History 307 – Latin American History – Fall 2003

 

The Conquest

In a shockingly brief period, not much more than a single lifetime, a vast portion of the world was radically transformed.  Ancient empires collapsed; separate worlds (Europe, Africa, the Americas) were bound together; millions of people moved (from Europe and Africa) to the Americas; millions of native Americans died.  What happened?  And why?

A Chronology

1492	Columbus; also: 1493; 1498; 1502-04
1500	Vicente Yanez Pinzón discovers mouth of the Amazon
1501	Pedro Cabral reaches coast of Brazil; claims it for Portugal
1513	Nuñez de Balboa reaches “Pacific;” claims it for Spain
1513	Pedro Arias Davila establishes Spanish colonies in Panama; later in Nicaragua (1524)
1513	Ponce de Leon explores Florida, looking for the “fountain of youth”
1517	Hernandez de Cordoba explores Yucatan, U.S. south west
1518	Smallpox epidemic in Hispaniola
1519	Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda (Spain) is first European to see Mississippi
1519-1521	Cortés in Mexico
1519-1521	Smallpox reaches Mexico
1519-1522	Spanish expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigates globe (Magellan himself is killed in Philippines)
1520-21	Francisco Hernandez Cordova and Juan de Gryalva explore Yucatan & coast of Mexico
1525	Smallpox reaches Ecuador, Peru
1527-1536	Cabaza de Vaca’s exploration of Florida, Texas, northern Mexico; looking for the “Seven Cities of Cibola;” vast “clouds” of Indians follow explorers, thinking them to be divine
1532-1533	Pizarro conquers Inca Empire
1536	Handful of survivors of Cabeza de Vaca’s expedition reach Mexico City
1536	Jimenez de Quesada explores Columba, founds Bogotá
1539	Hernando de Soto explores Florida, North Carolina, Mississippi River
1540	Pedro de Valdivia explores Chile
1540	Francisco Vasquez de Coronado explores New Mexico, Arizona
1541-1542	Francisco de Orellana explores Amazon from Peru to Atlantic
1560	Lope de Aguirre explores Amazon; declares independence from Spanish king
1560s	By 1560s, regular Spanish & Portuguese governmental officials take charge in New World, ending “great age” of the Conquistadores
1600	Smallpox and other epidemics kill perhaps as many as 95% of Native Peoples, one of the most devastating outbreaks of disease in human history

 

Who were they?

·          Violent and greedy men in their 30s

·          Attracted by adventure & danger

·          Totally contradictory: brutal yet deeply religious; curious & open-minded yet arrogant

·          Many are killed in battle, executed, or end up impoverished

·          “Hidalgos,” that is, younger and poorer sons of aristocratic families

·          Incredibly aggressive and skilled warriors

·          Also incredibly naïve: looking for “El Dorado” (the Golden Man); the Fountain of Youth; the Seven Cities of Cibola

 

How did they win?

·          Significant technological advantage over native peoples: guns, cross-bows, horses, armor, sailing ships, steel

·          Both sides are on “missions from God” – but the “Christian God” seems to encourage action, exploration, conversion, while the Aztec & other gods seem to induce paralysis & fear

·          Many Indians do NOT like Aztecs or Incas, and cooperate with Spaniards;  Cortés, for example, conquered the Aztecs with several hundred Spaniards acting as his “elite troops,” AND thousands of non-Aztec Indian warriors who hated the Aztecs

·          In many ways, the Spaniards did NOT really “conquer” the native peoples.  In Mexico, for instance, Aztec landlords ruled huge estates worked by thousands of Indian peasants.  The Spaniards replaced the Aztecs, BUT the plantation system continued on almost unchanged.

 

How shall we judge them?

 

Monsters	Heroes	People of their Time
Unwelcome Invaders   Used massacre as weapon of war   Spread disease   Set up terribly exploitive system, which included human slavery, which lasted for generations   Largely destroyed Native cultures	Incredibly brave & skillful warriors   Destroyed CRUEL empires;  Aztecs and Incas were disliked by other Native peoples   Brought possibility of education, technology, science, medicine   The spread disease by accident; they did not want to murder millions   They were their own harshest critics (see writings of Las Casas)	They believed that conquest was approved by God   Believed that ideal economy was landlord/peasant agricultural economy   Believed that paternalist rule-by-elite was best kind of government

 

 

How do they STILL affect today?

 

1.        “Primal Curse” à Conquest led to domination of the many by the few;  bitter racial antagonisms; habit of violent suppression of dissent; power of elite hacendados/ landlords, makes economic development very difficult

2.       “Mestizo Ideal” à Conquest sets stage for evolution of wholly new peoples & cultures, shaped by Europe + Africa + Native cultures

3.       Personal & Social IDENTITY shaped by attitude toward Conquest;  STILL an issue today

4. Identity is complicated because many Latin Americans have Europeans AND Native Peoples AND Africans in their history – with this heritage, “who am I? Who are we?”

 

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Modified by:  H.  Kamerling