1. Theme 3 Part 2
The Spanish Empire in the
Americas
Kristi Beria

2. Diego Vasicuio
 Born in 1580
 Lived in Southern Peru
 Tribal group
 Male
 Chief priest and custodian
of the god Sorimana
 Learned prayers and
ceremonies of his cult from
parents and grandparents.
 Helped keep the old beliefs
and rituals alive despite
attempts to convert the
Indians to Catholicism by
the Spanish.
 Charged with heresy at the
age of 90.
 Stayed true to himself
regardless of outside
pressures.

3. Martin Ocelotl
 Born in 1496
 Mexico
 Mexican Indian
 Male
 Religious leader
 Born to a merchant father and a mother
who was a priestess.
 Considered to be a religious prodigy at a
young age.
 Jailed and sentenced to death for
predicting the death of Moctezuma, lord
of the Mexica-Aztec world.
 Released and able to escape disease and
violence in Tenochititlan.
 Converted to Roman Catholic while still
practicing old traditions and rituals.
 Was banished to live in Seville under
watch by the Inquisition.
 Ship carrying Ocelotl was lost at sea.
 Stayed true to his convictions despite the
attempt to convert natives to European
ways.

4. Juan De Morga and Gertrudis de Escobar
Juan
 Born in 1627
 Central Mexico
 Mulatto
 Male
 Slave
 Born a slave to a priest and slave girl.
 Bought by Diego de Arratia who
branded his face and beat him and
treated him cruelly.
 Tried to run away numerous times.
 Asked the Holy Office for help.
 Spoke of demons and devil worshipping
in hopes of being taken from Arratia.
 Was finally freed in 1650.
 He never gave up despite needless
cruelty and despair.
Gertrudis
 Born in 1645
 Central Mexico
 Mulatto
 Female
 Slave
 Born a slave, yet somehow became free.
 Sold into a life of slavery by her aunt.
 Worked at a sugar plantation owned by
Don Mateo de Lizama.
 Ran away many time.s
 Asked the Holy Office for help.
 Andres Gamero de Leon, a priest,
submitted her case to the tribuna.l
 Was sentenced to a month in chains and
was to be set free.
 Lived her life unapologetically and on her
terms.

5. Isabel Moctezuma
 Born in 1509 or 1510
 Central Mexico
 Mexican Indian
 Female
 Aztec Princess
 First child and legitimate
heir born to Moctezuma II
and Teotlalco.
 Married 5 times including to
her uncle Cuitlahuac and her
cousin Cuauhtemoc.
 Baptized in the Catholic
faith.
 Given revenues and income
from the town of Tacuba.
 Gave birth to Cortes’ child.
 Performed charity work.
 Was an example of a
Hispanicized woman.

6. Beatriz de Padilla
 Born c. 1620
 New Spain
 Mulatto
 Female
 Housekeeper and mistress
 Accused of killing one lover,
Diego Ortiz Saavedra, and driving
another insane.
 Gave birth to 4 children,
including one by Saavedra.
 Society had a problem with a
priest publicly showing love for a
mistress and for making her his
sole heir.
 Was later acquitted of all charges.
 She was a woman who made no
apologies for the way she acted,
unlike “respectable” white
women.

7. Miguel Hernandez
 Born 1550
 Mexico
 Mulatto
 Male
 Muleteer/businessman
 Second generation Mexican born
in Mexico City.
 He was free, literate, and skilled.
 He started his own freighting
business.
 Earned most of his living hauling
wood to southern markets.
 Earned the title of senor de recuas
in 1604.
 Was able to cross racial and social
boundaries and became a
successful businessman regardless
of his origins.

8. Enrico Martinez
 Born c. 1557
 Spain
 European
 Male
 Printer
 He was highly educated and well
traveled with a passion for
astronomy and mathematics.
 Printed the first book of his career
as a printer in 1599.
 Published his own book in 1606.
 Appointed chief engineer to a
drainage canal project in 1607
despite having no training as an
engineer.
 The drainage canal was a failure
due to lack of expertise.
 Briefly jailed for sabotaging his
own project.
 Still believed in his project at the
time of his death despite his lack
of success.

