1.4 The Spanish conquest of America

• History
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 2

Lesson 1.4. the Spanish conquest of America

5. The Time of Discoverers and Reformers

5. The Time of Discoverers and Reformers

Lesson 2. Discovery and Conquest (1)

What is this lesson about?

After the discoveries of Columbus, the Spaniards started to conquer and colonise Central and South America. Cortés defeated the Aztecs with just a small force of soldiers. Pizarro ended the Inca empire. After the conquests the indigenous population suffered severely from European diseases and the slave work that they were forced to do for the Spaniards.

Main Questions

1. What was the Treaty of Tordesillas?
2. What was life like in the Americas before the Europeans came?
3. What was the goal of the conquistadores?
4. How did Cortes conquer the Aztec empire?
5. How did Pizarro conquer the Inca empire?
6. How were the conquistadores able to defeat an enemy that had 10,000 times more men? 
7. How were the indiginous people of America treated by the Europeans?

people in this lesson

Hernan Cortés

Francisco Pizarro

Moctezuma

Atahualpa

Important dates in this lesson:

1494: Treaty of Tordesillas

1504: Cortés arrives in the New World

1521: Cortés conquers Tenochtitlan

1532: Pizarro conquers Peru

Word Duty

KEY WORDS

Treaty of Tordesillas: treaty in which Spain and Portugal divided the world 

Aztecs: a people in Mexico with a highly developed civilisation 

Incas: a people in Peru, Bolivia and Chili with a highly developed civilisation 

Conquistadores: Spanish explorers and conquerors during the age of discovery 

Indigenous people: the native inhabitants of a country 

Viceroy: official who rules a country or colony ip the name of the king

Hacienda: pieces of land on which Spanish settlers could build a farm or plantation

Encomienda: a right a Spanish settler had to let Indians work on his land

On 7th June 1494, the Catholic rulers 

Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain received 

the blessing of the pope to sign a treaty with the king of Portugal. 

Both countries made preparations to discover and conquer their new territories and in this Treaty of Tordesillas they divided their spheres of influence. 

The pope, who was Spanish himself, did this by drawing an imaginary line across the world. The lands to the west of this line belonged to Spain and the east became Portuguese. 

One stroke of a pen had changed the lives of millions of people around the world.

The Treaty document

Pope Alexander VI

Treaty of Tordesillas

1. Lands not yet ruled by Christians were divided among Spain and Portugal
2. Spain recieved most of the New World territory's 

2. What country is the only Portuguese speaking country in South-America today? Why is that, you think?

2b. Look at the division of the New World. Do you think that the fact that the pope was Spanish had anything to do with this? Explain.

The first Americans 

Around 12000 BC, people crossed the Bering strait from Asia to North America. 

By the sixteenth century, millions of Native Americans lived on the continent. There were Inuit in the north, bison hunters on prairies and jungle tribes in Amazonia. Most Indians lived as hunter-gatherers, but some were farmers. There were some people who lived in agricultural-urban societies such as the Aztecs and the Incas. They both had a highly developed civilisation and ruled large areas and cities with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants; some of these cities were bigger than those found in 

Europe at the time. They had their own culture: a language, a religion, amazing temples and palaces decorated with elaborate artwork and gold. They commanded strong armies and maintained roads and elaborate trade routes.

The first Americans

1. 12000 BC, people crossed the bering strait from Asia to Alaska
2. In the north most people lived as hunter-gatherers, in the south there were advanced civilisations like the Inca's and Aztecs

3a. 'The native Americans were primitive peoples.'
Do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.

3b. Which of these four definitions fits the term
"agricultural urban society"
best?

1. people are nomads and live as hunter-gatherers
2. all people are farmers
3. most people are farmers but there are also cities
4. all people live in cities

Conquistadores 

Columbus never found much gold on his voyages, but nevertheless, stories about gold and other riches from the New World spread through Europe after the discovery of America. Many Spanish soldiers had fought during the Reconquista and were now thrilled to set sail to America in search of fame and fortune. These explorers and adventurers were called conquistadores ('conquerors'). 

Hernan Cortés was one of the Spaniards that tried their luck in America. In 1504, he arrived at the island Hispaniola. He lived there and later became governor of Cuba. In 1519 he was ordered to explore the mainland of North America, which was discovered on earlier expeditions. When Cortés landed on the mainland he heard about the riches of the powerful Aztecs who lived in the heartland of Mexico.

Conquistadores fighting the Aztecs

Hernan Cortés

Conquistadores

1. Conquistadores means "Conquerors"
2. Many soldiers from the reconquista wanted to find fame and fortune in the new world

4. What was the main reason for many conquistadors
to travel to America?

1. to conquer land
2. to see touristic sites
3. to get gold
4. to convert Indians into Christians

5. The Aztecs live in present day

1. Mexico
2. Texas
3. Brazil
4. Peru

Attack on the Aztecs 

The Aztecs were impressed when they saw Cortes and his small conquistador army. They had never seen such light skins, strange clothes and different hair colours. 

The horses and war dogs were also new to them. Their iron armour, which reflected sunlight, made the Spaniards look as if they were from another world. 

According to Spanish manuscripts, some Aztecs even believed that Cortes was their god Quetzalcoatl. He used this to his advantage but he also knew that it was not enough to defeat the Aztecs. 

 

Cortés meets Aztec emperor Montezuma

The route that Cortés travelled

Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec empire

Previous lesson

Cortés was able to make allies 

among other tribes and together 

they marched on Tenochtitlan, the largest Aztec city. Its ruler, Moctezuma, invited the Spaniards into his city and brought them many gifts. 

