“What is it like to
be discovered?”

Tens of thousands of years before Columbus, the Americas had
been settled.


Population at time of Conquest is contested:


Called “native Americans” but predate “America”
Range 12 million - >100 million
implications of population extremes

Amount/extent of genocide

Extent of resource use

Food production systems
Very few primary texts remain

Codices

Pinturas

Writings of Bartolomé de las Casas
Codices

Recorded on long strips of bark or plant fiber


Written in text by pre-Columbian professional scribes working for various
deities
Maya codices (Named for cities where they ended up)

Dresden codex

Madrid codex

Paris codex
Michael Coe:
“Our knowledge of ancient Maya thought must represent only a tiny fraction of the
whole picture, for of the thousands of books in which the full extent of their learning
and ritual was recorded, only four have survived to modern times (as though all that
posterity knew of ourselves were to be based upon three prayer books and
Pilgrim's Progress).
 Aztec codices
Maya region

1800 B.C. – 1500 AD

Written language

Art

Architecture

Calendar

Astronomy

One of the most densely
populated and culturally
sophisticated societies of its
time

Many, many of these books in
Yucatan at time of Spanish conquest

16th Century

Virtually all destroyed upon orders of
Bishop Diego de Landa

"We found a large number of books in
these characters and, as they
contained nothing in which were not
to be seen as superstition and lies of
the devil, we burned them all, which
they regretted to an amazing degree,
and which caused them much
affliction."
Aztecs (12th Century until Spanish invasion)

Allied but ethnically different city states

Seven tribes

Controlled valley of Mexico and much of central America

Triple Alliance, dominated most of Mexico (1430 – 1521) :

Mextica of Tenochtitlan

Acolhua of Texcoco

Tepaneca of Tlacopan

Many Aztec codices

Some recorded before Spanish arrived; some during colonial times
pinturas

López de Velazco was the Spanish geographer in the Americas , assigned to
describe and map the Spanish territories in the Americas.

Worked for the Council of the Indies

Resulting products: Description and Demarcation of the West Indies and
Geographical Accounts of the Indies

Gave a questionnaire of 50 questions in Instruction and Memorandum

Given to all villages and centers

Question #10 asked for a pintura (map) of the place
Bartolomé de las Casas

A wealthy Spaniard

Went to Cuba in 1502 and 1506 as soldier with slaves;
participated in overthrow of Cuban native peoples

Changed his stance

Was ordained in New World in 1512 and preached
against the genocide in the Americas

Many writings about Columbus and his voyages and
behavior of Spanish and Indians

Eye-witness accounts of Spanish cruelty toward Indians
“The Europeans did not ‘discover’ a utopian
paradise of socially harmonious organizations”.

40,000 years

two probable migratory routes


Asia: Bering Strait

Polynesia: trade with Southern American groups
Diverse societies with diverse characteristics, languages, cultures,
specializations, degrees of organization

5000 distinct Indian groups in South America