Three Centuries of Colonial Rule

I'll begin my recap  where max left off at on page 46 under the heading of African Slaves.

I guess  I shouldn't be surprised that Cortes and Narvaez established hereditary slavery early on when they both brought African slaves to Mexico.  Of course the residents of New Spain were ok with it since there was a decrease in native workers and the African slaves had been captured in just wars, making them legally enslaved.  I think it goes to show that the Spaniards messed up  the whole thing due to the fact that it was such a beautiful civilization before, yet now it would be in "absolute ruin" (47) if it wasn't for the slaves they are shipping in.  I also find it fascinating that the church owned and financed the purchase of slaves. The number of slaves in Mexico was much smaller than that seen in the US later on. Surprisingly, New Spain imported more African slaves than any other locale in the Americas between 1521 through 1594. Slaves had the right to get married which caused many male slaves to have children with and/or marry Indian women. When there was an increase in mixed race populations it became cheaper to pay low wages rather than import and house slaves.  The fact that the creoles opposed the emergence of an Afro-Mexican elite competing for jobs  shows the same fear many had in the united states towards their own minorities.

Russell, Chapter 3: Three Centuries of Colonial Rule

*I chose to highlight the readings starting on page 27 ("From Conquistador to Administrator") to the middle of page 46 (ending right before "African Slaves")

A mental cheer went through my head as I was reading on page 28 about how the Mayans were able to successfully oppose the Spaniards for almost 20 years. I found myself repulsed and continuously cheering against the Spanish as if the fight for "Indian" independence were still going on today.

Throughout this chapter I was saddened to read about the destruction of indigenous land, culture and people. The colonial administration seemed surprisingly weak and unorganized for something that was able to carry on as long as it did. The intricate structure of the administration including the Council of the Indies and Viceroyalty described on page 29 shows just how vulnerable the colonial administration was. Each of these branches was put in to place to enforce rules administered by the Crown, but with the King and country so far away the administrators in the colonies were not ever held accountable for their actions or lack of enforcement of the rules set in place. "The phrase 'Obedezco perl no cumplo' ('I obey but I do not comply') summarized this attitude." Control was hard to keep as illustrated throughout this chapter. The King's literal sale office of positions to the highest bidder is one example of how the quality of persons in charge was not an important factor. Money was seen as the most important factor in colonial office. This form of colonial administration lasted until 1700. Even after 1700 the battle for control, whether on a royal or common level, was in a constant state of change. The economic and social structure was poor and always on a trial and error basis. Reading the seemingly endless forms of social structure and family influence in Chapter 3, I was amazed at the many different types of governance that existed.

The Beginnings Of A Conquest

As we last left off in my previous blog post, the Aztec Empire had just experienced contact with the Spanish with Hernan Cortes at the helm. However, as was to be expected in the end, said contact was very hostile and downright savage because of the scores of natives that were being killed by diseases such as small pox and intimidation through the use of steel weapons, cavalry, guns, and war dogs. It was a conquest that both inspired awe as well as disgust and downright cruelty. From gazing upon the brilliance of Tenochtitlan to the savage massacre and overworking of hundreds of thousands of native inhabitants. 

A Clash of Cultures and Lack of Diplomatic Leadership

Being someone who has studied culture most of their life, especially Latino culture being a Spanish minor and all, I tended to focused on the cultural aspects of these readings and how the misinterpretations and lack of understanding caused the massacre of the Aztec peoples by the Spanish.

"The entry of the Spaniards into Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519 was one of the quintessential moments of world history. It represents the encounter and clash of worlds that until that moment had developed in ignorance of each other" (Schwartz, 127).

Contact: A Holocaust and Exposure to Greed

Chinampas in practice

As we last left off in class, we learned that the Aztec Empire was at the height of it's power and had hegemony over a number of city-states in Central Mexico. Russell notes on page 12 that by 1519, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan "was the largest city that had ever existed in the New World." Yet, the most compelling invention of Aztec design were the chinampas. If you recall from the lecture on Tuesday, these were artificial islands located on the lakeshores and with soil that was piled on these chinampas, Aztec agriculture was particularly productive. To transport the grain, canoes were utilized and could move 10 times the amount of grain compared to the system in Spain with mules. This was no savage culture. This was the height of a civilization because the engineering required to not only devise the chinampa system but also maintain it until the arrival of the Spanish is in a word: stunning. The Aztecs were basking in the riches of their prosperity. However, as was the case with any enterprising white man European, the rumors of a wealthy power in the center of Mexico became too great to ignore.

Civilization

A civilization to me, is a community of people living together peacefully, it could be millions of people or just hundreds of people, they're still a civilization. There could be different ways that each civilization functions, of course no two groups of people operate the same way. Each civilization could have their own religion, their own form of government, their own currency, and their own lifestyles. One civilization could have freedoms and another civilization could not. People could define civilization as being advanced or superior, but just because people live differently it doesn't make them "savages" or "uncivilized". When you look at the American Revolution for example, the British defined the Indians as savages, but what made them savages? Was it the color of their skin or the way they lived? The Indians and the British had completely different outlooks on life, but they were both civilizations. I don't think anyone is in a position where they can term a civilization "uncivilized". Everybody is different but, we are all humans.

