God and Gold

I. New Spain

A. The Caribbean--Spain quickly overcame natives on most of the islands of Caribbean, mostly through the microbes they introduced directly or through those that came with the livestock they introduced.


1. Pigs--the Spanish place male and female pigs on many of the islands in preparation for their exploration, ensuring they would have a ready food supply when they returned. The pigs, however, had no natural enemies on the islands, and in rooting for food destroyed much of the habitat that the natives had relied on for sustenance. In addition, these pigs carried a number of microbes that readily jumped to human hosts (like our present day concerns with the H1N1 virus), and promptly killed a number who had never been exposed to them.


B. Hernan Cortes and the Golden City--son of a lesser noble family; he studied for a time at the University of Salamanca in Spain to become a lawyer, but little evidence exists to confirm whether he finished his studies. Evidence does suggest, however, that he was a man of extraordinary ambition.

1. Government official on the island of Cuba, then the headquarters for Spanish government in New Spain (Cuba).

2. Led third expedition to the mainland, which he largely funded himself.

3. His hostile relationship with the appointed governor led to an attempt to stop his expedition. Cortes resisted this attempt, and began writing letters to the Spanish king, claiming he was merely working for the greater glory of his majesty, etc.


4. Dona Mariana (La Malinche)--native woman who acted as translator for Cortes; she spoke both Mayan and Nauhautal. Because of her language skills, the conquistadores were able to persuade a number of native peoples, resentful of the heavy-handed domination of the Triple Alliance (and particularly of the Mexica), to join with them to overthrow the then current power structure. Dona Mariana also became Cortes’ mistress, and had at least one child with him.

5. Veracruz--upon landing, Cortes ordered the ships beached, and then burned, so there was no returning for his crew.

C. Moctezuma--fatefully decided to allow the Spanish to enter Tenochtitlan with no resistance and lavished them with many gifts; the gold only made the Spanish want more. Eventually, the Spanish decided to hold Moctezuma hostage in order to get more gold, and finally murdered him when things began to go wrong.



1. Mexica forces expelled Spanish from city--Spanish only escaped because they were getting slaughtered so badly on the causeways that connected the island city of Tenochtitlan to the mainland that they were using the bodies of comrades to fill in the gaps the Aztecs had made.

2. Siege of Tenochtitlan--Cortes had previously returned to the coast to seek more reserves, where he defeated--and converted--yet another force sent to stop him. He returned with these reinforcements and lay siege to Tenochtitlan. The siege, in conjunction with the microbes already at work in Tenochtitlan, finally defeated the Aztec forces.

D. Spanish Rule

1. Encomiendo System—Spaniards with political connections were granted control of huge tracts of land, and the native workers to work the land. In return, they had to ensure that these workers were taught Spanish and instructed in the Catholic faith. There were few checks on how these workers were used, however, and many economiendos simply worked their laborers to death.


2. Bartolome de la Casas—a former economiendo, he became a Catholic priest, and eventually a severe critic of the economiendo system, because of the systematic abuse of natives that the system encouraged.

II. Francisco Pizzaro and the Inka

A. The Conquistadore--cousin of Cortes, of an even lesser noble family (Pizzaro was himself illiterate), but fired by even more ambition than Cortes

1. Early recognizance--Pizzaro made several earlier trips, and caught wind of a supposed fabulously wealthy kingdom.

2. Third expedition--Pizzaro heard of an ongoing civil war, and moved south with 106 foot soldiers and 62 horsemen

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3. Cajamarca--this Inka town was largely abandoned because of the civil war. Pizzaro’s men hid themselves about the town, and Pizzaro sent word for the winner of the civil war, Atahualpa, to meet him there. Atahualpa agrees to the meeting; to impress the Spanish, he paraded into town accompanied by 5,000 to 6,000 of his largely unarmed people, leaving his army behind.

4. Spanish massacre--began with firing guns, cannon, attacking the crowd with men on horseback; the huge crowd panics, and most are crushed to death by falling over each other trying to escape.

5. Atahualpa held hostage. He notices Spanish “lust for gold,” agrees to fill two rooms with gold and silver in return for his release. While the valuables are being gathered, Atahualpa arranges for this remaining rivals to be murdered; he himself is garroted by the Spanish.

6. Inka resistance--continued until the Spanish were able to capture and execute the final Inka emperor, Tupac Amura, in 1572.

VI. Conclusion--the “Black Legend”

A. The Black Legend—The abuse that the Spanish subjected the native populations to became widely publicized, particularly after Casas’ book was translated and published by Richard Hakluyt, condemning the Spanish for this ill-treatment, and justifying attempts to wrest this land from their control—so they could ill-treat the native population.