Vocabulary:
caravel, astrolabe, trifle, conciliate, doublet, Moors, perpetual, cartography, demographic, encomienda, astrology, dividends, conquistador, cultural relativism, idiosyncratic, epistemology, cognitive, mercantilism,
Text Reading:
Topic 1.6 (pgs. 35-38)
Topic 1.7 (pgs. 41-48)
Topic 1.8 (pgs. 51 – 56)
Historical Perspectives: What was the impact of European Exploration
Pages 56-57 / Questions 1-3
Assigned Reading:
Guiding Questions:
1. Define cultural relativism and rationalism in terms of historical practice/ideology.
2. Does cultural relativism and rationalism help or hinder historical study?
3. How did cultural beliefs play a role when Europeans first came to the Americas and how does that fit into the cultural relativists ideas?
4. What changes resulted due to European goods in both the 16th and 17th century?
5. How did natives views change towards Europeans from 16th to 17th century?
6. Explain the role of cognitive reorganization that may have taken place?
7. According to archeologist Bruce Trigger, why did native people fail to halt European expansion?
Presentation on Explorer:
Students will create a power point presentation on the explorers given below. Each slide must contain the following information –
1. Map of the exploration/s for the explorer being talked about.
2. Importance of the explorer. What/why are they considered important or what sets them apart from their fellow explorers?
3. Flag of the country they sailed under for the exploration (Leif is the exception)
Explorers must be put in chronological order by their first exploration or the one they are most noted for.
Explorers: Robert de la Salle – Lief Erickson – Hernando Cortes – Bartholomew Dias – Vasco de Balboa – Vasco de Gama – Francisco Pizarro – Ponce de Leon – Christopher Columbus – Amerigo Vespucci – Ferdinand Magellan – Henry Hudson – Francis Drake (13)
Extras
Exploration Harkness
The “New World”
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
All these islands are very beautiful, and distinguished by a diversity of scenery; they are filled with a great variety of trees of immense height, and which I believe to retain their foliage in all seasons…The inhabitants of both sexes in this island, and in all the others which I have seen, or of which I have received information, go always naked as they were born, with the exception of some of the women, who use the covering of a leaf or small bough, or an apron of cotton which they prepare for that purpose. None of them…are possessed of any iron, neither have they weapons… [for] they are timid and full of fear. They carry however in lieu of arms canes dried in the sun, on the ends of which they fix heads of dried wood sharpened to a point, and even these dare not use habitually…As soon as they see that they are safe, and have laid aside all fear, they are very simple and honest and exceedingly liberal with all they have…They exhibit great love towards all others in preference to themselves; they also give objects of great value for trifles, and content themselves with very little or nothing in return. I however forbade that these trifles and articles of no value (such as pieces of dishes, plates, and glass, keys, and leather straps) should be given to them, although if they could obtain them, they imagined themselves to be possessed of the most beautiful trinkets in the world. Thus they bartered, like idiots, cotton and gold for fragments of bows, glasses, bottles, and jars; which I forbade as being unjust, and myself gave them many beautiful and acceptable articles which I had brought with me, taking nothing in return. I did this in order that I might the more easily conciliate them, taking nothing in return. I did this in order that I might the more easily conciliate them, visit they might be led to become Christians, and be inclined to entertain a regard for the King and Queen, our princes and all Spaniards, and that I might induce them to take an interest in seeking out, and collecting, and delivering to us such things as they possessed in abundance, but which we greatly needed.
Logbook of the First Voyage (1492)
BARTHOLOMÉ DE LAS CASAS
On 2 January in the year 1492, when your Highnesses had concluded their war with the Moors [Muslins in Spain] who reigned in Europe, I saw your Highnesses’ banners victoriously raised on the towers of the Alhambra, the citadel of that city, and the Moorish king come out of the city gates and kiss the hands of your Highnesses and the prince, My Lord. And later in that same month, on the grounds of information I had given your royal Highnesses concerning the lands of India and a prince who is called the Great Khan — which means in Spanish ‘King of Kings’ — and of his and his ancestors’ frequent and vain application to Rome for men learned in the holy faith who should instruct them in it, your Highnesses decided to send me, Christopher Columbus, to see these parts of India and the princes and peoples of those lands and consider the best means for their conversion. For, by the neglect of the Popes to send instructors, many nations had fallen to idolatry and adopted doctrines of perdition, and your Highnesses as Catholic princes and devoted propagators of the holy Christian faith have always been enemies of the sect of Mahomet [Muhammad] and of all idolatries and heresies.
