Mexico today would not be the same if the historical events and individuals that were there throughout time didn't exsist. With that being said there are three main principle groups in which have contributed to the historical development and cultural evolution of Mexico: the indigenous people, the Africans and the Spanish. They brought many different languages, cultural ideas, architectural, and political ideas many of which lead to many changes.
The indigenous group consists of 15.7 million people in Mexico which is 14.9% of the population in Mexico today. There are currently 62 different indigenous languages, which constitutes about 5.4% of the population in Mexico today (Wycoff, Aug 17th-19th). The indigenous people were mainly located
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in the South of the Tropic of Cancer, which it also known as Mesoamerica. The largest city in Mesoamerica was Teotihuacan which flourished in 600AD and had around 100,000 people living there(Wycoff, Aug 17th-19th). There were many more civilizations that flourished in Mesoamerica such as the Mayan, Olmec, Zapotec, Mixtec, Toltec, and the Aztecs. The Olmec's flourished between 1400BCE and 400BCE. The Olmec's were thought to have the first written language and the first civilization to use the zero. The Olmecs were able to create massive head statues which weighed between 25-55tons each and were made of basalt which was not indigenous to the area. The Olmecs are often referred to as the "Mother of Culture of Mesoamerica" due to their advancements and contributions to society (Wycoff, Aug 17th-19th). The Aztecs built their capital in Tenochtitlan in the middle of Lake Texcoco. The Aztecs built their city on this endorheic lake because they were told by their god Huitzilopochtl to find an eagle perched on a cactus eating a serpent. The history of the creation of the Aztec Empire still has a huge influence on Mexico's culture today. If you look at the Mexican flag it has the eagle with the serpent in his mouth (Wycoff, Aug 17th-19th). The Spanish started as heterogeneous and moved into more homogenous due to Isabella and Ferdinand. Isabella and Ferdinand were Spanish monarchs. Isabella was the queen of Kingdom Castille and Ferdinand was the king of Catalonia. The two got married and wanted to create catholic homogeneity. (Wycoff, Aug 24th-26th). This powerhouse of a couple were important because they created structure for the Spanish, they made it clear that what the Crown said went. The Crown wanted to do anything that would bring power and money back to Spain (Wycoff, Aug 24th-26th). In 1519 Hernan Cortez went to Mexico with the Crowns approval. He brought what is thought to be the first African to Mexico, his name was Juan Cortez. Although Juan was brought to Mexico by Hernan Cortez, Juan was more of a squire than a slave(Wycoff, Aug 17th-19th). It's believed that Juan Cortez introduced small pox to the Aztecs in 1520 (Wycoff, Aug 24th-26th). This outbreak was huge on the population of the Aztecs, one third of the population passed in just 70 days. A second wave of deaths came after that due to the Aztecs being weak from the smallpox that they couldn't take care of themselves. This lead to Hernan Cortez to being able to conquer the Aztecs. The Spanish believed that the Aztecs were dying because they had a custom of bathing whereas the Spanish did not, and that god was on their side (Wycoff, Aug 31st-Sept 2nd). After conquering the Tenochtitlan, Hernan Cortez used broken items and Tenuchitlan and rebuilt the city of Mexico with his Spanish flare. Hernan went on a two year exploration to Honduras because he wanted to get gold (Wycoff, Aug 31st-Sept 2nd). Hernan took Cuauhtemoc(the Emperor of the Aztecs) as a hostage and dragged him around for the two years. Hernan did this so that he could control the Aztecs, he then put Cuauhtemoc on trial for treason and he was found guilty and was hung. This came as a big blow to the Aztec people. (Wycoff, Aug 31st-Sept 2nd). The African population increased in Mexico due to King Charles the 5th (Carols Quinto).
