Lesson 2: Spain’s Empire in the
Americas
 Do Now: List as many countries in Europe as you can
 Obj: Analyze Cortez Conquering of the Aztec
 Resistance to Spain’s Empire in the Americas
 “What is History” Reading
 HW: Split Page Notes Pgs. # 42-48
The American Colonies Emerge
Spain’s Empire in the Americas
Chapter 2
Section 1
Vocabulary
 Hernando Cortez
 Conquistador
 New Spain
 Mestizo
 Encomienda
 Juan Ponce de Leon
 New Mexico
 Pope
Spain claims a New Empire
 Hernando Cortez:
 After landing in Mexico
learns of wealth of Aztec
 Marches his men 200 miles
to the interior of Mexico
 Convinces other Mexican
people to join his ranks
 Upon arrival his men are in
awe of the city Tenochtitlan
Spain Claims a New Empire (cont)
 Aztec emperor Montezuma believes
Cortez is armored god
 Bargains to give Cortez a share of
the gold in Tenochtitlan
 “a disease of the heart that only gold
can cure” – Cortez
 Cortez forced the Aztec mine for more
gold
 1520 Aztec able to rebel and force
the Spanish out
 However; unable to cope with
disease like small pox and measles
 Cortez able to counter and burn
Tenochtitlan; Aztec surrender
 Build colony of New Spain and
capital Mexico City on top of ruins
Spanish Model for Conquest
 While establishing new empire in the Americas Spain used
techniques from the re-conquest of Spain from the Moor’s in
the 1400s
 Spanish penisulares would marry native women
 Creating a large mestizo population
 While living among the Natives they forced them to work in
a labor system called encomienda
 1542 the Spanish monarchy put an end to encomienda; which
led to Spaniard’s to use African slaves instead
“Tell me, by what right or justice do you hold these Indians in such a cruel and horrible
servitude?..Why do you keep them so oppressed and exhausted, without giving them
enough to eat or curing them if the sickness they incur from the excessive labor you give
them?...Are you not bound to love them as you love yourself? Don’t you understand this?
Don’t you feel this?
- Father Fray Antonio de Montesinos 1511
The Conquistadors Push North
 Hopes of finding more gold and fears of other European
nations coming to the American empire push Spain north
 Spanish explores pushed into present day Florida, Arizona,
Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Kansas (1540-1610)
 Explores looked for new reserves of gold and silver and also to
spread Roman Catholicism
Resistance to Spanish Rule
 Conflict in New Mexico
 While trying to convert
N.A. priests would destroy
sacred objects of the Native
American culture
 1670- in Santa Fe priests
and soldiers started forcing
a tribute on the Native
Americans
 Any N.A. that practiced
their native religion or
failed to pay the tribute
was beaten
Popè’s Rebellion
 Popè: Native Pueblo religious leader in the South west US
 Spanish priests punished Popè for his religious beliefs, calling
them witchcraft
 He was savagely whipped
 1680 he led a rebellion of 17,000 men against the Spanish in
New Mexico
 Followers burned churches, executed priets, and drove the
Spanish out.
Reminders
 HW: SPN Chapter 2 Section 1
 Leave it better than you found it!!!!