Topic: The Spanish Conquest of the Americas

Class Focus: Were the Spanish immoral in their conquest of the “New World”? Justify your

response.

ID Quiz

• Choose 5 of the following terms below and define them.Christopher ColumbusColumbian Exchange

ConquistadoresHernan Cortes

La MalincheBlack Legend

Bartolome de Las Casas

Causes for European Exploration

• Renaissance• Cheaper Products– Spices

• More land• Fighting for Trade Routes• New Scientific Knowledge

After 1492….

• Treaty of Tordesillas determined by the pope

• Separated the “New World” between Spain and Portugal

• Not followed by French or British

Spanish Conquest

• Search for gold and glory in the name of Spain. • Conquistadores help bring down major

Empires– Cortes Aztecs– Pizzarro Incans

Hernan Cortes

• 1519-Cortes seeks Cuba– La Malinche– Mayan woman sold into

Aztec slavery– Sold to Cortes– Served as a translator

Tenochtitlán (Aztec Capital)

Noche Triste

• Spanish arrived to Aztec capital• Monctezuma met with Cortes– Myth of the God– Monctezuma was apprehensive about Spanish,

but let them comeGave them gold

Spanish Retaliation

• Cortes laid siege to the city• Smallpox epidemic• Used surrounding enemies of Aztecs• Spanish began intermarrying led to new

racial hierarchy in the New World.

Pizzaro and the Incan Empire

• Incan Empire ran along the east side of South America

• Pizzaro came to the Incans– Found them in the midst

of a civil war

Specific Causes for Spanish Exploration

• Notes taken from Born in Blood and Fire (2006) by UNC Chapel Hill professor John Chasteen

• According to Chasteen: “The Spanish and Portuguese outlook, along with their crusader rhetoric, had been shaped by the history of the Iberian Peninsula”

Religion in Spanish America• Spanish saw it as their duty to Christianize natives– Encomienda system: Said to Christianize, but actually

enslaved the natives. • Criticism – Bartolome de Las Casas• Destruction of the Indies• Criticized treatment of Natives-promoted enslavement of

Africans– King and Queen condemned violence

Pope’s Rebellion

• Domination of the California Native Americas by Fr. Junipero Serro and his missionaries.

• New Mexico Region• Pueblo rebels destroyed every Catholic Church• Indians rebuilt religious chamber

The Black Legend• Pg. 23— “The misdeeds of the Spanish in the

New World obscured their substantial achievements and help give birth to the ‘Black Legend.’ The false concept held that conquerors merely tortured and butchered the Indians, stole their gold, infected them with Smallpox, and left little but misery behind.”

Class Reflection

• What role did disease and forced labor (including slavery) play in the early settlement of America?

Independent Writing

• Is the view of Spanish and Portuguese as especially harsh conquerors and exploiters valid?