Carols Quinto created asientos which were contracts which gave people rights to the slave trade. He promoted slave trade for the money that he was able to bring back to Spain. This had a huge impact on the African population in Mexico, by 1553 the African population reached 20,000. In 1646 the African population reached 35,809, at this time there were more Africans in Mexico than there were Europeans up until 1810 (Wycoff, Aug 17th-19th). Africans contributed a lot to Mexico and you can still see this evident in Mexico today. The Africans brought a lot of musical influence, they introduced the mbira, lamellopene, and marimba. The types of music the Africans brought over to Mexico are still being played such as the song La Bamba. (Wycoff, Aug 17th-19th). The Africans also created a corrido, which is a ballad form in which they were able to communicate about slave uprises. The first documented slave rebellion was in 1537. Due to the slave uprises Palenque's (established slave run away communities) were created. In 1822 slavery was abolished by Vicente Guerro, it wasn't until 1829 that slavery was completely gone (Wycoff, Aug 17th-19th). You can see the evolution of African influence by looking at Vincente who was a president in Mexico, he was part African, and Jose Maria Morelose y Pavon, a revolutionary leader, who was also part African. There are many afromexicans now due to the mass population of Africans in Mexico (Wycoff, Aug
17th-19th). From this information you can gather that the Spanish and the indigenous people didn't get along from the start due to the Spanish wanting to conquer the indigenous people and their land. This goes hand-in-hand with the African's because they were being brought with the Spanish in the beginning. Throughout time you are able to see how the indigenous people and the Africans began to intermix. From this intermixing afromexicans came to be. You can still see this as a big part in Mexico in Veracruz and Costa Chica (Wycoff, Aug 17th-19th). You can tell that the Spanish played a big part in Mexico today by looking at some of the architecture that is still present today. If it wasn't for the indigenous people, the Africans, and the Spanish Mexico wouldn't have the same culture and historical development that it does today.
The history of Africans in Mexico is an oft-neglected facet of the cultural complexities of that country. In 1519, Hernando Cortes brought 6 African slaves with him to Mexico; these individuals served the conquest as personal servants, carriers, and laborers.[1] In the years to come, slavery would become a critical component of the colonial economy with approximately 2,000 slaves arriving each year 1580-1650; it is estimated that a total of 200,000 Africans were brought to Mexico during the colonial period.[2] Given this large number of slaves, the lengthy period of their importation, and the inevitable mixing of races, which took place throughout the colony, the historical and cultural significance of bozales, criollos, mulattoes, and zambos is far-reaching. The colonial period provides an excellent starting place for an examination of the significance of these groups not only because the institution of African slavery was introduced to New Spain at that time, but also because the regular influx of native Africans combined with the close attention paid to color-based castas in official records allows historians to trace the influence of African culture more readily during that period.
For centuries, Mexican Americans have dealt with an enormous amount of hardships that date back to their early Aztec roots. The source of many problems in Mexican American history can be traced in the pre-colonial period, before the United States of America was even conceived. Major problems of this era in history not only affected the Aztecs, but also the following generations of Aztec and Mexican descent, and continue to have an impact on their descendents in contemporary American society.
The Aztec and the Kiowa were two very different people. The Aztec lived in the Central Valley of Mexico, while the Kiowa tribe were nomads that roamed the Great Plains of North America. The first Aztec people were from northern Mexico dating back to about 500 A.D. In the year 1427, the Aztec became very powerful, they fought with other cities in Mexico’s Central Valley and established their empire. In 1521, Spanish conquistadors came to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec main city, and destroyed it in a quest for gold. The Kiowa tribe roamed the Great Plains of North America, mostly in Oklahoma and Kansas. When the American settlers expanded to the West, this tribe was one of the many that was forced into small reservations. As of 2011, there were about 12,000 Kiowa left in the United States. Their reservation is located on the border of Oklahoma and Texas. The Aztec and Kiowa tribes were similar in some ways but different in many including their housing, food, clothing, religion, and warfare.
In Northern Mexico, a group of people known as the Aztecs arrived and became the dominant
As a member of the Taos Pueblo I know that tradition and keeping it alive is very important to us. It is for this reason that I feel the need to share what it is like to spend your days in a village of the Taos Pueblo. We are located in New Mexico, about 70 miles north of Santa Fe. One might think that being so close to a city like Santa Fe we would be modernized as a people, but that is not the case. We like to keep our traditions alive.
