DOCSLIB.ORG

Spanish Exploration and the Great Plains in the Age of Discovery: Myth and Reality

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Spanish Exploration and the Great Plains in the Age of Discovery: Myth and Reality University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 1990 Spanish Exploration and the Great Plains in the Age of Discovery: Myth and Reality Ralph H. Vigil University of Nebraska-Lincoln Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Vigil, Ralph H., "Spanish Exploration and the Great Plains in the Age of Discovery: Myth and Reality" (1990). Great Plains Quarterly. 505. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/505 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. SPANISH EXPLORATION AND THE GREAT PLAINS IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY MYTH AND REALITY RALPH H. VIGIL T his essay attempts to place Spanish explo­ "Age of Discovery," "Age of Reconnaissance," ration on the Great Plains within the context and "Age of Expansion."2 In a more circum­ of the temper and feelings prevailing in the first scribed sense, exploration in what became the century of the "discovery" of the West. 1 Because heart of America echoes the themes of discovery many writers of texts and more specialized works and settlement in the years 1492-1598, when view the past in the light of the present, Eu­ subjects of Castile explored vast regions of the ropean expansion in the sixteenth century ap­ New World by land and sea, conquered the pears to be more modem than it was. This paper dominions of the Aztecs and the Incas, founded views Spaniards of the early colonial period as colonies in Florida and New Mexico, began the more medieval than modem in outlook; it also spiritual conquest of America, and searched for suggests that mythological geography and mixed golden kingdoms in North and South America. spiritual and worldly motives, considered in­ Given the romantic nature of tales of ad­ compatible in our day, were as important as venture, English translations of explorers' nar­ Renaissance curiosity and technology in Euro­ ratives and biographies of daring adventurers pean expansion overseas. appeal to university students. Traditional ac­ Spanish exploration on the Great Plains forms counts of discovery and exploration retain their part of the general theme of European discov­ authority and popularity. J The story of discovery ery, exploration, and settlement of lands be­ and conquest, as reflected in narrative works yond Europe in the period variously called the without copious notes, also appeals to a wider public that no longer reads the often reprinted pioneer studies like William Hickley Prescott's Ralph Vigil is professor of history at the University of History of the Conquest of Mexico (1843), John Nebraska-Lincoln. His many publications include Alonso de Zorita: Royal Judge and Christian Humanist, 1512- Boyd Thacher's Christopher Columbus (1903-04), 1585, winner of the "Spain and America in the Quin­ the works of the versatile and significant Hubert centennial of the Discovery Prize" for 1987. Howe Bancroft, or those of other traditional authorities. Because even the best of the new historical sagas emphasize the deeds of Renais­ [GPQ 10 (Winter 1990): 3-17] sance men of action, however, they break no 3 4 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1990 I , I I ~! I ,-e:..--­I I I I ~I ,0I I ~ I c- I : .>- y T-----~----,__-------_\: I I o I FIG. 1. Map of Coronado's Expedition. Drawn under the supervision of Frederick W. Hodge for his 1907 edition of The Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabefa de Vaca. SPANISH EXPLORATION 5 new ground, and the motives and personalities peans naval superiority. Once a colony was of the men directing the expansion of European founded, the use of horses, dogs, armor, and empires seem more modem than they were. 4 superior weapons secured the settlement. 6 TEXTBOOK DISTORTIONS OF SPANISH MEDIEVAL AND MYTHIC ROOTS OF EXPERIENCE DISCOVERY The imagined modernity of the Age of Ex­ Granted that discovery, exploration, and ex­ pansion is even more apparent in Western civ­ pansion beyond the seas took place when Eu­ ilization and American history textbooks. ropeans began to join theory and practice in a Written for white, primarily Protestant descen­ period that increasingly glorified the human and dants of transplanted Europeans, these didactic the natural, the idea that Renaissance scientific surveys give limited attention to Spanish over­ curiosity, worldly ideals, and the growth of in­ seas expansion and the Old and New World dividualism fueled the voyages of discovery is backgrounds preceding the founding of James­ only a half-truth. As one better-than-average town and Plymouth. In addition to distorting text correctly observes, "the motives, the or ignoring Indian America, these texts give knowledge, and the wherewithal for the great the impression that a handful of Spanish soldiers discoveries were all essentially medieval." The exploited and inflicted their culture on Indi­ impulse for discovery and exploration of what ans. S became America was a mixture of mistaken me­ Although textbook authors give Indians and dieval geographical theory, the ancient desire Spaniards minor background roles in the story for spices, gold, and precious stones of the fab­ of the epic winning of the West beyond the ulous East, and the memory of medieval jour­ Atlantic, Iberians discovered and took posses­ neys made by missionaries and merchants to the sion of America, and these authors have to in­ Mongol Empire. 