Colliding+Worlds

= Colliding Worlds (665-670) =
 * The Spanish Carribean
 * Doña Marina was originally a Mexican coast slave. She had linguistic skillz that were very valuable because when Cortés showed up, she could translate from Spanish-Mayan-Nahuatl (Local language). She also provided Cortés with intelligence. She heard talk of an attack on cortés, so she warned him, and he was able to counter it.
 * After the fall of Tenochtitlan, Doña Marina had a baby with Cortés.[[image:image004.gif width="171" height="169" caption="Doña Marina y Hernan Cortés"]]
 * Travel between eastern and western hemispheres was rare.
 * Portugese sugar plantations were founded in Brazil
 * Tainos settled throughout caribbean. Tainos were the most prominent people of the Caribbean.
 * cultivated manioc and other various crops.
 * Christopher Colombus established hispaniola which is modern-day hait/dominican repub.
 * Intention was focused on getting trading posts because they didn't want to pay the muslims to use their routes.
 * Spanish settlers attempted to mine gold, but it was too hard and they gave up.
 * It became clear that the Caribbean didn't have silks or spices that would do well on the European Market.
 * Smallpox reached the Caribbean, and devistated the people and crops several times, making the population plummet
 * English pirates were in the Caribbean to get gold and "booty"
 * Tobacco became the prime cash crop of the region.
 * ==Conquest of Mexico and Peru==
 * Interest of Spanish soon shifted from Caribbean to the Americas with the intention of finding better resources.
 * Hernan Cortés led an expedition for gold on American mainland, then made his way to Tenochtitlan(which he captured in 2 years), the Aztec capital. Upon doing so, he seized the emperor Motecuzoma II.
 * [[image:route_cortes.jpeg width="536" height="270" caption="Route of Corés"]]
 * Epidemic disease aided spanish effort because indigenous got sick, but spanish did not.
 * Another Spanish explorer was Pizarro. He took over the Inca capital Cuzco.
 * Pizarro called inca officials together, killed most of them, except Atahualpa. Atahualpa enjoyed life a little longer until he delivered gold to Pizarro, who then proceeded to strangle him and chop his head off.
 * [[image:File-Francisco-Pizarro-um1540.png caption="Pizarro"]]
 * Overall this expedition was a big search for treasure (wealth)

-BH