Your Highnesses ordained that I should not go eastward by land in the usual manner but by the western way which no one about whom we have positive information has ever followed. Therefore having expelled all the Jews from your dominions in that same month of January, your Highnesses commanded me to go with an adequate fleet to those parts of India. In return you granted me great favors bestowing on me the titles of Don and High Admiral of the Ocean Sea and Viceroy and perpetual governor of such islands and mainland as I should discover and win or should in future be discovered and won in the Ocean Sea, and that these rights should be inherited by my eldest son and so on from generation to generation.
I departed from the city of Granada on Saturday, 12 May, and went to the seaport of Palos, where I prepared three ships very suitable for such a voyage and set out from that port well supplied both with provisions and seamen. Half an hour before sunrise on Friday, 3 August, I departed on a course for the Canary Islands, from which possession of your Highnesses I intended to set out and sail until I reached the Indies, there to delivery your Highnesses’ letters to their princes and to fulfill your other commands…
TUESDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER
During that day and night they made more than fifty-five leagues but he reckoned only forty-eight. On these days the sea was as smooth as the river at Seville. That day Martin Alonso called ahead in the Pinta, which was a fast ship; because, as he called to the Admiral from his ship, he had seen a great flock of birds flying westward and hoped to sight land that night; this was his reason for not holding back. To the north there appeared a great bank of clouds, which is a sign that land is near….
WEDNESDAY, 10 OCTOBER
He sailed west-south-west, making ten miles an hour but sometimes dropping to seven and sometimes rising to twelve, and in the day and night together they went fifty-nine leagues, which he counted as no more than forty-four for the men. Here the men could bear no more; they complained of the length of the voyage. But the Admiral encouraged them as best he could, holding out high hopes of the gains they could make. He added that it was no use their complaining, because he had reached the Indies and must sail on until with the help of Our Lord he discovered land.
THURSDAY, 11 OCTOBER
He sailed west-south-west. They ran into rougher seas than any they had met with on the voyage. They saw petrels and a green reed near the ship. The men of the Pinta saw a cane and a stick and picked up another small stick, apparently shaped with an iron tool; also a piece of cane and some land-grasses and a small board. Those on the caravel Nina saw other indications of land and a stick covered with barnacles. At these signs, all breathed again and were rejoiced. That day they went twenty-seven leagues before sunset and after sunset he resumed his original western course. They made twelve miles an hour and up to two hours before midnight had gone ninety miles, which are twenty-two leagues and a half. The caravel Pinta, being swifter and sailing ahead of the Admiral, now sighted land and gave the signals which the Admiral had commanded.
The first man to sight land was a sailor called Rodrigo from Triana, who afterwards vainly claimed the reward, which was pocketed by Columbus. The Admiral, however, when on the sterncastle at ten o’clock in the night, had seen a light, though it was so indistinct he would not affirm that it was land. He called Pero Gutierrez, butler of the King’s table, and told him that there seemed to be a light and asked him to look. He did so and saw it. He said the same to Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, whom the King and Queen had sent in the fleet as accountant, and he saw nothing because he was not in a position from which anything could be seen. After the Admiral spoke, this light was seen once or twice and it was like a wax candle that went up and down. Very few thought that this was a sign of land, but the Admiral was quite certain that they were near land. Accordingly, after the recitation of the Salve in the usual manner by the assembled sailors, the Admiral most seriously urged them to keep a good lookout from the forecastle and to watch carefully for land. He promised to give a silk doublet to the first sailor who should report it. And he would be entitled also to the reward promised by the sovereigns, which was an annual payment of ten thousand maravedis [a small copper coin].
Two hours after midnight land appeared, some two leagues away. They took in all sail, leaving only the mainsail, which is the great sail without bonnets, and lay close-hauled waiting for day. This was Friday, on which they reached a small island of the Lucayos, called in the Indian language Guanahani [Watling Island in the Bahamas]. Immediately some naked people appeared and the Admiral went ashore in the armed boat, as did Martin Alonso Pinzon and Vincente Yanez his brother, captain of the Nina. The Admiral raised the royal standard and the captains carried two banners with the green cross which were flown by the Admiral on all his ships. On each side of the cross was a crown surmounting the letters F and Y (for Ferdinand and Isabella [Ysabela]). On landing they saw very green trees and much water and fruit of various kinds.