7 clude Spain in emphasizing developments America was not only a geographical goal to contemporaneous with overseas discoveries and be reached; it was a concept to be invented. In conquests. Most texts join voyages of discovery the beginning was the West of the imagination. beginning with Columbus to events progres­ West became East and was thought to be part sively leading from the Renaissance to the En­ of the tripartite world made up of Europe, Af­ lightenment. Overseas expansion is thus related rica, and Asia. This unknown land, believed to the rise of nation-states and to the sixteenth­ by Columbus to lie at the world's end, evoked century "new monarchies," new modes of feelings of wonder and mystery. The composite expression in art and religion, dynastic and re­ West was legendary, theological, and imperial, ligious rivalries in the contest for empire, new and "might be either a place, a direction, an forms of economic and social life, and the ad­ idea, or all three at once." For some, this car­ vance of geographical knowledge and technol­ dinal direction brought to mind the setting sun ogy. of the vanishing day, "the father of reflection As the textbooks have it, rulers of the "new and of the mind's meditation." In this region monarchies" favored foreign ventures and the of the world, "the natural goal of man's last merchant class. Reconnaissance, or what may journey," lived death and justice and the second be called the preliminary exploration of the life that follows death. 8 world beyond Europe, was made possible by sci­ Others looking beyond the dark horizon of entific knowledge turned to practical account. the sun's descent saw the planet Venus, which Tools used by the explorers on their "stout, is both the evening and the morning star. Pedro handy, and seaworthy" vessels included the de Castaneda, the chronicler of the Coronado mariner's compass, the astrolabe, and a rudi­ expedition, wrote that "the better land" he and mentary quadrant. Shipborne guns gave Euro- his companions did not see might perhaps be 6 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1990 entered "through the land which the Marquis cepted the hierarchic system in which each es­ of the Valley, Don Fernando Cortes, went in tate had different privileges and functions. search of under the Western star, and which Economic self-interest divorced from military cost him no small sea armament. "9 and religious ideals was condemned, but wealth Monsters, which Thomas More tells us "are joined to nobility and civil power, one aspect common enough," lived in the West. So did of numerous feudal ties and patriarchal rela­ sirens, amazons, griffins, giants, and canni­ tions, was tolerated. The incentive for gold as bals.lO But beyond the dangerous waters of the a motive for expeditions of discovery was also Atlantic and the fierce beasts and men of the considered honorable if it formed part of a trin­ islands and mainland were to be found the waters ity of motives: God, Glory, and Gold. i3 of life and legendary lands of happiness. There might be found Antillia, the golden apples of CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS the Hesperides, King Solomon's mines, El Dor­ ado, the land of Cockaigne, the Seven Cities Even Christopher Columbus, today a myth­ of Cfbola, Quivira, the Fountain of Youth, and ical figure but described by Ramon Iglesias as the Terrestrial Paradise. America's first merchant and travel agent, Because modem man "with an almost Al­ clothed his economic interests with a halo of exandrian virtuosity" makes independent con­ chivalry. After losing his flagship in December cepts of pieces of reality called economics, 1492, he founded the fortress and garrison of religion, legend, history, the natural, the su­ La Navidad in Espanola. He trusted in God that pernatural, and so on, life becomes compart­ on his return from Castile he would find a barrel mentalized. We distinguish between the of gold, obtained by barter, and hoped that those "natural" and the "moral," while religion and he left on the island would have discovered gold economics, the world of the spirit and the world mines and spices in such quantity that the king of human affairs, form separate kingdoms that and queen, in less than three years, could un­ have no vital connections.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Bartolome De Las Casas Revisited
    Bartolome de Las Casas Revisited Amber Ferris Seminar Paper Presented to the Department of History Western Oregon University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in History Spring 2009 Approved________________________________________Date___________ Approved________________________________________Date___________ HST 499: Prof. Max Geier & Prof. Narasingha Sil 2 Fray Bartolome de Las Cas O La Proteccion de Los Indios Source: http://libweb.hawaii.edu/libdept/charlotcoll/posada/images/posada/posbib76.gif 3 I Christopher Columbus' discovery of the Americas in 1492 opened a whole new world to the Europeans. The discovered land held new resources, new territory, and new peoples. Conquistadors were enthralled by the lure of gold and territory. But the Spanish government and colonists faced the problem of the nature and status of the people that already inhabited these lands. Were they to be treated as equals, serfs, or slaves? Were they even really people? The answers to these questions were complex and unclear. The Spanish crown made many laws regarding how the natives and colonists should interact, however, much of this legislation was ignored by colonists and conquerors. Most of the colonists were more than happy to exploit the natives, but some religious orders opposed this exploitation. One of the most outspoken defenders of indigenous rights was the Dominican Order. An especially tenacious Dominican defender of natives' rights was Fr. Bartolome de Las Casas, who campaigned for native rights during the early and mid-sixteenth century. As this paper will show, Las Casas’ championship of indigenous rights was shaped by his European heritage. II The Spanish conquest of the New World happened in concurrence with the Renaissance in Europe.