This fuelled their hunger for riches even more and Cortés decided to take over Tenochtitlan using brute force. The Aztec warriors fought bravely, but the technological differences were too great. Their wooden and stone weapons were no match against iron swords, guns and cannons. 

Cortés burned Tenochtitlan and on its remains he built Mexico-City. 

The lands of the Aztecs had been conquered in the name of Spain. 

Cortés' soldiers conquer Tenochtitlan

Attack on the Aztecs

1. Even though the Aztecs were an advanced civilisation, their weapons were inferiour to those of Europe
2. Cortes manages to conquer the Aztecs with less than 600 men

Pizarro and the Incas 

Inspired by the successes of Cortes, Francisco Pizarro started his third expedition to defeat the Incas. His first two attempts had failed, but in 1531 he tried again. He travelled to South America with just 106 foot-soldiers, 

62 cavalrymen and a few cannons. The Incan emperor, Atahualpa, had just defeated his brother in a bloody civil war and still had more than 50,000 men under his command. He did not see the Spaniards as a threat. 

Pizarro knew that he could only defeat Atahualpa by using a trap and so he invited the emperor at the city of Cajamarca. There Pizarro hid his conquistador army around a central square. When the emperor arrived with his entourage he was suddenly attacked. The fight turned into a massacre in which thousands of unarmed Incas died. Atahualpa was taken hostage and in despair he promised Pizarro a room fitted with gold and two with silver. In the following weeks his followers brought treasures, but it was not enough to save him. Pizarro ordered that Atahualpa had to be killed and a year later he marched on Cusco, the Inca capital. Spain now also ruled large parts of South America.

Death of Inca ruler Atahualpa. 16th-century artwork of the Inca Emperor Atahualpa (seated at right, c.1502-1533) being killed on 29 August 1533 by Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro. Atahualpa is being strangled to death using a garotte.

Pizarro and the Incas

1. -Francisco Pizarro used a trap to capture the Inca emperor Atahualpa
2. -Without a leader the Incas were soon defeated by Pizarro
3. -Spain now ruled large parts of central and south America

12. There were very few Spanish soldiers and thousands of Inca soldiers.
How do you think the conquistadores' succes affected their view of the Inca? Explain your answer.

Terrible diseases and hard work 

The conquistadores had killed thousands of Indians during the wars, but this was nothing compared to deaths that were caused by the viruses they brought. Diseases such as typhus, the flu, smallpox and measles were new to the indigenous people, the people who naturally existed in that place, so their bodies did not have immunity. Millions of people were contaminated and died horrible deaths. In some places the population dropped by a staggering 90%. 

The Indians that survived were subjugated as slaves for the Spaniards. After the wars, the Spaniards divided their American territories into the Viceroyalty of Peru and New Spain. Viceroys were representatives of the Spanish king and ruled the colonies on his behalf. The viceroy awarded the conquistadores with a hacienda. These were pieces of land on which they could build plantations, cattle farms or mines. The viceroy also gave them encomienda, the right to have the Indians do the hard work on their land.

the Indians were badly treated by the Spanish

Terrible diseases and hard work

1. Viceroy: Representative of the spanish king, ruled the colonies in the kings name
2. Hacienda: Pieces of land with plantations, cattle or mines
3. Ecomienda: the right to let the Indians do the hard work on these lands

The Spanish conquistadores made it sound like the Ecomienda system was fair. What arguments did they use?

Give 2 arguments why the system was in fact not fair at all

13. Why were European diseases lethal to the Indians?

Slaves 

Most Spaniards believed that the death of the Indians was a punishment from God. The Indians were not seen as equals to the Europeans because they were not Catholic, so they were not protected against abuse. 

The Spanish priest De Las Casas opposed this mistreatment by writing a letter to emperor Charles V in which he explained about the hard work the Indians had to do and the harsh punishments they received. He was successful. From that moment the Indians had to be treated better. But the misery did not end because the hacienda owners shipped in slaves from Africa instead to do the hard labour.

Source 2; the True History of the Conquest of New Spain, written by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a conquistador.

'On his side Cuauhtémoc, ... took measures for the defence of his country with unequalled courage; he had obtained from his subjects a promise 'that they would never make peace, but either would die fighting or take our lives. ' The battle was remarkably long and bloody. When the greater number of them had already perished, the few who still remained stoically* resisted thirst, hunger, weariness and pestilence* in the defence of their country, and even refused the proposals of peace that Cortés repeatedly made to them. In this manner only did they die' 

(*stoically = calm, pestilence = diseases) 

Source 1; A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, written by Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, a Spanish monk.  

'The cause for which the Christians have slain and destroyed so many, such infinite numbers of souls, has been simply to get, as their ultimate end, the Indians' gold for themselves. They have stuffed themselves with riches in a very few days, owing to the insatiable greed and ambition that they have had, which has been greater than any the world has ever seen before.' 

Read the text "slaves". Then read the sources 1 and 2. In the next 5 questions you must choose which source supports which statement. Keep in mind who wrote the source and to what end.

14a. It is un-Christian to treat other human beings that way

1. source B
2. source C

14b. The Spanish only killed the Aztecs when they had to.

1. source B
2. source C

14c. These savages only knew how to fight; there was no reasoning with them.

1. source B
2. source C

14d. The only reason the Spanish conquered these lands was for gold, not to spread Christianity.

1. source B
2. source C

14e. To defend their very lives, Spanish soldiers did
what they had to.

1. source B
2. source C

Add the following information to your world map:

• treaty of Tordesillas line
• Aztec and Inca empires (with names)
  

congratulations

congratulations

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