Spanish conquest and settlement of the Americas

Spanish Conquistadors

Conquistadors:

• explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese empires
• 15th and 16th century
• during age of discovery
• sailed beyond Europe to the
  • Americas
  • Oceania
  • Africa
  • Asia
• colonised and opened trade routes
• brought much of the Americas under the dominion of Spain and Portugal
• Spanish had superior weapons to the Aztecs
  • Iron chest plates, helmets
  • horses
  • iron swords
  • guns
  • iron spears
  • weapons made to kill
  • Weapons did not need repairing after only one strike (unlike Aztec)

Reasons for European exploration:

Trade

• fall of Constantinople & decline of Mongol Empire cut overland access to Asia
• fuelled European’s desire to discover sea routes to Asia
• Asia was known for its great riches (Marco Polo)

Resources

• Columbus’s discoveries opened up another opportunity for European explorers to gain land and resources
• North America provided an abundance of resources for European nations, some of which had depleted their resourced for timber
• They also wanted to become rich
  • Spanish were looking for the mythical city of Eldorado (city of Gold)
  • Spanish were fixated on gold

Religion

• European exploration sought to turn indigenous inhabitants to Christianity
• In the Aztec’s case, Spanish’s first gesture was to send out a priest with a bible to meet King Moctezuma
• Evangelism
• Spanish were horrified when they saw the Templo Mayor with its bloodied steps
• Adventure
  • motivated to travel by a sense of adventure and the excitement of the New World

New Spain:

Spanish conquered:

• Cuba → 1511
• Aztec Empire → 1521
• Tarascan State → 1530
• Incan Empire (South America) → 1542
• Yucatan (former Mayan State) → 1546
• Numerous islands in the Caribbean
• Spanish encompassed territory in:
  • North America
  • Philippines
  • several South Pacific islands

Native Allies

Malintzin

• AKA Malinalli or Doña Marina (Christian) or La Malinche to the Spanish
• Given as a slave (gift) to Cortes by the Tabascans
• Used as a translator but also guided and advised
• very quick learner
• converted to Christianity and changed her name to Doña Marina
• Bore a son for Cortes
• Married one of Cortes’s soldiers

Native tribes

Cortes relied on local tribes who didn’t like the Aztecs:

1. Totonacas agreed to lead him to Tenochtitlan through mountainous terrain
2. Tlaxcalans initially fought Spanish but were defeated. 6000 warriors provided
3. Tabascans defeated by Spanish. Gave Malinalli as a gift

Pitted native people and the Aztecs against one another

Initial interactions

Gifts

Quetzalcoatl

• Moctezuma thought it was Quetzalcoatl
  • Quetzalcoatl was meant to return in 1519 as a light skinned bearded man
  • Spanish arrived in 1519
  • Cortes was light skinned and bearded
• Moctezuma sent out gold and gifts to persuade Quetzalcoatl to go away and not claim is empire until Moctezuma died

Spanish and Gold

• Hernan Cortes and his men were hungry for gold and these gifts just fuelled their desires. Cortes himself said:

We Spaniards suffer from a disease only gold can cure

• Spanish thought Tenochtitlan was glorious

In person

• 8 November 1519
  • Moctezuma and Cortes meet in person for the first time
  • Moctezuma wanted to impress the Spanish
  • so he was carried out on a litter with a magnificent canopy of green feathers, gold and jewels
  • wore Highly decorated sandals, while rest of nobility was forced to walk barefoot in his Presence.
  • Only his closest advisors were allowed to look upon his face
  • display was designed to show off his status, power, and wealth to Spanish
  • met on wooden causeway outside of capital
  • exchange of gifts
  • Cortes offered necklace of glass beads
  • Moctezuma offered two ornate necklaces decorated with shrimps made of gold
  • very uneven exchange

Our lord, you are weary. The journey has tired you, but now you have arrived on earth. You have come back to sit on your throne. This was foretold by the kings who governed your city, and now it has taken place. Rest now and take possession of you royal houses

