latin american history to 1825

Limpieza de sangre

"cleanliness of blood." It referred to those who were considered pure "Old Christians", without Muslim or Jewish ancestors, or those without Native American blood. After the end of the Reconquista and the expulsion or conversion of Muslims and Jews, the population of Portugal and Spain was all nominally European Christian. However, the ruling class and much of the populace distrusted the recently-converted "New Christians". the concept of cleanliness of blood came to be more focused on ancestry than of personal religion. Even people with low economic status could claim limpieza de sangre.

Laws of Burgos

(1512) was the first codified set of laws governing the behavior of Spaniards in the Americas which forbade the maltreatment of the indigenous people and endorsed their conversion to Catholicism. The scope of the laws was originally restricted to the island of Hispaniola but was later extended to Puerto Rico and Jamaica. These laws authorized and legalized the colonial practice of creating Encomiendas.The document also prohibited the use of any form of punishment by the encomenderos, reserving it for officials established in each town for the implementation of the law. The Laws of Burgos did nothing to save the Native Indigenous peoples of Hispaniola.The Indians of the Americas were still heavily exploited, with significant population declines.

alcabala

A sale tax on commodities was employed in spain as well as the new world. While Isabella I considered applying the alcabala to Spain's American colonies as early as 1503, in fact it was not applied there until the late 16th century.[4] It was imposed in Mexico in 1574 and Peru in 1591.[4] Typically the capitulaciones (contracts) for those who set out to conquer territory for Spain gave them a certain period of exemption from the alcabala. For example, through the capitulación between the Crown and Francisco Pizarro, Peru was supposed to be exempt from the alcabala for a century, though in practice the Crown did not wait quite so long

Dona Marina (Malinche)

Cortes receives from the Tabaxicans a girl (she is royalty, she learned mayan, deep knowledge of politics). she is bapitized and given a new name.Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, who played a role in the Spanish conquest of Mexico, acting as interpreter, advisor, lover, and intermediary for Hernán Cortés. She was one of twenty women servants given to the Spaniards by the natives of Tabasco in 1519.[1] Later, she became a mistress to Cortés and gave birth to his first son. She is a female traitor that sold the natives out.

Teotihuacan

The Aztec capital. The spanish described it as a city that was beautiful than constantanople. The city was located on Lake Taxcoco. It was a populous city. The spanish were awed at the intricate temples yet disgusted with savage practices "blood splattered on temple walls, such a foul smell". The spanish dismantle the city because of the demonic religious practices. Cortes will name this Mexico City and it will be the capital of New spain.

flower wars

The Aztecs were chosen to nourish the gods, and this had to be done with blood. New prisoners would need to be captured to provide this blood. The goal of these battles would not be taking land or killing the enemy, but simply capturing prisoners The prisoners would then be taken to a temple and sacrificed.

Cuahuatemoc

The aztec ruler from 1520-1521.He ascended to the throne when he was 25 years of age, as his city was being besieged by the Spanish and devastated by an epidemic of smallpox brought to the New World by Spanish invaders. The resistance against cortes ends. Cuauhtémoc is tortured to make him reveal the whereabouts of hidden treasure. Cuauhtémoc, insisting that there was no hidden treasure.

toltec

The empire grew to include the Pacific Coastal Chiapas and Guatemala, the Yucatan Peninsula, and much of Northern and Western Mexico. The society was agricultural that also depended on trade for survival. Their society was also heavily influenced by religion, which was reflected in their architecture (The Avenue of the Dead). The Toltec Empire had great strength from the 8th century up until their collapse in the 12th century.The downfall of the Toltec Empire is as mysterious as its creation. not very well-known because they did not have a written system of recording their history The later Aztec culture saw the Toltecs as their intellectual and cultural predecessors

reconquista

The re-taking of Spain back from muslimsin medieval Spain and Portugal, a series of campaigns by Christian states to recapture territory from the Muslims who had occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula in the early 8th century. lasted until 1492 when Grenada surrenders to Castile.The catholics gave them a choice "convert or leave". The conquistadors will employ "the catholic crusading" in the new world. They believe that conquering native peoples in the new world in the name of Catholicism.

