Have you ever wondered what connects Spain and the whole of Latin America? In this article, you will understand how the Spanish forever changed the lives of aboriginals in the Americas.
The colonization of Latin America is a topic that my hands simply couldn’t stray away from. What happened to the silver of the Incas? Wherever did the gold of the Aztecs disappear to? It seems as though the wealth of entire civilizations simply crumbled, but it was not so simple, was it?
The arrival of the Spanish conquistadors disintegrated most native South and Central American cultures and any documentation of them. This was primarily done through eradicating books. In an effort to crush the survival of their influence, Spanish priests burned a grand majority of the Aztec scripts (Valentine, 2012). Mayan and Mexican books faced similar unfortunate fates. This fervent action was part of a bigger picture: The European thirst for colonial possession. The first wave of the European colonialism saw the success of Spanish and Portuguese powers in light of the “Age of Discovery”. The driving force behind such interaction was a surge of European business interest and for commercial expansion purposes. Approximately 5 centuries later, the Spanish influence could not be more apparent in the region, even forging the outline of nations.
As you read this article, try to recall your best memory of a world map. The first thing I notice is the lines and shades of colors that represent all 193 countries of our planet. Most people are now completely familiarized with the existence of Latin American countries like Peru, Bolivia or even Mexico. But in reality, the foundations of these modern-day countries were built upon the hardships sustained by the aboriginals hundreds of years ago. Mexico was never truly established until it gained independence from none other than Spain. It was back in 1519 that the Spanish first set foot in Mexico. Almost immediately after their taste of success, the Spanish earnestly executed their expeditions in the rest of Latin America.
While the expedition of 1519, led by Hernán Cortés, was certainly well-known, it remains rivaled by more famous quests like Columbus’s sighting of the Bahamas in 1492. So, how were the invasions and conquests that followed Mexico any different? In 1516, Spanish navigator Juan Diaz de Solis simply claimed the land in the Eastern seaboard of South America for Spain. At first glance, this seems to mirror the exact events that took place with Columbus almost thirty years back. While the occupation attempt of de Solis wasn’t successful, it was still a start, and the Spanish, searching for whatever riches they could plunder, worked continuously to secure their prize.
Indeed, many valuable treasures were obtained or perhaps stolen. The Franciscan priest Bernardino de Sahagún described one of these instances when Cortés made his way to the capital city of the Aztec Empire. In his Florentine Codices, released in 1545, it was revealed that gold was stripped off of every valuable object in the city and made into separate gold bars to be sent back to Spain (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012). It is because of these accounts that we know what exactly made later expeditions so successful: strategy and the unique Spanish ‘encomienda’.
An unbreakable bond has formed as a result of centuries-worth of Spanish domination in “The New World”. The enforcement of Spanish authority was rigid in nature and spanned as long as 300 years in countries such as Mexico. Naturally, language, amongst other elements of culture morphed to accolade Spanish presence. In this particular case, not only was economic gain an integral component of colonization- as it usually is- but so was religion. This was similar to the British foreign policy that justified colonialism in the Victorian era, which went by the mantra “White Man’s Burden” (Kottak, 2015). More intimate aspects of culture, like the “Semana Santa” celebrations in Mexico honor the resurrection of Christ because of the Spanish push for Catholicism. These motives quickly intertwined and led to the creation of bizarre procedures in the 16th century.
Indigenous people were forced to provide the ‘encomiendero’ (the Spaniard) tribute and labor services in exchange for Christianity. Essentially, tangible and intangible forms of payment were of great economic worth to the Spanish. The Spanish colonizers returned the favor by forcibly converting and spreading a faith many people did not want to accept. Religion was a method of supposedly modernizing society, as was the case, though much later in history.
Even more difficult than the conquest itself, was the imposed way of life. Language and religion are only two of the many reminders of Spanish influence in much of Latin America. Though initially introduced in regrettable circumstances, the indigenous cultures continue to embody much of the Spanish culture to this day.
Resources:
Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. (2012). Why Nations Fail. New York: Crown Publishing Group.
Kottak, C. P. (2013). Cultural anthropology: appreciating cultural diversity. Retrieved from
Valentine , Patrick. A Social History of Books and Libraries from Cuniform to Bytes . The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2012, https://books.google.ae/books?id=ET5FAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=inca books burned&source=bl&ots=_w_vZlAqFI&sig=ACfU3U17mVB7FJUZIv6JmqL7bpIA-ac-Iw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjPy_ak_JzoAhWPN8AKHaWvBlIQ6AEwDXoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=inca books burned&f=false.
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