    [Show full text]
  • Coronado and Aesop Fable and Violence on the Sixteenth-Century Plains
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 2009 Coronado and Aesop Fable and Violence on the Sixteenth-Century Plains Daryl W. Palmer Regis University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Palmer, Daryl W., "Coronado and Aesop Fable and Violence on the Sixteenth-Century Plains" (2009). Great Plains Quarterly. 1203. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1203 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. CORONADO AND AESOP FABLE AND VIOLENCE ON THE SIXTEENTH~CENTURY PLAINS DARYL W. PALMER In the spring of 1540, Francisco Vazquez de the killing of this guide for granted, the vio­ Coronado led an entrada from present-day lence was far from straightforward. Indeed, Mexico into the region we call New Mexico, the expeditionaries' actions were embedded where the expedition spent a violent winter in sixteenth-century Spanish culture, a milieu among pueblo peoples. The following year, that can still reward study by historians of the after a long march across the Great Plains, Great Plains. Working within this context, I Coronado led an elite group of his men north explore the ways in which Aesop, the classical into present-day Kansas where, among other master of the fable, may have informed the activities, they strangled their principal Indian Spaniards' actions on the Kansas plains.
    [Show full text]
  • A Many-Storied Place
    A Many-storied Place Historic Resource Study Arkansas Post National Memorial, Arkansas Theodore Catton Principal Investigator Midwest Region National Park Service Omaha, Nebraska 2017 A Many-Storied Place Historic Resource Study Arkansas Post National Memorial, Arkansas Theodore Catton Principal Investigator 2017 Recommended: {){ Superintendent, Arkansas Post AihV'j Concurred: Associate Regional Director, Cultural Resources, Midwest Region Date Approved: Date Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. Proverbs 22:28 Words spoken by Regional Director Elbert Cox Arkansas Post National Memorial dedication June 23, 1964 Table of Contents List of Figures vii Introduction 1 1 – Geography and the River 4 2 – The Site in Antiquity and Quapaw Ethnogenesis 38 3 – A French and Spanish Outpost in Colonial America 72 4 – Osotouy and the Changing Native World 115 5 – Arkansas Post from the Louisiana Purchase to the Trail of Tears 141 6 – The River Port from Arkansas Statehood to the Civil War 179 7 – The Village and Environs from Reconstruction to Recent Times 209 Conclusion 237 Appendices 241 1 – Cultural Resource Base Map: Eight exhibits from the Memorial Unit CLR (a) Pre-1673 / Pre-Contact Period Contributing Features (b) 1673-1803 / Colonial and Revolutionary Period Contributing Features (c) 1804-1855 / Settlement and Early Statehood Period Contributing Features (d) 1856-1865 / Civil War Period Contributing Features (e) 1866-1928 / Late 19th and Early 20th Century Period Contributing Features (f) 1929-1963 / Early 20th Century Period
    [Show full text]
  • The Age of Exploration
    ABSS8_ch05.qxd 2/9/07 10:54 AM Page 104 The Age of 5 Exploration FIGURE 5-1 1 This painting of Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas was done by Louis Prang and Company in 1893. What do you think Columbus might be doing in this painting? 104 Unit 1 Renaissance Europe ABSS8_ch05.qxd 2/9/07 10:54 AM Page 105 WORLDVIEW INQUIRY Geography What factors might motivate a society to venture into unknown regions Knowledge Time beyond its borders? Worldview Economy Beliefs 1492. On a beach on an island in the Caribbean Sea, two Values Society Taino girls were walking in the cool shade of the palm trees eating roasted sweet potatoes. uddenly one of the girls pointed out toward the In This Chapter ocean. The girls could hardly believe their eyes. S Imagine setting out across an Three large strange boats with huge sails were ocean that may or may not con- headed toward the shore. They could hear the tain sea monsters without a map shouts of the people on the boats in the distance. to guide you. Imagine sailing on The girls ran back toward their village to tell the ocean for 96 days with no everyone what they had seen. By the time they idea when you might see land returned to the beach with a crowd of curious again. Imagine being in charge of villagers, the people from the boats had already a group of people who you know landed. They had white skin, furry faces, and were are planning to murder you.
