Posted on 10/09/2015 1:45:10 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Great book! Read it in High School, then Prescott’s book, then reread it again a few years ago!
Mexico, and the American Southwest was indeed a brutal place. The Spanish missionaries often chopped off half an Indian’s foot if he or she tried to run away from the mission. The slaughter of the Aztecs at Cholula, an estimated 6,000 dead, by the Spanish and Indian allies makes the modern day actions of ISIS pale in comparison. El Diablo was certainly hard at work back then as he is now.
Well, the Conquistador-Hidalgo mentalit was born in the long brutal war against Islam - The Reconquista. No area occupied by Islam escaped it’s pernicious effect - Iberia, southern Italy and Sicily, the Balkans, Russia.
I love it how, cutoff from Spanish supplies they made gunpowder from local sources.
These were Aztec allies. From the article...”Aztec-allied Texcocanos, or Acolhuas”.
One estimate had Mexico with a population of 16 million in the year 1520 when the Spanish arrived, and a population of 2 million in 1620 a mere hundred years later. Yes, I bet it is true that most of those dead never even saw a Spaniard before they died.
You do not need to be insulting-I’m not doing that.
I’ve studied history avidly since I was old enough to read-military history before the invention of firearms is particularly interesting, as are the politics and motivations behind most of the wars then.
I’ve always rather admired the Vikings who became frenchified-they certainly added to the character of Normandy. From all I’ve read, William of Normandy appeared to have had just about as good a claim on the throne left by Edward the Confessor as Harold did-and with the in-fighting, disarray, etc who can really blame him for taking advantage of that? And the French in Canada and the US early on appear to have gotten along with the Native population better than anyone else from Europe at that time-they were certainly better than the Spaniards. MrT5 was of French Canadian ancestry-most of his family still live in Quebec, and he may have colored my opinion about that.
Many of the descendants of the Spaniards are still not nice people-old world or new. They may have done good things, but they still adore corruption-look at how the narco mafia still rules Mexico, Central and parts of South America, and it goes almost unchecked
No area occupied by Islam escapes that pernicious effect today, either...
I make a great gravy using corn starch as thickener.
Such wordiness when one word would suffice. Slaves. Why the evasiveness?
Try Sour Cream to thicken a Beef Gravy.
The Basques have the highest percentage of rh negative blood in the world. Just curious, do you? The Basques are their own isolated group with a unique background.
Cannibalism appears to have been practiced just about everywhere-there is evidence of it found from as recently as the Neolithic in Europe and Britain-and much later in other places. I’m sure the motivation for that varied from p[lace to place, and wasn’t usually hunger, like the Donner party-revenge, to inspire terror, honor some deity, to consume the strength/courage of he who was the main course-whatever-it is still creepy and ghoulish...
I do not-but I also had ancestors from the area of Leon, as well as a helping of Native ancestry from the 16th-17th century. I have the light olive complexion, dark red hair and green/gray eyes that a lot of those of Basque ancestry have.
Most of us are hot tempered and warlike-one of my friends in college was a Basque from Spain-one day he just hopped on a plane and went back home to join the Separatists...
Your population estimate cited for Mexico is similar to those used to portray the US as chockfull of Indians before evil whites came and eradicated them. In fact, their primitive cultures and technologies prevented them from ever sustaining large populations close together. Some historians maintain that the plains Indians weren’t even there when whites arrived, but rather are descended from tribes on the East Coast that were pushed westward.
Indians in Canada don’t gripe because rather than move them the Europeans could usually leave them where they were; they weren’t large populations and there was plenty of land.
if the indians were smart they would have killed columbus and his crew and set their ships adrift.......
when they woke up ... it was too late
the europeans brought disease abd death...in the name of religion
Hmm hmm. Do you think you might be part neandertal? Do you speak Basque?
From all I’ve read, everyone whose ancestors were from Europe has Neanderthal DNA. Any ancestor of mine who spoke the Basque language is long gone-my ancestors came to the new world in the 16th-17th centuries. I speak Spanish as a second language-the Norteno/TexMex dialect spoken in Texas and northern Mexico.
There is plenty of room for those estimates to be off. A few cultures did exist on the Great Plains before 1700, but most did not move onto the Plains until after the arrival of horses. The Pawnee and Wichita did inhabit river valleys along the Platte and Arkansas rivers beginning around 1300 or so, but they were exceptions. The most common estimate for the number of Indians north of Mexico when Columbus arrived is 8 million. Truth is we can’t do much more than guess.
Well, they can certainly estimate how many people could live off a particular parcel of land - taking into consideration that they were migratory as well (following the seasons). I suspect the warmer climates accommodated larger populations (where gathering was much easier); while the Inuits/Eskimos would be at the other extreme.
One of the civilizations (possibly in Mexico - Olmec?) actually disappeared before any whites ever arrived; the myth of the Eden-esque paradise destroyed by whites is dying.
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