Midterm Documents Flashcards
Recipient: King Is the Governor of Panama Defending himself against criticism Showing what he found Says many natives were converted Asking for more resources and Friars Sent expedition to Nicaragua coast because of rumors of gold Sent Pizzaro from Panama to explore Peru Calls native temples mosques
Author: Pedrarias de Avilla (Governor of Panama)
Place: Panama
Date: 1525
Recipient: Father
Cant go back for now because Casa de Contractacion only allows married men to go back to Spain
Talks about the capture of Atahualpa
Earns money from capture
Asks father to do good by the sould of his mother with the money he sends
Has a note to the bearer of the letter describing what to do with the money if the recipient died
Author: Gaspar de Marquina (Conquistador)
Place: Cajamarca, Peru
Date: 1533
Native lord prefered to go to hell if the Spanish went to heaven
Gold is the Spanish god
Spanish savagely massacred the natives even when the natives helped them
Author: Bartolomé de las Casas (Dominican)
Place: Cuba
Date: 1511 (written 1552)
Describes Spanish as prudent, intelligent, human, religious
Says natives are natural slaves
Natives are cannibals, have no property, work for a king, flee from Spanish, no written language, no written laws
Author: Juan Giné de Sepulveda (Jurist)
Place: Valladolid, Spain
Date: 1550
All men are rational beings created in the image of God
Natives, which he calls savages, still need to be guided by the Spanish
Author: Bartolomé de las Casas
Place: Valladolid, Spain
Date: 1550
Silver counted every Saturday
Much of the silver extracted from Potosí is not declared/taxed
Potosí mine does not have water
Each vein of silver is owned by a different person
Workers work night and day
Air quality is poor
Author went into the mine
Mine is very deep
Miners carry ore on their backs, on ladders
Author: José de Acosta (Priest)
Location: Potosí, Peru
Date: 1590s
Recipient: Nephew
Asks the nephew to come to Mexico because the author can set him up with a local encomendero
First wife died and he married again
New wife is literate, has three brothers that are in orders, parents were encomenderos
Cannot send money through mail because it is not reliable
Puts nephew in one of the scheduled fleets
Says if you work hard, you can make it there
Works for viceroy in a small town
Author: Barolomé Perez (local official)
Place: Interior of Mexico (Michoacan)
Location: 1577
Testimony to Inquisition in Brazil
Mestiço: Son of a Portuguese father and a native woman
Has a native name
Speaks native languages
Married to a white woman
Lived as a heathen and practiced their customs supposedly to protect himself when around natives
Is a bandeirantes that goes to the sertão to find gold and capture natives
Working for governor general of Brazil
Author: Domingos Fernandes Nobre
Place: Salvador, Bahía
Date: 1592
Speaks against mestiços, mullatos
Says they usually come from adultery
Indigenous women give up on native husbands and mix with Spanish to give their offspring a better status
Believes natives and Europeans should live separately
Thibks that mestiços and mullatos should not be exempt from paying tribute and working
Author: Juan Pereira (Jurist)
Place: Spain
Date: Early 1600s
Obrajes produce textiles
Says they generate handsome profits
Trap natives to work in the workshop
Crown sends officials to check but these are bribed and the owners of the pbraje hide the native captives
Author: Antonio Espinosa
Place: Publa, Mexico
Date: 1620s
Describes Moctezuma
Nobles had to dress poorly and not look at Moctezuma in the eyes
A lot of food variety
Had two wives
Author: Bernal Diaz
Place: Mexico
Date: 1560s
Recipient: King
Describes the market of Tenochtitlan
Had a large square where products from everywhere in the empire were sold
Each product has a dedicated street
Everything is sold by measure, not weight
Justices and police keep the order in the market
Compares to cities in Spain
No sign of metals or large animals
Author: Hernando Cortés (Conquistador)
Place: Tenochtitlan, Mexico
Date: 1520
Describes the mita in Peru
Move thousands of people from conquered provinces around
Maintains order as different groups keep check of each other
Adopted the religion of the conquered people
A lot of cultural exchange
Author: Father Bernabé Cobo
Place: Andes
Date: 1610s
First cultivated the lands of the Sun (god), then the lands of the vulnerable, then those of the soldiers, then of the curaca, and finally the Emperor’s
Work was assigned to each person by ways of a list
Curaca was the chief of the ayllu
Says the emperor decreed that his fields be cultivated last
Says people rejoiced in cultivating fields and wore ceremonial clothing to do it (is it true?)
Author: Garcilaso de la Vega (Mestiço)
Place: Peru
Date: late 1500s
Describes the natives of Brazil
Says they constantly fought with each other
Those who take captives in war are honored by the community
Wives carry supplies to war
Eat their enemies
Author: André Thevet (French)
Place: Brazil
Date: mid 16th century
