• A. Series of poor harvests weakened empire, society
• B. Arrival of disease (small pox) ravaged population, military, killed leaders
• C. Cortes able to gather allies from Aztec enemies
• Lack of a common identity among "Indians"
• Tlaxcala, ancient enemy of Tenochtitlan, the key ally
• D. Breakdown of Aztec political unity, authority
• 1. To speak is to govern in Aztec world
• 2. Motechuzoma unable to communicate effectively
• 3. His silence an admission of defeat
• 4. Killed by his own people
• 5. Death of Motechuzmoa shatters legitimacy of old political system

We know it is true
that we must perish
for we are mortal men,
You, the Giver of Life,
You have ordained it
We wander here and there
in our desolate poverty
We are mortal men.
We have seen bloodshed and pain
Where we once saw beauty and valor.

-Unknown Nahua poet

• A. Defeat of Tenochtitlan not enough
  • 1. Other cities remained intact, along with their armies
  • 2. Many conquistadores thought only of plunder, not long-term conquest
• B. Cortes and Spanish authorities would use three main elements to establish control
  • 1. Christianity
  • 2. Spanish Law
  • 3. Elements of Amerindian social and political structure

• A. City-building had been used in Reconquista to govern and incorporate new lands
  • 1. Spaniards equated civilization with cities
  • 2. Comes from Roman heritage
• B. Came with a ready-made structure for government and officials
  • 1. Regidores (councilmen) -- members of the cabildo (council)
  • 2. Alcaldes - judges, usually the leaders of the cabildo
  • 3. Cabildo sat atop a hierarchy of cities
    • a. Cabacera - main city, seat of the cabildo
    • b. Cabaceras over villas and smaller lugares
    • c. Indian cities and villages could be easily incorporated into this structure
  • 4. Indian nobility could also be incorporated - caciques
• C. Cities laid out in a standard urban plan
  • 1. Grid structure reminiscent of a military camp
  • 2. Central plaza housed the major powers
    • a. Church
    • b. State
    • c. Merchants
    • d. Landowners

• A. Crown eager to avoid reassertion of feudalism
  • 1. had just reined in the nobles in Spain
  • 2. Didn't want conquistadores to become a new nobility
• B. Cortes knew Crown disliked encomienda, but used it appease conquistadores
• C. Cortes sidelined - given fancy title, but reduced power
• D. Audiencia established 1528 - a kind of royal cabinet
• E. First Viceroy appointed -- Antonio de Mendoza - served 1535-1550
• F. Beginnings of a move away from encomienda to Crown-controlled repartimiento

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• A. Orders get the job because of dedication to Rule
  • 1. Franciscans got job initially in Spanish America
  • 2. First group in Mexico numbered 12
  • 3. Soon followed by 12 Dominicans
  • 4. No more than 350 missionaries by 1550s
• B. What would motivate a young man to ship off to remote Mexico?
  • 1. Enormously difficult
  • 2. But burdens become glory

• C. Motivated by millenarian zeal
  • 1. Missionaries believed they could be in the end of days
  • 2. Massive death of the last people to receive the Word seen as sign of end times.
  • 3. Spurred activism -- we're on a mission from God!
• D. Did important anthropological work

• A. Caciques compelled to convert
  • 1. Sons sent to schools for training, conversion
  • 2. Taught to despise the ways of their fathers
  • 3. Went back to villages as schoolmasters to pass on new ways, belief
  • 4. Not enough to be Catholic -- must also culturally convert to Spanish ways
• B. Initial efforts at conversion focused on outward rituals, not internal beliefs
  • 1. Mass baptisms accompanied by giant story-telling images
  • 2. Converts taught to sound out the syllables of prayers
  • 3. Friars believed words and rituals opened a path to God
  • 4. For that matter, Amerindians also believed that rituals opened spiritual doorways
• C. Friars made effort to knit practices of traditional agricultural cycles into Christian ritual
  • 1. Not a new idea -- Christmas and Easter overlay earlier pagan celebrations
  • 2. Also comes from the belief some friars had of a Apostle-period evangelization
• D. Conversion never complete
  • 1. Polytheistic Amerindians did not see Christianity and old beliefs as inherently incompatible
  • 2. Amerindians never fully converted
  • 3. Old priesthood essentially annihilated
  • 4. Thus a less sophisticated, popular, shamanistic version of old beliefs survived
  • 5. In some cases, old beliefs associated with anti-Spanish revolts
  • 6. This meant a lot of work for Inquisition
  • 7. But Catholic priesthood also changed
    • a. some turned a blind eye to what they could not stamp out, sometimes for bribes
    • b. Others actually participated in mildly syncretic thoughts and rituals
    • c. this made easier by the mixing of European and Amerindian superstition, magic

• A. Missionaries saw themselves as protectors of the Amerindians
  • 1. Many fought ferociously to relieve Indians of all Spanish demands
  • 2. This results in constant conflicts
  • 3. Many conflicts arose over saint's days
  • 4. Most famously, Bartolome de las Casas spoke against exploitation by settlers
  • 5. Conflicts over "Jesuit Republic" epitomize this divide
• B. Missionaries caught to separate Amerinidians from settler culture
  • 1. Little enthusiasm for teaching Spanish
  • 2. Settlers, Spanish language opened way to corruption from worldly culture

VI. Primary Brazilian Differences

• A. Much smaller Indian population, hence less attention to Indian conversion
• B. Priesthood small, relatively weak
• C. Thus influence, even over slave population, relatively small
• D. As in Caribbean, development of Afro-Latin syncretic religions very important