Middle America
Creating New Spain
After having organized the expedition in Cuba, Hernando Cortes led the conquest of the Mexica (Aztec) empire from 1519-1521. Tenochtitlan, the capital city, was razed and rebuilt as Mexico, the capital of the viceroyalty of New Spain.
Within thirty years, it had the first printing press in the Americas, a cathedral, and a university. Indian residents far outnumbered the 8,000 or so Spaniards, and perhaps 5,000 Africans of diverse origins, living there by 1550. From the capital, the Spanish spread out to adjoining areas and eventually into today's New Mexico and Guatemala.
Silver mining assured that the economy would flourish. Spaniards used Indian laborers to establish their farms, ranches, and towns, and religious orders mounted intensive missionary campaigns. Despite a great reduction in population, native cultures and communities nonetheless survived, adapting to the new circumstances of Spanish rule.
Testimony from Huejotzingo
A hand-painted document, presented as testimony in a court case against the Spanish crown, provides a record of a people whose vibrant culture was beginning to reflect the influence of a new political and religious system. Ten years after allying with Cortes in the siege of Tenochtitlan, the people of Huejotzingo asked him for help in a legal battle - this time against the extremely burdensome tributes exacted by Spanish administrators sent to rule New Spain.
The paintings are on native amalt, a pre-European paper made of fig tree bark or maguey. They describe tributes paid, including loads of stones, bricks, foodstuffs, and bolts of woven cloth. One sheet depicts a banner made of gold and feathers, bearing an image of the Madonna and Child. According to the painting, eight male slaves and twelve female slaves were sold in order to pay for the gold.
- Sheet from the Huejotzingo Codex
By 1531, the conqueror Hernando Cortes had acquired dominion over far-reaching properties in Mexico and the title of Governor of New Spain. After a lengthy absence from the region, he was asked by the people of the town of Huejotzingo (located in what is today the State of Puebla) to initiate a lawsuit against certain members of the high court of New Spain, concerning their burdensome utilization of the people and the unjust use of the incomes and profits secured from the town during his absence. The legal case that ensued and the accompanying testimony -- eight sheets of handsome indigenous drawings on native paper of maguey and amalt -- are known today as the Huejotzingo Codex of 1531.
This poignant and visually stimulating document reveals a highly stratified Nahuatl Indian social structure, with a complex and precise accounting system and an impressive diversity of crops, products, and professions. It contains one of the earliest known images of the Madonna and Child in these types of documents, a representation of a costly banner made of precious feathers and gold. The use of this highly revered form of indigenous artwork to display a Christian symbol introduced by the Iberian religious missionaries is striking testimony to the confluence of Spanish and Indian cultures and belief systems that was to occur later throughout America.
- National Symbol of Mexico
Rendering of the national symbol of Mexico (eagle, snake and cactus).
Continue the Voyage with Conquest in the Andes or abandon ship and use the
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