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Women's status during colonial period
Women's status during colonial period
The economic role of women in colonial society
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When World’s Collide Reflection Paper To begin, before viewing this film and taking this course, I possessed a very broad sense of the tragedy of the conquered indigenous natives in both the Latin America’s and the USA. I have always despised the ethnocentric depictions of history throughout movies, images, textbooks, as well as other media and musical influences. This film truly helped expand my knowledge and put what we have read so far into perspective. Before this film, one concept that was unknown to me was the fact that corn, or Teocicle, was an import and not native to either Europe or Spain. Furthermore, while I did know of Isabella’s commitment to Catholicism, I did not know of her contradictions between religion and monetary concerns, i.e. gold. …show more content…
Another phenomenon plagued the times: the absence of women. Sexual violence of indigenous women by Spanish nobility as a result of lack of women. The daughters who resulted from these unions were often abandoned at local Convents as orphans. . Then the term Mestizas became used. Once these women reached adulthood, some became nuns, however the remaining balance left and began having children of their own. However, this threatened to destroy Spanish domination. The orphans were not the only examples of interbreeding’s. Desperate to keep Spanish domination in effect and preserve their way of life, they created the Caste system. Pure blooded Spanish= top. Castista= 3 quarters Spanish. Mestizas 50% Spanish. And Africans on bottom as a result of slavery, despite freed Africans consisting of conquistadors themselves but it didn’t hold for long. Since Africans began to spread themselves among existing cultural groups. This mixing made the Caste system collapse. New World gold and financial success had much clearer results than Christian domination and a new identical Spanish
The discovery of America to the rest of the world, otherwise known as “Columbian Encounter”, was one of the majestic period in the European history. But nonetheless it was a starting to a tragic end for the Native Americans. Axtell calls attention to how the term, encounter, is largely a misfit in this situation because the
In a lively account filled that is with personal accounts and the voices of people that were in the past left out of the historical armament, Ronald Takaki proffers us a new perspective of America’s envisioned past. Mr. Takaki confronts and disputes the Anglo-centric historical point of view. This dispute and confrontation is started in the within the seventeenth-century arrival of the colonists from England as witnessed by the Powhatan Indians of Virginia and the Wamapanoag Indians from the Massachusetts area. From there, Mr. Takaki turns our attention to several different cultures and how they had been affected by North America. The English colonists had brought the African people with force to the Atlantic coasts of America. The Irish women that sought to facilitate their need to work in factory settings and maids for our towns. The Chinese who migrated with ideas of a golden mountain and the Japanese who came and labored in the cane fields of Hawaii and on the farms of California. The Jewish people that fled from shtetls of Russia and created new urban communities here. The Latinos who crossed the border had come in search of the mythic and fabulous life El Norte.
The Spanish and English cultures were scarcely similar and notably different because of the interaction with indigenous people and the timing in which the interactions occurred. The Spanish and English were very different in how they interacted with the indigenous people. The Spanish main reason for coming to North America was to spread Catholicism. In the Catholic church if two people were both Catholic then the two people would receive the sacrament of marriage. After marriage the two would create a Catholic of their own. This had created 5 new races of people. The races of humanity was then looked at as social classes. The highest social class was a full white European, then a mestizos, which was a someone who was European and an Indian, followed by Indians, African slaves, and lastly a Zambos,
At the start of Elizabeth’s reign she began by making selections for her council. In her predecessor’s, Queen Mary’s, council was all staunch Catholics because Mary wanted all o...
During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the dominant force in Western civilization. As the Dark Ages came to a close, the monarchies of Europe began to consolidate power; providing an alternative power base. With the Protestant Reformation came another blow to the influence of the Church. Spain, the forerunner in the Age of Discovery, was a fervently Catholic country. During the 16th century, the monarchy combined the forces of "cross and crown" in its imperial policy; much to the dismay and ultimate destruction of the indigenous peoples of the New World. Through an examination of Aztec polytheism and the Catholicism of the conquistadors, comes the central role of religion in the successful conquest of New Spain.
As a result, both films represent Natives Americans under the point of view of non-Native directors. Despite the fact that they made use of the fabricated stereotypes in their illustrations of the indigenous people, their portrayal was revolutionary in its own times. Each of the films add in their own way a new approach to the representation of indigenous people, their stories unfold partly unlike. These differences make one look at the indigenous not only as one dimensional beings but as multifaceted beings, as Dunbar say, “they are just like us.” This is finally a sense of fairness and respect by the non-native populations to the Native Indians.
...his cauldron of powerful themes were heavily evident in the ways in which Spanish conquistadors treated Native peoples of the Americas. In the book Wonder and Exile in the New World by Alex Nava the elements of wonder, exile, deprivation and to an extent religion are shown to be driving forces that led to many beneficial and negative transgressions. The analysis of the adventures of Cabeza de Vaca and Las Casas proves that such elements do have the power to revolutionize a person’s way of life. In all, by understanding the different themes and concepts entwined in Nava’s book it is easy to comprehend a new appreciation and identification about the fact that many components throughout history have been at play in shaping today’s modern world.
