Forging a New Spain

Histories of the conquest often end with the fall of Tenochtitlan, but the forging of New Spain required decades of continued military invasions in which central Mexicans, in particular, played leading roles. This chapter examines how the Tlaxcalteca and other Native allies petitioned the Spanish Crown for certain rights and privileges, as a form of negotiation within a system of domination and oppression, even sailing across the Atlantic to Spain multiple times to do so in person. Imperial rule and religious conversion could occasionally be challenged or proactively shaped by Mesoamericans, generating hybrid forms of religious belief, public spectacles, art, architecture, diet, and personal adornment, all inscribed on Mexico’s natural and cultural landscape. Such exchanges also crossed the Atlantic, and eventually the Pacific, to begin a truly global world history.

The Spanish-Mexica War

The decisive Spanish-Mexica war is covered in this chapter. The war lasted for close to two years but alternated between periods of uneasy diplomacy with the Great Speaker Moctezuma and other Mexica leaders and violent battles. Most important were the expulsion of the Spaniards and their allies from Tenochtitlan and their retreat to Tlaxcala, where they regrouped and were resupplied from boats landing in Veracruz, during which time a disease epidemic devastated Native communities. More Mesoamerican allies joined the Spaniards as the war progressed, including, most importantly, the second most powerful Aztec city-state of Texcoco. It was from here that Cortés launched small ships onto the lake surrounding the imperial capital and brought naval and siege battle tactics, born of millennia of bloodshed in the Old World, to the New World.

Old Foes, New Allies

After establishing a base at Veracruz, the Cortés expedition began their march inland to the heart of the Aztec Empire. This chapter focuses on the initial encounter between the expedition and the Tlaxcalteca, who would eventually become the key Mesoamerican allies to Spanish efforts at toppling the Aztecs, as well as in continued conquests throughout Mesoamerica, creating New Spain in the process. Yet first, the Tlaxcalteca and allied Otomis from Tlaxcala’s northern frontier fought fiercely with the foreigners, including weeks of fighting at Tecoac and Tzompantepec. The Tlaxcalteca had resisted incorporation into the Aztec Triple Alliance empire through a mix of military resistance and by organizing themselves into one of the most inclusive and collective states of the Precolumbian Americas, which provided incentives for fighting bravely. They eventually made the strategic decision that by joining the Spaniards they could topple the existing political order in their favor. The first offensive of the joint Spanish-Tlaxcalteca force was aimed at Cholula, on the way to entering the Mexica-Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

Mexico, Spain, and Their Deep Histories of Place

This book presents a novel perspective on the momentous encounter of five hundred years ago between Europeans and Native peoples of the Americas by framing what has traditionally been called the Spanish conquest of Mexico in deep time, on both sides of the Atlantic, and with an emphasis on material culture. The introductory chapter establishes the broad contours of this approach by defining the concept of “deep history” and the layers of human occupation that archaeologists and specialists of cognate fields study as sites, artifacts, and art. It provides an entry into this approach by discussing the towns of Medellín, Spain, and Cholula, Mexico—two places with millennia of human occupation that encapsulate much of the major chronological phases of early Iberia and Mesoamerica, as well as their entanglement when Medellín’s most famous son, the conquistador Hernando Cortés, invaded Cholula and massacred thousands of its unarmed inhabitants.

Invasion of the Mesoamerican Coast

Spain’s initial colonial encounters in the Caribbean and Mesoamerica are covered in this chapter, culminating in Cortés’ invasion along the coast of the Yucatan peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico. It examines the development of institutions and strategies for Spain’s colonization of what Columbus branded “the Indies,” and examines major disagreements among Spaniards over issues of slavery, land and labor, and continued conquests, with opinion often split along the lines of the conquistadors and clergy. Initial expeditions to Mesoamerica encountered Maya cities that were unlike those that Spaniards knew from colonizing the Caribbean. These urban centers were more similar in their large populations and architectural elaboration to what the Spaniards were familiar with from the contemporaneous Islamic world and from Mediterranean antiquity, prompting the Spaniards to draw frequent comparisons with these civilizations. After seeing the potential riches of Mesoamerica, Cortés and others in his expedition opted for invasion rather than the exploration and trading they were authorized to do. This included a major battle at the Maya city of Putunchan and the establishment of the first permanent European settlements in Mesoamerica in Veracruz, where Totonacs from the city of Cempoala became Cortés’ first Native allies. Another key figure to join the expedition was Malinche, who became an indispensable translator and concubine to Cortés.

Mexico and Spain on the Eve of Encounter

Themes from the previous two chapters are interwoven for a trans-Atlantic, comparative perspective on the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries in Mexico and Spain on the eve of encounter. The emphasis is primarily on their most consequential kingdoms: the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Crown of Castile-León. Major themes of comparison include ethnic affiliation and national mythos, patterns of urbanism and political and economic organization, military and transportation technologies, and worldview framed through religion and philosophy. Previous comparative histories of the two culture areas have emphasized technological differences, particularly with regard to naval and military capabilities. These differences certainly existed, but such accounts often ignore the role of cultural and ideological variables, such as the role of micro-patriotism within Mesoamerican polities of the region and differences in battlefield ethos and the religious framing of warfare between Aztecs and Spaniards. These were critical to how the Spanish-led invasion of Mesoamerica unfolded. Likewise, similarities in certain cultural variables between the two regions enabled the post-conquest creation of New Spain to be a negotiated process that saw the birth of hybrid and syncretic beliefs and material culture.

Iberia

A deep history of Iberia examines the waves of conquest and cultural developments on the Iberian peninsula. Agriculture was imported to Iberia from the Fertile Crescent region of Southwest Asia and included animal husbandry and the use of pack animals. Autonomous cultural developments of native Iberians were stimulated by maritime powers that sailed west along the Mediterranean: the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans, each growing in their imperial reach and providing a base for later political and economic developments. Iberians also took advantage of their geographical setting on a peninsular hinge between the Mediterranean and Atlantic worlds, which connected two major maritime spheres of interaction and saw the development of hybrid ships increasingly suited to open ocean crossing. Following the collapse of imperial Rome, Iberia fluctuated between Christian and Islamic rule, with the former emerging victorious after a centuries-long program of national unification known as the Reconquista, or “reconquest.” Crops introduced by Muslims and administrative strategies implemented by Christian kingdoms in frontier regions were direct predecessors of the plantation-like economies eventually imposed on the Americas.

Mesoamerica

A deep history of Mesoamerica traces how the transition from nomadic foragers to settled farmers of maize and other crops resulted in the first villages, unifying art styles, and later cities, states, and empires. Cultures such as the Olmecs, Mayas, Teotihuacanos, and Toltecs preceded the Aztecs, who incorporated elements of all of them, particularly the last two from the same region of central Mexico. This chapter examines millennia of Mesoamerican history known through archaeology, the history of art, and epigraphic study of the few extant Native texts from the pre-Hispanic era. It explores how Mesoamericans first cultivated maize and other crops to establish an agricultural base somewhat familiar to readers as Mexican and Central American cuisine; the development of the earliest team sports involving rubber balls; urbanization into populous cities featuring pyramidal temple complexes; the invention of hieroglyphic scripts and the concept of zero before it existed in Europe; and the political rise and collapse of successive civilizations prior to the Aztecs.