Cultures in Contact
ANT 326L (30410) Spring, 2008
Samuel M. Wilson
The “Age of Discovery”
Encountering the rest of the world
Columbus's edge...
dubious 1418 map
Voyages of Zheng He
Zheng He’s ships
Early conquest of the Americas
Images of the Americas
The European view of the Indians
How did they interpret the people of the Americas?
European interpretations
The loose ends of Old World myth and history
from the Lost Tribes of Israel web pages
Caribbean conquest
Plazas at Caguana, P.R.
San Pedro de Macoris,
Santo Domingo
Ciguayo language
Caribbean Conquest
Navidad: an inauspicious beginning
Hispaniola
Early conquest
Institutions of Conquest
Early Entradas
Cortés
Pizarro
De Soto
Coronado
Lesser Antilles
Why did the "Island Caribs" survive so much better than the Taínos did?
survived epidemics
"recruitment"
tactical advantages on sea
Caribbean
Brazil
The conquest of Mexico
Cortés & Co., 1519
Cortés and the conquest of Mexico
March to Tenochtitlan
Tenochtitlan
Daily markets for 60,000 people
Extents of Aztec rule
Mexico population decline
Smallpox
Why did New World empires collapse?
Disease
Disruption
Dissent; shifts in balance of power
Epidemics
Epidemic diseases
Smallpox
influenza
measles
yellow fever
malaria, etc.