Spanish Conquest of Central and South America

Spanish ConquistadorsAs the Age of Exploration went into full swing,

Spanish conquistadors went to the Americas for 3 general reasons:

Gold

God

GloryConquistador- a leader in the Spanish

conquests of America, Mexico and Peru in the 16th Century

Hernan Cortés1519, Cortes landed on the shores

of MexicoLearned of the wealthy Aztec

Empire in the regions interior.Reached capital TenochtitlanAztec Emperor Montezuma II

convinced Cortes is a god offers to give him gold.

Cortes was not satisfied1520, Cortes and his men driven

out of capital by Aztecs during confusion of other conquistadors trying to come in to take over.

Montezuma II is killed during the fighting.

1521- Cortes strikes back and conquers Aztecs

Francisco Pizarro1532, Pizarro lands in PeruPizarro makes alliances with

other Indians that are enemies with the Inca

Incas have just finished a civil war

Pizarro kidnap Atahualpa (Inca King) and ask for ransom

Incas pay ransom but Pizarro killed Atahualpa anyway

Spain adds much of South America to their empire

Reasons for Spanish VictorySuperior military

technologyDivision and discontent

among Indians aided the Spanish

Disease brought by the Europeans weakened the Aztec and Incans- no natural immunity

Religious beliefs- many Indians believed that the disasters they suffered meant the end of the world

Ruling The Spanish EmpireSpain wanted to

maintain control over its empire

The Spanish king did the following:Set up the Council of

the Indies to pass laws in the Americas

Appointed viceroys to rule in his name Viceroy- someone who

rules a colony on behalf of the king or queen Viceroy of New Spain

Antonio Maria de Bucareli y Ursúa

Spreading ChristianitySpain wanted to spread

Roman Catholicism to the New World

Jesuits set up missions and converted thousands of Indians

Spanish missionaries forcibly imposed European culture over Native American cultureMissionary- One who

attempts to persuade or convert others to a particular idea

Trade & the EncomiendaSpain closely regulated trade

to keep profits highColonists could only export

raw materials to Spain and buy only Spanish manufactured goods.

Native Americans were forced into the encomienda systemConquistadors could demand

labor or tribute.Resistors were hunted down &

killedNative Americans were forced

to work in the silver mines in the Andes Mts.

A Spanish Priest Speaks outBartolomé de Las

Casasa Spanish priest,

condemned the encomienda system.

He reported the horrors of the system to the king

Led to the passage of the New Laws of the IndesForbade

enslavement of Native Americans

Labor Shortage!With Native American slavery

banned, there was now a labor shortage.What do you think was

suggested to make up the labor shortage?

Las Casas suggested to import workers from AfricaImmune to tropical diseasesSkills in farming, mining &

metalworkHarder for them to escapeWhat happened as a result?

Millions of African slaves were forced into slavery

Global History 9 Name: _________________________________ Period:_________

The rich, sparsely populated lands of the New World brought many adventurers and settlers from Europe where the population was comparatively dense and opportunity limited. Those ambitious adventurers who won an empire from Spain in the decades after the discovery of the New World are known as the conquistadores. The conquest of the native people was accomplished by superior weapons, treachery and bloodshed. Whole civilizations were destroyed in Mexico and Peru. The territory was robbed of its precious metals, and the inhabitants were often subjected to extreme cruelty.

Among those who cried out in defense of the Indian was Bartolomé de las Casas (1474-1566), who had come as a conqueror, but soon joined the Dominican Order of Friars. After spending years as Bishop of Chiapas in Mexico, he returned to Spain and published a devastating account of the treatment of Indians by Spaniards. Though some scholars have argued that he told a one-sided story, and though his figures are exaggerated, his account is generally correct.

Bartolomé de las Casas

Account of the Devastation of the Indies (1552)

And never have the Indians in all the Indies committed any act against the Spanish Christians, until those Christians have first and many times committed countless cruel aggressions against them or against neighboring nations.

Yet into this sheepfold, into this land of meek outcasts there came some Spaniards who immediately behaved like ravening wild beasts, wolves, tigers, or lions that had been starved for many days.

More than thirty other islands in the vicinity of San Juan are for the most part and for the same reason depopulated, and the land laid waste.

We can estimate very surely and truthfully that in the forty years that have passed, with the infernal actions of the Christians, there have been unjustly slain more than twelve million men, women, and children. In truth, I believe without trying to deceive myself that the number of the slain is more like fifteen million.

After the wars and the killings had ended, when usually there survived only some boys, some women, and children, these survivors were distributed among the Christians to be slaves.

On the Native peoples And of all the infinite universe of humanity, these people are the most guileless, the

most devoid of wickedness and duplicity, the most obedient and faithful to their native masters and to the Spanish Christians whom they serve.

These people are the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world.

On the Spanish colonists

Their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to acquire gold, and to swell themselves with riches in a very brief time and thus rise to a high estate disproportionate to their merits.

It should be kept in mind that their insatiable greed and ambition, the greatest ever seen in the world, is the cause of their villainies.

On torture

With my own eyes I saw Spaniards cut off the nose and ears of Indians, male and female, without provocation, merely because it pleased them to do it. ...Likewise, I saw how they summoned the caciques and the chief rulers to come, assuring them safety, and when they peacefully came, they were taken captive and burned.

They laid bets as to who, with one stroke of the sword, could split a man in two or could cut off his head or spill out his entrails with a single stroke of the pike.

They took infants from their mothers' breasts, snatching them by the legs and pitching them headfirst against the crags or snatched them by the arms and threw them into the rivers, roaring with laughter and saying as the babies fell into the water, "Boil there, you offspring of the devil!

They attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women nor women in childbed, not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if dealing with sheep in the slaughter house.

They made some low wide gallows on which the hanged victim's feet almost touched the ground, stringing up their victims in lots of thirteen, in memory of Our Redeemer and His twelve Apostles, then set burning wood at their feet and thus burned them alive.

With still others, all those they wanted to capture alive, they cut off their hands and hung them round the victim's neck, saying, "Go now, carry the message," meaning, Take the news to the Indians who have fled to the mountains.

...they made a grid of rods which they placed on forked sticks, then lashed the victims to the grid and lighted a smoldering fire underneath, so that little by little, as those captives screamed in despair and torment, their souls would leave them.

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The Human TradeSugar cane & sugar plantations – need for a large work force.

First boat of African slaves brought by the Spanish in 1518.

Between 1500 & 1800, about 10 million Africans shipped to the Americas.

Why Africans?1. Agricultural experts; advanced farming

techniques2. Climate of West Coast of Africa similar to

Caribbean and South America; life expectancy longer than Europeans

3. Easy to identify as a laborer due to color of their skin

The Triangular TradeEurope would send

manufactured goods to Africa

Slaves would then be picked up in Africa and brought to the Americas

Raw materials like sugar, cotton and timber would then be brought from America to Europe

The leg of the trip from Africa to the Americas was known as the Middle Passage

Slave ShipSlave Ship

“Middle Passage”

“Coffin” Position Below Deck

“Coffin” Position Below Deck

Spanish Colonial SocietyAs the Spaniards

took control of large parts of Central and South America, they established a set of rules about the social structure of their colonies.

Peninsulares

Creoles

Metizos

Mulattoes

Native Americans

African Slaves

-White colonists from Spain

-Two Spanish settler’s child born in America

-Native American + European descent

-African + European descent