1. Spanish Conquest of the New World
Lesson 2

2. Essential Idea
While Spanish desire for riches led to the abuse of natives, the two cultures also merged to a large extent.
“God, Gold, and Glory”
God, Gold, and Glory- Spaniards arrived with these goals in mind, though not necessarily in that order
Explain (God- find natives to convert to Catholic Christianity, Gold- make themselves and their government rich, Glory- be famous, respected, etc.)

3. Church History Background
The Catholic Church
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation
English Protestant Reformation
England's "Version"
The Catholic Church was virtually the only church in Western Europe until the early 1500s
Around the same time that explorers were discovering the Americas, the Catholic Church was becoming increasingly unstable
The Protestant Reformation began in 1517, leading to the Lutheran Church
In England, 1529, Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church to start the Church of England/Anglican Church
Some countries became dominantly Protestant and some became dominantly Catholic
What can be foreseen in the relationship between Catholic and Protestant countries? (rivalry, fighting, competition to convert—especially American natives)
How will this development ultimately impact the Americas? (desire to dominate the Americas, having the most converts will help “win”)

4. Spain and Portugal Split the “Loot”
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)
Line of Demarcation
The Treaty
(More on the Catholic/Protestant conflict later)
The Treaty of Tordesillas was largely motivated by the Pope
Using the line of demarcation, Spain’s and Portugal’s land claims were divided
Portugal got land in Asia, Africa, and much of what later became Brazil
Spain got the rest of the Americas
Why was the Pope involved? (both countries were Catholic, and the Church couldn’t afford two have two Catholic countries fighting, the Church would lose converts, “a house divided against itself cannot stand”)
Why was Catholic in-fighting a major issue in the late 1400s/early 1500s? (discontent that would lead to the Protestant Reformation was growing, and the Catholic Church needed as much unity as possible)

5. The West Indies The West Indies A Spanish “base” “Encomienda”
Bartolome de Las Casas
The West Indies are the same as the Caribbean Islands
Why were they called the West Indies? (considered by some, like Columbus, to be the Indies (Far East) reached from going westward)
The West Indies served as a “base” from which Spain would organize and launch exploits into mainland America
Encomienda was the name of an institution the Spaniards established in the West Indies in which colonists were “given” natives in order to Christianize them
To what religion were the Spaniards trying to covert the natives? (Catholicism)
Why was conversion to Catholicism a priority? (Catholicism was under threat by Protestantism and needed to grow, especially since Protestant missionaries would be going to the New World too—in a sense, it was a race for converts)
What was ecomienda in reality? (slavery under the guise of missionary work)
What was the primary work of the native slaves? (find gold)
Bartolome de Las Casas, a Spanish Catholic priest, heavily condemned the treatment of the natives, calling it the work of Satan (cite some of his quotes from A People’s History of the United States)

6. Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico
Conquistadors
Hernan Cortes
Tenochtitlan
The Aztecs
Conquistadors – name given to Spanish who conquered the natives in Mesoamerica
In 1519 (just after Reformation started), Cortes landed on mainland Mexico and marched toward the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan (Ten-o-CHeat-lon)
Cortes had heard stories that Tenochtitlan was covered in gold
Tenochtitlan was a highly developed city with 300,000 inhabitants, located on an island in the middle of a lake, containing marvels such as floating gardens and freshwater aqueducts

7. Aztec Reaction Montezuma Aztec perception of Spaniards
Spanish reaction
Montezuma, the Aztec chieftain, sent ambassadors to meet Cortes’ men
Aztecs had never seen horses (“men riding deer”), and Montezuma felt that Cortes may have been a returning legendary god, Quetzalcoatl
Why would Montezuma think this? (Spaniard technology, Cortes seemed to have harnessed the power of thunder and clouds (cannons and boats with sails))
What is going on in the picture? (horse depicted, ambassadors giving Cortes a gift—gold)
What will the Spanish reaction be to this meeting? (whetted their appetite for more riches)
Montezuma allowed the Spaniards to march unopposed to the capital
What will likely happen? (Cortes will take advantage and plunder the city)

8. The Fall of Tenochtitlan
“Noche triste”
Siege
Smallpox
Cortes vs. the Aztecs
Cortes and Encomienda
Noche triste –Aztecs revolted after Spaniards demanded more gold and captured Montezuma for a ransom
Cortes laid seige to Tenochtitlan
What is a seige? (surrounding an area until it runs out of supplies and surrenders)
Around the time that Tenochtitlan (and the Aztec empire) fell, an epidemic of smallpox began to spread throughout Mexico
In less than 100 years, the population had gone from 20 to 2 million
How should historians view Cortes? (manipulative, cruel, greedy, evil, etc.)