“Logbook of the First Voyage” is from The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus, trans. J. M. Cohen (Baltimore, Md., and Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1969), pp. 37-38, 43, 51-5. Copyright © J. M. Cohen, 1969. Reprinted by permission.
Montezuma: “We Shall Obey You
And Hold You As Our God”
HERNANDO CORTÉS
After we had crossed this bridge, Montezuma came to greet us and with him some two hundred lords, all barefoot and dressed in a different costume, but also very rich in their way and more so than the others. They came in two columns, pressed very close to the walls of the street, which is very wide and beautiful and so straight that you can see from one end to the other… Montezuma came down the middle of this street with two chiefs, one on his right hand and the other on his left… When we met I dismounted and stepped forward to embrace him, but the two lords who were with him stopped me with their hands so that I should not touch him; and they likewise all performed the ceremony of kissing the earth…
When at last I came to speak to Montezuma himself I took off a necklace of pearls and cut glass that I was wearing and placed it round his neck; after we had walked a little way up the street a servant of his came with two necklaces, wrapped in a cloth, made from red snails’ shells, which they hold in great esteem; and from each necklace hung eight shrimps of refined gold almost a span in length… [Montezuma] took me by the hand and led me to a great room facing the courtyard through which we entered. And he bade me sit on a very rich throne…and addressed me in the following way:
“For a long time we have known from the writings of our ancestors that neither I, nor any of those who dwell in this land, are natives of it, but foreigners who came from very distant parts; and likewise we know that a chieftain, of whom they were all vassals, brought our people to this region. And he returned to his native land and after many years came again, by which time all those who had remained were married to native women and had built villages and raised children. And when he wished to lead them away again they would not go nor even admit him as their chief; and so he departed. And we would not go nor even admit him as their chief; and so he departed. And we have always held that those who descended from him would come and conquer this land and take us as their vassals. So, because of the place from which you claim to come, namely from where the sun rises, and the things you tell us of the great lord or king who sent you here, we believe and are certain that he is our natural lord, especially as you say that he has known of us for some time. So be assured that we shall obey you and hold you as our lord in place of that great sovereign of whom you speak; and in this there shall be no offense or betrayal whatsoever. And in all the land that lies in my domain, you may command as you will, for you shall be obeyed; and all that we own is for you to dispose of us as you choose. Thus, as you are in your own country and your own house, rest now from the hardships of your journey and the battles which you have fought…”
“Montezuma” is from Hernando Cortés, Letters from Mexico, trans. and ed. A. R. Pagden, (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1971), pp. 84-86. Copyright © 1971 by A. R. Pagden. Reprinted by permission.
The Devastation of Smallpox
Bernardino De Sagagun
After the previously mentioned hardships that befell the Spaniards in the year 1519, at the beginning of the year 1520 the epidemic of smallpox, measles, and pustules broke out to virulently that a vast number of people died throughout this New Spain. This pestilence began in the province of Chalco and lasted for sixty days. Among the Mexicans who fell victim to this pestilence was the lord Cuitlahuactzin, whom they had elected a little earlier. Many leaders, many veteran soldiers, and valiant men who were their defense in time of war, also died.
During this epidemic, the Spaniards, rested and recovered, were already in Tlaxcala. Having taken courage and energy because of the ravages of the (Mexican) people that the pestilence was causing, firmly believing that God was on their side, being again allied with the Tlaxcalans, and attending to all the necessary preparations to return against the Mexicans, they began to construct the brigantines (ships) that they would need in order to wage war by water
“The Devastation of Smallpox” is from Bernardino de Sahagun, The Conquest of New Spain, trans. Howard F. Cline (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1989), p. 103. Copyright 1989 University of Utah Press. Reprinted by permission.