The Cahuilla were a Native Southern Californian tribe that occupied the Riverside County, Higher Palomar Mountain Region and East Colorado Desert. The tribe was divided into two groups or moieties know as Wildcats or Coyotes. The Cahuilla lived in small clans that varied in population, and together all the separate clans made up a larger political group called a sib ”http://www.aguacaliente.org/content/History%20&%20Culture/.” The tribe was at first considered to be very simple and savage because they were never interacted with. As the Europeans and Spanish Missionaries considered the desert an inhospitable place that was better to avoid because of its lack of food resources. Little did those European and Spanish missionaries know that the land was ripe with food, only if you knew the land and the seasons. The Cahuilla were a very interesting tribe that cared and loved their land and in return the land would provide them with an abundance of food and resources. The Cahuilla had a very simple yet intricate life that involved a seasonal migration in order to gain access to different foods. They relied on different ways of acquiring food which involved both hunting and gathering.
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.
"Man corn", warfare and atlatls were not the only interesting aspects of the Anasazi culture. The history and lifestyles of the Ancestral Puebloans may have contributed to their mysterious disappearance. Their societies were more complex than most humans realize.
Considering historical evidence, the notion: Native –Americans was not the first inhabitant of America is a complete false. For centuries, history kept accurate and vivid accounts of the first set of people who domiciled the western hemisphere. Judging by those records, below are the first set of Native-American people who inhabited America before the arrival of another human race; the Iroquois: The Iroquois of Native Americans was one of the tribes that lived in America before other people came. Based on historical evidence, it is believed that the Native Americans came from Asia way back during the Ice Age through a land bridge of the Bering Strait. When the Europeans first set foot in America, there were about 10 million Native Americans
African music has had a major influence on Cuban culture beginning in the early 1550’s through slave trade. Thousands of slaves were brought to Spain in the 1400’s and eventually migrated to Cuba. Since these “Ladinos” were accustomed to Spanish culture and language, they easily were able to get by in Cuba and even escape slavery. As a result, Slave owners in Cuba brought more slaves directly from Africa. In 1526, a Royal Decree allowed slaves to buy their freedom, resulting in increased interaction and ethnic mixing among Cubans and Africans. All aspects of both cultures began to blend, especially among working class Cubans and Africans. Music became a common bond between the two groups
Towards the development of the United States of America there has always been a question of the placement of the Native Americans in society. Throughout time, the Natives have been treated differently like an individual nation granted free by the U.S. as equal U.S. citizens, yet not treated as equal. In 1783 when the U.S. gained their independence from Great Britain not only did they gain land from the Appalachian Mountains but conflict over the Indian policy and what their choice was to do with them and their land was in effect. All the way from the first presidents of the U.S. to later in the late 19th century the treatment of the Natives has always been changing. The Native Americans have always been treated like different beings, or savages, and have always been tricked to signing false treaties accompanying the loss of their homes and even death happened amongst tribes. In the period of the late 19th century, The U.S. government was becoming more and more unbeatable making the Natives move by force and sign false treaties. This did not account for the seizing of land the government imposed at any given time (Boxer 2009).
Mexican American history began in the16th century under Spanish colonialism. The Spanish had a goal of conquest and colonization. Evidently, that goal was successfully accomplished because when the Spanish first arrived in 1492 Mexico’s population was fourteen million, but by the end of the 16th century it had drastically declined to one million. Numbers decreased because of the cruel treatment, forced labor, and disease brought by the Spanish. The Spanish eventually controlled most of the territory in the Southwest and over three hundred towns had been established for the purpose of control and conversion. The Spanish imposed conditions on the natives of Mexico that would belittle them. They aimed to convert them in order to make them re...
ancient religion. The number of villages at this time was reduced from about 80 to
Which lead to very promising development in music in Latin America. A second major historical event came from slavery in the eighteenth century and before. The colonizers brought hundreds and thousands of slaves from Africa into North and South America. Along with the slaves came various musical influences like that of the drums, various performing forces like drums, and various other instruments. These, among others, are just a few major historical events which made a massive influence on Latin American
Indigenous people are those that are native to an area. Throughout the world, there are many groups or tribes of people that have been taken over by the Europeans in their early conquests throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by immigrating groups of individuals, and by greedy corporate businesses trying to take their land. The people indigenous to Australia, Brazil and South America, and Hawaii are currently fighting for their rights as people: the rights to own land, to be free from prejudice, and to have their lands protected from society.