The Columbian Exchange had a dramatic and negative effect on native cultures of the Americas, because it almost completely destroyed both the population and culture of native Americans. As an example, Agustín Muñoz Sanz (2012) argued, “in less than a century, several tens of millions of indigenous inhabitants disappeared from their own map. For example, 90% of the Caribbean and Arawak population died in the next twenty years following the arrival of Christopher Columbus.” The Caribbean islands were just the first to receive the conquerors and the subsequent act of desolation. As the conquerors spread through the continent, it would almost immediately follow a similar situation of death and destruction. The combination of disease and the action
Mary Tudor of England, Born on February 18, 1516, was always a precious lady.(Gairdner) According to the article “Queen Mary”: “Mary wanted to restore the catholic faith, and reunite England with Rome.” Queen Mary I was quite successful, she managed to rearrange “the royal household, and it was thought right to give Mary an establishment of her own along with a council on the borders of Whales, for the better government of the Marches.”(Gairdner) In real life Queen Mary was in fact a very kind hearted and happy lady, who in fact loved music, dancing, and gossiping with her court and followers. She often dressed in brightly colored cloths and very expensive jewelry.(Eamon) According to Amy Pollick’s article “Dispelling Myths about Queen”, “Mary did lay a solid governmental foundation.” Mary had a good head on her shoulders. She planned to further the peace and prosperity in England. (Pollick) Some of what caused her to “rebel from her father” was him depriving her of her faith, security, and happiness as a child. (Pearsall) In the book “Kings and Queens” it is stated that Mary married King Philip of Spain, but they had no children. (Pearsall) “He lived in England for only a year before returning to spain.” After that Mary began to bring back the old religion and faith of her time. Although the persecutions may have been exaggerated (Gull). From the same so...
In “What’s Eating America”, Michael Pollan starts off his article by providing his audience with a background on the history of corn and its production. Additionally, he goes through both the sinister and positive sides in the history of corn, all while building a connection with his audience through his utilization of ‘we’ pronouns and by having direct conversations with his readers inside parentheticals. He continues to develop this connection throughout the text in order to slowly inch the reader towards his argument, which he presents in the final paragraph of the piece as a climax to the slow buildup of facts that previously followed the main argument. In addition, he surprises his readers by drawing grisly connections between corn and Zyklon B, amongst other images, creating a visual in the minds of his readers of corn as a malicious entity. He does this in order to to bolster his argument against the industrialization of food production, placing it in a gory, gruesome frame,
The downfall of the Aztec Empire was a major building block of the Spanish colonial empire in the Americas. Spain’s empire would stretch all the way into North America from the Southwest United States all the way up the Pacific Coast. The unfortunate side effect of this was the elimination of many nations of indigenous people. The three major themes shown in this conquest really give deeper look into the anatomy of this important historical event. Without context on the extent of native assistance given to Cortez in his fight with the Aztecs, a reader would be grossly uniformed. The Spanish conquest was closer to a civil war than an actual conquest. Until reading detailed personal accounts of the fighting it is difficult to judge the deadly effectiveness of the Spaniards technological superiority. Without it is difficult to imagine 500 conquistadors holding thousands of native warriors at bay. Once the greed of Cortez and greed in general of the Europeans one understands that if it wasn’t Cortez if would have just been a different man at a different time. Unfortunately fame and prosperity seem to always win over cares about fellow human beings
In schools, students are being taught wrong information. “Our gods were vanquished after the fall of Tenochtitlan as were our traditions. Our warriors and nobles were eradicated, our children starved and our women ravished by the white conquerors and their allies.” (157). In books across America, the Spaniards were said to be good people, but the way that Huitzitzilin described what happened, shows the complete opposite of how the Spaniards actually were.
Being from Mexico and learning how the Spanish conquistadors arrived and blended immediately with the Indians into a mestizo culture, it is extremely interesting how in North America European Americans and the indigenous people by no means would coexist peacefully and merge into a new culture. I have now learned about the conquering of the new world both north of the Rio Grande and south of it, and I have concluded that north of the US-Mexico border the indigenous population had no chance at all for survival or establishing an independent nation. Thousands of years without exposure and inexperience at war or epidemic diseases led to evolving disparities, which caused the downfall and conquest of the indigenous people at the hands of the European Americans. Other factors such as inferior technology, ideological and moral differences, tribal disputes, and American land policies had a profound effect on the Native Americans on their attempt to maintain or establish an independent nation.
Louise Erdrich’s short story “American horse” is a literary piece written by an author whose works emphasize the American experience for a multitude of different people from a plethora of various ethnic backgrounds. While Erdrich utilizes a full arsenal of literary elements to better convey this particular story to the reader, perhaps the two most prominent are theme and point of view. At first glance this story seems to portray the struggle of a mother who has her son ripped from her arms by government authorities; however, if the reader simply steps back to analyze the larger picture, the theme becomes clear. It is important to understand the backgrounds of both the protagonist and antagonists when analyzing theme of this short story. Albetrine, who is the short story’s protagonist, is a Native American woman who characterizes her son Buddy as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The antagonist, are westerners who work on behalf of the United States Government. Given this dynamic, the stage is set for a clash between the two forces. The struggle between these two can be viewed as a microcosm for what has occurred throughout history between Native Americans and Caucasians. With all this in mind, the reader can see that the theme of this piece is the battle of Native Americans to maintain their culture and way of life as their homeland is invaded by Caucasians. In addition to the theme, Erdrich’s usage of the third person limited point of view helps the reader understand the short story from several different perspectives while allowing the story to maintain the ambiguity and mysteriousness that was felt by many Natives Americans as they endured similar struggles. These two literary elements help set an underlying atmos...
A good percentage of the food in the supermarket is linked to a specific kind of plant. This vegetable, which has many uses, is corn. Since the beginning of the United States, corn has taken an important role in the development in the nation, meaning that without corn this nation would not be the same. When the Europeans came here, there were no real resources that they could exploit for the benefit of their survival. But then one can ask the question, how did the Native Americans survive before they were killed by the infectious viruses and diseases from the Europeans? Well, as simple as it can be, corn was one of the prime elements for their survival, it was one of their main agricultural products. The Europeans that came to the United States adopted corn as the ‘nations’ vegetable for future generations.