The Empires of the Incas and the Aztecs
The Incas became the mightiest people in South America during the fifteenth century. They were located in the Andes Mountains in Peru. They built roads and bridges for trade and communication purposes. They stored their information in knotted and colored systems known as quipu since they lacked the necessary writing skills. Their religious festivals were dominated by the cult of the sun, where predominantly guinea pigs’ and llamas’ sacrifices were offered to the gods.
They used bronze tools to build large and superb temples and fortresses. The elaborately constructed city they left at Machu Picchu clearly demonstrates the great masonry skills the Incas had. The city straddles two mountain peaks that are 9,000 feet above sea level.
The Aztecs were larger in number compared with the Incas. They initially were an insignificant tribe of warriors but after they moved into central Mexico in 1325, the will to conquer drove them into creating an empire that was made up of the entire of central Mexico and Mesoamerica to as far south as Guatemala. The Incas and the Aztecs adopted earlier Mesoamericans’ cultural traditions including the Maya. They honored the pantheon of nature deities that centered on the sun and offering human sacrifices. They also preserved the practice of temple construction, ceramics, weaving, stone-carving, and metalwork (Fiero, Week 2-3).
Spanish-Aztec Encounter
The Spanish soldiers, under the command of Hernan Cortes, overpowered the Aztecs in 1521 despite the fact that the Spanish army was outnumbered by the Aztec armies. The Spanish were able to overpower the Aztecs due to the superior technology of gunpowder and muskets. After a 75 day siege, the Spanish destroyed the city of Tenochtitlan to mere ashes. Religious prophecy, an outbreak of smallpox among the Aztecs, and support from rebellious Aztecs were other factors that helped the Spanish to gain victory.
The Spanish in the Americas: From Cortés’s Letters from Mexico
The Spanish were amazed by the practices and way of living of the Aztecs. Cortes sought to write a letter to Spain with the intention of assessing the differing reactions of Renaissance Europeans based on their initial encounters with natives of strange and remote regions. The letter by Cortes to Spain mainly gives a description of Aztec cultural achievement. It begins by describing the large and well-built Temixtitan city.
Cortes states his input into the city based on preparedness for betrayal by the natives. Cortes was quick to build four brigantines to link the city to the mainland. The letter acknowledges the spectacular market that is characterized by its great massiveness and variety of products and services. He also gives a detailed description of the practices of the natives. He talks about the idols’ temples/houses found in every district, lodgings available, priests found in the temples, and what goes on in these temples. In addition, Cortes has described the relationship between the Aztecs and their idols and how he gave the temples a new look by removing all the idols and urged them not to offer human sacrifices again.
Aftermath of Conquest
The Spanish not only benefited from the sources of wealth but they also enslaved the natives to miners and field laborers. The sixteenth century was a period when the Native American population was destroyed by the combined effects of smallpox and measles (termed as European diseases). European soldiers also obtained diseases from the natives such as syphilis. The population of the natives is deemed to have reduced from 25 million with Cortes’ arrival in 1600 to 1 million. Christianity and armory were introduced among the Americans.
The Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange was the interchange of goods and products between the Western world of Europe and the Americas. This exchange was very useful because, through it, the Americans gained horses, cattle, pigs, horses, lettuce, fruits among a wide variety of related products. In the same way, the Europeans benefited from peanuts, pumpkins, avocados, potatoes, and tomatoes. The Columbian Exchange was responsible for the establishment of new vibrant cultures and people.
The mestizo for example was the product of the mixture between Europeans and Native Americans. This exchange is also deemed to be responsible for the generation of new developments in society involving technology, industrialization, diet, language, and dance. The Columbian Exchange was a platform for interaction and assimilation that led to shaping the future of a new world (Fiero, Week 2-3).
References
Fiero. Week 2-3.