    [Show full text]
  • Age of Exploration Flyer
    POSTER INSIDE POSTER Age of Exploration A DIGITAL RESOURCE Introduction Explore five centuries of journeys across the globe, scientific discoveries, the expansion of European colonialism, new trade routes, and conflict over territories. Overview This impressive multi-archive collection focuses on “This remarkable collection European, maritime exploration from the earliest voyages of Vasco da Gama and Christopher provides the documentary Columbus, through the age of discovery, the search base to interpret some of the for the ‘New World’, the establishment of European settlements on every continent, to the eventual major movements of the age discovery of the Northwest and Northeast Passages, of exploration. The variety and the race for the Poles. of the sources made available Bringing together material from twelve archives from opens perspectives that should around the world, this collection includes documents challenge students and bring the relating to major events in European maritime history from the voyages of James Cook to the search for period to life. It is a collection John Franklin’s doomed mission to the Northwest that promotes both historical Passage. It contains a host of additional features for analysis and imagination.” teaching, such as an interactive map which presents an in-depth visualisation of over 50 of these Emeritus Professor John Gascoigne influential voyages. University of New South Wales Highlights Material Types • Captain Cook’s secret instructions, ships’ logs and • Le Livre des merveilles by Marco Polo including the • Diaries, journals and ships’ logbooks journals from three voyages of James Cook, written illuminations of Maître d’Egerton – this illuminated Printed and manuscript books by various crew members and Cook himself which relate manuscript compendium dates from c.1410-1412 and • to early British Pacific exploration and the search for is comprised of geographical works and accounts of • Correspondence, notes and ephemera Terra Australis.
    [Show full text]
  • Reef-Coral Fauna of Carrizo Creek, Imperial County, California, and Its Significance
    THE REEF-CORAL FAUNA OF CARRIZO CREEK, IMPERIAL COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE . .By THOMAS WAYLAND VAUGHAN . INTRODUCTION. occur has been determined by Drs . Arnold and Dall to be lower Miocene . The following conclusions seem warranted : Knowledge of the existence of the unusually (1) There was water connection between the Atlantic and interesting coral fauna here discussed dates Pacific across Central America not much previous to the from the exploration of Coyote Mountain (also upper Oligocene or lower Miocene-that is, during the known as Carrizo Mountain) by H . W. Fair- upper Eocene or lower Oligocene . This conclusion is the same as that reached by Messrs. Hill and Dall, theirs, how- banks in the early nineties.' Dr. Fairbanks ever, being based upon a study of the fossil mollusks . (2) sent the specimens of corals he collected to During lower Miocene time the West Indian type of coral Prof. John C. Merriam, at the University of fauna extended westward into the Pacific, and it was sub- California, who in turn sent them to me . sequent to that time that the Pacific and Atlantic faunas There were in the collection representatives of have become so markedly differentiated . two species and one variety, which I described As it will be made evident on subsequent under the names Favia merriami, 2 Stephano- pages that this fauna is much younger than ctenia fairbanksi,3 and Stephanoccenia fair- lower Miocene, the inference as to the date of banksi var. columnaris .4 As the geologic hori- the interoceanic connection given in the fore- zon was not even approximately known at that going quotation must be modified .
