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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.…

Arthurian Romances: Chretien De Troyes Idea 1: Women in Romances Masculinity and femininity were set-in-stone standards of society during this time period and played a large overall role in De Troyes works. The typical “damsel in distress” archetype that we all know and love today dominated the literary world during the first baby steps of this genre. The protection and courting of these types of women drives the majority, if not the entirety, of Arthurian romances. As in “The Knight of the…

The Mighty Corn It is fascinating to understand how a tiny seed enabled our ancestors to build massive empires and sustain themselves for thousands of years. Going back to the indigenous people during the pre-Columbian era, all the way down to the conquest of Cortez, it is clear to see how corn made possible the development of societies, cultures, and beliefs. Even today, the domestication of corn plays a major role in the way our society operates, especially in the latino communities. People…

Margaret’s influence on Arthuriana appears in multiple disciplines for the direct similarity between her reign and Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur. Stephen Knight and Merry Wiesner-Hanks’ Arthurian Literature and Society depicts the key similarities. Lancelot and his party represent the Yorkists, Henry VI played Arthur, and Guinevere, locked in a tower, represents Margaret as she defended herself from outside attack and dealt with her actual imprisonment. As the fifteenth century came…

The Aztecs, as they are known, were a group of people who originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico. Although the origins of the Aztecs are uncertain, they "are believed to begun as a northern tribe of hunter-gatherers whose name came from that of their homeland, Aztlan (“White Land”)." The Aztecs were also known as the Tenochca derived from their capital city, Tenochtitlan, and the Mexica. The Aztec empire was built in 1428 under leader Itzcoatl, forming a three-way alliance with the…

Hernan Cortes was a Spanish conquistador and explorer that traveled from Spain to the New World when he was only 19. In the New World, he commanded just 600 soldiers and was able to conquer the Aztec empire who commanded tens of thousands of men. He was able to perform this astonishing feat by using strategy, ruthlessness, cunning, and an extreme amount of luck. After his conquest in the New World, Cortes became the governor of New Spain. After seven years of being the governor he was appointed…

In Song of the Hummingbird, the book describes the story of an indigenous woman named Huitzitzilin who explains her story to a Spanish monk. The Spanish monk finds her story to be fascinating because it is not what he was taught back in Spain. He sympathizes with her and begins to see the conquest through her perspective. She details the events that her people endured at the hands of Cortes and his Spanish conquerors. The text is organized by chapters as Huitzitzilin reiterates her story to…