9. Tula, the Mythical Beginning
Chapter 1
 Tula was the home to the Toltecs, who
are considered to be the inventors of
art and tehcnology.
 Toltecs worshipped many gods.
 Nomads and settlers lived side by side
and many immigrants came from the
north.
 Tula ebbed in power and eventually
collapsed in the middle of the 12th
century.
 A new group of Indians, called
“Aztecs”, “Mexitin”, “Mexica”, arrived in
the Valley of Mexico.
 Texcoco became the center of refined
civilization.
 A Triple Alliance formed between
Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tacuba in
1428.
 The Triple Alliance eventually became
the Aztec Empire.

10. The Empire Builders
Chapter 2
 Moctezuma I came into power in 1440.
 After many years of famine, locusts,
and flooding, Moctezuma decided to
start a perpetual war with Puebla and
Tlaxcala.
 Prisoners of wars were to be sacrificed
to appease the gods.
 Laws were set in place to provide
penalties for drunkenness, adultery,
and thieves.
 The Triple Alliance did not leave any
military behind in the lands that they
conquered.
 Several revolts against the Aztecs took
place, but to no avail.
 Tributes paid by conquered lands
increased the Aztecs wealth
enormously.
 Moctezuma died in 1465.

11. The Atzecs, Conquering Heroes
Chapter 3
 Ahuitzotl came into power in 1486.
 He led a military campaign against
provinces in revolt to obtain prisoners.
 A monument started by Moctezuma I
was nearing completion, calling for
feasts and sacrifices.
 Ahuitzotl led non-stop military
campaigns and expansion to provide
food for the gods.
 The large influx of people meant that
the city had to be continually
upgraded.
 The size of the Empire started to
cause problems.
 In 1503 Moctezuma II succeeded
Ahuitzotl.
 Human sacrifice had been around for
thousands of years.
 It was a way of disposing of dangerous
prisoners such as leaders and
warriors, as well as to appease their
gods.

12. The Clash of Two Worlds
Chapter 4
 Prophecies told of Moctezuma’s defeat
by a bearded white man.
 In April of 1519 the Spanish landed in
what would become Veracruz.
 Moctezuma sent food, jewels, feathers
and human sacrifices.
 Moctezuma didn’t know how to react to
the Spanish-welcome them or destroy
them?
 The Spaniards marched toward
Tenochtitlan, making alliances along
the way with disgruntled members of
the Triple Alliance.
 Moctezuma went to meet with Cortes
in a display of great wealth and power.
 After reaching the city, Moctezuma
was seized and Cortes’ men attacked
the Aztecs.
 Cuauhtemoc, the last emperor of the
Aztec empire, took over and attempted
to attack the Spanish.
 The Spanish fled and suffered heavy
losses.
 Cortes rallied his supporters and laid
siege to the city for three months.
 Tenochtitlan fell on August 13, 1521,
with approximately 240,000 Aztecs
dying.
 Charles V ruled from Spain, with
Cortes being appointed the governor
and captain-general.

13. From Resistance to Collaboration
Chapter 5
 Cortes insisted that the Indians convert
to Christianity.
 The Spaniards raided temples,
assassinated native priests, smashed
statues, and burned the pyramids.
 Monks came in and baptized hundreds
of thousands of people.
 Christianity discontinued the practice
of polygamy causing thousands of
second wives to be thrown on the
street with their children.
 Preachers Christianized children
against reluctant parents.
 Resistance was difficult due to lack of
organization.
 Little by little the resistance died down.
 Moctezuma’s daughter was still a
figure of importance and received
revenues of the city of Tacuba.
 Aztec warriors now served under the
crown of Spain.
 There was a late renaissance that
flourished in Mexico.
 Indians learned to read and write and
even had the opportunity for higher
learning.
 Epidemics raged through the Indian
population brought by the Spanish.