    [Show full text]
  • Alternative Names of a Maritime Feature: the Case of the Caribbean Sea
    Alternative names of a maritime feature: The case of the Caribbean Sea POKOLY Béla* 1) The Caribbean Sea has been known by this name in the English language for several centuries. It is the widely accepted name in international contacts, and is so recorded by the International Hydrographic Organization. Still in some languages it is alternatively referred to as the Sea of the Antilles, especially in French. It may reflect the age of explorations, when the feature had various names. In Hungarian cartography it is one of the few marine features shown by giving the alter- native name in brackets: Karib (Antilla)‐ tenger (English Caribbean Sea /Sea of the Antilles/). 1. Introduction A look at any map or encyclopaedia would confirm that the Caribbean Sea is one of the major bodies of water of the world. With an approximate area of 2,750,000 km² (1,050,000 square miles), only the five oceans and the Mediterranean Sea are larger by surface. The sea is deepest at the Cayman Trough (or Cayman Trench) which has a maximum depth of 7,686 metres, where the North American and Caribbean plates create a complex zone of spreading and transform faults. The area witnessed two major seismic catastrophes in the past centuries: the 1692 Jamaica earthquake, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. One associates the Caribbean, as a great sea with several features and facts. The three arguably most important facts coupled with the Caribbean: * Senior Advisor, Committee on Geographical Names, Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development, Hungary 23 POKOLY Béla Exploration Columbus’ voyages of discovery to the bordering archipelago.
    [Show full text]
  • A Confusion of Institutions: Spanish Law and Practice in a Francophone Colony, Louisiana, 1763-Circa 1798
    THE TULANE EUROPEAN AND CIVIL LAW FORUM VOLUME 31/32 2017 A Confusion of Institutions: Spanish Law and Practice in a Francophone Colony, Louisiana, 1763-circa 1798 Paul E Hoffman* I. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1 II. THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM AND LOCAL LAW AND ORDER .................... 4 III. SLAVERY ............................................................................................. 13 IV. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 20 I. INTRODUCTION French Louisiana had been a thorn in the flank of Spain’s Atlantic Empire from its founding in 1699. Failure to remove that thorn in 1699 and again in 1716, when doing so would have been comparatively easy and Spanish naval forces were positioned to do so, meant that by 1762 the wound had festered, so that the colony had become what La Salle, Iberville, Bienville, and their royal masters had envisioned: a smuggling station through which French goods reached New Spain and Cuba and their goods—dye stuffs and silver mostly—reached France and helped to pay the costs of a colony that consumed more than it produced, at least so 1 far as the French crown’s finances were concerned. * © 2017 Paul E Hoffman. Professor Emeritus of History, Louisiana State University. 1. I have borrowed the “thorn” from ROBERT S. WEDDLE, THE FRENCH THORN: RIVAL EXPLORERS IN THE SPANISH SEA, 1682-1762 (1991); ROBERT S. WEDDLE, CHANGING TIDES: TWILIGHT AND DAWN IN THE SPANISH SEA, 1763-1803 (1995) (carries the story of explorations). The most detailed history of the French colony to 1731 is the five volumes of A History of French Louisiana: MARCEL GIRAUD, 1-4 HISTOIRE DE LA LOUISIANA FRANÇAISE (1953-74); 1 A HISTORY OF FRENCH LOUISIANA: THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV, 1698-1715 (Joseph C.
    [Show full text]
  • New Spain and Early Independent Mexico Manuscripts New Spain Finding Aid Prepared by David M
    New Spain and Early Independent Mexico manuscripts New Spain Finding aid prepared by David M. Szewczyk. Last updated on January 24, 2011. PACSCL 2010.12.20 New Spain and Early Independent Mexico manuscripts Table of Contents Summary Information...................................................................................................................................3 Biography/History.........................................................................................................................................3 Scope and Contents.......................................................................................................................................6 Administrative Information...........................................................................................................................7 Collection Inventory..................................................................................................................................... 9 - Page 2 - New Spain and Early Independent Mexico manuscripts Summary Information Repository PACSCL Title New Spain and Early Independent Mexico manuscripts Call number New Spain Date [inclusive] 1519-1855 Extent 5.8 linear feet Language Spanish Cite as: [title and date of item], [Call-number], New Spain and Early Independent Mexico manuscripts, 1519-1855, Rosenbach Museum and Library. Biography/History Dr. Rosenbach and the Rosenbach Museum and Library During the first half of this century, Dr. Abraham S. W. Rosenbach reigned supreme as our nations greatest bookseller.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 17.1 European Exploration and Expansion
    CHAPTER 17.1 EUROPEAN EXPLORATION AND EXPANSION MOTIVES AND MEANS • Age of Discovery: Period from 1500-1800 CE in which Europeans sailed and explored the rest of the world • Motives for exploration: • Fascination with Asia • Marco Polo’s book The Travels detailed his exotic travels became popular with Europeans • Economics • Hopes of opening new markets to trade for spices, precious metals • “Gold, glory, and God” • A belief that Europeans must Christianize indigenous peoples MOTIVES AND MEANS • Means of exploration: • Caravel: small, fast ship with a longer range and larger cargo hold than previous ships • Advances in cartography more accurate maps, astrolabe, compass • Knowledge of wind patterns PORTUGUESE EXPLORERS • Portugal was first to explore; led by Prince Henry the Navigator • Discovered gold on western coast of Africa (“Gold Coast”) • Vasco de Gama sailed around tip of Africa and reached Calicut, India • Made large profit from Indian spices • Portuguese fleets returned to India to defeat Muslims and create trade monopoly • Portugal dominated trade in India and China, but did not have the population to colonize SPANISH EXPLORERS • Europeans knew world was round; did not know existence of the Americas • Sailed west to find a different route to Asia • Christopher Columbus sailed to find India for Spain • Found Caribbean islands which he thought were islands just outside of India • Never reached mainland Americas • Ferdinand Magellan: first to sail completely around the globe by sailing around the tip of South America; killed in Philippines …Columbus once punished a man found guilty of stealing corn by having his ears and nose cut off and then selling him into slavery.
