Miguel Gregori Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y costilla y galaaga Mondarte Villasenor

Miguel Gregori Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Galaaga Mondarte Villasenor also known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or simply Miguel Hidalgo was a Mexican priest. His nickname was the Father of the Nation of Mexico. He was also a leader of the Mexican War of Independence. In 1810, he led a revolt against the peninsulares for the Virgin of Guadalupe. They disbanded after encounters with the criollos and Mexican townspeople. Hidalgo was captured on March 21, 1811 and executed on July 30^th. His rebellion was the beginning of the Mexican war of Independence. After his death, many others took up his footsteps that brought down the colonial governments of Spain of Mexico.

Aztec

The Aztec Empire started off with the Mexico people who slowly emerged into an unstable empire of five to six million people. The empire was known for their various goods such as, impressive textiles, clothing, military supplies,  jewelry and other goods. The Aztec location was quite unique because they had multiple bridges, canals, causeways, beautiful garden around. Their trading industry strengthened the domains of the Aztec and created large markets of quantitative goods. Since this was their major accomplishment, the merchants were ranked very high in the society as well as their wealth. 

During the fifteenth century, the Aztec regularly performed human sacrifices as an important aspect of their religious lifestyle. They believed that the center of the world, the sun, and the god Huitzilopochtli would be hovered with darkness every now and then, and the only way to renew it was by using human blood. It was a form of return to the gods because they had shed their own blood in creating human kind in the beginning of the world. The best ways to supply this blood was human sacrifices, wars of expansion, and the prisoners of wars. This religious aspect spread into the political aspect because the emperors of other empires were impressed and also scared of this deadly style the Aztecs had. 

the Incas vs. the Aztec Empire

The Incan and Aztec Empires were politically and religiously very different, but followed the same idea of gender spots in their society. Very quickly, the Aztec empire did not make any of their conquered people do anything, they left them alone while the Inca empire made them do work in families households, on farms, and in temples. Discussing the religious subject, the Incas practiced human sacrifices on the religious events every now and then, but not as much as the Aztecs; they completed this sacrifice a great amount. 

Men and women's roles is a big topic in both ancient and modern history. The Incan and Aztec empire followed the same gender roles on a normal base. The men are generally ranked as a higher position and more involved in the military issues, while the women take care of the household, and do the cleaning and caring after the children. Politically speaking, both the empires acquired this same system on the people they conquered. 

old assignment (inca)

The Incan empire had a majority of people that spoke Quechua. This large empire was located along the Andes mountains near the west coast of South America. Comparing it to the Aztec empire, the Incan was much larger, stretching to about 2, 500 miles. They are known for their bureaucratic system in which a high emperor  reigns at the top and covers about eighty provinces with peasants working below them. The Incan also allowed their group of people to follow their own religious traditions, so they were not forced to follow a specific Incan priority. The one thing that got me interested was the gender system. The book did not get very specific on every detail, but it made me realize how woman stood in society. 

The Downfall of the Aztec Empire

The Aztec’s were once a great nation in Mesoamerica. Along with the Incas, they were one of the most powerful empires in the Americas. They were able to successfully build numerous temples that still stand today including the Chichen Itza, which is one of the world seven architectural wonders. Unfortunately for them, the Spaniards came to the Americas in the 1600^th century. Along with warfare and diseases, they individually, brought down the Aztec empire. With their first encounter with the Spaniards, the Aztecs wanted to use the Spanish soldiers as sacrifices for their rituals. Also, they demanded numerous tributes from the Spaniards to enhance their society. The Spaniards did not want to pay these immense tributes, so they destroyed the Aztec empires. The Aztecs would remain as one of the greatest empires mezzo-America had ever seen, but they cursed themselves with these sacrifices and tributes that they wanted.

