The Americas: New Lands and Peoples

Cortes and the Aztecs 

            Hernan Cortes was a Spaniard from the region of Spain known as Extremadura.  The land there is arid and barren.  There is very little rainfall.  Cortes was the son of a poor nobleman.  He had a great name, but no money.  And money was beginning to mean a lot in the world by the sixteenth century, when simply owning a lot of land was no longer a sure sign of wealth, as it had been in the Middle Ages.

            After some wandering about in his teens, Cortes journeyed to the Americas in 1504.  He became a farmer on the island of Hispaniola.  But he was more ambitious than that and in 1519 commanded an expedition to Mexico, which was then an unexplored territory in Mesoamerica, the land mass between North America and South America. 

            He first landed in the region of Mexico we know now as Tabasco, leading a force of 11 ships carrying some 100 sailors, 508 soldiers and 16 horses.  Nearby, Maya Indians occupied most of the Yucatan Peninsula   which had already been discovered and partially explored by other Spaniards.  Later, Cortes founded the city of Veracruz up the coast from his first landing.  Here he learned about the great Aztec Empire that controlled the land from it’s capital in central Mexico, Tenochtitlan. 

            The Aztecs had come from the North a few centuries before.  In the 1400's they had begun to conquer the surrounding lands and, by 1519, were masters of most of what we today call Mexico.  They believed in a Sun god whose flesh was burned away every day and needed new flesh in order to rise again.  In order to ensure new flesh for their god, the Aztecs sacrificed people every day from atop the great pyramid in their capital.  They typically used slaves or prisoners from among the peoples they had conquered.  They also sacrificed children, after dressing them up as royalty.  They frequently sacrificed numerous people and, for one celebration, they massacred 20,000 victims in one day.   

            Cortes made allies out of several hundred thousand of these disaffected Indians, who despised their Aztec leaders.  Cortes’ new friends were impressed by the Spaniards’ weapons and, especially, their horses.   The Indians had never seen these creatures, as horses did not exist in the New World before the arrival of the Spanish.  They gladly advanced against Tenochtitlan behind such powerful newcomers.

            The Aztec ruler, Montezuma, welcomed Cortes into the city, believing that Cortes was possibly Quetzalcoatl, an Aztec god.  Cortes soon took Montezuma prisoner and himself became ruler of the Aztec empire.  He was generally liked by his subjects, as his rule was not harsh like that of the Aztecs.  Mexico became known later as New Spain.

            But Cortes had enemies in Spain and in the New World who were jealous of him.  He was forced to return to Spain in 1528, where he successfully pled his case before the Emperor, Carlos V.  Cortes was allowed to return to New Spain in 1530.  Later. Other problems caused his return to Spain in 1540, where he suffered from many litigations and debt.  He attempted to return to New Spain in 1547, but died before he reached his ship.

           

Cabeza de Vaca and the Indians of North America

            Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was a high-ranking officer in the Spanish expedition to explore Florida in 1527.  The expedition explored the coast of Florida and its interior but ran into numerous problems, including hostile Indians, shipwreck, starvation, heat and thirst.  After numerous disasters, Cabeza de Vaca found himself in charge of three other Christians in the wilderness.  Over the course of eight years they were captured and enslaved by Indians, served as medicine men and spiritual healers, and walked barefoot some six thousand miles across Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Northern Mexico until they reached New Spain and were rescued.

            In the course of his journey, Cabeza de Vaca discovered many Indian tribes heretofore unknown by Europeans.  He wrote an account of his experiences, titled La Relacion, and submitted it to the Emperor, Carlos V.  It is considered by some to be the first piece of literature from the Southwest United States.

Francisco Pizarro and the Incas

            In the parts of South America which we now call Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, a mighty empire had come to dominate the surrounding peoples at this time, much as had the Aztec Empire in Mesoamerica.  We call these people Incas now, but they probably called themselves capac-cuna, or “Great Ones” in their own language.  Inca was originally the word they used to describe their king.  The first Inca, according to their legends, was named Manco Capac.  Since his reign, sometime around AD 1200, there had been 13 Incas ruling over the people. Their capital was the city of Cuzco, 11,000 feet up in the Andes mountains.

            The Incas had recently suffered from a new disease, probably small pox contracted from a few Spaniards and Africans who had traveled down from the Panama area.  Their king had recently died from this disease and a civil war had broken out between two men who wished to be king.   By the time Francisco Pizarro (1474-1541) arrived in 1530, a man named Atahualpa had defeated his rival to the throne and was recognized as the new Inca.

            Francisco Pizarro was, like Cortes, from Extremadura.  Unlike Cortes, Pizarro had not even had a great name to alleviate his poverty.  When he sailed south from Panama in 1530 he had only one ship, with 180 men and 37 horses.  Reaching the coast of Peru, he moved inland with his small force.  Atahualpa heard about a group of white men approaching and he went to meet them with about four thousand soldiers (though they were armed only with clubs and slings and wore no armor).  

            The two forces met.  Pizarro sent a priest to try and talk to Atahualpa.  The priest exhorted Atahualpa to accept Carlos V as his master and Christ as his savior.  He handed a Bible to Atahualpa for the king to review it.  Atahualpa looked at it and threw it to the ground.  The priest returned to Pizarro and reported this.  Pizarro’s men had set up artillery prior to the meeting.  When they opened fire the Indians were terrified.  Many were killed instantly.  Pizarro took Atahualpa prisoner and, like Cortes in Tenochtitlan, held the Inca hostage.  Pizarro ordered Atahualpa to fill an entire room, from floor to ceiling, with gold and silver in exchange for freedom.  But even though Atahualpa did this, he did not win his freedom.  Pizarro accused Atahualpa of ordering the execution of the latter’s brother and of plotting against the Spaniards.  Atahualpa was strangled to death on August 29, 1533.

            Pizarro and his force then marched to Cuzco, took it over, and declared Atahualpa’s brother as the new Inca.  Two years later Pizarro founded the city of Lima.  In 1541, his palace was surrounded by men jealous of his power.  A great battle ensued and Pizarro was mortally injured.  Dying, he drew a cross on the ground with his own blood, cried “Jesus!”, and collapsed.

            Besides sending back a great deal of gold and silver to Spain, the Spaniards also profited from the New World in unforeseen ways.  They discovered many new food crops they had never seen before and sent them back to Europe.  Corn, tomatoes, potatoes, yams, peanuts and chili peppers soon filled the holds of many ships returning to Spain. Corn was, perhaps, the most significant of these.  It proved to be an excellent fodder for animals and soon the livestock of all Europe were gorging themselves on this easily grown crop.