This is the first of hopefully many entries of a historical blog. I want to delve into the relation between Native Americans and European Americans that had unfortunate and mostly combative interactions. Lost in Translation After 1492 the European conquest and settlement of the Americas transformed how the Old and New Worlds observed themselves. Several of the first key interactions were in Florida and the Gulf coast by Spanish pioneers. Both groups appeared to be eager to learn about each other, whether it be to trade, or to find a better way to kill each other. This ideology spread to Central and South America as well. The fineries of Mesoamerica were numerous, but none was more inspiring nor presented as much opportunity for amelioration as the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, which the Spaniards arrived in, men mistaken for deities, on November 8, 1519. They arrived as visitors, observant and prying. Later they were driven out after their intentions became obvious; almost two years passed before they and their supporters enforced the capitulation of Tenochtitlan. An Aztec poem cries: Our spears lie broken in the streets. We have torn our hair in our grief. Gone are the roofs of our houses Their walls red with blood. Worms crawl across the streets and squares. The walls are splattered with gore. Red are the waters lurid as tan bark, And when we drink the water tastes of brine. Against the adobe walls We have pounded our hands in despair, For our city is no more. The shields of our warriors were its defense, But not even they could save it.[1] Warfare was not the only ideology on the docket when it came to the Spanish and Native Americans. Religion (primarily Catholicism) was a “hot topic”, needless to say. While Christian propaganda was perhaps one of the most continuing facets of Spanish missions energies in La Florida (southern United States), other societal and politically aware intentions of the Crown were not accomplished. Owing to a moderately deprived economy and small Spanish population, cabildos (chapter house of a cathedral) were not ever recognized and none of the Florida missions was ever adapted into a regular parish. During the mission period, distinct Spanish and Indian states endured to remain unbroken. Natives upheld equivalent organizations to those of the Spaniards, and the authority of traditional leaders continued to be documented by natives and Spaniards similarly.[2] But much of the death was not caused over philosophical difference or bloodshed in general. Disease claimed more than the sword. An epidemic of smallpox arrived in the Ecuadorian Andes in 1524. There it gives rise to in substantial death. Among its sufferers was the Inca sovereign Huayna Capac, who was then in Quito to unite Inca control over northern regions freshly brought to heel. The epidemic also took the life of Huayna Capac's selected successor, kindling a catastrophic civil war amongst the brothers Atahualpa and Huascar, challengers for Inca rule. By the time Pizarro trailed up his seaside survey of the late 1520s with a full-grown movement in the 1530s, the disorder that illness and interior disruptions had enabled Spanish success, a detail the interlopers themselves willingly accredited. Interactions were not always met with absolutions either. Many times missionaries found themselves coexisting around “heathens.” Spanish Friars assumed a universal exercise of not interfering with innate customs except if they were in direct conflict with Christian moralities. Their outlook seems to have been comparable to that defined by American historian, James Axtell: “In matters of death as of life, the Jesuit missionaries concentrated their energies on the essentials of religion and allowed their neophytes wide latitude with the rest of their lives.... The most the Jesuits did to alter the practice of grave offerings was to promote the substitution of religious items-rings, crosses, and rosaries-for native goods or the donation of potential grave goods to the poor who would in return offer prayers for the dead.”[3] The fallout between the two worlds was not always negative; in some ways there was a bright side. The Spanish reinstatement of the horse to North America in the 17th century and Native Americans' knowledge to use them significantly transformed the natives' values, containing the method in which they hunted large game. Horses grow into such a treasure, a vital constituent of Native lives that they were tallied as a degree of affluence. [1] Lovell 429 [2] McEwan 642 [3] McEwan 636
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11/17/2014 01:48:33 pm
The fineries of Mesoamerica were numerous, but none was more inspiring nor presented as much opportunity for amelioration as the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan
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Ryan LancasterThe internet is a scary place. You don't know who to trust when it comes to information sometimes, especially when it involves history. Well weary traveler, look no further. Professor Lancaster has got you covered. After receiving my masters in American history, I wanted to put that rather expensive piece of paper to use and create a curriculum of my choosing to inform the unwashed masses of their history. Also, I want to be an internet celebrity. Archives
August 2018
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