Cuba and Puerto Rico were nice islands, but the Spanish had greater things in mind. They wanted a vast hoard of treasure, especially gold. They found it in Mexico.
In 1519, Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) sailed to Mexico, where he came upon a civilization grander than any yet seen in the New World. The Aztecs, or Mexicas, had dominated Mexico since the fourteenth century.
By the time of Cortes, they ruled over a society of millions. The capital city, Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), was built on an island. Causeways linked it to the mainland, and canals and aqueducts watered it. Impressive pyramids honored the Aztec gods.
Aztec astronomers studied the stars. Artists made sculptures and recorded history in pictographs, or picture writing. Large numbers of commoners served a small ruling class. Captives, especially prisoners of war, were sacrificed regularly to the gods.
By 1521, Cortes had conquered the Aztec civilization. He did it by superior arms and by playing rival groups of Native Americans against each other, especially against their emperor, Montezuma (or Montezuma) II (c. 1466-1520).
The Aztec calendar stone is a complicated representation of all of time, from the world’s beginning to its end. In the center is the Sun God, surrounded by jaguars, wind, fire, and flood, which the Aztecs believed had ended the four earlier stages of the world. A band of twenty rectangles surrounds these symbols, and represents the twenty days of the thirteen Aztec months.
Numerous other symbols represent north, east, west, and south; precious stones; and other elements of the world and time.
Related Posts
-
Why was Mexico valuable to Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Americas?
Gold and silver abounded in Mexico. The country also had rich farmlands that were soon put to use growing tobacco, coffee, and sugarcane. These crops could be sold in Europe for a handsome…
-
Who were the Spanish settlers who came to the Far North of Mexico during the colonization of the Americas?
Although they came from New Spain, most were not of pure Spanish descent. Many were Native Americans of the Nahua group; others were mestizos. Most were poor people enticed to relocate in the…
-
When did Puerto Ricans start migrating to the U.S. mainland in large numbers?
Puerto Ricans have been coming to the mainland throughout the twentieth century. But the "Great Migration" of Puerto Ricans to the mainland began in the mid-1940s, at the end of World War II,…
-
Where in the Americas did the Spanish first settle and What does Hispaniola mean in Spanish?
On his first voyage in 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered both Cuba and Hispaniola, two of the four large West Indian islands known as the Greater Antilles. The other two are Jamaica and Puerto…
-
Why didn’t Brazil become a Spanish colony during the Spanish colonization of the Americas?
In January 1500, Spanish explorer Vicente Yafiez Pinz6n (c. 1460–c. 1523) became the first known European to reach Brazil. By doing so, he beat Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral (c. 1468-1520), who did…
-
Why was Florida important to the Spanish during the Spanish colonization of the Americas?
Florida had no gold or silver, and the Spanish did not find its soil good for farming. But it had strategic importance: Spanish ships carried treasure home to Spain through the Straits of…
