The purpose of this paper is to compare two articles concerning the natives in the Americas during and after the Spanish conquest. The first article is, The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492 by William M. Denevan who is a geography professor at the University of Wisconsin. His article is about the myths and ideas of the Europeans that the lands in much of America before the comings of the Spanish in the 1400s, were virgin lands, untouched by man with no man made environmental interaction. The article discusses what the New World was like for Columbus and whether it was an altered landscape. The next article is, Burying the White God: New Perspective of the Conquest of Mexico by Camilla Townsend who is a professor of History
…show more content…
the Indian population impacted much of the American landscape, From the Agricultural practices, burning of landscapes, burning of forest and grass lands. And how these areas and land reformed over the years after the decrease and migrations of surviving Native populations from areas all over the country. “Many scholars now believe that there were between 40-100 million Indians in the hemisphere (Denevan 1992). This conclusion is primarily based on evidence of rapid early declines from epidemic disease prior to the first population counts (Lovell, this volume).” (370) Denevan’s work argues that even before the time of Columbus. Millions of natives inhabited the area. The article is structured out very strong from start to finish and were organized and makes understandable the abrupt change in the areas and lands in the Americas during and after the Columbian exchange, this argument puts readers in a different mindset than of what Europe was expecting to see, those who came a few centuries later came across what they thought of as a largely untouched and untapped abundance of land and resources. This mindset was why much of Europe all wanted a piece of the pie and a claim to lands after the example Spain made in south and central Americas. The push for European expansion as discussed in our class supports this claim and promotes Denevans argument for the speed and consumption of the Americas, and why the Spanish …show more content…
“Founding in 1536 of a formal school for Indian noblemen in Tlatelolco in Mexico City and culminated during the 15150s in the work of Bernardo de Sahagun, who spent years orchestrating a grand project in which students did extensive interviews with surviving notables of the ancien regime.” (665) She makes a strong argument for the tales of the Aztecs motivations, thoughts, and mindsets during the period of the Spaniard conquest. Townsend also clearly describes the motivations of the Spanish and Spain’s overall search for power and wealth in the Americas for workers and to the land grab of the areas around the Caribbean, and Americas for plantations. Camilla argues that the level of sophistication and social, political, and intellectual circle of the empires was vast and complicated, and that many things were involved in thought process of the Aztec population trying to decide what to do about Cortes campaign to Tenochtitlan in
the Indian population impacted much of the American landscape, From the Agricultural practices, burning of landscapes, burning of forest and grass lands. And how these areas and land reformed over the years after the decrease and migrations of surviving Native populations from areas all over the country. “Many scholars now believe that there were between 40-100 million Indians in the hemisphere (Denevan 1992). This conclusion is primarily based on evidence of rapid early declines from epidemic disease prior to the first population counts (Lovell, this volume).” (370) Denevan’s work argues that even before the time of Columbus. Millions of natives inhabited the area. The article is structured out very strong from start to finish and were organized and makes understandable the abrupt change in the areas and lands in the Americas during and after the Columbian exchange, this argument puts readers in a different mindset than of what Europe was expecting to see, those who came a few centuries later came across what they thought of as a largely untouched and untapped abundance of land and resources. This mindset was why much of Europe all wanted a piece of the pie and a claim to lands after the example Spain made in south and central Americas. The push for European expansion as discussed in our class supports this claim and promotes Denevans argument for the speed and consumption of the Americas, and why the Spanish …show more content…
“Founding in 1536 of a formal school for Indian noblemen in Tlatelolco in Mexico City and culminated during the 15150s in the work of Bernardo de Sahagun, who spent years orchestrating a grand project in which students did extensive interviews with surviving notables of the ancien regime.” (665) She makes a strong argument for the tales of the Aztecs motivations, thoughts, and mindsets during the period of the Spaniard conquest. Townsend also clearly describes the motivations of the Spanish and Spain’s overall search for power and wealth in the Americas for workers and to the land grab of the areas around the Caribbean, and Americas for plantations. Camilla argues that the level of sophistication and social, political, and intellectual circle of the empires was vast and complicated, and that many things were involved in thought process of the Aztec population trying to decide what to do about Cortes campaign to Tenochtitlan in