“We Could No Longer Endure the Stench
of Dead Bodies”
HERNANDO CORTÉS
AUGUST 12, 1521
On leaving my camp, I had commanded Gonzalo do Sandoval to sail the brigantines [ships] in between the houses in the other quarter in which the Indians were resisting, so that we should have them surrounded, but not to attack until he saw that we were engaged. In this way they would be surrounded and so hard pressed that they would have no place to move save over the bodies of their dead or along the roof tops. They no longer had nor could find any arrows, javelins or stones with which to attack us; and our allies fighting with us were armed with swords and bucklers, and slaughtered so many of them on land and in the water that more than forty thousand were killed or taken that day. So loud was the wailing of the women and children that there was not one man among us whose heart did not bleed at the sound; and indeed we had more trouble in preventing our allies from killing with such cruelty than we had in fighting the enemy. For no race, however savage, has ever practiced such fierce and unnatural cruelty as the natives of these parts. Our allies also took many spoils that day, which we were unable to prevent, as they numbered more than 150,000 and we Spaniards were only some nine hundred. Neither our precautions nor our warnings could stop their looting, though we did all we could. One of the reasons why I had avoided entering the city in force during the past days was the fear that if we attempted to storm them they would throw all they possessed into the water, and, even if they did not, our allies would take all they could find. For this reason I was much afraid that your Majesty would receive only a small part of the great wealth this city once had, in comparison with all that I once held for Your Highness. Because it was now late, and we could no longer endure the stench of the dead bodies that had lain in those streets for many days, which was the most loathsome thing in all the world, we turned to our camps.
“’We Could No Longer Endure the Stench of Dead Bodies’” is from Hernando Cortés, Letters from Mexico, trans. and ed. A. R. Pagden (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1971), pp. 261-262. Copyright © 1971 by A. R. Pagden. Reprinted by permission.
The Aztec Encounter: “This Was Quetzalcoatl
Who Had Come to Land”
BERNARDINO DE SAHAGÚN
When the first Spanish ships were seen in this land, Montezuma’s stewards and captains who lived along the coast of Veracruz immediately assembled and took counsel among themselves, deciding whether they should give this news to their lord Montezuma, who was in the city of Mexico. The chief among them said, “In order for us to take an accurate report of this matter, it seems to me proper that we should see with our own eyes what this is; this we can do if we go to them on the pretext of selling them some things that they have need of.” This seemed like a good idea to the others, and at once they took articles of food and clothing, and loaded into canoes what they were going to sell them and went to them by water. When they arrived at the flagship (to which they directed their canoes because of the banner they saw on it), immediately upon arriving they paid homage and gave signs that they came in peace to sell them food and clothing. [It was thought that this was Quetzalcoatl who had come to land.] The Spaniards asked them where they were from and what they came for. They said, “We are Mexicans.” The Spaniards said, “If you are Mexicans, tell us who the lord of Mexico is.”
The Indians said, “Gentlemen, the lord of Mexico is called Montezuma.” Then the Spaniards answered, “Well, come and sell us some things that we need; climb up here and we shall look at them. Have no fear that we shall do you harm.”… Then [the Indians] climbed into the ship and took with them certain bundles of rich [capes] that they had brought.
They spread them out in front of the Spaniards, who liked them and agreed to buy them, for which they gave the Indians strings of fake precious stones, some red, others green, some blue, others yellow. As they seemed to the Indians to be precious stones, they accepted them, and gave them the capes… Finally the Spaniards said to them, “God go with you and take those stones to your master and tell him that we are unable to see him now…; we will come again and go to see him in Mexico.”
With this they departed in their canoes, and upon reaching land they got ready and departed for Mexico to give the news to Montezuma…
“The Aztec Encounter” is from Bernardino de Sahagún, The Conquest of New Spain, trans. Howard F. Cline (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1989), pp. 34-35. Copyright ©1989 University of Utah Press. Reprinted by permission. Editor’s Note: the spelling of Montezuma has been standardized throughout this section.
The Destruction of Tenochtitlan:
“And Their Mothers Raised A Cry of Weeping”
Bernardino De Sahagun
The greatest evil that one can do to another is to take his life when (the victim) is in mortal sin. This is what the Spaniards did to the Mexican Indians because they provoked them by being faithless in honoring their idols. (The Spaniards), catching (the Indians) enclosed (in the courtyard) for the feast (of Huitzilopochtli), killed the, the greater part of whom were unarmed, without their knowing why.