- Moctezuma

• welcomes Cortes into Tenochtitlan

Fall of the empire

• Moctezuma realised the Spanish were not gods because they were not behaving in the non-violent way Quetzalcoatl was supposed to, were using unknown weapons and their desire for gold was all too human
  • knew they were after land and treasure
  • relations became unfriendly
  • Cortes took Montezuma as hostage
  • 14th November 1519

Toxcatl massacre

• In May 1520, news from the Gulf coast reached Cortés that a much larger party of Spaniards had been sent by Governor Velázquez of Cuba to arrest Cortés for insubordination
• Cortés marched to the coast, where he defeated the Cuban expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez sent to capture him.
• When Cortés told the defeated soldiers about the riches of Tenochtitlan, they agreed to join him. Reinforced by Narváez's men, Cortés headed back to Tenochtitlan.
• in may 1520, Cortes was out of the city, and he told Pedro de Alvarado to do nothing while he was gone
• Alvarado hears about the Aztecs’ plans to revolt
• on May 22, 1520, Alvarado ordered his men to massacre the priests and nobles during the Toxcatl festival

the blood of the warriors flowed like water and gathered into pools. The pools widened, and the stench of blood and entrails filled the air

-survivor of Toxcatl massacre

• lead to an uprising by the Aztec people
• Cortes returns to find that the conquistadors have lost control of Tenochtitlan
• Montezuma’s death
  • Orders Moctezuma to calm down his people
  • Moctezuma is stoned to death by the Aztecs
  • c. 30 June 1520

La noche triste

• “sad night”
• On the 30th of June, in the middle of the night, the Spanish attempt to quietly withdraw from the city
• Discovered by Aztecs
• Aztecs were no longer fearful of the Spanish’s weapons and fought without fear
• Spanish fought to escape
• Cortes manages to escape unharmed
• hundreds of Spanish killed and thousands of Tlaxcalan allies killed

Spanish after La noche triste

• Spanish retreated to Tlaxcala
• Rested for 20 days

Conquest of Aztec allies

• stated another campaign for Aztec allies in surrounding regions
• Cortes won over half of the Aztec Territories
• native peoples supported conquistadors through fear
• 15000-20000 died in battle, women and children enslaved
• some captives given to Tlaxcalans for sacrificial purpose and cannibalism
• other tribes joined willingly to overthrow Aztecs

Destruction of Tenochtitlan

• In May 1521, Cortes returns to Tenochtitlan and laid siege to the city with the help of 550 Spaniards and 10000 Tlaxcalans
• 93 days

daily attacks

• used boats to cut off supplies of food
• destroyed aqueducts that supplied the city with fresh water

Aztecs fight back

• vulnerable due to
  • starvation
  • small pox
  • Introduced to the Americas by Europeans
  • deadly, as they had no natural immunity against it
  • killed 5-8 million → not sure
  • killed around a quarter of population
  • dehydration
• still attempted to fight back
• in response, Cortes destroyed each and every building in the city

After the fall

• Built a new city (Mexico City) on top of what used to be Tenochtitlan
• Cortes found the colony of New Spain

Impacts

Immediate

• native people lost their freedom, land, resources, wealth, culture and even their lives
  • The Spanish thought they had a right to take the land from the indigenous peoples and saw themselves as members of a superior civilisation and the bringers of salvation through Christianity.

Further impacts

• European and American cuisine/agriculture styles changed

Europe

• cuisine
  • potatoes
  • tomatoes
  • corn
  • beans
  • cocoa
  • tobacco
  • thought to cure health problems
• became wealthier due to all the gold

Aztecs

• Cash crops of sugar cane required more irrigation and intensive farming to grow .
• Larger animals offered a more efficient means of transportation than had traditionally been available.
• Spanish wheat offered fewer calories than the traditional staple, maize, and as a result, less energy to perform physical work.
• Chickens provided a new food source that did not disrupt native plants and animals. . Horses, sheep, goats and cattle destroyed native crops and overgrazed the land.
• Sheep provided a new source of materials for clothing to add to the local cotton.
• Deforestation conducted by the Europeans resulted in massive water run-off in the rainy season and moved the topsoil of the valleys into the lakes, which flooded nearby towns.
• Spanish attempts to drain the lakes in Mexico to create more land for farming failed as the soil was not suited to growing crops. These attempts also ended effective traditional canoe transport.