LESSON 6.8 Review 6.8.1
Key knowledge summary Use this dot point summary to review the content covered in this topic. 6.2 How do we know about the Spanish conquest of the Americas? • Most contemporary records of the conquest were written by the Spanish. • The sources were often subjective and focused on only one side of the story. • Few first-hand accounts of pre-Spanish Aztec life remain. 6.3 Who were the Aztecs? • Enough Aztec sources remain for us to learn that their culture was sophisticated and organised. • The Aztec Empire often warred with its neighbours. • Aztec religion was polytheistic, meaning they worshipped many gods. • Similar agricultural techniques to those used by the Aztecs are still used in Mexico today. 6.4 How did the arrival of the conquistadors change the Americas? • Spain and Portugal were rivals in sea power during the 1400s and 1500s. • Columbus was looking for a new way to Asia when he found the Americas. • He wasn’t the first to discover the Americas, but he spread the news of the ‘New World’ in Europe. • In the 1400s and 1500s, European empires grew quickly around the world. • Encounters between Europeans and indigenous people often ended in conflict. • After the fall of the Aztec Empire, other expeditions ended the Incan and Mayan civilisations. 6.5 What were the effects of conquest and colonisation? • The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494, let Spain and Portugal decide where each could explore. • The rise of British, French and Dutch empires caused conflict with Spain and Portugal over control. • The Aztecs practised slavery, but it was different from what the Europeans introduced. • In New Spain, slavery of native people was allowed if they didn’t convert to Catholicism. • As diseases killed many native people, new slaves were brought from Africa through the ‘triangular trade’. • The Spanish conquest of the Americas changed both continents and their people forever. • Spain became rich from its American colonies. • Disease caused a 90 per cent drop in Mexico’s native population. 6.7 Inquiry: Spanish conquest exhibition • Museum exhibitions are one of many ways to share information. • Discuss and acknowledge different perspectives before choosing final display sources. 6.8.2 Key terms codex a pictorial book coexist live together at the same time in the same place conquistador one of the Spanish conquerors of Mexico in the sixteenth century hereditary passed from parent to child missionary a person sent on a religious mission, especially one to promote Christianity in a foreign country monopoly an organisation or group that has complete control of something NewWorld a term for the Americas during the early modern period subjective based on personal feelings rather than on facts • In the 1800s, calls for independence ended Spanish rule in New Spain. 6.6 What were the long-term legacies of conquest and colonisation?
TOPIC6 The Spanish and the Americas 147
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