History 476 / Anth 416, Colonial Latin America
Review Sheet 6: Names and Dates
Most names and dates are fairly inconsequential in themselves.
But on the other hand, timing can be crucial, and dates help to
establish and remember what came first, what came second, what was cause
and what was reaction. Also, history is created by people, and by following
individuals in their careers (i.e. remembering their names) you begin to
see the patterns that shape history. So remember the general sequence,
and the names in boldface.
I. Caribbean Phase
1492: Columbus -- you already know.
1496: city, Santo Domingo, "founded" as main Spanish
center in Hispaniola
1497: Spanish settlers begin distributing Indian villages
(repartimientos) to themselves; this becomes the institution of
encomienda.
1500: first royal governor appointed to Santo Domingo,
displacing Columbus (who is sent home in chains)
1508: there are about 10,000 Spanish settlers in Hispaniola,
45 ships a year in transatlantic trade, but gold is giving out; conquest
of Puerto Rico, then Jamaica.
1509: conquest of Tierra Firme (Panama) begins under
Balboa (prominent citizen of Sto Domingo, there since 1500)
1511: conquest of Cuba, under Diego Velásquez
(prominent citizen of Sto Domingo, there since 1493)
1511: first Audiencia established in Santo Domingo
1511: sermon of Montesinos
1512: requerimiento
1512-13: Laws of Burgos
1513: gold runs out in Panama; Balboa reluctantly "discovers"
Pacific
1514: Bartolomé de Las Casas (former encomendero
in Hispaniola, now a Dominican) begins his long publicity campaign against
encomienda abuses
1514: Balboa displaced as governor of Panama (which for
the moment looks like the richest part of Indies) by royal appointee, Pedrarias
(see Letters and People), who imprisons and later executes Balboa.
1518: smallpox arrives in Hispaniola; indigenous population,
down to about 30,000
II. Conquest of Mexico
1519: Hernando Cortés (prominent citizen, Governor
Velázquez's secretary, in Indies since 1504) sets out to conquer
Mexico (after reports of 1517-18), over the Governor's objections.
Doña Marina (Malintzin, La Malinche): slave
- naboría - translator, mistress, and conqueror
Veracruz: first Spanish "city" in Mexico
Cempoala, Tlaxcala: first central Mexican allies
of Cortés
Cholula: massacre of Mexica allies
Tenochtitlan: great city of the Mexica empire
Moctezuma: the Mexica emperor, captured by Cortés
and forced to act as puppet ruler for several months
1520: Pedro de Alvarado ("The Sun"): left in charge
of Mexico-Tenochtitlan while Cortés goes to settle matters with
Governor's Velázquez's men, come to relieve him of control; instigates
a massacre, causing Mexica to rise in revolt.
1521: Siege of Tenochtitlan: by 900 surviving
Spanish and 1000s of Tlaxcalans etc.; simultaneous outbreak of smallpox;
Tenochtitlan destroyed. Conquest of Central Mexico complete.
The altepetl (provinces) of Central Mexico handed
out as encomiendas to Cortés and his men.
1522-4: Cortés's lieutenants fan out to conquer
the rest of Mesoamerica; for example, Alvarado (Cortés's second
in command) carries out the brutal conquest of Chiapas and highland Guatemala,
continuing down to Nicaragua. Moctezuma's successor, Cuauhtemoc,
is brought along on the march south, but executed along the way on suspicion
of rebelliousness (he becomes a popular figure of legend).
1529: First Audiencia appointed to Mexico.
1535: First Viceroy of New Spain appointed; settler
institutions are becoming fixed, conquest period is drawing to an end.
1547: Silver discovered at Zacatecas, to the north of
New Spain.
III. Conquest of Peru
1522: First exploration of coast of Peru, undertaken (as
the conquest will be) from Panama.
1524: Francisco Pizarro (prominent citizen
of Panama, Balboa's former second in command) leads an expedition towards
Peru, with backing from junior partners Diego de Almagro and the
priest Hernando de Luque. This unsuccesful trip is soon followed by a second
in which they come upon an outpost of the Inca Empire.
1520-25: The expansive Inca Empire reaches its greatest
extent with the conquest of Quito (now Ecuador) under Huayna Capac (1493-1525),
who dies, perhaps in the smallpox epidemic which decimates Andean population.
1525-33: Inca empire wracked by civil war between Huayna
Capac's younger son Atahuallpa (in north, in control of army) and
Huascar (in Cuzco, in control of imperial bureaucracy).
1530 (Dec.): Back from a fundraising trip to Spain (on
which he recruits his brothers and others from his home town), Pizarro
begins his third, successful attempt on Peru.
1532 (Nov.): Pizarro and 168 followers capture Atahuallpa
(by trickery, during a truce); collect a tremendous ransom for the Inca,
but rather than let him go, execute him for "treason" (July 1533); meanwhile,
Almagro and his men arrive, and receive none of the spoils... Pizarro and
Almagro march on Cuzco, which they (with Andean allies) soon take, and
rule through their puppet replacement for Atahuallpa, Manco Inca.
1534: Almagro sent off to conquer southern reaches of
the empire.
1535: Pizarro (finding Cuzco too far from the center
of action) founds city near coast, which will become Lima.
1536-7: Manco Inca, proving less of a puppet than imagined,
escapes and lays siege to Cuzco; ultimately fails, flees to forest kingdom
of Vilcabamba where a remnant of the empire survives to 1572.
1538-42: Having definitively conquered the Incas, Pizarro's
and Almagro's forces turn to fighting each other over the right to rule,
grant encomiendas, etc. (F. Pizarro and Almagro both killed in the process).
1542: The New Laws; first Viceroy arrives
in Peru, planning to put them into effect.
1544-9: Open rebellion by encomenderos (led by Francisco's
brother Gonzalo Pizarro) against viceroy, who is killed; royal forces eventually
overcome and execute G. Pizarro.
1545: Silver found at Potosí (by Andeans working
for Spaniards).
1551: Second viceroy appointed (don Antonio de Mendoza,
who had been viceroy in Mexico 1535-1550; first of several to make this
move); further, relatively minor rebellions by dissatisfied Spaniards follow,
to end of 1550s.
1570: Viceroy Francisco de Toledo (whose consolidating,
law-writing rule symbolizes the end of the conquest period and the beginning
of early maturity in Peru, as does:)
1572: The conquest of Vilcabamba and the capture and
execution of the last Inca, Tupac Amaru, who becomes a popular legendary
figure.