 

 



What is a "Civilization"?

Civilization refers to when a group of people have a formal gathering place, a system of writing, and a city. The Aztecs were an ancient civilization that once controlled the heart of Mexico. The Aztec language was Nahuatl and they formally gathered at Aztec temple pyramids. The Aztecs did many things that today people would think was vary savage like. One of those savage attributes they had was human sacrifice during religious ceremonies. The question for me is would a civilization like this be looked at as a "Civilization" in todays world? 

What is a "Civilization"

According to dictionary.com, "civilization" is an advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been reached.

To me, this definition seems a bit grandiose or possibly pretentious.

The definition says, "high level of culture, science, industry, and government" but what of those societies with moderate or low levels of these characteristics? Are they to be placed in the same category as savage and uncivilized populations?

Personally, I think having a moderate or low level of culture, science, industry, and government are incredible feats and should be granted the name of civilized, especially if a society has all of these characteristics.

You may speculate that my standards for a civilization are rather low, but if we go off the definition given to us by dictionary.com, and perhaps other dictionary sources, then we have inadvertently labeled more than half of human societies in the world as savage or barbaric. Which I find a rather ostentatious display of self importance. 

A civilization should be any human society that displays any level of culture, science, industry, and government.

A Term Left To Be Debated: Civilization

Civilization and to be civilized is such a loose term that to answer it completely would result in a manuscript of rambling blather. Perhaps we should think of civilization as a society that organizes by the ideals of culture, religion, and government. For example, we consider the Gauls barbarians but before the intrusion and invasion of the late Roman Republic, they were certainly a civilized society as they were already minting coins (see image to the right).

Civilization

Civilization is the advancement of life including intellectual and materials for human society. Civilization creates a complex way of life including arts, sciences, politics, and institutions. A civilization forces its members to work together to create a better life.  A civilized society creates a more convenient life but creates new things to worry about.

Civilization

What is a "Civilization"?

A civilization is a group of people who seem to abide by some higher code in which makes them function as a whole and allow their society to progress. The code is usually a form of laws; these laws allow a person to understand the right and wrong thing to do within their community. We have seen that civilizations can work together in order to achieve a higher goal that we could in-turn consider making them "more civilized." By working as groups or communities, more ideas are being generated for progress. Uncivilized people could either be those who choose not to abide by the higher codes or may not have access to progression within their groups. I found some interesting requirements for early cultures to be considered civilized here.

What is a "civilization"?

       Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor.

        - Arnold J. Toynbee

The word "civilization" is a broad term, which is often associated with a group of people that have come together to form an operational society. It encompasses the process and continuation of forming a stable society, community (and urban sectors), government, laws, technological advancements, and culture.

Yet, the term "civilization" often comes with the connotation that one group of people is civilized and another group is not. The difference between the two, I think, is marginal. It is often decided by one group that has more cultural and technological sway in a particular region. This is what makes the term to carry such a broad definition, as it can be interpreted many different ways, depending on which group of people decides the meaning of the word.

What is a "Civilization"?

A dictionary definition of the word "civilization" describes it as

the stage of human social development and organization that is considered most advanced.

Using this definition of a civilization, I would say that a civilization  has some form of government, whether that form of government works or not is another story. Within this government there should be a person or peoples in charge of the day to day government of the civilization. They have means of feeding themselves, whether it be through advanced agricultural farming or through hunting and gathering. They have a heritage of sorts, something that they can all trace their personal history back to and identify with that connects them. And I also think that they should have some kind of distribution of work, such as certain people farming, others protecting the civilization, others still that focus on building infrastructures and things that the civilization needs.

What is a civilization?

Civilization is when people join together in an community or for a certain reason. A civilization allows people to grow as a society through advancements in different skills. Civilizations show that specific groups culture and the way that they work together for their common interest.

What is a civilization?

Simply stated a civilization is the most advanced and progressed form of society. Civilizations are built when people come together from different towns, areas, communities and form one big group. Within the giant group are small subgroups of people, places and things that when all combined make a "productive" society. Even though society may not seem productive all the time in order to have a successful civilization the people within it need to be able to work and produce together, communicate, be able to get along and live by the rules or laws created by the group. When this happens it makes a working and growing civilization possible.

Broad Definition of Civilization

A civilization is a group of people living within an area, be it country, town, or city, in which they have a more advanced organized system on how they function. A civilization is when a group of people can have an organized environment, in which there are established rules or laws, and some sort of system on how the people are educated or how they trade, as well as how their leadership is set up. The key word to civilization is having some time of order.

Welcome

Welcome to the HIST 337 course blog for Spring, 2014!