"Plague Era" America and the Great Conquests
We are, of course, nearing "Columbus Day," which has become a justly
controversial event. I will be addressing both the devastating consequences
for the indigenous peoples of the Americas of Columbus's establishment of
permanent links between the globe's eastern and western hemispheres and the
ways in which subjects and officials of the Castilian and Portuguese monarchs
established territorial control in the Americas.
Reading: Bakewell, review ch. 2, and read ch. 6 and pp. 296-306; Russell-
Wood, ch. V.
- What political and military factors contributed to the collapse of the
Aztec and Inca empires in the face of Castilian intervention?
- Why did the introduction of new disease microorganisms in the Americas
after 1492 have such devastating demographic and social effects on American
Indian populations?
- What impact did the Castilian conquests in the Americas have on the roles
and conception of women in the social and cultural environments of the various
American regions?
- Why were Europeans able to found large land empires and settler colonies
in the Americas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but asserted these
forms of control almost nowhere in Africa or Asia?
- If trade were indeed stigmatized by the governing elite of Castile and
Portugal, as is often alleged in textbooks, why did so many wealthy Iberians,
including aristocrats, quickly take advantage of the available investment
opportunities?
- Why did some Castilians and Portuguese who went to the Americas protest
the exploitation of the conquered indigenous peoples?
- Why was Fernando (Hernando, Hernán) Cortés able to recruit
the services of so many Indian soldiers as he advanced on the Valley of
Mexico?
- Why didn't these Indian allies perceive the Castilian warriors as a
general threat to their indigenous social and cultural environments?
- Why were Castilians always quick to set up, through proper legal
documents, a municipality when they moved into a region like Hispaniola,
Mexico, or Peru?
- Why were a small number of Castilians able to conquer and administer so
much of the Americas?
- Why did Cortés feel it necessary rapidly to impose Christianity on
the Indians?
- What factors limited the effectiveness of harquebuses in Castilian
conflicts with Indians?
- What impact did smallpox have on the Aztecs' ability to defend
Tenochtitlán?
- What impact did smallpox have on the Incas' ability to resist Castilian
invasion?
- Why didn't Atahualpa recognize the magnitude of the threat the Castilians
represented to Inca domination of the central Andes region?
- Why did Manco Inca lead a revolt against his Castilian allies? Why was
his independent polity of Vilcabamba able to survive until 1572?
- Why were Castilian leaders in Peru unable to maintain a disciplined and
unified front in the face of organized Indian resistance?
- Why did Charles V empower a viceroy to take administrative control of
Peru?
- Why did the Castilian elite in Peru feel that revolt rather than
cooperation with the royal government was a means to maintain their authority?
- Why did the judges of the royal audiencia in Lima oppose the
viceroy's government, even though the viceroy represented the same monarchy
who had appointed them?
- Why wasn't Gonzalo Pizarro able to exploit his position to increase his
wealth and authority as Cortés had in Mexico?
- Why were Castilian and Portuguese warriors more successful in gaining
Indian allies than were their Indian opponents?
- Why was Mayan resistance to Castilian conquest so much more successful
than that of groups like the Aztecs and Incas? Where else in the Americas was
there such determined, long-term resistance to Castilian imperialism?
- Why did Brazilian coastal peoples resist Portuguese labor demands?
- Why did cattle raising become important in areas like northern Mexico,
inland Venezuela and Brazil, and the Plata River region?
- What were the biological consequences on the connections between the
Americas and Afroeurasia?
Mail questions now. Please include your
name and e-mail address in the body of your message.
All contents copyright © 1995-99.
J. B. Owens
All rights reserved.
Revised: 28 July 1999
URL: http://www.isu.edu/~owenjack/spemp/reading.13.html