NATIONAL CURRICULUM STANDARDS.
This activity was designed to address the following educational
national content standards:
Curriculum Standards for Social Studies Prepared by: National Council for Social Studies at http://www.ncss.org/standards/teachers/standard.hmtl Culture: High School - Interpret patterns of behavior
reflecting values and attitudes that contribute or pose obstacles to cross cultural
understanding.
Student Objectives:
Students will expand their knowledge of the historical process by using
primary sources in the classroom.
Students will analyze first hand accounts in order to contrast and explain
the Spanish view of the Aztecs and the Aztec view of the Spanish at the time
of contact.
Students will discuss the various implications of these views in the relationship
between Native Americans and Aztecs and the formation of Mestizo culture.
Student/Teacher Background Information
In 1492 Christopher Columbus reached the New World. In one giant leap the two hemispheres, which had been separated by vast oceans for millions of years (with the exception of an intermittent Bering land bridge), were again united. Columbus, and those millions of Europeans that followed, brought with them, not only their culture, their traditions, their knowledge, and their technology, but also their animals, their plants, and even their diseases.
After Columbus landed, Spanish conquistadors fanned out over the American continents.
And when they encountered the native peoples of the Americas, it changed both
their worlds forever.
In Mexico, when Hernando Cortés arrived with his small army of conquistadors,
the great Aztec Empire was at the height of its power. But the Spanish, for
a myriad of reasons, were able to conquer the Aztecs relatively easily. There
are many contemporary letters, documents, and books that tell the story fated
story of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Of course, the Spanish sources far
outweigh in number the Native American sources – the Aztecs had no written language.
However, there are some interesting accounts of how the Aztecs viewed the Spanish
at the time of contact. And by examining first hand accounts of these early
impressions, both Aztec and Spanish, we can learn a great deal about the Spanish
conquest of Mexico as well as the various implications these views had in the
relationship between Native Americans and Aztecs and the formation of Mestizo
culture.
Materials:
Primary Sources:
Teachers can use a number of primary source documents and books that describe the Spanish and Aztec views of one another. We recommend:
Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, first Published in 1632 (translation published in 1956). You can also find this source in Ordinary Americans: U.S. History Through the Eyes of Everyday People, Edited by Linda R. Monk (Close up Foundation: 1994). Bernal Días was a footsoldier in Hernando Cortés’ Army. First hand account of the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs from 1519 to 1521.
The letters of Hernando Cortés on his impressions of the Aztecs.
Miguel Leon-Portillo’s, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico(1962). A stirring account of the Aztec experience of the Spanish invasion and conquest
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún’s, Florentine Codex: General History of New Spain. (Translation published in 1975). Describes Montezuma and the Aztecs’ first impressions of the Europeans, the Spanish goals in conquering New Spain, and the small pox epidemic that swept through the Aztec Empire ending any possibility of Aztec resistance.
Secondary Sources:
Books that detail the colonization of the New World and the cultural exchange that followed, include:
Alfred W. Crosby, Jr., THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492.
Ramón Eduardo Ruiz, TRIUMPHS AND TRAGEDY: A History of the Mexican People.
Elizabeth Carmichael and Chloe Sayer, THE SKELETON AT THE FEAST: The Day of the Dead in Mexico.
Web site resources:
The Newberry Library in Chicago has an expansive collection of Bernardino de Sahagún’s works and other great primary and secondary sources. You can visit them on line at http://www.newberry.org/
The University of Southern California has a Web site devoted to Days of the Dead and Mexican culture (including pre-Columbian). You can visit them on line at: http://www.usc.isd.locations/
Primary sources are a valuable tool in the classroom. They are the building blocks of history. And students generally find them quite interesting as a supplement to textbook writing. However, primary sources are only a piece of a larger picture. Thus, it is important to place primary documents within a larger context. Then students can begin developing generalizations by organizing individual facts and events into more general and universal themes.
In working with primary sources it is best to edit each document to one page. When editing, keep in mind your objectives for the lesson, what questions you are trying to raise, and how narrow or broad you want the focus to be.
Procedures:
A. Divide the class into small groups. Have students read two or more documents, some representing the Spanish point of view, and others representing the Aztec point of view at the time of contact. If you like you can have them supply a title for each document, or outline each document, or compile a glossary of terms or a key word list for each document.
B. Then ask the groups to compare the documents in order to contrast and explain the Aztec view of the Spanish and the Spanish view of the Aztecs at the time of their first encounters. Have students discuss these questions:
How does Bernal Díaz describe Montezuma, the Aztecs, and the city of Tenochtitlán (Mexico City)?
What do the Aztecs think of the Europeans and their ways?
What role did religious beliefs play in the perceptions of one another?
How do you think their views of one another set the tone for their future relationship and the formation of Mestizo culture? Did the Spanish view of the Aztecs make it easier for them to rationalize the conquest and subjugation of the Aztecs?
C. Student Debate Questions:
Due to a number of factors the Aztecs were easily defeated and subjugated. But was it inevitable?
Was the defeat of the Aztecs inevitable? Or may things have been different had there been greater understanding and respect between the Aztecs and Spanish.
D. As homework, using the Internet or other sources:
Ask students to think of situations similar to the Aztec conquest that are happening in the world today.
Extensions:
Examine how the Spanish, with vastly inferior numbers, were able to conquer
the Aztec Empire. What roles did disease, religion, military strategy, political
and ethnic rivalry, and succession problems play in the Spanish conquest?
Have students access the treatment of the Native population at the hands
of the Spaniards. What justification did the Spanish give for the harsh treatment
of the natives? What was the background for the requiermiento?
Discuss the ecomienda system and the evolution of labor systems in
Spanish America.
The "Columbian Exchange" worked both ways. Have students research
the impact that New World plants (tomatoes, potatoes etc.) and other natural
resources such as lumber and silver had on the Old World cultures and societies.
Can we make a comparison between the relationship the Americas’ had in the
global market during the age of discovery and the status of the third world
nations today?
A good source for extensions 1, 2, and 3 is Ramón Eduardo Ruiz, TRIUMPHS AND TRAGEDY: A History of the Mexican People.
Two good books to help with extension 4 is Alfred W. Crosby’s ECOLOGICAL IMPERIALISM: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 and Ramón Eduardo Ruiz, TRIUMPHS AND TRAGEDY: A history of the Mexican People.
The University of Southern California has a Web site devoted to Days of the Dead and Mexican culture (including pre-Columbian). You can visit them on line at: http://www.usc.isd.locations/
Educators can also consult the Annotated Bibliography of Supplementary Instructional Materials for Teaching about Mexico and learn about more than 200 print, audiovisual, and computer-based resources that address Mexican history and culture. Produced by the International Studies Education Project of San Diego (ISTEP), this publication lists materials for grades K-12. Entries include price and ordering information. For more information, write to ISTEP, Center for Latin American Studies, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-4446 and specify "Bibliography on Mexico." The publication is free, but ISTEP charges $5.00, payable to ISTEP, to cover shipping and handling.
