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The role of Catholicism in Spanish conquest
Spanish conquest in Latin America
The impact or legacy of the inca empire
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Historical Analysis Essay
The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire was a vital part in the collapse of the empire and in the colonization of the Andean people. The Andean people were perceived to be uncivilized savages by the Spaniards and needing to be changed. The Spaniards believed the Andean people and the land itself were for them to shape with their own culture and make it a piece of their history. The conquest and colonization of the Inca empire, from a Spaniard’s perspective, was seen as a benefit to the uncivilized Andean people but from an Andean perspective the invasion into their land was unwanted and resisted in different ways. In the engraving titled America by Theodor Galle, the initial interaction between the Spanish and Andeans
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Furthermore, the engraving represents the resistance to the invasion of their homeland and the introduction of new cultures and ideologies as well as the enforcement of a single religion in the empire. These differing perspectives show that the nature of conquest is defined as the extraction of one culture and the implementation of another as well as the desire for acquiring new land and enjoying the economic benefits from the plentiful resources.
Through the extreme portrayal of the savage state of the Andean people and their unique culture, the engraves help provides insight to the basis in which the Spaniards supported the colonization of the Andean people. In the engraving by Theodor Galle, the initial
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According to Thomas Brinkerhoff, a Ph.D student from the University of Pennsylvania, the indigenous Inca allies were a vital part in the success of the spanish conquest in Tenochtitlan in May of 1521. This advancement was important due to the agricultural system of chinampas (using small area of land outside the city to farm) that prevented the Mexica from accessing their food supply and in turn creating a huge blow to the resistance to conquest (Brinkerhoff 176). Without the help from the indigenous people, the Spanish would of been outnumbered and most likely unsuccessful in their conquest. Furthermore, Spanish cultural practices were seen as an improvement over the practices of the indigenous people and was important in the Spanish’s support in the colonization. Additionally, the Spanish used the present Andean culture to rationalize and support their conquest of the Inca. The lack of civilized culture led the Spanish to believe their conquest of the Inca was needed and justified. Furthermore, the Spanish saw the Andean natives as naturally malleable. As stated by Restall, “‘the Indians are not good as teachers, but as disciples… nor as preachers, but as subjects, and for this the best in the world’”(Restall 104). The Spanish perceived the Native people as unable to rule themselves and believed that installing their own
Before the 15th century, the Indians in the Americas were not connected with the world and would remain that way until Columbus's exploration. In the beginning of 15th century, the Aztecs were the dominant group in Mesoamerica leaded by Montezuma, the last leader, before the Spanish conquest. In 1519, Hernan Cortez led the Spanish mission to explore and conquer the New World. This paper will compare three primary sources about this event. First, an informing letter sent from Cortez to King Charles V, the king of Spain. Second, the Broken Spears which is an Indian recollection about the conquest of Mexico. Lastly, Bernal Diaz’s (one of Cortez’s men) account was written by him to share his experience with Aztec civilization. Moreover, this paper will show the credibility of Diaz’s account compared to the other sources because the objectivity of his tone, written after a while of the event, and the author’s great experience and his independent purpose of the source.
In this section his initial thoughts show through. “But losers matter, especially in the history of early America.” Many different regions of early America are examined in their years of early conquest when native populations started their descent. The biggest theme throughout the section is the effect that conquistadors and explorers had on the native population in their search for gold and glory. The information that is given is not typical of what is learned of early America, but tries to really focus on the most important figures of the time and there voyages. For example, when talking about the Plains nations and there explorers, Coronado and De Soto a tattooed woman woman is brought up who had been captured by both explorers at different times and different places, but little is known about her. “Of the tattooed woman who witnessed the two greatest expeditions of conquest in North America, and became captive to both, nothing more is known.” This point captures the main idea of the theme and what many know of this time. Horwitz aims to point out the important facts, not just the well known
Inga Clendinnen's Aztecs:An Interpretation is an outstanding book dealing with investigations into how the Mexica peoples may have veiwed the world in which they lived. From the daily life of a commoner to the explosively, awe inspiring lives of the priests and warriors. Clendinnen has used thoughtful insights and a fresh perspective that will have general readers and specialist readers alike engaged in a powerful and elegantly written interpretation that is hard to put down without reflection upon this lost culture.
The first major reason for writing the manuscript illustrates the difficulties that Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala felt during the colonial period. As a young man, he migrated from an Inca state to a newly conquered area by the Incas. He settled there with privileges given to him by the Inca Empire to teach the superior ways of their culture. But with the arrival of the Europeans in 1532, these new settlers like Guaman Poma were viewed as outsiders. The situation worsened when Viceroy Francisco de Toledo fixed an administration that divided the indigenous community into two groups: native born members and outsiders. When Guaman Poma started defending his inherited land, he presented himself as a native Andean and as a Spanish appointee. Since he collaborated with the Spanish colonial regime as a Church assistant, he considered himself as a man with rights, loyal to the Crown. During this time, Fe...
