The Story of Tenochtitlan

1. The Story of Tenochtitlan There’s actually a lot more to the story, but there many be no cooler word than Tenochtitlan Chapter 14 Notes part I

2. I Want It All…Or At Least Most…Or More Than We Currently Have…Please…? • For nearly 1000 years the Crusades were the only attempt made by Catholic Europe to expand outside of their empire • Europeans may have known of the “other worlds” but were not willing to try and gain additional land holdings • The derivation of European journey by sea was through the daring Italian explorer (and awful 9 year old swimming pool game) Marco Polo (yes, that’s why it’s named that) • Economics plays a large role in European journey because, of course it does • During the Renaissance, merchants, adventurers, and government officials had high hopes of finding new areas of trade, especially more direct access to the spices of the East (also gold and other precious metals) • The summarized message for expansion: “God, glory, and gold!”

3. God • The Portuguese and Spanish were especially driven by a crusading mentality since the Muslims had largely been driven out in the Middle Ages • Prince Henry the Navigator was motivated by “his great desire to make increase in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and to bring him all the souls that should be saved” • The religious motive was likely secondary to economic motives • Explorers and conquistadors alike were virulent in their desire to conform the “heathens” to Catholicism

4. This Is How We Do • How do you get to a place? Plug it into your GPS • Christopher Columbus, Hernan Cortes, and even Marco Polo all had state of the art global positioning systems…they were called maps • The first useful map-like thing was called the portolani made by medieval navigators and mathematicians in the 13th and 14th centuries • There were details of coastal contours, distances between ports, and compass readings • They were valuable for short voyages in European waters, but not as valuable for longer treks because they were drawn on a flat scale and took no account for the curvature of the earth • By the end of the 15th century, cartography was good enough to fairly accurately possess maps of most of the world • Ptolemy’s world map, the Geography showed the world as spherical with three major landmasses (Europe, Asia, and Africa) and only two oceans • This is why Columbus and others thought you could sail west to reach Asia • Knowledge of the winds of the Atlantic Ocean helped voyages to America and returning back to Western Europe

5. Portugal Actually Mattered Once? • Yea, it really did. They had boats and everything. • Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) first allowed Portuguese explorers to scout the coast of Africa to find a Christian kingdom as an ally against the Muslims, spreading Christianity, and acquiring trade opportunities for Portugal • In 1441, Portuguese sailors brought back the first cargo of black Africans from the Senegal River, north of Cape Verde that were sold as slaves to wealthy buyers throughout Europe • Within a few years, an estimated 1,000 slaves were shipped annually from there back to Lisbon • As time moved forward, the Portuguese moved down the coast, found gold (in what became known as the gold coast), traded gold, ivory, and slaves with Bakongo in Central Africa • The Portuguese leased land from local rulers and built stone forts along the coast

6. Portugal Actually Mattered Once? • In 1488, Bartholomeu Dias went around the Cape of Good Hope due to westerly winds but came back due to fear of a mutiny • In 1498, Vasco de Gama rounded the cape and stopped at several ports controlled by Muslim merchants on the coast of East Africa • Then De Gama reached southwestern India at Calicut on May 18, 1498 and announced he came in search of “Christians and spices” • He found no Christians but got lots of spice, specifically ginger and cinnamon, which turned a several thousand % profit • The Portuguese continued to return, trying to destroy Arab shipping and establish a monopoly in the spice trade…the more they came back, the stronger and more heavily armed their fleet was • The Portuguese would raid Arab shippers despite trading with Indian merchants

7. Is Blood a Spice? • In May 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque sailed into the harbor of Malacca on the Malay peninsula, a thriving Muslim-run port • Albuquerque attacked, trying to destroy the Arab spice trade and provide the Portuguese with a way station on the route to the Moluccas (also known as the Spice Islands) • After a short, bloody battle, the Portuguese seized the city and massacred the local Arab population • This meant war…and Albuquerque meant business • “To enhance the terror of his name he [Albuquerque] always separated Arabs from the other inhabitants of a captured city, and cut off the right hand of the men, and the noses and ears of the women” • Ouch. • These victories allowed the Portuguese to continue east to China and the Spice Islands • Despite controlling most of the land and ending the Arab-driven spice trade, the only trading posts for them were on the coasts of India and China • The Portuguese lacked the power, population, and desire to colonize the Asian regions

8. En Espanol? • The dueling case of Columbus: was he an international superstar who found a new land or a murderous, unethical villain who stopped at nothing to get what he wanted? • Answer: Yes • Columbus thought he could sail west to find Asia because he believed the circumference of the earth was less than contemporaries believed and that Asia was larger than people thought • Therefore he sailed west, and Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria, blah, blah, blah…we’ve heard that story before • After a month and a half voyage, Columbus landed in October 12, 1492: Bahamas  Cuba  Hispanola (Haiti and D.R.) • Columbus thought he had reached Asia and reported as such back to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand and assured them he’d find gold and be able to convert the natives to Christianity • Eventually, through 4 voyages, Columbus had reached all major islands of the Caribbean and the mainland of Central America, convinced he had reached the Indies in Asia

9. Columbus is Not Right • Columbus continues to believe he’s reached the Indies, but others know better • John Cabot found the New England coastline of the Americas through a British license from King Henry VII • Pedro Cabral accidentally found the South American continent in 1500 • Amerigo Vespucci took several voyages and wrote a series of letters describing the geography of the New World (hence the name America) • Vasco Nunez de Balboa led an expedition across the Isthmus of Panama and reached the Pacific Ocean by 1513 • Ferdinand Magellan sailed through the Magellan strait at the southern tip of South America, across the Pacific Ocean, to the Philippines in 1519 • I hope he liked the trip—he was killed by natives there • Magellan is still given credit for the first circumnavigation of the earth since one of his five ships made it back, albeit without him

10. A Whole New World… • A dazzling place I never knew… • That may or may not have been what the new world looked like to los conquistadores…at least without the corpses…

11. Your Turn!