Spanish Conquest of the Americas Flashcards
(20 cards)
the native people of Mexico.
Aztecs
the Spanish adventurers and conquerors who destroyed the Aztec Empire in 1521. They conquered lands and people of Spain.
conquistadors
a settlement established in a foreign land. The ‘mother country’ had absolute authority over the colony and all newly discovered land nearby.
colony
the capital city of the Aztec empire founded in 1345.
Tenochtitlan
the source of cocoa and chocolate.
cacao
the Aztec language.
Nahuatl
floating gardens where farmers grew crops.
chinampas
a spectacular entertainment consisting of a high pole and platform with four men dressed as birds attached by ropes to the corners of the frame at the top of the platform. At a given signal, the men jumped from the platform which rotated making them ‘fly’ around the pole 13 times.
volador
In 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes landed the coast of Mexico with a small army of 500 - 600 men.
Cortes
a military operation in which an attacking force seeks to compel the surrender of a fortified place by surrounding it and cutting off supplies etc. The Spanish did this for 3 months at Tenochtitlan.
siege
the last Aztec emperor who tried to defeat Cortes, called Montezuma II. He became emperor in 1502. He spent the first 13 years of his reign away at war and was rarely in Tenochtitlan.
Montezuma
the great temple of Tenochtitlan was where sacrifices were held. The most valuable gift the Aztecs had to offer was life itself. They believed that it was by sacrificing human beings and offering their hearts to the gods, that the sun could be made to rise, the rain to fall and the crops to grow. They could sacrifice up to 20,000 people each year. Many humans to be sacrificed were prisoners of war.
sacrifices
the leader of the Aztecs, treated like a god and rarely seen in public. Emperors were usually chosen for their experience and bravery in war. He lived in the royal palace, was the commander-in-chief of the Aztec army and high priest.
Emperor
the emperor’s chief adviser was a man who held this strange title. He was the deputy emperor, chief judge and the person who dealt with the day-to-day running of the Empire.
Snake Woman
held every five days and people would come from miles to buy and sell goods, to exchange news and gossip. Every imaginable object was sold, including food, clothing, skins, weapons edged with obsidian (a black flint-like volcanic gloss), copper axes, canoes, herbs and quills of gold dust.
markets.
a huge, four-tiered pyramid which towered over the city, It was built from huge blocks of stone and was decorated with paintings and carvings. Twin staircases led to the summit, about 30m above the ground.
The Great Temple
two shrines were on top of the Great Pyramid - the left-hand one dedicated to Tlaloc, the god of rain and fertility, and the other one to Huitzilopoehtli, god of sun and war.
Holy Shrines
goods required from each city was sent to the capital. This was gathered by tax gatherers and provided the Aztecs with great wealth and kept the conquered cities under control.
tribute
paper made from bark of wild fig trees, which was soaked in lime water and beaten into thin sheets.
codex
travelling merchants, called pochteca, led which were quite different from other Aztecs. They lived in separate areas of the city and all belonged to a merchant guild. They would bring back luxury goods from all corners of the empire such as fine cloth, dyes, cacao beans, gold, cotton, feathers, jade, beads and copper. These would be sold in the markets.
merchants
