POL305Y1 Lecture Notes - Upper Class, Repartimiento, Astex
Document Summary
Conquest and colonial rule: pre-colonial society and power structures, conquest, colonial society. I came to get the gold, not till the soil like a peasant -- hernan cortes, conqueror of mexico, 16th century. Abhorrence of people who work with hands = low wage. Lack of concern and sympathy for lower class. Illustrates motivation for conquest- wealth: precolonial society and power structure. Astex, mias and incas (3 precolonial civilizations) Early history written by westeners so have a biased. Known for invention of calendars (maya calendar end dec this year), scientific accomplisments. Had independent city state with pop of 200,000 or more. Organization: top down and authoritarian (king and nobel on top and slaves on the bottom ) Classic mayan society collapsed and invaded by toltecs. Toltecs had a lot of agriculture and exhausted the land and couldnt sustain themselves. Came from north and forced toltecs into mayan territory. Organization: was very rigidly stratified (top= heriditary nobility and bottom= slaves),