    [Show full text]
  • Antonio De Mendoza; First Viceroy of Mexico. the Tinker Pamphlet
    .4. DOCUMENT RESUME ED 114 227 RC 008' 850- AUTHOR Miller, Hubert J. TITLE Antonio de Mendola; First Viceroy of Mexico. The Tinker Pamphlet Series for the Teaching of.Mexican American Heritage. TB 73 NOTE 70p.; For related documents, see RC 008 851-853 AVAtLABL ROM' Mr. Al Ramirez, P.O. Box 471, Edinburg, Texas.78539 ($1.00) EDRS PRICE. MF-$0.76 Plus Postage. HC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTO ji5*Administrator Background; American Indians; - *Biographies; Colonialism; Cultiral Education; Curriculum Enrichment; Curriculum Guides; Elementary Secondary Education; *Mexican.AmerieHistory; *Mexicaps; Resource Materials; Sociocultural Patterns; Vocabulait; *Western Civiliiation IDENTIFIERS *Mendoza (Antonio de) ABSTRACT .0 As Mexico's first viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza.s most noteworthy achievement was his laYing the basis of colonial government in New Spain which continued, with modifications, for 300. years. Although he was lenient in dealing with the shortcomingi of .his Indian and Spanish subjects; he took a'firm stand in dealing with the rebellious Indians in the Mixton War and the Cortes faction which threatened the Viceregal rule. His pridary concern was to keep New Spain for the crown while protecting the Indians from w#nt.and . inhumanity. Focusing o$ the institutions he founded and 'developed, this booklet provides a study of early Spanish colonial institutions. Although the biographical account is of secondary importance, the. description .of Hispanic colonial institutions arelPable'in presenting the Spaniards. colonization after the cconquest -ctica. applicAtion of the, material at both the elementary and 'se levels can be utilized in stimulating student discussionsa on the Merits and demerits of 2 colonial powers- -the English a the Spaniards.
    [Show full text]
  • Comparison of Spanish Colonization—Latin America and the Philippines
    Title: Comparison of Spanish Colonization—Latin America and the Philippines Teacher: Anne Sharkey, Huntley High School Summary: This lesson took part as a comparison of the different aspects of the Spanish maritime empires with a comparison of Spanish colonization of Mexico & Cuba to that of the Philippines. The lessons in this unit begin with a basic understanding of each land based empire of the time period 1450-1750 (Russia, Ottomans, China) and then with a movement to the maritime transoceanic empires (Spain, Portugal, France, Britain). This lesson will come after the students already have been introduced to the Spanish colonial empire and the Spanish trade systems through the Atlantic and Pacific. Through this lesson the students will gain an understanding of Spanish systems of colonial rule and control of the peoples and the territories. The evaluation of causes of actions of the Spanish, reactions to native populations, and consequences of Spanish involvement will be discussed with the direct correlation between the social systems and structures created, the influence of the Christian missionaries, the rebellions and conflicts with native populations between the two locations in the Latin American Spanish colonies and the Philippines. Level: High School Content Area: AP World History, World History, Global Studies Duration: Lesson Objectives: Students will be able to: Compare the economic, political, social, and cultural structures of the Spanish involvement in Latin America with the Spanish involvement with the Philippines Compare the effects of mercantilism on Latin America and the Philippines Evaluate the role of the encomienda and hacienda system on both regions Evaluate the influence of the silver trade on the economies of both regions Analyze the creation of a colonial society through the development of social classes—Peninsulares, creoles, mestizos, mulattos, etc.
    [Show full text]