in a car sends me here for you.
What
are the people, what of the indians of Mexico? Their state was conquered,
Their gods destroyed. What became of their society? Well you'll remember
that we said Hernan Cortes was a man with a dream. A dream of creating a
new society and his spinal indian culture. One of his aims was to convert
the indians into Spaniards to impose the religion of Spain upon them.
These goals were to be achieved by missionaries and governors from Spain.
Yeah, what actually happened was that the cultures of both indians and
Spaniards were modified by the conquest and a new Mexican culture did
indeed emerge. The culture which the Spaniards brought to Mexico was a
version of the culture of Spain modified by the experiences in the Canary
islands in the Caribbean. The spanish culture was further modified by
contact with the indians of Mexico at the same time the indian cultures
were influenced and modified through contact with the Spaniards. A few of
the conquered retained their old culture almost intact and a few Spaniards
were little influenced by the indians but most came to reflect a new
culture, a mexican folk culture, a combination of the spanish and the
indian, the negro and the oriental elements that gathered in Mexico. The
Spaniards. The conquerors provided the dominant element of this mexican
folk culture.
They forced their way of life on the indians. Their tool was a well
developed system of conquest and numerous repressive policies. The
organization of their cultural conquest was extraordinary and it's still
evident in Mexico today? Most of the indians lived in Hamlets, small
villages of a few families remember the cal poly and family were the basis
of society. As long as these institutions survived, the indians could
resist outside influences. The first action the conquerors took was to
force the indians to live in towns. These towns were surrounded by their
own fields, all within 560 yards of the church steeple. The Spaniards
reasoned that they could more easily subjugated indians living in towns
where family ties might be replaced by civic ties and in the towns, the
indians had no choice but to observe and to adapt to spanish customs. What
the Spaniards didn't realize was that living in such close quarters
increases the danger of epidemic, thousands more of the indians died of
disease. In the early years of the conquest, the conquerors also
introduced new concepts of private land ownership. Remember the idea of
individually owned land was beginning to develop in Mexico before the
Spaniards arrived. But for the most part, the indians believed that land
was a gift from the gods to the cal poly, they had the right to work it
although they did not own it, but the spanish crown granted large tracts
of land to the conquerors and Aztec nobles were given ownership of
previously communal lands.
Now the Spaniards call their conquered land, new spain and the basis for
building their empire in the new world was to be the labor of the native
population. They needed labor to work their lands, labor to work the mines
, labor to build the towns and so they introduced the income Yanda, a sort
of trusteeship whereby a spanish landowner received tribute payments and
labor from a specified number of indian villages. Former Conquistadors,
leading colonists and other privileged Spaniards received the first in
command is issued by the crown. Later every spanish soldier of the mexican
conquest demanded an income Yanda as his reward.
Under the income Yanda, the indian worked the land indian farmers became
serfs. They were forced to work for spanish masters, much as serfs in
europe had been forced to work for feudal lords during the middle ages. In
return for their labors, The spanish landholders were supposed to care for
the needs of the indians and to assure their religious instruction. The n
commend eros were powerful people so powerful that the spanish crown's
began to fear them. Early laws limiting the income Yanda had been ignored.
Then in 1543, the new laws abolish the income Yanda. The colonists showed
such signs of revolt that the crown was forced to repeal the new laws.
Eventually however, the indians were declared to be vassals of the crown
and they paid their tribute directly to the king of Spain but the
colonists still needed the labor of the indians. So they devised a new
system to replace the income Yanda to assure themselves of indian labor.
The system was called the repartee memento under the departamento, the
indians were forced to work for specified periods of time, at very low
wages on projects that the government of New Spain considered essential.
Some of these projects were production of food, operation of the mind's
construction of public buildings and roads. The indians worked on these
projects for a week or two at a time, often at long distances from their
homes with little food and no place to sleep. Their party memento and the
income Yanda before it disrupted the old way of life.
The Spaniards impose their culture on the people. In yet another way they
insisted that the indians become christian that they accept the roman
catholic faith of their conquerors.
The Spaniards began by trying to convert the Aztec leaders, the tribal
officials. The Spaniards spread the legend that the emperor cuauhtemoc was
baptized and many of the people followed his example. For most, the
transition to the new religion was a relatively simple one. For one thing
, the Aztecs always had been willing to accept new gods. Their pantheon of
gods included, many that had been worshiped by societies that preceded
them and many that they had adopted from the tribes they conquered but
these gods had failed. The Aztecs when they were needed most. The old
religion needed to be replaced Christianity offered new hope for the
indian and it was on this hope that in years to come. He would rebuild his
shattered way of life. Various similarities between the old and the new
religions made the conversion easier for the indians, both religions had
priests and command. Both believed in an ordered supernatural world. There
were similarities in ritual and the indians learn the new ritual quickly.
