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The Slave Trade and Native American Devastation. Aztec Conquests. Between 1519-1521, the Aztec empire(population 2 million) of Mexico was conquered by 600 conquistadores led by Hernan Cortes.
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Aztec Conquests • Between 1519-1521, the Aztec empire(population 2 million) of Mexico was conquered by 600 conquistadores led by Hernan Cortes. • Because the Aztecs regularly raided the villages of other tribes to obtain victims of blood sacrifice, many non-Aztec natives willingly helped Cortes.
Montecuhzoma and the Quetzalcoatl Myth Cortes’ formed a friendship with the Aztec king, Montecuhzoma, only so that he and his troops could be admitted into the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. Once admitted, Cortes captured the Aztec king. Cortes used Aztec mythology to his advantage. The myth of Quetzalcoatl, a feathered serpent widely worshipped in Mexico, told a story of how Quetzalcoatl was dethroned by his brother, Tezcatlipoca, the god of war. Quetzalcoatl fled to the Gulf of Mexico. One version of the story states that he then burst into flames before resurrecting into the heavens and became the Morning Star, Venus. Left: Sculpture of Quetzalcoatl
The second version of the story states that he sailed across the sea on a raft of serpents and promised to return. It was believed that Quetzalcoatl was fair-skinned and bearded, like Cortes. Montecuhzoma admitted Cortes into Tenochtitlan because he believed Cortes to be the returning Quetzalcoatl. As a result, Cortes killed Montecuhzoma and threw his body into a canal.
Out of an estimated 25 million Mexican natives, only 2 million survived the Spanish conquest. War and diseases such as syphilis, the common cold and smallpox devastated the native population. Left: Teotihuacan, a vast Aztec City, is now only a tourist destination. This is the Temple of the Sun, one of many temples in this city. Notice the size and imagine the advanced society that must have built it. Yes, those little dots are people .
The Other It was typical at this time in history for Westerners to perceive inhabitants of non-European lands as “uncivilized.” Other peoples were classified into a category of humans that Western colonizers could disregard as unequal to themselves, and this justified their domination/destruction. Because so many European Catholics either converted to Protestantism or died in the many religious wars in Europe, the Church sought to convert native populations to the Catholic faith. The Spanish monarchs supported this idea for a specific reason—money. If the native populations of the New World worshipped the same God, they would be inclined to follow one’s commands and lead the Conquistadores to gold, silver and other riches of the New World. The Church could make up lost revenue, and the Spanish monarchs would only become more wealthy. Other European nations would soon follow in their footsteps, plundering the New World with little to no concern about the impact they had on the native population.
Syncretism Syncretism is the result of cultural diffusion. Sometimes a culture adopts a symbol, belief or idea from another voluntarily through interaction. At other times, this is forcefully done. The Spanish burned all books and historical records of Native Americans. Through the sixteenth-century, missionaries used music, dance, schools and religious dramas as tools to convert natives. As a result, Indian culture was Christianized, or Christianity was Indianized. The Virgin of Guadulupe, 1746. Notice the darker skin of the Virgin Mary. To help Latin-Americans identify with Christian ideas, the Virgin was deliberately depicted as darker skinned, and the story goes that she spoke in an Aztec tongue when she miraculously appeared before a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego.
Guinea pig is eaten traditionally in Peru. In an effort to convert natives in Peru, missionaries often struggled to make sense of Christian stories and ideas. Natives in Peru did not eat bread, so the Last Supper was a confusing story.
To help Peruvians relate to Christianity, Church painters depicted Jesus eating guinea pig, instead of bread, at the Last Supper.
It is important to understand that Africans sold slaves long before Europeans began trading them. When fighting neighboring tribes, Africans sold the victims of war to Muslims in Northern Africa. Muslims treated slaves much better than Europeans would and allowed slaves to earn money and buy back their freedom. The Portuguese, and later the Dutch, Spanish, English, and French expanded this practice to the extent of devastation. By 1492, there were roughly 140,000 to 170,000 African slaves in Europe. By the 1550’s the Portuguese started shipping slaves to the New World. War victims of African tribes did not provide enough bodies, so the Portuguese and later, other European slave trading companies, began taking anyone they could find. An estimated 20 million Africans were taken as slaves, yet only an estimated 5 million survived the journey across the Atlantic.
Notice the mudfish carved into the tiara of this mask of an iyoba (queen mother). At first, the Portuguese were seen as divine visitors by Africans in Benin. The mudfish was a sacred animal, seen as both a symbol of power and transformation. It lies dormant in Summer in dried riverbeds until it is reborn when the rains come back in Fall. It also has fatal spines and gives off an electric shock. Similar to the story of the Aztecs and Cortes, Africans perceived the Portuguese as the mudfish equivalent, because these men could both “swim” (in their boats) and walk on land. They were perceived as visitors from Olokun, the god of the sea. The Portuguese alsopossessed fatal spines—rifles and muskets. Cultural and mythological interpretations of arriving Europeans proved to be devastating for Africans as well.
Syncretism between African peoples and Christians in from Europe occurred partly because of similarities between cultural beliefs. Africans believed in the duality of the universe (heavens and earth). The symbol of a cross already stood for the order of the cosmos and as a talisman of power associated with royal authority. In the Kongo, the cross also resembled the shape of two crossed swords that was the symbol of Kongolese authority. It is not surprising, therefore, to see how a story of a King of all Kings that died on a cross and resurrected from the earth into heaven sounded familiar to Africans as they interacted with European missionaries. Crucifix, Kongo, 17th Century. Notice the Africanized facial features
Ivory Hunting Horn, Sierra Leone, 15th Century European hunting scenes Seen on the detail photo on the right indicate that this was intended as a gift, made by an African for the King of Spain. The medium, being ivory tusk, with a cross depicted illustrates the two cultures’ melding.
The Impact of the Europeans in the New World? Because there were few European women in the Americas during the sixteenth century, a population of European males, African slaves, and natives led to the creation of five new, mixed-racecastasor castes. Mestizo (Spanish-Indian) Mulatto (Spanish-black) Zambo (Black-Indian) Castizo (a light-skinned Mestizo) Morisco (a light-skinned Mulatto) By the end of the 1700’s, one quarter of the New World population was of mixed-race.
