The Conquistadores’ Mexican landfall, in 1519, launched Spain’s most ambitious campaign of imperialism. It was a critical phase of the global integration that marks the Modern world. Our task is to assess what was lost as the Aztecs capitulated and their descendants began the unequal struggle to adapt to their new conditions.
To understand the course of the Spanish Conquest of Central Mexico, we must account for two conditioning factors. Foremost is the impact of Old World diseases. Second is the Aztecs’ historical context among the Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples. For that background, we must consider, in particular, how the Aztecs had asserted themselves over so many of them. That, in turn, requires assessment of how Aztec society worked and of its economic basis. Tenochtitlan, the monumental but sprawling capital, was the motor of Aztec imperialism. One of the world’s biggest cities, it amazed the Spaniards. Yet Tenochtitlan’s notoriously bloody rites expressed political stress, both abroad and at home.
Cortés, the Conqueror, quickly learned to exploit the widespread resentment that the Aztecs had sown; but few peoples found sustainable grounds for collaboration as the invaders set about turning Mexico into New Spain. Political manipulation, economic exploitation and religious conversion nearly came to naught as indigenous population collapsed. Yet fundamental dimensions of the ancient tradition have survived to this day, not just in remoter indigenous districts but amongst everyone in Mexico.
Classes will comprise illustrated lectures. They will be designed to encourage discussion together of the issues arising.
