Mexican American Studies

To what extent did the Spanish conquest of Mexico alter Indigenous culture in all aspects (language, religion, life-ways)? Would you label Indigenous people of Mesoamerica as conquered? Why or why not? La conquista, of Spain oer the autochthonic people began by the Spanishs motivation for exploration. Their motives were the expansion of power, the railway line of their religion, the spread of nationalism, the desire for gold, and the desire for glory. When Cortez arrived to mesoamerica, the original people mistook him as the god Quetzcoatl and Cortez took advantage of this. After La noche triste, the night that the amour between the spaniards and mayans took place, the Spaniards arrogateed that arena as New Spain. With this came the change of the indigenous peoples social class, culture, race and gender. Immediately, Cortez ordered the destruction of all ghostly symbols and temples and replaced them with Christian symbols. In his spread of Christianity and destructi on of indigenous religion, Cortez burn down 400,000 manuscripts and destroyed 20,000 idols. After the invasion, the catholic church became the colonial sacred institution and it substituted the Christian God for the indigenous gods.(Acuna 2007) Cortez also distributed take and indigenous people to his soldiers.

Indigenous people were turned into slaves, and the Spanish used them primarily for the mining or gold and silver. An estimated consent billion dollars worth of gold and silver were retrieved and sent to Europe. Although th pope at the time had prohibited slavery, he presuppose that natives could only be enslaved if they were cannibals; therefore the Spaniards justifie! d the enslavement of natives with the convey that they were cannibals.(Acuna 2007) To defend themselves, Spain passed laws that protected natives labor, however these laws were never enforced. (Acuna 2007) The caste trunk of the indigenous people was changed completely by the conquista. Instead of Capullis and community...If you inadequateness to get a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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