Death to the Indigenous

After I read the reading on pages 407-409, I felt that it would be interesting to look into the deaths of the indigenous people of the Americas and how exactly they were killed by disease. When I was researching I came upon many places where they claimed that the Spanish, Europeans and other travelers may have purposely given the indigenous people disease in an attempt to clear the lands. On the other hand, others believe that the settlers would not have known about the diseases because medical information at the time was so thin and useless. What we do know is that the Native Americans were only immunized against the diseases of their lands, but were not with measles, influenza, yellow fever, smallpox, typhus and malaria. And because there was so much of this disease and so little time for their bodies to adapt to these harsh changes the Native Americans might as well have been declared dead the day the settlers arrived. Even in Mexico, the live population decreased from 10 to 20 million to 1 million by 1650. I am truly unsure if this was intended when the settlers arrived, but I'm sure that it was apparent to them that the indigenous people were dying off fast. The fact that the settlers did not take action is just as appalling as the fact that this plan could have been intentional.

I found my information here and here.

Spanish vs British

I thought it would be very interesting to compare the British colonies and Spanish colonies in the Americas. 3 main topics: Religion, Politics, Economy

Religion:
In terms on religion, most Spaniards were Catholic and were concerned with turning natives into Christians. They believed that confessions and battles for the New World would help to forgive all of their sins. However, they can not be forgiven for raping and killing millions of native people.

The British could be described as fugitives. They were Christians, however they sought new rights and freedoms from in the New World. The British tended not to mix with the Natives, and just killed many of them.

Politics:
The Spaniards believed that they were all nobles and that they did not have to work, forcing slaves and natives to work for them. They thought work was below them. Your blood and your name determined your status.

For the British, work was an honor and should be done by everyone. The point was to escape British catholic oppression and so nobility did not matter, this was part of the old system.

Economy
The land in Latin America was extremely rich. They mass produced and grew many different products. This was done with complete exploitation of natives.

The British were less fortunate in terms of their land. They had more needs for industry and manufacturing. They had no native slaves but they used African slaves for almost all of their work.

Valued Items in America

I looked up what items were of much value in America but then during the time of European Exploration in America.

Silver was mined by the Incans or Aztecs because the Europeans enslaved them. Silver was then exported to China, India and the Ottoman Empire.

Gold amounts declined in the 16th century and most of the gold was found in America and was melted from Incan and Aztec jewelry.

Sugar was brought to America by Columbus on his second journey and they planted sugar plants in the land there. Then America became a place that shipped out a lot of the sugar that was being grown there.

Fur was a valued item at the time and fur traders hired the Natives to hunt the animals for them and many parts of America participated in this.

Tobacco became a habit of the Europeans because it was very popular in the Native American tribes.

Slaves were highly valuable and was one of the more popular ones. It made a very high profit but it was hard because they needed adult workers and didn't want the current workers to have kids because it would be more expensive to take care of them. So this resulted in a very low ratio of people being born to people dying.

The Columbian Exchange

I found a lot more interesting and understanding information on this website . The Columbian Exchange was a huge part of the Western and Eastern hemispheres advancement including the world ecology, agriculture, and culture. It is called the "Columbian" exchange because it was named after Christopher Columbus' enormous widespread exchange of plants, animals, foods, etc. All of the main staple products for a human to survive. The greatest thing about the Columbian Exchange is that it affected everyone in the whole world. Bad and good things occured because of this exchange. Asian diseases spread from Asia to indigineous people who had no immunity and wiped out nearly 80% of the Native American population. In spite of that, since both areas were communicating more, an exchange of new crops and livestock rose. With that, the population increased dramatically. All in all, the Columbian exchange was the reason things are where they are today. Never before were their oranges in Florida or chocolate in Switzerland. This exchange made the world what it is today. Furthermore, I think the Columbian Exchange is one of the biggest and significant events in world history.

Summary

Summary of 410-412 reading.