Then to the indians could identify the christian trinity with the
powerful Aztec gods and the saints with the lesser gods. Mm Even today,
the Mexican folk culture retains elements of the old beliefs. Their
religion, like their entire culture is a combination of spanish and indian.
The conversion of the indian masses to the new religion was undertaken by
friars First by the Franciscans who arrived in Tlaxcala in 1522, The
Franciscan missionaries learned the languages of the people and at Texcoco
they established the 1st Spanish primary school in Mexico. They taught
religion of course, but they also taught weaving, carpentry, agriculture.
The Franciscans were followed into Mexico by Dominican monks and
competition developed between the two orders.
Competition, which showed itself in the building of numerous churches and
monasteries. Indian labor built these churches just as indian labor built
the temples of pre Hispanic Mexico.
All in all, many historians believe that the Spaniards made a colossal
effort to destroy the indian civilization, but the indian culture was not
destroyed in some ways. The friars help to keep it alive. The church and
the crown tried to protect the indians for economic reasons and some of
their efforts were successful.
One man who worked many years to save the indians and their culture was a
friar Bartolomei de las casas de las casas was a lawyer who came to the
new world as an adventurer. Later he became a priest and began a long
fight for the well being of the indians of the Americas.
Unlike many of the Spaniards de las casas realized that the indians of the
Americas were in danger of extermination. His efforts to save them from
this fate resulted in his being named protector of the indians. De las
casas failed to get the colonists to see what they were doing to the
indians Discouraged. He retired to a monastery for a period of 10 years
and during that time he wrote his history of the Indies. The protector of
the indians suggested various means of saving the peoples of the new world.
And because of his efforts, many laws were passed by the Council of the
Indies, which controls Spain's possessions in the new world. The crown,
anxious to ensure close relations between the indians and the Spaniards
encouraged colonists to marry daughters of indian nobles and some indian
chiefs were given titles of nobility. In fact, out of the 190 coats of
arms given by the King of Spain, 20 were granted to Indians.
Life was little changed in some ways farming continued as the basis of
life. The Spaniards introduced livestock and some new plants such as wheat
and fruit trees. They otherwise added little to the high level of farming
skills of the Aztecs, pottery making was the greatest pre hispanic craft.
The Spaniards introduced the potter's wheel and thus began the great
development of pottery based on indian motifs.
Although elements of indian culture remained alive and became an important
part of the developing Mexican folk culture. Within a few years after the
military conquest, the indians were made an inferior majority. Most of
them had no land. They worked as serfs on the great haciendas or in the
minds, some peoples, like those of Xochimilco and chalco were allowed to
live in their swampy areas, much as they had before the conquest. The
Spaniards had no use for this land. Others fled from the Spaniards, just
as they had fled from the Aztecs. They settled in primitive villages in
the remote mountain areas. Many of their descendants still live in these
villages scarcely aware of the spanish catholic influence, But for most
the effects of the 1st 100 years of spanish rule were very great. The
indians subordinated by european society and by the bureaucracy of the
Spaniards were made to feel inferior
around them. They saw the Spaniards and those who were predominantly
spanish as the masters, the elite of the new society. The work of Mexico
was done by the indians, not for themselves, but for the spanish masters.
Some adapted themselves to the european way of life. And many of them
inter married with Spaniards to create a new citizen, the Mestizo as time
passed and the indians of Mexico met with other Europeans, particularly
the north americans of the United States. They found that the belief that
the indian was an inferior human being was not limited to the spanish
conquerors. To a large extent the conquest of Mexico by only a few 100 men
created a myth of indian inferiority and the great achievements of indian
society were obscured.
Even the adoption of Christianity contributed to this feeling of
alienation. The religion of most people's is their history when they are
conquered and adopt the religion of the conquerors. They lose their
history, their sense of continuity, their sense of pride.
Some indians did fight their way out of this feeling. Men like Benito
juarez, the Liberator and Lazaro Cardenas who led the revolutions that
freed Mexico from foreign domination. Men who have made it possible for
the Indians to participate in the active life of the country as they did
400 years before.
In only one area did the indian win over his conquerors in the crafts of
Mexico. Indian craftsmen have handed down the old traditions of form and
pattern. The brilliance of Aztec decoration is the basis of almost all of
the arts and crafts in Mexico today. And these arts and crafts were
carried out of Central Mexico in the years following the conquest for the
Spaniards once they had conquered the Aztecs began the expansion of their
empire wherever they went. The Mexican folk culture accompanied them you,
a folk culture, which is the basis of life in Mexico and later in the
southwestern United States.