CHAPTER 1: Spaniards and Native Americans (Prehistory- 1521)

Mexicanos, by Manuel Gonzales

by Jake Crider

European Exploration of the New world

• Christopher Columbus

• Europeans saw the America’s as “virgin” territory

• Mestizos - people of mixed race; Native Americans and Europeans

Mesoamerica

• pre-Columbian civilizations

• most advanced - Mayan - downfall political divide

• Aztecs - great empire

• Tenochtitlan

Conquest: Spaniards v. Amerindians

• Hernan Cortes - Spanish conquistador, conquered Aztecs

• Moctezuma - Aztec King

• Quetzalcoatl - returning god, Mectezuma mistook Cortes for

• Many Amerindian tribes fought along side the Spanish in rebellion of the ruling Aztecs

Hernan Cortes