The chapter talks about the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and Incas in South America in the early 16th century. Within a century the Spaniards had already established a dozen major cities, impressive universities, hundreds of churches, missions and cathedrals, an elaborate administrative bureaucracy and network of regulated international commerce. The economic base of the colonial society was in agriculture and in solver and gold mining. Both cases required the forced labor of natives. A distinctive social order formed. At the top were the Spanish Settlers who were politically and economically dominant. They saw themselves as residents of a Spanish Kingdom, subject to Spanish monarch, yet separate requiring much self government. They "obeyed the rules of the crown, but didn't enforce them." Though the settlers themselves were a divided community. There were descendants of the original conquistadors. They were trying to protest their privileges against immigrant newcomers. There were spaniards that were born in the americas, creoles, and there were those born in Spain, peninsulares. Creoles resented the pretensions to superiority of those born in Spain. Landowning spaniards felt threatened by the growing wealth of commercial groups practicing less prestigious occupation. Spanish missionaries were were very concerned with how the natives were being treated. Something very distinctive of the colonies was the emerging of a mixed race population known as the mestizos. They were the product of union between native women and spanish men. Native women married into spanish households because they wanted the security from abuse for themselves and for their children. Men married the native women because the crown encouraged them to and because there were 7 men to one women. The mestizo population grew and eventually became the majority of the population. They were looked down upon by spaniards, but their usefulness as artisans, clerks, labor supervisors, and low level officials in church and state government, along with their growing population led to their recognition as a distinct social group. At the bottom of society were the native indians. They were subject to abuse, and exploitation and were the main source of labor. They were also required to pay tribute to Spanish overlords. Their empire and religion were destroyed by conquering Spaniards. Their numbers diminished and they began gravitating toward the lifestyle of their conquerers. They began speaking spanish, converted themselves to christianity and moved to urban areas to find work for wages. They also began eating beef and chicken, along with using plows and shovels as apposed to their native digging sticks. But some natives continued their originals ways. Natives markets operated regularly, corn and squash continued to be the core of their diet, and they continued their religion. Colonial Spanish America became a society of ethnic and cultural mixing and change.

Birth of the Mestizo

In the book I read about the Incas and Aztecs empire being taken over by the Spanish. The Spaniards were at the top they were the land owners, while the Incas and Aztecs became the workers. However the Spaniards would sometimes rape the Indians and the Indian women would than have a child both Indian and Spanish. They were mestizos, a mixed race. I decided to do some research on them. What were some social problems they faced? And what was there status in society?

I found a website page called "The Construction and Function of Race: Creating the Mestizo" as mentioned in the book some of the Indian women were married to Spanish men but many of the mestizos were born because of rape. The mestizo race was a very delicate race they were either brought up by the father or mother it was very rare for both. The father would be the one to decide if the child was legitimate or illegitimate. When a boy was taken in by the father, the child would either be educated along with the children of the wife or he would be sent to Spain to be educated with the fathers' family. However when he was older, he might of not been given any inheritance or sometimes if he was the only son he would take the property and unofficially control it since they weren't able to own property legally. The mestizo girls however had it a bit more easier, they weren't needed to hold property. Instead they were used to create alliances or even if they did marry, they were married to a decent Spanish man such as a merchant or artisan. Nevertheless, there was still tension between mestizo children and their fathers' wife. But because Spanish people had a strong sense of family lineage they would bring the child in. Also the idea of the child being raised by the inferior race was not liked so instead they would bring them up. Or even if they were brought up by their mothers' the Spanish would still see them as lesser. At the beginning there wasn't any mestizo marriages because most young ladies would marry older men and since the mestizo race was young there were no older men. As you can see the mestizo race had a lot of tension coming from both the Indians and Spanish. They were never fully accepted on either side.

Aztecs: Tenochtitlan

Something that really got my attention during my reading about the Aztecs, was the great metropolis of Tenochtitlan that they built. This really grabbed my attention, because even the brief overview of this great city made it seem way to advanced to even exist during the 1500's. Since I was so intrigued by this city of Tenochtitlan, I decided to do some extensive research on it.

The story behind this city being founded, was that Huitzilopochtli told an Aztec chief that their homeland should be on the Island in the Lake Toxcoco. The people did as he said, in honor of him, and built this amazing metropolis. The Aztecs started building this huge city in 1325, and it flourished in the 15th century until finally in 1521 the Spaniards captured the city. 

