Showing posts with label Aztec. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aztec. Show all posts

August 13 - An Empire Is Conquered

Posted on August 13, 2019

In the 1400s, Europeans wanted a quicker, surer way to trade with the Indies. There were spices on the line - and to the people of the Middle Ages, spices were super important. 

Spices were used for medicines, to preserve food, to make perfumes and cosmetics, and of course to add flavor to food. 

The fact that spices were expensive and exotic, that they came from vague, far-away places, just added to their desirability.

So part of the reason that Europeans kept daring to sail away into the unknown, in sea voyages of exploration, was that they really-really-really wanted a way to get those spices without having to rely on Arab traders (who traveled over land) - and without having to pay the huge prices demanded by those traders.


Of course you know that Christopher Columbus was a navigator who sailed west while trying to reach the East - by which I mean Asia, specifically India and the "Indies" - but instead he bumped into islands and entire continents pretty much unknown to Europeans. (Of course, the islands and continents were very much known to the many and diverse peoples who lived on them!)

Having sailed for the Spanish king and queen, Columbus went around "claiming" the new lands for Spain. Soon after Columbus, a Spanish man named Hernán Cortés decided to seek wealth in the New World. He sailed to Hispaniola and later to Cuba. The Spaniards who settled the Caribbean islands wanted to explore the mainland, and in 1518, Cortés was chosen to be the captain of one of these expeditions. 


Cortés discovered a bunch of different peoples living in what we now call Mexico - and he quickly realized that some of these indigenous peoples had been conquered by a group called the Aztecs, and were none too happy about it.

Cortés was lucky enough to run into a Spanish priest who had been shipwrecked on the Yucatán Peninsula and had learned the Chontal Maya language. He became Cortés's interpreter. Cortés found a woman who spoke both Chontal and the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, and with these two interpreters, horses, and Spanish weapons, Cortés gathered an army to march on the Aztecs.

The Aztec emperor, Moctezuma II, peaceably allowed Cortés and his army into the capital city, Tenochtitlán. (It is thought that he hoped to learn the Spaniards' weaknesses so that he could later beat them.) Moctezuma even gave Cortés some gifts made out of precious gold. If he thought those gifts were going to earn him some good will, he was sadly mistaken, because the Spaniards realized that the Aztecs had gold! - and of course the Spaniards really, really wanted gold! More and more gold! All of the gold!

There were many different events during the conquest of the Aztec Empire. It was a long, violent conquest of a people who had themselves inflicted a lot of violence on other peoples as they conquered the region. Here are a few highlights: Moctezuma ended up under house arrest - in his own palace! - in his own capital city! Cortés battled Spaniards sent by the Governor of Cuba to arrest him. While Cortés was away from Tenochtitlán, Spaniards enacted a shocking massacre of men, women, and children of the noble class - unarmed people who were celebrating a religious holiday. Moctezuma was killed, perhaps deliberately or perhaps on accident, perhaps by the Spaniards or perhaps by his own people in revolt as he tried to appease Cortés. The Spaniards and their Native allies tried to leave Tenochtitlán, and almost all of them - hundreds of Spaniards, thousands of Native allies - died as they did so. Smallpox - a disease unknown in the New World until Europeans arrived - began to spread throughout the Aztec Empire. Cortés finally conquered the Aztecs after a loooooooong siege of Tenochtitlán. 

Tenoctitlán was built on Lake Texcoco.
The Aztecs were able to kill most of Cortés's
army as they tried to cross one of the causeways -
so the location helped defend the city -
but Cortés was able to cut the city off from
the rest of the Empire with his siege  - so the location
worked to defeat the city as well!



 
It was on this date in 1521 that the last Aztec Emperor, Cuauhtémoc, was captured fleeing the city and the conquest of the Aztecs was considered complete.












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December 12 – Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico

Posted on December 12, 2017

Today's celebration is based on the story of a native Mexican man - he is usually called an Aztec or a Nahua man - having visions of the "Virgin Mary" in the month of December. The Virgin Mary is said to be the mother of Jesus in the Christian religion. Diego saw the Virgin on a hill, and she asked him to build a church dedicated to her on that hill.

The man, Juan Diego, went down to town and told the Spanish bishop what he had seen and heard on the hilltop. Of course, the bishop did not believe him. But the vision of the Virgin kept appearing to Juan Diego - always on that hilltop - and asked him to insist.

The Virgin is supposed to have given Diego signs to prove to others that he was telling the truth. One sign was beautiful roses that would never grow on that hilltop in December; he carried the roses back to town in his cloak. The second sign was that a picture of the Virgin appeared on that cloak. 

The picture of the Virgin was supposed to have appeared magically, but there is evidence of paint on the cloak.

The story goes on to say that, when Diego came down from the hill with impossible roses and a miraculous image on his cloak, people finally did believe he had seen visions of the Virgin. 

The miracle and the change of heart for the bishop and other townsfolk is said to have happened on this date in1531.

