Pizarro Chapter Summary

Chapter 3: Pizzaro’s capture of Atahuallapa explains why the Europeans colonized the New World instead of the Native AMericans colonizing Europe because the Spanish haas swords, shields and rode horses; luxuries the Incas didn’t have. This also relates to the Native Americans and Europeans because the Europeans also had technological benefits over the Native Americans.

Human societies have also evolved from simple structures of early hunting-and-gathering communities to the more complex cosmopolitan cities of today. The hunting-and-gathering communities were fairly simple societies demanding the minimum of resources. Complexity grew with farming communities and more energy was necessary to sustain the larger populations and the demands of a stable, non-nomadic life. Early civilizations saw an increase in complexity with the introduction of specialization and trade. Which, again, required more energy to sustain even larger communities. Cultural evolution has evolved so much that cities today are only possible because of humans’ ability to control energy by the movement of food across large distances to easily accessible locations (McNeill 2003, 320-321).

Before Europeans landed in the Americas, Native Americans lived within various complex societies across modern day North and South America. Two of the greatest empires that existed at the time were the Aztecs located in modern central Mexico or at the time it was called Mesoamerica and the Incas located in modern Peru, these societies were unique because they were ruled by kings, nobles and warriors whereas most North American Natives were ruled by chiefdoms. North American Native’s religion consisted of animist quality- a belief that the natural world had spiritual powers. They applied this belief to everyday life- praying to be exempt from disease, good crops, and plenty of food. Some societies amongst many North American Natives were matriarchal for example in the Iroquois society power and possessions were passed down through the female line of authority. Most women were gatherers and watched over the towns and men hunted for food for their families, maize agriculture was popular amongst the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes Natives. The Native Americans traded extensively before the Europeans arrived, for example there were annual trade fairs between the Navajos, Apaches and the Pueblos. In 1521, Hernan Cortes arrived in Mesoamerica and quickly overcame the Aztecs, not only by force but also disease. Europeans unknowingly brought many diseases, such as smallpox, influenza and measles, that the Native Americans were never exposed to and it was one of the biggest killers of the Natives. At first, Europeans forced Native Americans to be slaves and work on their plantations but soon they were replaced with the African slave.

     Francisco Pizarro was a conquistador born in Trujillo, Spain in about 1471. His father, Gonzalo Pizarro, was an infantry captain and he taught Francisco how to fight at an early age. Francisco Pizarro never learned to read and write but he was full of adventure.

In the midst of the Renaissance, world trade was prosperous and vast. Nations established personal control through the commercial contacts that they established. In an effort to shorten certain trading routes and obtain a more surmountable amount of natural resources, many nations entered the Age of Exploration circa 1500. Christopher Columbus, in an effort to discover a more efficient route from Western Europe to India, accidently unearthed the Americas in 1492. His discovery led many other European nations to pursue imperialistic endeavors in what had become known as the New World. Two Spanish conquistadors, Cortez and Pizarro, made a profound impact on the areas they conquered in the New World. In Mexico, the native Aztecs were overpowered by Cortez’ forces. A majority fell ill from susceptibility to European diseases, while the rest were placed into coercive labor systems. Similar fates were bestowed upon the Incas subjected to

In a period of complete change beknownst to us as the Neolithic Revolution, some groups of nomads deserted their “normal” way of life and began to settle down in villages and use agrarian methods to make a living for themselves. Two examples would be the Chumash of Southern California and the San of South Africa. Although the Chumash and the San both led a gathering and hunting way of life, they are ultimately two completely different civilizations, embodying unique political organizations, social structures and hierarchies, distinct economic foundations and individual sets of differing values.

The Spaniard’s success was partially thanks, as referred to by Columbus, to the natives being frightened creatures without weapons. The natives, like the Aztec, believed in the

One of things that was brought to Mexico during the Colombian Exchange, although unintentonally, was disease. The Spanish brought diseases such as smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, and mumps. These were diseases that the natives had not been exposed to, so they had no immunity to them. Even though the Spanish did have much more advanced weaponry than the natives, it was the diseases that wiped out most of the native population. It is believed that within a century of the arrival of the Spanish, the population of the Aztecs decreased by 80-95%, going from 12.5M to roughly about 1.5M in population (History of Disease). The Spanish shared the same fate, but not as severe, many died from syphillis. A disease that was much more dangerous during that time than it is today. (Columbian Exchange)

The Europeans enjoyed many cultural advantages such as; steel swords, firearms, explosives and armor. “These advanced military tools terrified the Indians.” A Spanish priest stated that gunpowder ”frightens the most valiant and courageous Indian and renders him slave to the white man's command.” The Europeans also brought the horses, pigs, and cattle

The problem of epidemics like smallpox, measles, and other European, Asian, and African diseases negatively affected the abilities of Native Americans to resist the invasions by Europeans. These sicknesses made native peoples too weak to resist. This pattern was no different in North, South, and Central America. As Europeans entered the lands, so did the diseases and they spread, causing the natives to become weak enough for the Europeans to easily invade.

The Spanish conquistadors were not your typical farmers or craftsmen – they were soldiers, travelers, and mercenaries in search of wealth. In their quests for fortune and land, they invaded and enslaved native communities and looted gold, silver, and other treasures that were up for grabs. The two prosperous conquests were those of the Aztec empire in Mexico by Hernan Cortes and the Inca empire in Peru by Francisco Pizarro. They both had unpretentious forces that were far outnumbered by the warriors of the empires they conquered. A vital element of their success was their progressed weaponry and durable armor. Spanish conquistadors

The greatest adversary to the natives in the Americas was not the swords or guns of the invaders. It was the devastation brought by deadly diseases infecting an unsuspecting population that had no immunity to such diseases.

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond is an outstanding book about how different societies changed developmentally through time. Diamond tells readers about how many societies developed faster than others and how wealth and power spread throughout different regions of the continents. Wealth was spread unevenly because many societies had less technological advances or developed after another society. Diamond uses a question and answer approach to answers questions about society and the changes many of the societies went through during the Neolithic revolution. Diamond provides a realistic explanation of the development of different societies and different

One of the greatest revolutions in the history of homo sapiens was the adoption of agriculture, which changed the face of communities at every level of class. Though this change was built upon new ideas and allowed us to provide more food for more people, was it in fact a positive change at the time? Today in 2017, we can all look around and see where the agricultural revolution has gotten us in the long run, but authors such as Yuval Noah Harari (2011) claim that during the infancy of the agricultural revolution, life for the average citizen was often a worse one than that of the common forager. A change in food production created many other changes, such as permanent human settlement, biologically unconventional labor, and a larger population density. This paper explores the pros and cons of the agricultural society and the hunter-gatherer society

Communities can be categorized into one of four ‘types’ of societies (hunting and gathering, pastorial, horticultural, and industrial). The different ‘types’ of societies are organized by how the economies each community has functions using three fundamental elements of economic behavior. The first behavior of an economy is production, or how a society comes to have resources. Economies usually come to be by modeling the practices a community uses to produce its food. This means that the economic behaviors exhibited by a community are based off the way that community produces food. The other two economic behaviors are how a society distributes and consumes their resources. These two behaviors reveal who (if anyone) is in charge of distribution, and who is able to consume goods (Cultural Anthropology).