Latin America History Exam 1 study guide

Study Guide  Sedentary vs. Non sedentary civilizations o Aztec o Inca these three conquered others o Maya in order to gain territories  Atahuallpa and Pizarro- Tenochtitlan and Mexico city o Tenochtitlan was an A ...

Study Guide  Sedentary vs. Non sedentary civilizations o Aztec o Inca these three conquered others o Maya in order to gain territories  Atahuallpa and Pizarro- Tenochtitlan and Mexico city o Tenochtitlan was an Aztec capital city  Destroyed by Hernan Cortez o The Spanish discovered things here that showed the indigenous people lived almost as the Spanish did and their society was very advanced. o Repartimiento- a forced labor draft indigenous peoples used to secure a workforce. Explorers to know:  Fransisco Pizarro – Spanish explorer who went to Peru. o Worked as ship hand for many years o Finally took his own exploration to Peru with Diego De Almagro and the Priest Vincent De Valverde  Diego De Almagro – Spanish explorer who work second to Pizarro on his Peru voyage o Competed with Pizarro for the position Governor of Peru o Had followers who competed with Pizarro’s o Loses the Battle of Salinas to Pizarro  Pizarro then kills Almagro  Followers of Almagro then kill Pizarro  Pedro De Candia- another Spanish explorer mostly on Pizarro’s side o When he arrived in Cuzco with Pizarro he wanted to start his own exploration  Pizarro hung a lieutenant, Candia decides to join Alamagro’s followers  Pizarro killed removed him from control because he didn’t want competition o Candia went to the Almagro followers after this to plot Pizarro’s death, but they kill him because they did not trust him. Civilizations:  Maya o Located in the Yucatan Peninsula o Very intellectual people  Created the concept of zero/ nothingness  Wrote their own creation story the ‘Popol Voh’ o People in their society were very carefully trained for certain jobs.  Inca o Lived in the Andes mountains o Had advanced cities and social hierarchies with Kurakas as town leaders and ‘political mediators’ o Quechua: indigenous language, still spoken today o Qhipu: documentation system used by the Inca o Ch’uno: freeze dried potatoes  Aztec o Main city was Tenochtitlan which is now Mexico City o More of a focus on military and conquering  Nobility (highest) Military (middle)  Slaves (lowest and largest population)  Pros and cons of uneasy alliances: o The indigenous people got protection from the civil war happening among the Inca regions o The Spanish got labor from the towns by working out agreements with the kurakas.  They eventually began requesting more labor than the people were willing to give in exchange for protection.  Black vs. white legend of Spanish conquest o The black legend involves the Spanish violently taking over the indigenous people o The white legend involves religion and the Spanish ‘saving souls’ and converting people to Catholicism  The three driving factors of Spanish conquest: o Wealth  Gold, silver, etc. o Souls  Religion/ converting to Catholicism o Social status/ glory  Wanted to rise in social ranking because most explorers were lower class citizens with ‘nothing to lose and everything to gain’  Commodities: make or break peoples fortunes Priests  Vincent de Valverde o Priest who goes over with Pizarro o He is named the Bishop of Peru and Pizarro and Almagro and fighting over his approval (want the church on their side) o Gets so much pressure from both sides that he tries to escape  Is killed going upriver in a canoe  Bartolome de las Casas o Originally an Ecomendero and becomes Dominican priest o Believed in the humanity of Indians and criticized Spanish colonial enterprise o Wrote “Historia de Las Indias” – a chronicle of Spanish destruction o Eventually becomes the Bishop of Chiapas (yucantan peninsula)  Diego de Landa o Very hard core priest o Worked with mayan population for 17 years  Found traces of indigenous religion and began torturing the population to put it out o Removed and sent back to Spain when they discover the torturing. o Eventually returns and become Bishop of Merida  Also writes book “Relacion de las cosas de yucatan” and painted himself as a friend of the population.  Why did people want land so badly? o So others cannot claim it themselves o Encomienda: land/labor grant o Encomendero: he who gets/owns land  The early colonial Period o 1530-1559 o period of uneasy alliances  Spanish in alliances with indigenous kurakas  They begin demanding too much labor and offering too little in return.