Julio Cortázar

Did you know that the word Aztec was given to them by Europeans ? They actually called themselves Mexica which is where the name Mexico comes from . Westerners that visited the lands called them Aztec due to the original place named Aztlan that they had visited many centuries ago.The Aztec empire was one of the most powerful civilizations in Mesoamerica at the time. The pyramid of Tenochtitlan means “the city of where the gods were created” .The city was constructed on top of a lake which it no…

1. Carlos Fuentes described the civilization discovered by the European in a way that seems, that the native’s people progression has halted and they needed help from others who are more advance (European). Fuentes mentioned the Eurocentric view of why the native people were not advancing. He said “they [Indians] were blessed by nature, but dwarfed by it,” most scholars believe that the Indians were “lazy,” thus making their civilization backwards compared to the rest of the world. However, that…

Artifact 1: Feather Shield Picture/Source Aztec civilization feather shield (Mexico, Aztec civilization. feather shield with linear meander design incorporating eye motifs. From Mexican Altiplano) Description/Source These Shields were used by Aztecs in battle. The Aztecs were a warrior civilization, and this shield represents that. The Aztecs built their empire on tribute from conquered places. (Mexico, Aztec civilization. feather shield with linear meander design incorporating eye motifs. From…

The Spanish exploration of America brought many new foods, types of plants, and forms of wealth to the European world. The wealth brought to Spain from the Americas came at a cost that was paid for by the enslavement and the sufferings of Native Americans and eventually the Africans. The Spanish colonization from 1492 to 1700 was motivated by religious conversion of all peoples in America and the desire for wealth and profit that had a significant impact on the lives of Native Americans and…

While the idea that the arrival of Europeans to “The New World” brought upon the indigenous cultures of America no small amount of strife and misery, as well as fame and fortune upon the Spanish is widely accepted as fact, there is limitless dissention among historians about the true history of the conquest of “New Spain”. One event that exemplifies this dissention is that of the Siege of Tenochtitlan. In the following analysis I will describe and discuss two conflicting accounts that document…

Upon arriving in Hispaniola he preceded to colonize the island immediately. Therefore, Cortés equally sought the value of Velasquez spirit and mimicked the desire of leadership. The fallout of Cortés and Velasquez can be told with many versions. Cortés’s refusal of marriage to a sister of the wife of Diego Velasquez landed him exiled from the land he had helped establish. Hernando was incarcerated and placed on a ship back to Spain under the order of Governor Velasquez. Following multiple…

The interaction between the explorers from Western Europe and the indigenous people of North and South America was shaped by the different cultures and beliefs that each come from. Over the course of several hundreds of years, many different explorers from Western Europe made the voyage to the Americas. Whether they were exploring the different bodies of land in the search of riches, or conquering the indigenous people that resided there, the attitudes of the men that traveled there were shaped…

Spaniards Rise to Power, after establishment of New Spain In 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, led an exploration that would lead to the rise of Spain’s power. The parts that are now known as South, Central, and North America were invaded and then colonized by Christopher Columbus and Juan Ponce de Leon. After Spain conquered parts of the Americas, it increased their knowledge of new land, also called ‘New World’. Using that knowledge, the Spanish took advantage of the high…

The history of the early Atlantic world is one of interactions between very different societies: Western Europeans, Africans, and Indigenous Americans. Prior to the dawn of exploration, each of these societies functioned in a largely independent state of the others, and thus developed strikingly different forms of culture, language, religion, and customs. Due to these broad differences, exploration and colonization often led to conflict, and sometimes the complete annihilation of a societal…

The beginning of 1519--the year known as Ce Acatl to the Aztec-- marked the introduction of a short but decisive episode in the history of Mexico. On the day of April 21, a fleet of almost a dozen Spanish galleons dropped anchor just off the coast of the island, San Juan de Ulúa. Under the command of the then ‘heroic’, Hernán Cortés, the vessels bore over five-hundred Spanish soldiers and sailors, as well as approximately sixteen horses, the first of the species to tread the American continent.…