To What Extent Did the Spanish Conquest of Mexico Alter Indigenous Culture?

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The Spanish conquest of mexico not only altered the indigenous culture it also tainted it in many ways. The expansion of power, the spread of their religion, the spread of nationalism, the desire for gold and the curiosity to explore was the beginning of La Conquista, The Conquest. The arrival of Cortez to mesoamerica made the indigenous people think of him as the god Quetzcoatl, Cortez took advantage of this and one day him and the spaniards fought against the mayans. This night was remembered as the Noche triste. As mentioned in class the Spaniards victory was able to allow them to claim the indigenous land and renamed it as New Spain. With this came the change of the indigenous people's social class, religion, culture, race and gender. Cortez ordered the destruction of of all religious symbols, while he replaced them with Christian symbols. Diego Vigil mentions that with the defeat of the Aztects, the Spaniards replaced the old elite and became the new collectors of tribute, which directly involved the land system. Rodolfo Acuna also mentions that in Cortez’s spread of Christianity and destruction of indigenous religion, he burned 400,000 manuscripts and destroyed 20,000 idols. After the invasion, the catholic church became the ”colonial religious institution”. The Catholic God then replaced all of the indigenous gods by Cortez’s choice. This caused a major effect on indigenous beliefs, they were forced to worship a God they never had before, they were forced to stop worshiping the Gods they did in fact believed on and their religious views were dramatically changed. Although the pope at the time had prohibited slavery, he stated that natives could only be enslaved if they were cannibals, therefore the Spaniards justified the enslavement of natives with the claim that they were cannibals. Cortez also distributed land and indigenous people to his soldiers.

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