Two reasons why this city was so successful was because it was easily transportable, and because the people used their resources to the fullest potential. The city had many canals as you can see in this picture that made transportation by canoes a lot easier. This was really important, because it made trade inside the city extremely easy. This leads me into my second point which was that the Aztec people in this city used their resources to their fullest potential. One thing that the Aztecs did that was never before done was create floating gardens, or artificial gardens. These are what make up all of the squares in this same picture, and they are basically a bunch of mud that is stacked on bunches of twigs creating a perfect place to grow crops. The roots would root down on the swamp floors, and the crops would need no care because they received water all of the time from the swamp. So the farmers would then harvest there crops, and would go around trading all of the surplus on their canoes. 

Inca Empire and the Moche civilization

As I was reading from my text book, I came across a short section about the Inca Empire. This sections said that Incas incorporated the lands and cultures of earlier Andean civilization such as the Chavin, Moche, Nazca, and Chimu. The book just gives us this brief statement, leaving me with a lot of questions about these civilizations. How did they help the Inca Empire flourish? What new things did they introduce that were not present before? So I decided to do some research on one of these civilizations, the Moche. 

So first of all the Moche were a civilization that started in AD 100, and ended in AD 800. This civilization was located in the Northern Peruvian coastline, were they could easily access the lower river valley for a great amount of there resources. Their location provided them with a lot of resources such as clay an metal. This was really important to them because they were a really artistic civilization that used art as away of expressing emotions of everyday life. We are able to learn a lot more about this civilization only because of there art, which involved sculpting with clay, working with metal, painting and much more. This civilization also offered new technology to everyone around them. One of the biggest technological advancement of their time was the system of irrigation that they created. So the Moche offered a lot of ideas, and customs to the later Inca Empire.

Blog #2

I couldn't get it to go on youtube. Hopefully this will work just as well.

Religion inside the Aztec Empire

The Ways of the World textbook wasn't exactly my cup of tea when I started reading about religion inside the Aztec Empire. I found a lot more information on what I wrote about at this website. http://www.knowledge4africa.com/worldhistory/inca12.htm.
The religious Aztecs had many different rituals and traditions they liked to perform at certain time of the month. Most of their religion has to do with gods and goddesses that they praise and pray too. Some important ones that I found that are very sacred to their empire would be the Huitzilopochtli, god of war; Tonatiuh, god of the sun; Tlaloc, god of rain; and Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, who was part deity and part culture hero. The Aztec calendar was the one common to much of Mesoamerica, and it comprised a solar year of 365 days and a sacred year of 260 days; the two yearly cycles running in parallel produced a larger cycle of 52 years. From prior knowledge, I know that the Mayan Calendar which is similar to the Aztec Calendar states that the world is going to end in 2012. Human sacrifice was one of the main practices towards the sun god. This is because it resembled the way a victim is offering its heart. All in all, the Aztec religion is based around gods and goddeses that the people follow and their celebrations have to do with patterns in their calender.

Aztec Technology

After reading the section about the Aztecs, it seemed as though a large part of the history was left out. The textbook went on and on about rituals and day to day lives, but failed to mention the Aztec's technological advances. Here is are a few points about various Aztec advances:

Calender

The aztecs had two types of calenders, one for time and the other for religious ceremonies. One calender told when to plant and harvest crops and the other told when to consult the gods. The calender for time consisted of 18 months with 20 days and an extra 5 days at the end of each 18-month cycle, totaling 365 days. The 5 extra days were considered unlucky and were commonly thought of as the days in which disaster would strike. The religious calender contained 260 days and was kown as the tonalpohualli. The calenders run simultaneously and the days of each coincided once every 52 years. This gave the Aztecs the idea of a 52 year cycle, similar to the modern 100-year century.

Tools and Weapons

The Aztecs did not have access to iron or bronze, so they had to make due with what they had. So, may tools and weapons were made of obsidian, stone, or copper. Aztec specialty weapons included atlatls and macuahuitls. Atlats aided with spear throwing and macuahuitls were wooden clubs with sharp pieces of obsidian, used to injure, but not kill enemies. Aztecs also utilized bows and arrows.

Medicine

With all of the warring and sacrifice, Aztec doctors had lots of human bodies with which to practice their medicine. For their time, Aztec doctors were actually very intelligent. For fevers, doctors suggested steam baths to help people relax and sweat out all of the evil spirits that were inside of them. The doctors were also well aware of treatments for broken bones. Splints were almost always used to help stabilize area with broken or fractured bones. Doctors also had lots of advice for pregnant women, but most of it was purely religious and was not backed up through practice or science.

