Colonizacion

The voyage that change the history of humanity
Around three hundred years ago, the biggest mix of cultures began when the Europeans arrived to America. Some time before this happened; Christopher Columbus, in an expeditionary trip to India, accidentally arrived to an unknown land for him and his crew still believing they had arrived to Asia. Once they return to Europe, the Spanish crown decidedto organize a new trip, now not to discover but to conquer those lands. This was just the beginning of great changes, not only for Europe but also for the new continent that later would receive the name of America. Christopher Columbus’ trip was the first of many other trips that followed it.
The first men that arrived to America did not know they were not in India but in an unknown continentfor all the European society. Christopher Columbus, the leader of the first trip, never knew that he had just discovered a completely new continent. All the Spanish, when they landed, were amazed by the hospitality they received from the natives of these lands, who gave them parrots, cotton yarn and more. This may be one of the reasons these men decided to write about their expedition and what theysaw in those lands. All these writings are now known as Crónicas de Indias.
The Crónicas of Indias are a compilation of writings from different men who wrote about the trip, the discovery and in some cases about the colonization. In these writings they described not only the American natives but the landscape they saw the moment they landed. Christopher Columbus is the one who described themost the people he saw, because they were also part of the landscape.
The Spanish kings decided to realize more trips to conquer the American civilizations. These next trips began with the conquest of ancient American cultures such as the Incas and the Aztecs. Civilizations, that before this happened, had been developing without any problem and without the interruption of strangers to them.
TheAztecs’ and the Incas’ culture were completely different to the European one, the way they manage their economy, how their society was organized, but specially their religion. Unlike the Spanish people, who arrived on the first trip, these natives adored several gods; most of them were part of the nature. Before the arrival of the Spanish, some prophecies of the falling of these two empires werespread over the civilizations.
The Aztecs were a Mexican ethnic group located in the Valley of Mexico. In this valley they founded Tenochtitlan, the capital of this empire. Before the Europeans arrived, they wrote a book of prophecies where they talked about the falling of their own empire.
At the beginning of the 16th century Hernan Cortes landed on the coast of Mexico, the Aztecs welcomed himas a god. Soon this “god” took their leader as a prisoner. Some years after Cortes’ arrival to Tenochtitlan, the Spanish with the help of tlaxaltecas defeated the Aztecs. The Aztecs were afraid of the arms and horses the Spanish owned, these arms where too powerful so they couldn’t fight against Cortes’ army. From this moment Mexico was part of the Spanish crown.
The Incas were the people wholived in some areas of South America. The name of their territory was Tahuantinsuyo, this means four regions; its capital was el Cuzco. They, like the Aztecs, had prophecies of the falling of their empire. The difference was that they did not have writing so these prophecies were transmitted orally. Francisco Pizarro was the man who came to the southern part of the Americas with the help of the kingCharles I. When he arrived to Peru he wanted to meet Atahualpa, the Inca or the leader of this society. As Atahualpa did not want to fight Pizarro took him as a prisoner and sentenced him to death. This was the end of the largest empire in America before the Spanish came.
Other ethnic groups were also conquered by Spain. But as they were not so big as the Aztecs or as the Incas their army could...