MMW 13 Chapter Notes - Chapter Reading: Hacienda, States Of Germany, Encomienda

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Local Environments, Peoples, and Cultures in 1519
There were many different geographic environments in Mesoamerica which shaped how
society developed in those regions. There was the most ethnic and cultural diversity in the north
where city states hadn’t really taken hold and nomads and settled peoples lived together. In the
center, there was pretty much one uniform language and in the south where the Maya were,
there were many languages spoken. It is hard to tell how Mesoamericans defined ethnicity and
whether or not language had anything to do with it since most of the big city states were multi
lingual and multi ethnic. It may be more accurate to say that people mainly defined themselves
based on their families and places of birth.
Interaction, Diplomacy, Conquest
There were many types of interactions between the Spaniards and the native peoples.
The main types were alliance, warfare, misdirection, and flight. It was alliances with other large
groups in the area that allowed Cortes and the Spaniards to take over Tenochtitlan and
overthrow the Mexica. Many groups used misdirection to get the Spaniards to leave them alone
and go bother other people. The Maya especially were fond of flight and would often run and
hide from the Spaniards to avoid being subjugated. Warfare was by far the most common with
the Spaniards fighting the Mayans for about 200 years before they could be subjugated (they
weren’t unified under a single state). The people in the area did not want to give up their
autonomy, but slow and steady Spanish encroachments on the land and by means of disease
made their domination inevitable.
Economy and Labor
The Spaniards rearranged the economic system that the natives had starting with the
land system. Under the native system, there were three types of land: land owned by the
community which was worked and shared by all, land owned by rulers or nobility which was
worked by lower level commoners tied to the family, and land owned by supreme leaders or
high level officials. The Spanish encomienda system exacted tribute from the natives in a way
that they hadn’t used before and the hacienda system forced the natives to work the land. Some
native ways of doing things were preserved since the Spaniards wanted goods that could only
be made with those practices. Even though slavery of Indians was outlawed in 1542, native
peoples were still exploited and forced to work, being moved to different parts of the empire if
they were going to get caught. The Spaniards would also sell finished products back to the
natives at ridiculously high prices and get the near finished or raw products from them at
artificially low prices. Natives in the end would move to haciendas or cities to find work leading
to an ethnic mixing never before seen.
Politics and Governance
The Spaniards used the native delineations of territory to make their own cities. There
was a lot of resistance on the part of the Indians to Spanish rule and their treatment by the
Spaniards. They used the Spanish legal system to fight the system internally and there were so
many court cases brought up by the natives against the Spanish that they got their own court for
it. There were other, more violent rebellions that sprang up when the natives just had enough.
These were put down, violently, and over time, more rebels were executed than in the past
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