Invasion & Occupation of Mesoamerica, 1480-1821 The Spanish

Background to Spanish Conquest Muslims of North Africa, 711 Moors Northern Kingdoms resist La Reconquista Marriage of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, 1479 Conquest of Granada, 1492

Contact - Columbus Spain and Christopher Columbus, 1492 Arawaks Enslavement of Indians Columbian Exchange Transfer of Disease

“Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides…the ceased to procreate. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and famished, had no milk to nurse them…Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desperation…In this way husbands died in the mine, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk…and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fertile…was depopulated…My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write…” - Bartolome de las Casas

Contact – The Portuguese Portugal Earliest slave traders Arrival in the Americas, 1497-1500

Spanish Explorations Led Europeans in exploration & conquest Wealth, National Glory, Catholicism Conquistadores

Spain - Mexico Center of New Spain Hernan Cortez, 1519 Defeat of Tabasco Marina/Malinche Smallpox Epidemic

Images of Effects of Smallpox Epidemic

Tenochtitlan Nahuatl Moctezuma Cuahtemoc Conflict with the Spanish The Tlaxcalans

Spanish Colonies Political Organization Social Organization Spanish born Governors Cooperation of Indian nobility Social Organization Elaborate Caste System Peninsulares Criollos Mestizos

Spanish Colonies - Economic Organization Encomienda & Hacienda African Slavery, 16th century

- Bartolome de las Casas “The Indians were totally deprived of their freedom and were put in the harshest, fiercest, most horrible servitude and captivity which no one who has not seen it can understand. Even beasts enjoy more freedom when they are allowed to graze in the fields.” - Bartolome de las Casas Consequences: Spanish “Black Legend”

Catholicism & Religious Organization

Tonantzin Mother Earth/Corn Mother Mount Tepeyec Mexican Catholicism Syncretism of culture

Women in Colonial Mesoamerica Patriarchal society Marriage and family changes Machismo Spanish & Indigenous men Teachers of culture Laborers

Invasion and Occupation of Mesoamerica Key terms: La Reconquista, Malinche, Tenochtitlan, Cuahtemoc, Bartolome de las Casas, Mestizo, Tonantzin, Virgin de Guadalupe, Machismo