9. Other Perspectives?
A different perspective: the Aztecs conquered many people themselves
Describe the pictures (human sacrifices, hearts removed, thrown down pyramid steps, cannibalism, etc.)
Aztecs made human sacrifices, often ripping the hearts out of the victims, sometimes throwing the body down pyramid steps, sometimes cannibalizing the remains of the victims
It’s possible that Aztecs allowed some of the conquered people to remain independent (Tlaxcala) in order to maintain a supply of humans to sacrifice
Why should we note this? (the Aztecs, to an extent, did the same sort of thing Cortes did, and were not “innocent”)
How might a group that the Aztecs had conquered have recorded the history of Cortes’ capture of Tenochtitlan? (Cortes may have been a hero, etc.)
What lesson can we learn from this? (there are many sides to history, depending on perspective)
Mention “Montezuma’s Revenge”– diarrhea caused by contaminated water—don’t drink the water!

10. St. Augustine St. Augustine Exploration vs. Settlement
St. Augustine was erected as a fortress on eastern Florida
Why was it built? (to keep other Europeans, who had heard of the riches of America, away from the West Indies and other Spanish land)
St. Augustine was not meant to be a permanent settlement but only serve as a defense of the West Indies
Later, Jamestown is established as a settlement with the intention of staying and discovering another Tenochtitlan
What is the difference between exploration and settlement? (exploration – “take what you want and go home”, settlement– take what you want, but stay, probably conquer)
Most of the people we’ve mentioned, such as Columbus, were explorers
The time is coming where permanent settlement is the new goal

11. Spanish Expansion Francisco Coranado New Mexico Popé’s Rebellion
The Pueblo Revolt (Popé’s Rebellion)
Enticed by Coranado’s expedition (which found the Grand Canyon and buffalo), the conquistadors headed north, eventually establishing New Mexico
In New Mexico, they found little gold, and abused many natives (cutting one foot off each Pueblo at the Battle of Acoma)
If there wasn’t much gold, what was left for the conquistadors? (people to convert to Catholicism, the idea of God, Gold, and Glory…many not that order)
Again, why was the spread of Catholicism important to the conquistadors? (the Protestant Reformation was threatening the Catholic Church)
How would you expect the natives to react to the missionary work? (some embrace the religion, others rebel)
What was the reality of some of the missionary work? (it was the encomienda system again, slavery in guise of religion)
How did Spaniards view the encomienda system? (some exploited it, some, like Bartoleme de Las Casas, condemned it)
Pope’s Rebellion – in 1680, Pueblo rebels destroyed every Catholic Church in the area, murdering scores of priests and hundreds of Spanish settlers
This drove Spain of the New Mexico area for the next half century

12. The “Black Legend” The Black Legend The other side of the coin
Mestizos
Spanish vs. English treatment of Indians
The Black Legend is the idea that the Spaniards only plundered, abused, and exploited the natives in America
What makes this idea so prominent? (stories of Cortes, Spanish lust for gold, the spread of small pox, descriptions giving by Bartolome de Las Casas, encomienda, etc.)
However, Spaniards also allowed their culture to merge with native culture.
Many natives adopted Catholic Christianity
To what extent did a native really have to convert? (outwardly convert, attend mass—good enough for the conquistadors)
Natives began using Spanish crops and animals (horses) and began speaking Spanish
Mestizos – people of mixed Indian and European heritage
Why are mestizos significant? (shows that Spaniards were willing to intermarry with the natives, they are a living personification of the grafting of the two cultures)
How does Spanish treatment of natives compare to English treatment? (Similarities: both wanted to convert natives to their own brand of Christianity, both would mistreat Indians in pursuit of resources, both fought against natives. Differences: Spanish assimilated to an extent (no heart ripping sacrifices anymore) with natives and even intermarried, but English shunned and segregated themselves from natives. Spanish were more inclined to build upon native culture while English were more likely to destroy native culture and replace it with their own culture)

13. Future Implications
How will the introduction of Spanish culture later impact natives in the United States? (horses– nomadic tribes can travel farther, expand their hunting grounds, and change how they hunt buffalo…think of how cars impacted the United States as a comparison)
Guns and gunpowder– native demand will rise for guns as a way to defeat rival tribes, increased aggression, which was already worse among western tribes)