“The Spanish Encounter” A profound ‘event’

1. “The Spanish Encounter” A profound ‘event’ • “The biggest population shift of modern times has been the colonization of the New World by the Europeans, and the resulting conquest, numerical reduction, or complete disappearance of most of Native Americans…”-Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel

2. Peoples of the Americas ~1492 C.E.

3. 1491: Europeans v. Americans Europe: about 60 million people (80 million before the Black Plague) Americas: population estimates range from 10 million to over 100 million. Many scholars take a mid-point of about 50-60 million people • Aztec Empire 6-10 million • Inca Empire: 10 million • Caribbean 225,000-6 million (probably on the higher end)

4. The Fall of Aztec & Inca Empires • Spanish advantages: • Superior and intimidating weapons • horses, guns, ships, steel • Indigenous allies; civil war in both empires • Subjects who were taxed heavily , treated badly • Fought to kill vs. to capture (particularly Aztecs) • Experience (Divide & Conquer) Spanish knew about Americas/the world: Aztecs and Incas knew very little about Spanish (writing) • Germs, Incas already reduced by smallpox, civil war

5. Indians were not conquered immediately • Resistance to Spanish continued for 40 years, until 1572. Incas defeated Spanish several times. • Incas adapted tactics to Spanish military advantages • Some Indians (Argentina and Chile) were not defeated until the late 1800s

6. Native impressions of the Spanish • A thing like a ball of stone flies out of their bellies and rains fire…. If the ball hits a tree, it blows away in splinters, as though a magician had blown it away from inside. • Their battle dress and their arms are all made of iron…. They are carried on the backs of stags [horses] wherever they like to go.   • Their skin is white, as though made of chalk…. Their dogs are great monsters with flat ears and long tongues which hang out.“

7. The Great Dying By 1650, only 5-8 million indigenous people remained A 90-95% reduction in 150 years

8. Where the Indians died

9. Birth of Spanish America • Spanish immediately divided up booty • encomienda: indigenous people “entrusted” to conquerors • Worked as slaves, were Christianized • Familiar system to the indigenous people (paying tributes, mita etc.) • Epidemics and poor working conditions reduced native populations greatly • Villages did NOT disappear in Mexico and Peru like they had in Caribbean, Brazilian coast • Indigenous people who survived, adapted: • Spanish language • Adopted Christianity (but with local influences • Women intermarried with Spanish (mestizos)

10. The Birth of Spanish America • Scarcity of Spanish women • Spanish men & indigenous women were often married in the beginning • Children were mestizo, second –class to Spanish • Marriage & Religion • Pillars of Spanish society & culture • Spanish churchmen arrived to preach & teach • priests and holder of encomienda worked together as representatives of Spanish authority • Syncretism and transculturation • Religion: churches on top of sacred sites • Religious images took on indigenous characteristics

11. Syncretism Religious images took on indigenous characteristics

12. Population shift affected Africa as well • An estimated 11 million African slaves were brought to the New World, the vast majority of them to the Caribbean and Brazil Why?

13. Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

14. Voyages of Columbus