C. W. Hackett, ed., Historical Documents relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, vol. III (Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1937), 327-35.
Through the study of the Peruvian society using articles like “The “Problem of the Indian...” and the Problem of the Land” by Jose Carlos Mariátegui and the Peruvian film La Boca del Lobo directed by Francisco Lombardi, it is learned that the identity of Peru is expressed through the Spanish descendants that live in cities or urban areas of Peru. In his essay, Mariátegui expresses that the creation of modern Peru was due to the tenure system in Peru and its Indigenous population. With the analyzation of La Boca del Lobo we will describe the native identity in Peru due to the Spanish treatment of Indians, power in the tenure system of Peru, the Indian Problem expressed by Mariátegui, and the implementation of Benedict Andersons “Imagined Communities”.
9. Palmer, Colin A. Slaves of the White God: Blacks in Mexico, 1570-1650. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976.
Admittedly, these men are responsible for much of the exploration of the America’s, but to focus on so few of the explorers ignores how reactive their actions were, and the larger narrative of the world at that time (4). For example, Columbus is praised and idolized for discovering the America’s, however it was only by luck that he arrived on those shores. Moreover, there were many other explorers at the time who could have reached the America’s if Columbus had not done so first (9). Another man who is seen as the key figure in the actual Conquest is Cortes. Cortes’ campaign in the America’s is commonly viewed as the standard to strive for, yet it is also the exception to a typical conquest (19). He is viewed as some above-it-all conquistador idol, when in all actuality he merely followed the standard protocol of the Conquest (19). This does not mean that Cortes’ actions were any less inspirational, merely that they were not uncharacteristic acts that he created (19). Both Columbus and Cortes were merely following standard procedure of the time, yet they are written about as if they were heroes of their time, bravely going and doing what none had done before. And in some sense, they were the first to discover and conquer, but it is foolish to assume that just because they were the first to be in the America’s
Slide 3- once Queen Isabel died in 1504 and Ferdinand died in1516 there was a power struggle between the families. Charles V and queen Isabel of Portugal took over and immediately had to make political alliances as soon as possible. What better way then conquering new land and people?
She discusses about a historical text that “has a few points in common with baseball cards” (318), in which it was published by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. The manuscript contains a mixture of Quechua and Spanish, and is addressed to King Philip III of Spain. Guaman Poma’s letter is split into two parts: the first of which is called Nueva coronica, “New Chronicle,” and serves as “the main writing apparatus through which the Spanish presented their American conquests to themselves” (319). This first half of the text introduces one distinctive phenomenon of the contact zone: the autoethnographic text, in which it involves collaborations with people from different social and intellectual backgrounds “to create self-representations intended to intervene in metropolitan modes of understanding” (320). “New Chronicle” rewrites the Christian history and the Spanish conquest to paint a new picture of the world, where the Andean people lie in the center, not the Europeans. At the end of the first half, Guaman Poma argues that there should have been a peaceful encounter between the Spanish and the Inca, thereby forming a potential for benefiting both parties, not just one. Finishing explaining Guaman Poma’s letter, Pratt quickly connects his letter to the contact zone, making an argument that the art of the contact zone illustrates a picture of the oppressors, the Europeans, from the oppressed, the Andeans’,
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.
Patterson, Thomas C. "Tribes, Chiefdoms, and Kingdoms in the Inca Empire.” Power Relations and State Formation (1987): 1-15,117-127.
These letters reveal how the rebellions were able to weaken the Spanish empire and they display how they aided the destabilization of the Spanish government and the faith the people had in it. They also offer the indigenous view of the functions of colonial Andean society. The native Andean society created a structure in these reducción towns that had an immense role in constructing the opposition to colonial rule. The Andean communities were able to maintain their own traditions and community organization while they adopted the structures thrust upon them by the colonial
The Inca Empire Janos Gyarmati’s Paria la Viexa and an expanding empire: Provincial centers in the political economy of the Inca Empire proved that the Inca’s built an empire unlike any other. From 1440 to 1532 A.D., the Inca Empire dominated the Americas. Known as “the fastest growing and largest territorial empire”(Gyarmati 37) of its time, the Inca Empire left a mark with their complex, perpetual and innovative economic, road, and settlement system. The Inca’s were advanced for their time, however, they lacked a system that would guarantee the survival of their kin. In order to strive, for the long-term, the Inca’s created provincial centers that would ensure their growth and economy for the generations to come.
Two of the biggest and greatest civilization in the Americas were the Aztecs and Incas. These two civilization were both said to be conquered by the Spanish, but it wasn’t just the Spanish who conquered them. These two civilizations both fell from a combination of a weak government, lack of technology, new disease introduced by the invaders, and not being prepared for the invaders. For many centuries the Aztec civilization revolved around a ideological, social, and political system in which expansion was the cornerstone. Expansion was the cornerstone of their whole civilization, because their religion requested that a large number of human sacrifices where to be made to the gods.