and to use them as cheap labor. This led many Indians to learn the customs and language of the Spaniards so they could to be able to thrive in the Spanish culture. Thus, some Natives acquired Spanish, which was the main source of their Hispanicization; this was the notion of Indians becoming encompassed by the Spanish society. Furthermore, Indians gradually learned skills, obtained land, and sometimes found Hispanic spouses, thus furthering their Hispanicization. They now began to live in a Spanish manner and blend into the bottom of the Spanish societal ladder. This “acculturation” of the Native Americans was in contrast to the models of early English colonization. Spanish goals and plans sought to involve the Indians so that they may live in their society even if at the lower end of it’s ladder. English colonies viewed the Natives as savages and looked to them for slave labor or to rape their women. They did not plan to take the Indians into their society as the Spaniards did so throughout this era.
them, and little if any was given in return. The people who live among these
Immediately following the war with Spain, the United States had both the political will to pursue imperial policies and the geopolitical circumstances conducive to doing so. But the way in which these policies would manifest was an open question; was the impulse to actively remake the world in America’s Anglo-Saxon image justified? Hence, there were several models of American imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century. In the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Samoa, the United States asserted unwavering political control. In Cuba, and later throughout most of the Caribbean basin, the economic and political domination of customarily sovereign governments became the policy. Ultimately, the United States was able to expand its territory
Culture is customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group. It includes behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, values, and norms that is shared by a group of people to sustain their lives. Mexican culture is influenced by their familial ties, gender, religion, location and social class, among other factors. Today life in the cities of Mexico has become similar to that in neighboring United States and Europe, with provincial people conserving traditions more so than the Mexican living in the city. In the United States Mexican includes any person of Puerto
A tall, stately conquistador sat high in the saddle of his blood red, high stepping stallion, its long tail was perched high over his back, the masculine man adorning the magnificent creature sat as if in a rocking chair as the high spirited animal danced about. The conquistador held his stallion firmly by his reins, forcing his steed to step to the side as the rest of the regiment moved along the trail, trudging alone in the balmy heat, he removed his helmet tucking it firmly under his left arm against his body, he located his handkerchief that he had tucked into his left sleeve of his shirt, retrieving the white hanky Carrasco begin dabbing his handkerchief around his forehead and the back of his neck, mopping up the corpus amount of perspiration that was running down the sides of his face and trickling down the back of his neck, gobs of black hair tossed about his head as he dabbed his handkerchief about trying to keep the sweat from running into his armor. Dear God, he thought to himself, this is intolerable, what did I do to deserve such punishment? It is only spring and alrea...
For many years, unjust treatment of Mexicans and Mexican Americans has occurred in the United States. Over the years, people like Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Emma Tenayuca have fought to improve civil rights and better treatment for farm workers. The textbook that I have been reading during the semester for my Chicano History class, Crucible of Struggle: A history of Mexican Americans from Colonial times to the Present Era, discusses some of the most important issues in history that Mexicans and Mexicans Americans have gone through. Some of these problems from the past are still present today. Not all of the racial problems were solved, and there is a lot to be done. I have analyzed two different articles about current historical events that have connections between what is happening today and what had happened in Mexican American History.
After three hundred years of suffering and oppression by the Spanish crown, and inspired by the fire of revolution sweeping over the world in places such as United States and France, the Mexican population finally decided that they could endure no more, it was time for a change! In this essay I put together some of the various factors of Spanish colonialism that led to the Mexican independence. These factors were the socio political conditions of nueva españa, the enlightment era, as well as various leaders
Before the land of what we no class Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and other countries in the middle east grains, such as wheat and wild barley, could be seen growing in the wild without human hand to cultivate and nurture it (Authors 2007). Over time, humans began to recognize the benefit of the plants and began the first signs of human agriculture. The skill of farming took time and trial and error, but along the way, humans began to settle down to tend to their crops. Though the first crops were nothing more than seed s thrown about without rhyme or reason to the process we know today such as fields having, rows and sorting out the seeds to create a higher yield each harvest (Authors 2007). Because of the trial and error process, agriculture of plants did not take place of a short period but took many, many years to evolve to what we know today as agriculture; the new fa...
In economic terms, Mexico is a country that was showing a lot of promise, but has taken steps backwards in recent years. Mexico’s recent history has been marked by periods of growth and increasingly favorable business conditions that have been followed by periods of political turmoil and decreasing confidence in the country’s economy.
Agriculture has been around for about 11,000 years. Around 9.500 BC, the first signs of crops began to show up around the coastlines of the Mediterranean. Emmer and einkorn wheat were the first crops that started to show up in this area, with barley, peas, lentils, chick peas, and flax following shortly. For the most part, everyone was a nomad and just travelled along with where a herd went. This went on until around 7.000 BC, and then the first signs of sowing and harvesting appeared in Mesopotamia. In the first ...