Mexico contemporaneo

1. Define and explain what you would consider the 5 most important historic milestones in Mexico’s past. Span the period time from the pre-Hispanic era up until the 20th century. Justify each choice.
a. Explore what controversies or contradictions exist in each era.
b. Define how this particular period might have an impact in contemporary social and/or cultural patterns.
The Conquest ofMexico
After the New World was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, three expeditions were organized under the orders of Velazquez (governor of Cuba) with different conquistadors (conquerors) in charge. Those expeditions took place in 1517, 1518 and 1519. Hernan Cortes was appointed conquistador in this last journey to Mexican territory. After Cortes arrived to Mexico, he rejected tocontinue obeying Velazquez’ orders and started to deep into this new “virgin” land. Somehow, the Spaniards ran into Aguilar and used him as a translator, together with La Malinche: Aguilar was a Spanish expeditionary that was left over in one of the previous expeditions, who learned the Mayan language; la Malinche was a native woman that dominated both Mayan and Aztec languages and joined Cortes’ group.While Cortes and his men were approaching Tenochtitlan (the heart of the Aztec culture), they started to notice the envy and anger of many natives toward the Aztec empire and also the wealthy of that place: Tlatoani (emperor) Moctezuma sent them presents and urged them to stop their journey and ask them to stay away from Tenochtitlan. By visiting many tribes and battling some of them, Cortesstarted a recruiting campaign to take the Aztec empire down. After the battles of Tlaxcala and Cholula, Cortes’ army had a considerable size. Narvaes is sent to Mexico under the orders of Velazquez with the mission of killing Cortes; never the less, Cortes convinces most Spaniards to join him and to stop obeying Velazquez. Finally, after a long battle, many deaths, Moctezuma being killed, and smallpoxspreading, among other factors, Cortes conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521.
Most people accuse the old natives of traitors, but let’s see their situation. All those tribes under the Aztec empire were forced to pay tributes to Tenochtitlan and to offer their people in religious sacrifices that were help in the main city. So, instead of considering them as traitors we should consider them asintelligent tribes who saw the opportunity to escape Aztec’s rule. “Malinchismo” is a common term that we hear every day; this term was appointed after la Malinche and is used to define the custom of preferring foreigner people and stuff. In my own opinion, I think la Malinche was very clever because she allied with the powerful ones and knew that she would be somehow rewarded by helping the Spaniards.Also, the Spanish conquistadors were not adventurers like the English conquerors that founded the United States, instead those expeditionary men were people who had nothing to lose back in Spain and who wanted to become rich by getting as much gold as they can from the New World’s natives. So, the ideals and manners between those two European conquistadors were totally different and so were thecultures they started to build.
Spain not only conquered Mexico’s territory, but also started to change customs and traditions. The Spanish conquistadors introduced Catholic religion, flora and fauna, and political and economic systems that were totally different from the native ones. Up to today we can see that Catholicism still rules everyday’s life, that our traditional gastronomy was changedwith food like pork and chicken, and that our economical transactions are no longer done with “trueque”. Also, they imposed their language and let the native dialects disappear.
Mexico’s Independence War
In the Colonial era, the Spanish elites ruled our country and established their rules according to what the mainland stated. Included in those statements, a social stratification was established...