diego de almagro

a Spanish conquistador, and a companion and later rival of Francisco Pizarro. He participated in the Spanish conquest of Peru and is credited as the first European discoverer of Chile. While Pizarro got support from Spain, Almagro would remain in Panama to recruit men and gather supplies for the expeditions led by Pizarro. Both Pizarro and Almagro initially worked together in the founding of new cities to consolidate their dominions after the conquering of Peru. Almagro received less reward for Peru's conquest, which led to his decision to explore Chile. His expedition ultimately resulted in failure as it yielded no gold or riches. Upon his return to Peru, he captured Cuzco for himself and imprisoned Hernando and Gonzalo Pizarro. Francisco Pizarro eventually freed his brothers after temporary military setbacks. Almagro was executed while held captive.

requierimiento

a Spanish word meaning "requirement" or "demand"—was a document that was read aloud by the Spanish conquistadores of the early sixteenth century to native peoples in the Americas, demanding that they submit themselves to Spanish rule and to Christianity. In 1493 Pope Alexander VI, in the wake of Christopher Columbus's first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, had claimed the authority to grant the Spanish monarchy dominion over the New World. The Spanish jurist Juan López de Palacios Rubios then composed the Requerimiento in 1513 to justify the subjugation of the American peoples in the name of God, forcing them to convert to the Catholic Church or face the Spaniards in war.

Al Andalus

a name used to describe parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims. During the reconquista.

mestizaje

a term traditionally used in Spain and Latin America for people of mixed heritage or descent. he term was used as a racial category in the Casta system that was in use during the Spanish empire's control of their American colonies; it was used to describe those who had one European-born parent and one who was a member of an indigenous American population. (Spanish and Native). the first count of this was Corte's and Dona Marina's son.

Treaty of Tordesillas

agreed upon by the Spanish and the Portuguese to clear up confusion on newly claimed land in the New World. After Columbus discovered the New World in 1492, it was clear that conflict would soon arise over land claims by Spain and Portugal. The Portuguese also wanted to protect their monopoly on the trade route to Africa and felt threatened. It was only after the realization that Columbus had found something big that land became the important issue. The newly discovered land held great potential wealth which would benefit European nations. pope Alexander VI issued a decree which established an imaginary line running north and south through the mid-Atlantic, 100 leagues (480 km) from the Cape Verde islands. Spain would have possession of any unclaimed territories to the west of the line and Portugal would have possession of any unclaimed territory to the east of the line. The problem with this is that it created a lot of wiggle room. Uruaguay will be considered as a buffer. The native people did not have a place in deciding this.

Olmec (1)

first empire builders, the great-great people of other civilizations. they lived in the low lands of mexico (modern states of vera cruz and Tabasco). They did ritual blood letting as well as indulging in the meso-american ball game. The olmec were skilled in art, they are well known for making colossal heads. although the olmec were prosperous, they seemed to decline due to environmental changes that seemed to render the region unsuited for farmers. Why are they important: they were the oldest of all the civilizations in meso-america. some of their traditions were adopted by other civilizations. They laid the foundation for other civilizations.

cacique/kuraka

headman (head chief) of indigenous people in the Caribbean that was called by the spanish. Kuraka are the head chief of Incans. They could have been used to facilitate the encomienda system, they would supply the spanish with indian subjects for labor. They were in charge of distributing labor force to satisfy encomienderos.

La Noche Triste

in 1520, an important event during the Spanish conquest of Mexico, wherein Hernán Cortés and his army of Spanish conquistadors and native allies fought their way out of the Mexican capital at Tenochtitlan following the death of the Aztec king Montezuma II, whom the Spaniards had been holding as a hostage. The event is so-named on account of the sorrow that Cortés and his surviving followers felt and expressed at the loss of life and treasure incurred in the escape from Tenochtitlan. Pedro de Alvarado, Cortez's companion, suffered serious injury during the escape

Cimarron

in Panama, were enslaved Africans who had escaped from their Spanish masters and lived together as outlaws. The term Cimarron means "runaway slave" in Spanish and refers mainly to enslaved African who ran away from their Spanish masters in the mid 16th century. When brought to Panama, they intermarried with the Indians and immediately learned the land in order to outsmart the Spanish. In the 1570s, they allied with Sir Francis Drake of England to defeat the Spanish conquest and plunder their riches.

