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Outline Lecture Twelve—Spanish Conquest of the Americas (Gerardo Rios Lecture)

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Outline Lecture Twelve—Spanish Conquest of the Americas (Gerardo Rios Lecture) Outline Lecture Twelve—Spanish Conquest of the Americas (Gerardo Rios Lecture) I) The Spaniards the indigenous people from the Americas encountered: a) 1492-A Watershed year for the Holy Warriors b) Hidalguía (Son of Someone)-Pureza de Sangre (Purity of Blood) c) “Crusader Mentality?” d) Christopher Columbus and the Atlantic Crossings e) Fray Antonio de Montesinos, Bartolóme de las Casas, and The “Black Legend” f) The Columbian Legacy-Disease, Dehumanization, Depopulation-The Fate of the Taino and Arawak populations in the Greater Antilles g) Yucatán and Governor Velázquez, 1516-1517- God, Glory, Gold, Going Nowhere h) Apogee of Spanish Expansionism—A Triumph for all the West i) How did a few hundred Spanish soldiers topple well-organized, highly militaristic empires in Perú and México? (a) Hernando Cortés-a hero for his times ii) King Moctezuma II—the Legacy of the Tlatoani “He who Speaks”: The Tlatoani you could not look in the face—the touch of Tlacalel (a) Quetzalcoatl-The Return of the Feathered Serpent and other Omens (b) The Bernardino de Sahagun Thesis: Moctezuma the Feckless (c) Aztec society corrupted from the top: feeble, superstitious, stagnated (d) The Jacques Soustelle Thesis: The Beautiful Parasite iii) Emphasis on pivotal role of Malinche/Malintzi/Malinali (Doña Marina) (a) Translator, informant, negotiator, traitor? (b) The first Mestizo/Mexican—Martín Diego Cortés iv) Can the Spanish conquests of the Americas—the conquest of the Aztecs in particular—be explained through the prism of individual exceptionality? II) The Rise of the Aztec Empire a) From Rags to Riches: Origin of the Mexica—nomads from the Far North; Seven Caves of Chicomoztoc, Aztlán, Huitzilopochtli (Hummingbird on the Left) i) Arrival to central Mexico—Tenochtitlan (a) Vassals and Mercenaries—Tepanec authority (b) 1425 The Mexica become Aztecs—The Triple Alliance (Union of Tlacopan, Tacuba, Mexica) (c) The Tepanecs are defeated, their lands are divided; ethnocide? (d) War as an Aesthetic; Glorification of Warfare (e) The Rise of Tlacaelel (Shadow Ruler), Rewriting of History (a) Huitzilopochtli, Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc, The New Priesthood (b) The Universe, World, and Gods Thirst for Human Blood: Human Cannibalism? Marvin Harris-Protein Deficiency Theory ii) Ruptures within the Empire—Tlaxcallan and Tarrasco—the Impossible Conquests (a) Fattening the Tribute Sheets (b) Xochiyoayotl—The Flower Wars/Yao Cuautli, Yao Ocelotl (b) 1450-1500, Decadence and Decline—Wars, Rebellions, Maize Scarcity (c) 1516-The Otomí/Tlaxcallan Slave Tlahuicole and the Myth of Invincibility (d) 1517 Xicohtencátl Huehuetl the Mighty, Tlaxcallan Organizes an Attack—Aztecs and Tlaxcallans fight to a Stalemate iii) Hernan Cortes and the Spaniards enter Tenochtitlan, 1519, Bernal Diaz del Castillo “I saw a city invincible” (a) Moctezumah II taken prisoner: the Tlatoani surrendered—“Shook Aztec Society to its Foundations” (b) Cortés as a new lord of the Mexica? “Come in and Enjoy Yourselves!” (c) Cortés and the inevitable end—The Fifth Sun, Aztec Millenarianism to blame for the irrational decision making? (i) Cortés: Man or god—the myth of Quetzalcoatl—Return of the Man-God? (ii) Cortés