When the great courtyard of the idol, Huitzilopochtli, god of the Mexicans, was full of nobles, priests, and soldiers, and throngs of other people, intent upon the idolatrous songs to their idol, whom they were honoring, the Spaniards suddenly poured forth ready for combat and blocked the exits of the courtyard so that no one could escape. Then they entered with their weapons and ranged themselves all along the inner walls of the courtyard. The Indians thought that they were just admiring the style of their dancing and playing and singing, and so continued with their celebration and songs.
At this moment, the first Spaniards to start fighting suddenly attacked those who were playing the music for the singers and dancers. They chopped off their hands and their heads so that they fell down dead. Then all the other Spaniards began to cut off heads, arms, and legs and to disembowel the Indians. Some had their heads cut off, others were cut in half, and others had their bellies slit open, immediately to fall dead. Others dragged their entrails along until they collapsed. Those who reached the exits were slain by the Spaniards guarding them; and others jumped over the walls of the courtyard; while yet others climbed up the temple; and still others, seeing no escape, threw themselves down among the slaughtered and escaped by feigning death.
So great was the bloodshed that rivers of blood ran through the courtyard like water in a heavy rain. So great was the slime of blood and entrails in the courtyard and so great was the stench that it was both terrifying and heartrending. Now that nearly all were fallen and dead, the Spaniards went searching for those who had climbed up the temple and those who had hidden among the dead, killing all those they found alive…
Seeing themselves hotly pursued by the Mexicans, the Spaniards entered the royal houses and fortified and barricaded themselves as best they could to keep the Indians out. From inside they began to defend themselves, firing off crossbows, (rifles), and cannon, and even aiming stones from the rooftop to drive off the Indians struggling to break down the wall and force their way in.
Having a convenient opportunity, the Spaniards conferred with each other, and also with Montezuma and his courtiers, and decided to put them in irons. Meanwhile, the Mexicans were busy performing burial ceremonies for those who had been killed in the ambush and so delayed a few days before returning to do battle with the Spaniards. Great was the Indians’ mourning over their dead… (And their mothers, their fathers raised a cry of weeping. There was weeping for them. There was weeping.)
“The Destruction of Tenochtitlan” is from Bernardino de Sahagun, The Conquest of New Spain, trans. Howard F. Cline (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1989), pp. 76-78. Copyright 1989 University of Utah Press. Reprinted by permission.
Human Sacrifice “A Most Horrid and Abominable Custom”
Hernando Cortes
JULY 10, 1519
Most High, Mighty and Excellent Princes, Most Catholic and Powerful Kings and Sovereigns:
(The Aztecs) have a most horrid and abominable custom which truly ought to be punished and which until now we have seen in no other part, and this is that, whenever they wish to ask something of the idols, in order that their plea may find more acceptance, they take many girls and boys and even adults, and in the presence of the idols they open their chests while they are still alive and take our their hearts and entrails and burn them before the idols, offering the smoke as sacrifice. Some of us have seen this, and they say it is the most terrible and frightful thing they have ever witnessed.
This these Indians do so frequently that…not one year passes in which they do not kill and sacrifice some fifty persons in each temple…Your Majesties may be most certain that, as this land seems to us to be very large, and to have many temples in it, not one year has passed, as far as we have been able to discover, in which three or four thousand souls have not been sacrificed in this manner.
Let Your Royal Highness consider, therefore, whether they should not put an end to such evil practices, for certainly Our Lord God would be well pleased if by the hand of Your Royal Highness the people were initiated and instructed in our Holy Catholic Faith, and the devotion, trust and hope which they have in these their idols were transferred to the divine power of God…And we believe that it is not without cause that Our Lord God has been pleased that these parts be discovered in the name of Your Royal Highnesses so that Your Majesties may gain much merit and reward in the sight of God be commanding that these barbarous people be instructed and by Your hands be brought to the True Faith. For, as far as we have been able to learn, we believe that had we interpreters and other people to explain to them the error of their ways and the nature of the True Faith, many of them, and perhaps even all, would soon renounce their false beliefs and come to the true knowledge of God; for they live in a more civilized and reasonable manner than any other people we have seen in these parts up to the present.
“Human Sacrifice” is from Hernando Cortes, Letters From Mexico trans. And ed. A. R. Pagden (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1971), pp. 35-36. Copyright 1971 by A.R. Pagden. Reprinted by permission.
AP European History 