vii, 186. Gerald E. Poyo, the editor of the book Tejano Journey 1770-1850, is currently the Chair of the History Department and teaches courses in Latin American history and immigration at St. Mary University, San Antonio, Texas. Poyo accomplished his Bachelor of Arts at the University of Carolina, and his Masters of Arts in Latin/Latino American history at Texas State University. He furthered his education, completing his Doctorate (Ph.D.) From the University of Florida. Dr. Poyo has experience as a research associate and curator at the University of Texas, Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio.
In his book, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, Charles Mann introduces a controversial topic regarding the Americas prior its colonization. Contrary to what is taught in American history, Mann reconstructs our understanding of life in the Americas before Columbus as he exposes that there were large civilizations living at the time. The indigenous were not wild and untamed; rather they were highly civilized and complex. The author successfully shows that by the time that the Europeans arrived to the Americas they did not witness it in its primal form, as it had already been altered by the indigenous people that were living there. Among the highly civilized cultures that existed at the time were the Mayans and the Aztecs.
“In this ethnographic self-analysis Guaman Poma anticipates the stance of several modern Peruvian writers” Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala’s in his work “Tocay Capac” explains in details the story of the first Inca. With some short stories, the readers learn all about various aspects of the Inca culture, the colonial times and the Spanish conquest. As the quote above shows, Poma de Ayala wrote about different people, where one of them was Tocay Capac. He was the first Inca King, who came from Adam and Eve, “…came from the aforementioned legitimate descendants of Adam and Eve and the progeny of Noah…”(pg.32). Tocay, Ynga and Pinau were the first authentic human beings that represented Incas.
Chapter three of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond is a story about how Francisco Pizarro, the Conquistador, brought the end to the Inca civilization with only two hundred men. Diamond uses real accounts from six of the 200 men to tell what happened. The story goes like: Francisco Pizarro by order of the King to travel across New World and conquer the lands and riches for his nation. They had gathered information about an Incan Empire and soon sent their sights on capturing the Incans. The Spanish Conquistadores tried to the Incan leader, Atahuallpa, to convert to Christianity but it failed so Pizarro then captured Atahullpa.
This chapter recounts the events of Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Incan Empire. It offers firsthand accounts from Pizarro's men when they managed to capture Emperor Attahualpa at a time when the monarch was surrounded by around 80,000 men. It also discusses how such a a feat was accomplished by men outnumbered 500 to 1, attributing the Spaniards victory to their possession of steel, guns, and literacy. The author's intentions for this chapter were to describe how Europeans managed to conquer the new world using only groups of a few hundred, and he does this by using Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Incan Empire as an example.
Tenochtitlán was the capital city of the Aztec civilization. It was founded in AD 1325 by the Mexica people. This city was built on a cluster of small natural islands on Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico. The small island was gradually enlarged as Tenochtitlán grew. It became one of the largest and most powerful cities in Mesoamerica.
Manco began organizing. He was sending messengers to villages during his rule, telling them of his wishes to, “restore their [god’s] rightful glory,” (Pratt 101). Once Manco’s plans were discovered, a Spaniard by the name of Juan led Hernando to where the army was raised, and, “Once more the white man [was] victorious,” (Pratt 104). Hernando’s victory was short lived once nearly all of the Inca people came together. Their numbers finally overwhelmed the Spaniards to retreat to their bases in Cuzco.
Although Columbus and Sahagún were both Spanish explorers, their goals were widely different. As such, their method of describing the different cultures of the natives were vastly different as well. While Columbus was trying to present the lands he conquered as an idealistic paradise for the monarchy, Sahagún writes his description as one based on the evidence he has obtained through meeting with the people he was trying to detail. Sahagún’s text differs from Columbus because of the different assumptions that informed their process of describing native lands, and the different formats they followed when trying to write an account of the Indigenous people who lived there.
While many may be aware of the Aztec civilization, their accomplishments can often be overshadowed by the time period when they were conquered by Spanish explorers, such as Hernan Cortez. However, the Aztecs were a prospering society before their downfall to the Spaniards. The Aztec’s demise is not the only characteristic to remember about one of the most commonly recognized civilizations of the fifteen hundreds. As an ancient Mesoamerican civilization displaced by powerful explorers, the Aztecs can still be seen as an organized society driven by their spirituality and traditions. The Aztecs used an organized system of chinampas and documents surveying what conquered peoples owed them, ensuring that they would be productive on a daily basis.
Speak Loneliness is very bad for you when you don’t talk to people. Loneliness is bad because you can’t talk to anybody about your problems. So, Melinda shuts out the world and becomes alone. Laurie Halse Anderson (author), the main plot for “Speak” is to speak up of what you did wrong. Loneliness is very bad when you can’t talk or speak to anybody because everyone is hating Melinda.
The Inca and the Aztecs are two famous civilizations. These civilizations rose to power in the early 1300s and 1400s. The Inca and the Aztec are very similar in culture, but they are also very different by their geography and physical manpower. These peoples are very much known for their colorful culture and their dramatic end. People always want to hear about their interesting gods and their colorful culture.
World domination has been a common trait for Europeans in the 1500’s. Each countries’ ruler had a goal of conquering more land than their enemy. This led to bloody wars and tense times among many countries. The Spanish rulers had made an inference that winning land on their continent would be difficult. As a result, they decided to send conquistador, Francisco Pizarro and his crew across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World.
Octavio Paz, a Mexican poet and essayist, is one of the many philosophers with a written piece regarding his understanding of Lo Mexicano. Paz’s “Sons of La Malinche” was first published in the Labyrinth of Solitude in 1950 and is a rather grim interpretation of the Mexican character, however, it captures the crisis of identity that Mexico was burdened with after the conquest. Paz uses the Spanish term “chingar,” (when literally translated means “to screw, to violate”) and its associated phrases to understand the conquest and the effect
Museo Inka is notable for having a discrete section on the Spanish invasion, which shows the Inca’s resistance to the Spanish and the structural inequalities of Peru’s history, as well as how it negatively affected the people involved. Museo de Arte precolombio (also known
Exposé of: The conquest of the Inca Empire - Why were the Spanish able to conquer the Incas and not the Incas the Spanish? In 1532, the New and the Old world collided in Cajamarca in a way that could not have been more drastic. The Inca’s absolute monarch Atahualpa in the midst of his army of 80.000 soldiers encountered F. Pizarro - a Spanish conquistador who set out with a squad of 168 conquistadors to conquer the Inca Empire and extract history biggest ransom. The collision at Cajamarca ended in favor of the conquistadors and marked the sudden end if the Inca Empire.