Quetzalcoatl

is a Mesoamerican deity whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and has the meaning of "feathered serpent." To the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl was, a creator deity having contributed essentially to the creation of Mankind. He also had anthropomorphic forms.

hidalgo

is a traditional title of persons of the Spanish nobility or gentry. The word is a contraction of the phrases 'hijo de algo', literally "a son of something." Despite this informal-sounding term, the Spanish court rigorously regulated who was and who was not entitled to call himself an hidalgo.

the new laws

issued by King Charles V of Spain regarding the Spanish colonization of the Americas. they were created to prevent the exploitation of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas by the Encomenderos (large enterprise landowners) by strictly limiting their power and dominion. missionary Bartolomé de las Casas as a notable leading advocate for this law. His goal was the abolition of the encomienda system of many regulations on the encomienda system. The New Laws stated that the natives would be considered free persons, and the encomenderos could no longer demand their labor. The natives were only required to pay the encomenderos tribute. Blasco Núñez Vela, the first Viceroy of Peru tried to enforce The New Laws which caused the encomenderos to revolt in a large scale rebellion in which he was killed by the landowning faction led by Gonzalo Pizarro. Having seen the effects of the New Laws in the Viceroyalty of Peru, Antonio Mendoza, Viceroy of New Spain decided not to enforce the New Laws in his territories, in order to avoid conflict with the encomenderos. (it was a failure!!)

castas

meaning "lineage", "breed" or "race." implying that the lineage has been kept pure the Spanish colonial period, Spaniards developed a complex system based on race, which was used for social control and which also determined a person's importance in society. There were five main categories of race: (1) Peninsular, a Spaniard born in Spain; (2) Criollo (feminine, criolla), a person of Spanish descent born in the New World; (3) Indio, a person who is descendent of the original inhabitants of the Americas; and (4) Negro, a person of black African descent, usually a slave or their free descendants.

calpulli

means "long house." Under the Aztec empire, it represented the most important social unit under the level of the city-state, or Altepetl. Different families, often related through kinship, formed a calpulli. At Tenochtitlan, there were eight different calpulli within each of the four quarters that made up the city. The different calpullis were instead bound together through work specialization and occupation. The group of people who formed a calpulli was collectively the owner of the land they cultivated and in which they lived. This organization had its own patron deity, school, and temple. In larger cities, members of the same calpulli usually had the same occupation. A calpulli was also the center for tax collection and it formed the basic army unit.

Tlaxcala

o the East of the growing Aztec empire was the city-state . They were a powerful people who shared their culture and language with the people of the Aztec empire proper. They were closely related with the empire, though never actually conquered by it. The Aztecs allowed them to maintain their independence so that they could participate in the flower wars with them to facilitate human sacrifice. they resisted the spanish but malinche (Dona Marina) recruited them They became allies to Cortes and they were a huge influence to the fall of the Aztec empire.

latifundia

pieces of property covering very large land areas. their economics depended upon slave labour. These originated under colonial law allowing forced labor recruitment and land grants for military services. They were characteristic of Magna Graecia and Sicily, of Egypt and the North African Maghreb and of Hispania Baetica in southern Spain, before being established in Spanish colonies in Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay, Cuba, Chile.

encomienda

spanish employed this model. It was a grant that was given to a wealthy Spaniard. It guaranteed holdings (land). A legal system that was used to regulate labor. e Spanish crown granted a person a specified number of natives for whom they were to take responsibility. In theory, the receiver of the grant was to protect the natives from warring tribes and to instruct them in the Spanish language and in the Catholic faith: in return they could extract tribute from the natives in the form of labor, gold or other products. (NOT SLAVERY). what is important to know: is that this is a not a slave system, it is a labor system. The spanish would give them religion in exchange for labor. The encomienda system was used in the new world.

Estancia

term describing a large rural estate, the term is used in Argentina, Uruguay, southern Chile and southern Brazil. The equivalent in other Latin American countries would be hacienda. Unlike a hacienda, which could be any type of agricultural venture. An estancia, most typically located in the southern South American grasslands,has historically always been a livestock (cattle or sheep) estate. During the first centuries of Spanish colonial rule, cattle introduced by the Spanish roamed free and man undertook raids to catch and slaughter them. In the 19th century stationary ranching ventures started to form. They were called estancias, the term indicating the stationary, permanent character.

