Unit 8b Cortes & the Aztecs

Cortés & The Aztecs

Aztecs

Except, this isn't Aztec. It's Mayan. We actually have very few large, above ground Aztec ruins. Why?

According to legend, a wandering band of warriors, fierce, warlike, and bold, sought a home.
Their god gave them a sign, a prophecy: Where you find an eagle, resting on a cactus, devouring a snake, there is your new home.

Wandering nomad warriors

They may not have had metal swords or armor, but with masks, large feather headresses, and viscious weapons, they would have been a terrifying sight

Macahuitl - a wooden club with razor sharp obsidian set along the edges

Aztec warriors

...hoping they'd intimidate his enemies, but he was a little intimidated himself, so he gave them the worst, rockiest, land full of cactus and snakes.
They shrieked with joy and soon were happily dining on roasted snakes!

Why?

One chief let them settle....

And decided they deserved a little more respect. He agreed to let his daughter marry their war god, Huitzilopchtli.
Perhaps he should have asked for more details....

To the Aztecs, to marry a god meant to be sacrificed to him.

Awkward....

The chief was a little impressed by their fortitude...

Their wandering finally led them to a rocky island in the middle of lake Texcoco. Weary, starving, they camped for the night. In the morning, they saw
the promised sign.
Sothere they built
their capital,
Tenochtitlan

They were driven out & shunned

Multiple Choice

Which of these is Mexico's flag?

Aztec capitol city, build in Lake Texcoco

Tenochtitlan

• HUGE city for its time; 5 sq. miles

• Population of 2,000+

• Walls, plazas, gardens, canals, wide avenues

• Open air markets, arenas

• Floating gardens (Chiampas)

Tenochtitlan
(Ten-ohch-teet-lahn)

Multiple Select

Which of these made Tenochtitlan unique for the time?

(Check all that apply)

• It was built in a lake, with easily defended access

• It had the world's first shopping mall

• It had artificial 'floating' gardens for growing crops

• It had electric street lights

• It was spacious, clean, well-planned

Like most ancient societies, it is stratified:
- King & nobility
- Priests & warriors
- Craftsmen/Merchants
- Farmers, slaves

Less typical, upward mobility was possible

Aztec Society

Multiple Choice

Which Civilization played a ball game?

• Olmec

• Maya

• Aztec

• All three

Inherited the knowledge of the Maya, and added to it, with a stunningly accurate plotting of the planets' motion.

Sophisticated astronomy

Detailed and extensive financial, political, and administrative records, histories, fiction, poetry, epic sagas, religious texts, etc.

Written records

Aztec Achievements

The ballgame that became a huge part of Aztec culture
Played in a court called a Tlachti, this was usually the second structure build in a new settlement, after a temple ot Huitilopochtli
Religious, political and cultural significance
Similar to raquetball, sort of
Played today, known as Ulama

Ullamaliztli

Most significant deity is Huitzilopchtli
- god of war
- Sun god
Sacrifice was intended to sustain the strength of the Sun god and the sun itself
(Think about how the days get shorter through the year - reason for MANY religious practices )

Aztec Religion

Tezcatlipoca
"Tez-cat-lee-POKE-uh"
Quetzalcoatl
"Ket-zel-coh-AH-tel"

Tlaloc
"TLAI-loc"
Coatlicue
"Coh-AHT-lee-kyoo"

Huitzilopchtli
"Hwee-tsill-oh-POKE-tlee"

Multiple Choice

Which Civilizations worshipped a Maize Deity?

• Maya

• Aztec

• Olmec

• Olmec & Azted

• Olmec & Maya

A bit more on Aztec Sacrifice

Conquistadors reported a wall of skulls as part of the temple in Tenochtitlan. For centuried it was dismissed as exaggeration. Then...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOz7a2oEgrQ

Multiple Choice

Aztecs offered human sacrifices because:

• They believed fif the gods were not fed, they (and world) would die.

• They were just awful and bloodthirsty

• They thought the sacrificed people were sinful and deserved punishment.

• They believed it would make them rich

Means 'feathered serpent' or dragon
God of morning and evening, and also death/rebirth
Also a patron of scholars, and the calendar
Said to return at the end of time

​​Quetzelcoatl

Jaguar god
God of night, or shadow, and death
Defeated Quetzelcoatl with black magic
Introduced human sacrifice to the Aztecs

​​Tezcatlipocha

Multiple Choice

Tezcatlipoca was a _____ god.

• Pig

• Jaguar

• Cattle

• Harvest

Rain god, very important
Also thunder & ightning (like the Maya!)

​​Tlaloc

Mother of the Sun, Moon, and Earth as well as Huitzilopchtli
Wears a skirt of living snakes, and a necklace of skulls and human hands (reminiscent of Kali in Hinduism)

Coatlicue

Multiple Choice

This god would have been shown as part of the Aztec calendar:

• Ahura Mazda

• Huitzilopochtli

• Quetzelcoatl

• Thor

Born as a poor noble in Spain, dropped out of uni, loitered about until he eventually joined an expedition to the New World

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano

Helped to claim Cuba for Spanish

Gave Cortés a plantation & slaves

Diego Velazquez, Gov. of Cuba

But Cortes gambled and partied his money away until he was broke

Palace of Cortes, Cuernavaca

Multiple Choice

Cortes first landed in ______ when he came to the New World

• Cuba

• Mexico

• Haiti

• Hispaniola

...who later questioned the wisdom of putting Cortes in charge, forbade them to leave. Cortes went anyway.

