Terms, Phrases & Concepts to Know

Aztec/Mexica
Triple Alliance
Quetzalcoatl
Huitzilipochtli
Tlaloc
blood sacrifice
Nahuatl
pochteca
tzompantli
calmecac
telpochcalli
cuicacalli
Texcoco
Tenochtitlan
Tlateloco
marketplace
Cuexcomate
Aztlán
Cortés
Malintzin/Malinche/Marina
Motecuhzoma
Bernal Díaz del Castillo
Tlaxcalans
noche triste
Cuauhtemoc
calpolli
Books of Chilam Balam
Cristobal Colon
4^th Voyage to the New World
Maya trade canoes – Gulf of Honduras
Spanish Imperialism
disease & depopulation
smallpox, influenza, typhus, measles
reconquista
mestizaje
castas
reducción
entrada
Alonso & Melchor Pacheco
Tipu
Lamanai
visita mission
mission churches
evangelization
atrio
encomienda
repartimiento
religious syncretism
cacique
majolica sherds
Spanish olive jar serds
Bartolomé de las Casas
“New Laws” of 1542-1543
tribute
codices
Friar Diego de Landa
Relaciones de las Cosas de Yucatan
Maya codices- Paris, Madrid, Dresden & Grolier
Bernardino de Sahagún
Florentine Codex
Codex Mendoza
Codex Borbonicus
Codex Aubin
Mixtec
Codex Vienna
Codex Nuttall
Cholula
Ethnohistory
Ix Chel
Itzá of Tayasal, Peten, Guatemala
Canek
Pedro de Alvarado
K’iche’
Tecum
Q’umarkaaj/Utatlán
Kaqchiquel
Iximché
Diego Rivera
Mendicant Orders – Franciscans & Dominicans
gender roles
Rigoberta Menchú
Ladinos/Mestizos
Indigenous marginalization
land disputes & working conditions

Important Topics to Consider

The impacts of Spanish colonialism – “Columbian Consequences”
Spanish mission towns in the Maya area
Spanish administrative policies in early colonial times
The conquest of the Aztecs
The conquest of the last Maya kingdoms
Gender roles and identities at the time of Spanish contact
Rigoberta Menchú and the modern Indigenous rights movement