For more information about Aztec technology, look here or here.

Aztec Human Sacrifice

Last week, I decided to look deeper into the human sacrifice of the Incas. So this week after doing the reading i decided to look deeper into the human sacrifice of the Aztecs.

Aztecs believed in the god of war and the sun, Huitzilopochtli. He was constantly fighting with other gods, and with darkness to ensure the survival of the Aztecs. He needed food to give him the energy to continue fighting, and his preferred food was human blood. Aztecs believed in tonali, or "animating spirit", which is found in human blood. Human blood concentrates in the heart when humans are in fear. So, captives from Aztec conquests were taken to the top of a pyramid, laid on a ritual stone table, and had their chests cut open and their hearts ripped out. Their bodies were tossed down the sides of the pyramid. It is believed that 20,000 people were sacrificed in this way, every year. After the hearts were ripped out, the bodies were later cooked, and served as a delicacy to the emperors because they didn't have livestock. Emperor Monteczuma was known to love human thighs served with tomato and chili sauce.

Aztec Women

In the text book it gave a brief summary of what the women did, i decided to research and go further into what the women did.  In the text book it said that the Aztec women did mostly all the housework and chores, for example, they cooked cleaned spun and raised their children. But when times started changing the women became more slave like and were used for mass production of cloth and materials for the military. They were also used for ritual sacrifices, which in my mind is terrible.  Some Aztec women were even prostitutes and "midwifes".  They were believed to cure the men.  As time went on they started to be allowed to work in stores and on the streets selling their goods.  So while creating the Aztec work force the women were able to get better jobs and make more money.  So looking back on an Aztec women i realize how lucky i am to not have to work like they did.  

Aztecs' Everyday Life

We learned in one of our readings about the Aztec Empire, how it was spreading, and their views on their religion and gods. This empire had a very large population, millions. I decide to research on the people and their everyday lifes. What were the childrens role? The mother and father? What did they do?

I came upon an exhibit about the Aztecs' and they had a section about the Aztecs' and their everyday lives called "Everyday Life in the Aztec World". The man of the house farmed and built the house. While the women was in charge of the house such as cleaning, cooking, she also made the clothing, and brought up the children. It was your usual house, the man brought the food and made sure the family had a house to live in. And the women, stayed home cleaning, cooking, and watching the kids. However the children didn't need much watching. Children in the Aztec empire had a very small childhood. They helped with household chores. Girls were taught to weave at the age of five, and the age of thirteen they were making tortillas, a typical everyday food. Parents were strict and were to be obeyed or else they would be severely punished. Education however was only allowed for the boys, nobility, and some of the lower class chilren had an education to become a soldier or priest. But it wasn't easy, it was tough too. Even though not all boys got an education, all of them learned at an early age how to care for a household. As mentioned before men farmed and the families goods' was their money. Their was no currency. There was a market at every village, and it was busy. Goods were exchanged for goods. The men and womens' production at home is was their money and the lived by that. As you can see a typical day in the Aztec Empire would be typical home with a little more strictness. People aren't that different then from now.

Aztec Religion

The Aztec religion was one based in Mesoamerica. It was one based of polytheism, shamanism, as well as animism. A large frame of Aztec religion was based upon astronomy as well as calendrics. The steriotype that Aztecs were violent people who made human sacrifices is actually true, as it corresponds with the different holidays of their calendar. The Aztecs divided the world into what we today would call different levels of heaven and hell, all based on cosmology. The sun, moon, and Venus all play a large role in Aztec religion, for they all have symbolic and religious meaning. 

The Aztec religion had adopted many different aspects from some of the previous Mesoamerican civilizations. Important deities in the Aztec religion were Tlaloc (god of rain), Huitzilopochtli (patron god of the Mexica tribe), Quetzalcoatl (cultural hero and god of civilization and order), and Tezcatlipoca (god of destiny and sorcery). Each of these deities have their own place of worship inside of the Aztec capital. Previous rituals to honor the gods include someone dressing up as the god and being worshipped heavily.