vs the Tlaxcallan Lords—Cempoallan allies—victory, defeat, negotiation of peace (iii) Cortés the Cunning, the bold—established a permanent alliance with Xicohtencátl Huehuetl by massacring the Cholulans (Malintzi warned of the Cholulan deceit) (iv) Cortés did this despite having had cut-off the hands of fifty Tlaxcallan emissaries/Also made the Aztecs believe he would help them destroy Tlaxcala (d) Gold as a politics of appeasement? (i) Lavished gold on the conquistadors (ii) They traded gold for colored glass (iii) Saved by grace? Aztec reciprocity III) Aztec Resistance a) Aztec Perspective of the Conquest—the narrative of Bernardino de Sahagun i) The Spanish invasion divided he Aztec leadership itself ii) Cuauhtemoc to Moctezuma II—called him a coward and effeminate; Aztec leadership is divided iii) Prince Cuauhtemoc—Sees Spaniards as greedy and merciless; Moctezuma as puppet, yet remains loyal to Cortés: Fear? Fatalism? (a) April 1520- Tlaxcala itself is divided— (b) Lord Xicohtencátl Axayacatzin-the Prince of Tlaxcallan, rebels against his father and the Spaniards (c) Sides with the Aztecs—meets end in the Lake Texcoco mutiny, 6 May 1520 (d) 15 May 1520, Cortés defeats the fleets led by Panfilo de Narvaez in Cempoala— burns some of the ships, signs-up the defeated conquistadores iv) Festival of Huitzilopochtli, the Sun-god (a) Pedro de Alvarado suspicious of Aztec mutiny—massacres the dancers, women, children, the elderly (b) Violent acts sparks an Aztec counterattack (c) Prince Cuauhtemoc defeats the Spaniards –horrid war of attrition b) 20 May 1520, The Return of Cortés—appoints Cuauhtemoc to reestablish order i) Cuauhtlahuac (“eagle over the water”) (La Malinche derisively named him “Cuitlahuac”) (a) Cuauhtlahuac rebels-Moctezuma II killed atop the palace (a) Cuauhtlahuac named Tlatoani (b) 30 June 1520- Cuauhtlahuac leads the rebellion against Cortés; Spaniards defeated; all captives sacrificed in Axacayátl palace (c) La Noche Triste “The Sad Night”—La Malinche ends the sorrow (d) Victory, short-lived, Cuauhtlahuac dies from smallpox; November 1520 (e) Cuauhtemoc escapes in a canoe-seeks Cortés; surrenders ii) End of Tenochtitlan-August to November 1521 iii) Cortés regrouped in Tlaxcala since July 1521—Spaniards notice some allies are dying from sores and fever-but begins the final three-month siege (a) Cortés, captured in initial battle, saved by Cristobal de Nuñez, (b) Spaniards counted with more than 120,000 Tlaxcalans, Tarrascans, Cempoalans, Texcolcanos, Atlixcanos (c) Allies kill more than 50,000 Aztecs; mostly non-combatants (d) The silent enemy, smallpox wiped-out all the resistance c) Demographic Collapses—David Noble Cook Thesis Born to Die—Epidemics came in waves 1521, 1543, 1550, 1585 and so forth, by 1600 Amerindian societies are nearly collapsed i) Isolated for more than 15,000 years, the Amerindians had no immunity to Old World pathogens (a) Smallpox (the greatest killer), mumps, measles, tuberculosis, bubonic plague, etc. ii) By 1600, Peru had lost approximately 70% of its pre-conquest population (a) From roughly 7-8 million down to 2 million iii) Central Highland Mexico, the Heartland of the Nahuas—by 1600 the population had dropped from 15,000,000 to <1,000,000 iv) Indigenous societies would persist— v) “The Problem of the Indian”-Neophytes vi) “The Indian Question”-Can they be equal? New Laws 1542 vii) “The Republic of the Indians” .
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