A church dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe was built on the hillside, as requested. But a much more important effect of this story was that many more of the native peoples of Mexico began to accept the Christian religion that the Spaniards who had conquered them taught. 

The Fiesta of the Virgin of Guadalupe is one of the most celebrated religious holidays in Mexico, and it is the beginning of a Christmas tradition called Las Posadas. 

Kids celebrate the holiday with corn cake, candy sticks, and roses in December - made of paper, of course!

Adults often put flowers at shrines for the Virgin Mary, and they often have big feasts and parties. As you can see from these photos, some people participate in reenactments of the Juan Diego story, some walk on pilgrimages to church, many decorate shrines with flowers or candles, and dances and musical performances show a combination of Aztec or other native culture and Spanish culture.







Also on this date:

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February 24, 2010

Día de la Bandera – Flag Day – Mexico
Mexico's first national flag was created in 1821. The three colors, green, white, and red, are the colors of the national liberation army in Mexico.
At the time of adoption, the Italian tri-color wasn't in use (although variations of tri-color flags had been used before Italy's unification); however, there are three differences between the Italian and Mexican flags:
  • the Mexican flag uses darker shades of green and red.
  • the Mexican flag is slightly skinnier, which gives it a longer look.
  • the Mexican flag has the coat of arms of the nation.
The coat of arms, which depicts an eagle with a snake in its beak, sitting on a cactus, represents an interesting legend. At the time that the Spanish conquistadores first came to the area that is now Mexico, the Aztecs ruled a powerful empire with a grand capital city called Tenochtitlan. (This was located where Mexico's capital, Mexico City, is now.) According to an Aztec legend, a prophesy told them to build their city wherever they saw an eagle eating a snake while perched on a cactus. The vision they watched for finally appeared on a small, swampy island in Lake Texcoco.

Build a great city on a swampy island in the middle of a shallow lake?

The Aztecs did build there! But they cleverly dried and expanded the island using chinampas, that is, by building artificial mini-islands. First, they fenced off a rectangular area of the lake bed, using woven wooden slats daubed with clay. Each fenced-off area was layered with mud from the lake bottom and decaying vegetation until it rose above the level of the lake. Strategically planted trees helped to secure the corners of the chinampas, which were separated from each other by channels so that canoes could be used to navigate along the grid. With this construction method, Tenochtitlan was greatly enlarged, in part because very fertile chinampa farms surrounded the city. These farms grew maize (corn), beans, squash, tomatoes, chili peppers, and flowers—providing half to two thirds of the food needed by the city dwellers.

Because it was situated on an island in a lake, Tenochtitlan was a bit more secure than a city on a dry plain. The connections to the mainland were three causeways that could be well guarded. Each causeway was interrupted by a bridge so that canoes and other watercraft could pass underneath—and these bridges were designed to be removed if the city was in danger.

With all the canals and bridges in the city, Tenochtitlan could be called the American Venice—except, of course, that Hernan Cortes and the Spanish army he led destroyed much of the city.


A small portion of the ruins of Tenochtitlan have been found and excavated, including the Aztec sun stone (shown above) that was once located halfway up a great pyramid.


Learn about the Aztecs
Mexicolore has a great site! Scroll down to try the Puzzles and Challenges, or to listen to Music. Or check out the info pages listed in brown on the right...They cover everything from “The two-toned tongue drum” to “Who were more barbaric, the Spanish or the Aztecs?”

Aztec Math
Check out the Aztec number system here. Then try out your understanding of the system by figuring out the numbers on this worksheet. Do you think our modern number system is better in any way than the Aztec system? Why or why not?


ANSWERS: (Linked number worksheet) First line: 25, 55, 40, 39. Second line: 50, 83, 95. Third line: 400, 100, 8000, 8800. Fourth line: 600, 462, 1000. Fifth line: 9000, 16000. (Question) Our modern number system is better because the numerals are much easier to write and about the same size as each other. Also, we have place value and the numeral zero, which makes operations much easier.


Tenochtitlan—bigger, grander, cleaner?
Hernan Cortes arrived in Tenochtitlan in late 1519. Population estimates range from 200,000 to 350,000 people; even the more conservative estimates make it one of the largest cities in the world at that time. Some sources claim that the city was the cleanest in the world; that may well be true, as about a thousand men worked at keeping the streets clean at all times.

In Tenochtitlan there were eating houses, hairdressers, and a huge market where people could find herbs and medicines, paints, food of all kinds, pottery and mats. Cortes estimated that 60,000 people were using the market on any given day, although Bernardino de Sahagún urges that 20,000 to 40,000 traders per day is a better guess. I use the world “traders” because no money was used. Instead, people bartered for what they wanted, and small differences in value were made up by with cocoa beans (the stuff that's used to make chocolate!)

Take a brief photo tour of the ruins of Tenochtitlan. Remember, the city was leveled by the Spanish, so most of it is gone forever. However, there are some remnants left; see some here, here and here.Watch and Learn!
This multi-part video is available on YouTube.
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