Given an expedition by Velazques

Multiple Choice

From what we've seen, Hernan Cortes was...

• greedy

• trustworthy

• reckless

• unreliable

• A, C, & D

...to Cortes. As soon as he landed, he announced he served Spain, not Velazques. He then planted a flag and established a settlement, Villa Rica del la Vera Cruz, or "The rich Town of the True Cross."

Cortes was loyal...

• One of the first Spanish governments on the continent

• Later became a center for smuggling

• Once native labor had been wiped out, Vera Cruz became an early center for the trade in enslaved Africans

Vera Cruz

And thought they were clouds, or great towers on the water. They ran to tell their emperor, Moctezuma

The Aztecs saw Cortes' ships...

Cortes begged the messengers for gold, because "my companions suffer from a disease of the heart which can only be cured with gold..."

Moctezuma sent messengers with gifts

Among them was a young woman who came to be known as Malintzin or Doña Malina. She became Cortes' translator, and later, concubine.

And slaves, which he may have regretted...

Multiple Choice

What gifts did Moctezuma send to Cortes?

• A fruit basket

• A cape of colorful feathers

• Gold and slaves

• Horses

Moctezum was a brave man and strong leader, but the Conquistadors were strange in their armor, and their cannons were terrifying. Aztecs didn't know what to think; were they gods?

• Two 'wheels' (calendars?) 7ft, one gold, one silver

• Necklace with 183 emeralds

• A bucket of gold dust

• jewelry, weapons, mirrors of gold

• and more

Hoping they would go away...

Moctezuma sent a jaw-dropping amount of gold!

Open Ended

Do you think Moctezuma's generosity satisfied Cortes?

Of course not!

Once he saw how much gold the Aztecs had....
he wanted it ALL!

His men were not so happy about
marching off into the jungle, however....

He left one, for those who wanted to return.
When he saw which men would choose to go on board that ship....
He sank that one, too.

He sank all his own ships.

Turned out, the people the Aztecs had conquered were not always happy sending tribute to Tenochtitlan.

As he went inland, he gathered allies

Multiple Choice

Why were the tribes that joined Cortes not happy about sending tribute?

• They didn't want to give away their gold

• The tribute included sons & daughters to be slaves or sacrifices

• They sometimes didn't have enough left to eat

• It was to hard to carry the tribute all the way there

With her help. Cortes build an army of six thousand

(Some say she was the one who 'conquered' the Aztecs. She is sometimes even shown larger than Cortes. in periiod artwork...)

Remember Malintzin?

The Spanish had never seen anything like the wide open, clean, organized, and beautiful city. Some thought it must be a dream or a hallucination.

Tenochtitlan blew their minds

...and gave them housing, servants, feasts, and invited them to explore and the city

Moctezuma welcomed Cortes

We don't know why, but Moctezuma did not resist, and told his subjects to cooperate

But Cortes took him hostage

Multiple Choice

Moctezuma went with Cortes willingly because

• he was afraid of their strange metal weapons

• the huge army outside the city

• he believed Cortes was a god

• we don't know

With the Emperor hostage, they were the ones to demand tribute...

Remember the wall of skulls? They tore that down, too.

They sacked the grand temple...

The Aztecs were horrified; they snuck out the statues of their gods and kept worshipping in secret.

And put up a statue of St. Mary

A fleet of 18 ships sent by Velazquez arrived to arrest Cortes and take over both Vera Cruz and the areas Cortes had taken.

Cortes problems were not over...

So Cortes went to meet them....

Open Ended

What do you think Cortes did when he went to meet Velazquez' men?

Yes, he attacked Velazquez' men, deafeated them (rather easily), then convinced most of them to change sides and join him!

If you said "sneak attack" you'd be right!

Things had not gone well in his absence; he found his men under siege, and forced Moctezuma to order his men to stand down.

He went back to Tenochtitlan where....

No one knows who truly killed Moctezuma:

Did the Spanish kill him with a blow from behind? Was he struck by one of the rocks thrown by the furious Aztecs? Was it an accident, or intentional? We may never know.

Cortes and his men were then forced to flee. They grabbed all the gold they could carry, and ran. The Aztecs had destroyed the bridges, so most had to swim for it (and drowned).

"Night of Sorrows"

Arbol de le Noche Triste
Tacuba México

(Tree of the Night of Tears)
Where, according to legend, after Cortes fled, and realized how many men (and how much treasure!) he had lost, he sat and wept.

And while is was not an easy battle, its outcome was inevitable.

When Cortes returned, the city was almost empty.

HIGHLY infectious; Deadly; 20th C alone, 300 million
NOW it is eradicated; only 4 labs in the world still hold samples
THEN?
The Aztecs, who had never been exposed before were decimated!
Cortes could not have won otherwise.

Enter...
Smallpox

Guns, Germs, and Steel

The Aztec Empire fell thanks to