14. The Aftermath of the Conquests
Chapter 6
 The Indian way of life was shattered by
the conquest.
 Christianity took on different practices
and gestures that allowed the Indians
to keep a little of the old ways.
 Many of the natives became bilingual
and used this to their advantage.
 Negative aspects of the Spanish
culture, such as alcoholism, became a
part of the Indians lives.
 Money was wasted, fights broke out,
and prostitution flourished.
 Native people became craftsmen,
sellers of food, and servants.
 The modern world took a heavy toll on
the Indians.

15. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
 A Spanish explorer of the New World.
 Born in 1490, he was a member of
Spanish nobility.
 Left Spain in 1527 as part of a royal
expedition to occupy mainland North
America.
 He was one of only three men that
survived out of 300 that landed in
Florida.
 After being lost in the swamp for
months, a party of 242 men
shipwrecked near Galveston Island.
 After being enslaved for several years
by various Native America tribes, he
and three others were able to escape
to Mexico City.
 He traveled on foot through Texas,
northeastern parts of Mexico and down
the Gulf of California.
 Along the way he developed a
reputation as a faith healer and gained
many followers.
 After reaching New Spain he sailed
back to Europe in 1537.
 De Vaca wrote about his travels in a
book entitled La Relación.
 In 1540 he was sent to re-establish the
settlement in Buenos Aires.
 He had sympathies toward the natives
and didn’t want to use them as labor,
while the elite settlers did.
 He lost support and was arrested for
poor administration in 1544.
 After being exonerated, he moved
back to the colony.
 He died a poor man around 1558.

16. The Black Legend
 A term coined by Julian Juderias in
1914 regarding the anti-Spanish
propaganda in the Early Modern Era.
 It is said to be influenced by religious
and national rivalries between Spain
and other European nations during the
16th
and 17th
centuries.
 One of the main elements of the Black
Legend is the brutality of the Spanish
Inquisition.
 Many of the images of moats, chains,
and torture came from Protestant
propagandists who didn’t have any first
hand knowledge of the events.
 Moderns studies of documents show
that the Spanish were no more cruel
than any other legal systems of that
time.
 The Spanish colonization of the
Americas is another element that
helped propagate the Black Legend.
 The Spanish are accused of forcibly
and violently converting the Native
Indians into Christianity.
 The fact that King Phillip ll sent
resources for building churches and
that Queen Isabella I’s last will told
authorities to treat the Indians with
dignity and respect is often omitted
from historical writings.
 Spain also sent a
humanitarian expedition
to the Americas to
distribute the
smallpox vaccine.

17. Spanish Colonization of the Americas
 The Spanish conquered, explored, and
exerted political rule over much of the
Western Hemisphere.
 The motivations for expansion were
trade and to spread Christianity to the
indigenous people.
 It lasted from 1492 to 1898.
 In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed
in the Bahamas.
 He later returned to claim Hispaniola,
Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
 The first permanent settlement in the
Americas mainland was in 1510.
 In 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa
claimed the Pacific Ocean and the
surrounding mainland for Spain.
 During the years of 1519-1521 Cortes
waged war and took over the Aztec
Empire.
 The Spanish conquest of the Yucatan
lasted 1551-1697.
 In 1532 Francisco Pizarro and native
allies ambushed and captured the
Incan Emperor, Atahualpa.
 This was the first step of Spain’s campaign
to win control of the Incan Empire.
 In the following years control was extended
over the greater Andes region.
 The Viceroyalty of New Spain was founded
in 1535, Viceroyalty of Peru in 1542,
Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717, and
the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata in 1776.
 In 1809 New Granada declared
independence from Spain.
 Mexico declared independence in 1810
which started a war that lasted over 10
years.
 All colonies except Cuba and Puerto Rico
gained independence by the 1820s.
 In 1898 the United States won their
independence from Spain and claimed
Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico.
 The Spanish possession and rule of
American colonies had ended.