Atahuapla

the Incan emperor. Incan emperor Hugha Capac died , not by parting ways with Incan tradition. He divided his emperor into 2 one for the first son Huascar, and the another for his favorite son. the favorite son is given the northern empire while Huscar inherited Cuzco. the favorite son was not satisfied with receiving half of the emperor and 1525 and he takes the whole country, huscar is held prisoner. he puts the royal court in Cajamarca he allowed Pizzaro to enter the empire because he was curious as well as confident because he was god, he held prisoner by Pizzaro and is charged. He is given a choice be burned alive? Or be baptized and strangled, he accepts baptism and he is executed. The execution of is an im-politic act of pizzaro he will be charged because he went back on his word. He would have been an Incan figurehead

ayllus

the basic political and social units of pre-Inca and Inca life. These were essentially extended family groups but they could adopt non-related members, giving individual families more variation and security of the land that they farmed. They would often have their own huaca, or minor god, usually embodied in a physical object such as a mountain or rock. Ayllu were self-sustaining units and would educate their own offspring and farm or trade for all the food they ate.Their primary function was to solve subsistence issues, and issues of how to get along in family, and larger, units. Each ayllu owned a parcel of land, and the members had reciprocal obligations to each other

Diego Velaquez

the conqueror of Cuba. He was an early settler of Hispaniola. He participated in columbus's second voyage. He also participated in the massacare of Caseces. He is described as one of the richest man on the island. He encountered fierce resistance (Hatuey). He was in pursuit of Hatuey and he crossed the channel to Cuba. Hatuey was vanquished. He became the governor of Cuba. Noticing the weakness of the indians. He authorized various expeditions to explore lands further west, including the 1517 Francisco Hernández de Córdoba expedition to Yucatán. Valquez empowered a second expedition entrusting it to his cousin Juan de Grijala, but grijala is too timid to go deeper into the yucutan. He then gets Hernán Cortés's famous expedition to Mexico, but pulled back his support before the expedition was scheduled to launch because his family asks "why are you entrusting something so important to someone that is not in the family?" . Cortés disobey the orders to disband his expeditionary force and left for Mexico anyway.

Antonio Montesinos

the first person who saw the flaw in encomienda system. a Spanish Dominican friar on the island of Hispaniola preached against the enslavement and harsh treatment of the Indigenous peoples of the Island. Montesinos's preaching lead to the conversion of Bartolomé de las Casas.

Chichimec

the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to a wide range of semi-nomadic peoples who inhabited the north of modern-day Mexico and southwestern United States, and carried the same sense as the European term "barbarian". The name was adopted with a pejorative tone by the Spaniards when referring especially to the semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples of northern Mexico. They are not as civilized (advanced) as the Aztecs.

Mexica

the ruler of the aztec empire the aztec empire was made up of various city states with the conquor of lands and people, they allowed the new additions to maintain their cultures and languages. w

audiencias

they had legislative and executive functions in addition to their judicial ones, and thus represented the king in his role as maker of laws and dispenser of justice.

quinto real

was a 20% tax established in 1504 that Spain levied on the mining of precious metals. The tax was a major source of revenue for the Spanish monarchy. Rather than levy the tax on the basis of the amount of silver or gold produced, the government tracked the amount of mercury used. Mercury was essential for the refinement of silver and gold in the patio process. The Spanish government had a monopoly of mercury production, through its mines at Almadén in Spain and at Huancavelica in Peru. In 1648 the Viceroy of Peru declared that Potosí and Huancavelica were "the two pillars that support this kingdom and that of Spain." Moreover, the viceroy thought that Spain could, if necessary, dispense with the silver from Potosí, but it could not dispense with the mercury from Huancavelica.

repartimiento

was a colonial forced labor system imposed upon the indigenous population of Spanish America. In concept it was similar to other tribute-labor systems: the natives were forced to do low-paid or unpaid labor for a certain number of weeks or months each year on Spanish-owned farms, mines, workshops (obrajes), and public projects. In 1542 it was meant to substitute the encomienda system that had come to be seen as abusive and promoting unethical behavior. The repartimiento was not slavery, in that the worker is not owned outright—being free in various respects other than in the dispensation of his or her labor—and the work was intermittent. It however, created slavery-like conditions in certain areas, most notoriously in silver mines of 16th century Peru. In practice, a conquistador would be given and supervised a number of indigenous workers, who would labor in farms or mines. the new repartimento did not include the attribution of land to anyone, only the allotment of native workers

Classic Maya (2)

was located in present day Guatemala, mexico, el salvador, and belize. it was an urban area in which monuments were constructed. There was also significant advancement in art as well an accurate calendar system. was not as militaristic as Aztec. advances in astronomy.