1.4 Aztec and Inca empires

• History
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 2

Machu Picchu - Inca society

Warm-up

Machu Picchu - Inca society

Machu Picchu - Inca society

Machu Picchu - Inca society

Machu Picchu - Inca society

Machu Picchu - Inca society

Machu Picchu

1.4 Aztec and Inca empires

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.

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

Three major agricultural urban societies

The Maya in Central America in dozens of city-states.

The Empire of the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico.

The Inca Empire in the Andes Mountains in Cities.

Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec empire

Let's watch the video

0

True or false?

1. The Aztecs built a highly organized society with a complex political structure centered in Tenochtitlán.
2. The fall of the Aztec Empire was due solely to Spanish military superiority.
3. Cortés gained critical support from indigenous groups who opposed Aztec rule.
4. The Spanish introduced diseases that significantly weakened the Aztec population.
5. Aztec resistance continued even after the capture of their capital.
6. The Spanish conquest marked the abrupt end of all Aztec cultural practices.
7. The legacy of the Aztecs can still be seen in modern-day Mexico.

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

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

Cortés was able to make allies 

among other tribes and together 

they marched on Tenochtitlan, the largest Aztec city. Its ruler, Montezuma, 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

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.

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

1. Treaty of Tordesillas
2. Inuit
3. Aztec empire
4. Highly developed civilisations
5. Columbus
6. conquistadores
7. Hernan Cortez
8. The Incas 

a. Tenochtitlan

b. Spread of Christianity

c. the new world

d. children of the sun

e. built Mexico city

f. division of the world

g. development own calender

h. indigenous

Make your own summary using the 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?