5 CHARACTERISTICS OF MESOAMERICAN CULTURES IN PROCESSES OF CONQUEST - HISTORY - 2025

Some of the characteristics of Mesoamerican cultures that influenced the processes of conquest of ancient America were internal struggles, artisan weapons, religion, political organization and cultural manifestations.

Mesoamerican cultures were a set of large pre-Hispanic indigenous tribes that were distributed throughout Mesoamerica, a socio-cultural territory that included part of Central America and Mexico.

The conquest of the Mexica

The Mesoamerican Indians were made up of a diversity of cultures, such as the Mayans, Mexica, Mixtecs, Olmecs, Toltecs and Zapotecs, among others. Each tribe had its own territorial distribution, religious and ideological beliefs, knowledge, social and government system.

Characteristics of Mesoamerican cultures that influenced the conquest processes

Mesoamerican peoples shared several common traits, since they were sedentary indigenous civilizations with agricultural economies, which enjoyed a wide cultural wealth, full of cosmogonic thoughts and mythological rituals.

But, with the arrival of the Spaniards, the conquest process began, with great battles to impose their culture and beliefs, which would lead Mesoamerican civilizations to decline and collapse.

Some of the characteristics that influenced or facilitated the conquest process were:

Infighting

The confluence and interrelation of the various Mesoamerican cultures favored trade, through a coexistence that, at times, was peaceful, but which later became violent, leading to wars and power struggles.

These struggles, between the Mesoamericans themselves, facilitated the intervention of the Spanish army, which gradually established order and control over them.

Handcrafted weaponry

The Mesoamericans were great warriors who handled the use of artisanal weapons such as clubs, slings, spears and arrows, with an impeccable precision capacity.

However, the Spanish conquerors had in favor the military strategy, the attacks on horseback, soldiers with swords and firearms such as cannons, muskets, shotguns and rifles, whose sonorous destructive power caused a psychological and intimidating impact on the Mesoamerican Indians.

Religious beliefs

Mesoamerican religious ideologies were polytheistic in nature, each with its own gods, deities, myths, and rituals.

In short, they believed that higher entities had created the world and continued to govern it through basic principles and obligations that human beings had to fulfill in order to maintain the stability of the universe.

Demands that ranged from construction of ceremonial centers, worship rites, various blood offerings and even human sacrifices with their respective cannibalism.

Practices that were considered wild, incomprehensible, terrifying, perverse and diabolical for the Spaniards, who saw in them the justification of their struggles to impose the indoctrination of the Catholic faith.

Political organization

Political organizations sported a magical halo with various versions of tribal government, multi-ethnic state, chiefdom, city-state, and confederate kingdoms.

It was believed that the higher authorities had some kind of relationship with the gods, which allowed them to dominate and organize social plurality, through myths and manipulations of historical memory.

For the Spanish conquerors, the theocratic aura of the Mesoamerican governments contradicted the Catholic moral code and endangered the security of the communities.

In accordance with this, it became necessary to modify the social structures that, in his view, fostered intolerable behaviors and abominable acts of a demonic nature.

Cultural manifestations

The Mesoamerican Indians presented different levels of cultural development, with their respective traditions, customs and languages, which were recorded in pictorial, sculptural and codices representations.

They had a multitude of symbols and emblems, by way of writing, which gave details of their knowledge about the use of calendars, their religious and worldview systems, their version of the laws, agriculture, astronomy and history, among other important topics.

Daily life was greatly influenced by their gods, so Catholic evangelization and submission to Spanish rule, inevitably, were modifying the cultural and artistic manifestations of the region.

References

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3. Enrique Florescano. (nineteen ninety five). THE POLITICAL LEGACY OF THE MESOAMERICAN PEOPLES. Ethnicity, State and Nation. Test. Nexos Magazine. Retrieved on December 12, 2017 from: nexos.com.mx
4. Justo Fernández López. (2015). MAP OF MESOAMERICAN CULTURES. Mesoamerica (cultural area). Geography and maps of the American continent. Hispanoteca: Hispanic Language and Culture. Retrieved December 12, 2017 from: hispanoteca.eu
5. Marialba Pastor. (2003). THE CHRISTIAN VISION OF HUMAN SACRIFICE. Ancient Mexico. Mexican Archeology Magazine. No. 63. Human sacrifice. Retrieved December 12, 2017 from: arqueologiamexicana.mx
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