Journalistic Chronicle on the Conquest of America

The conquest of America and the end of the ancient pre-Columbian world

For almost 10,000 years different native peoples of America lived without even suspecting that it existed an entire world beyond its shores, concerned only with the tensions that arose between one and others. Entire empires rose and fell, civilizations were lost, and mighty monuments were built before the navigator Genoese Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time to land on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, on October 12, 1492.

First stage: the “discovery”

Three boats made up that first European voyage to what they called the "West Indies", believing that they had indeed gone around the world and ended up in Asia. Instead, they found a tropical paradise populated by foreign peoples whom they baptized "Indians" and with whom they quickly established an unequal relationship of exchange: the natural wonders of that mysterious place did not seem to be well guarded by the friendly Taínos, and in the greedy mentality of the first conquerors, that gave them the right to take it everything.

The news of the "New World" revolutionized Europe and especially the Spanish crown, whose monarchs had financed the expedition. They were not only attracted by the enormous wealth and "virgin" lands that Columbus's crew spoke of, but also the idea of that were populated by young and lost souls, in need of religious guidance from Spain, the cradle of the counter-reformation Catholic.

Three new voyages of Columbus took place in 1494 and 1498, already much more voluminous and better organized, in which the Caribbean coasts and the north of South America were traveled, as a prelude to future expeditions that entered the North American coasts (such as the expedition of Juan Caboto), or the so-called "Minor Voyages" of Pedro Alonso Niño, Andrés Niño, Bartolomé Ruiz, Francisco Pizarro and many others, once the crown withdrew from Columbus the exclusivity initially granted to explore the so-called New World. Hence, Columbus died in poverty and without understanding that he had discovered a new continent, and that this would change the history of the world forever.

However, that exhaustive exploration of the New World revealed to the conquerors the magnitude of the territory that was offered to them. The next step was to take it.

Second stage: the conquest

Three reasons were behind the expansion of the Spanish Empire towards the New World: the idea that those lands did not belong to anyone (res nullis), the idea of ​​adding lands and souls for Christianity, and the "rights" of conquest, which proclaimed Spain in the exploitation of those new lands, before its European rivals they will advance

And so, 30 to 50 years after the first expeditions, the first Spanish colonial settlements and the first cities had been founded, such as Santo Domingo, Cumaná, La Havana.

It soon became clear that not all the original settlers would be as meek as the Tainos, nor would they receive the conquerors with open arms. From the first voyages of Columbus there were clashes and tensions with some hostile peoples, such as the famous Caribs of Venezuela, whose ferocious rebellious and combative nature was punished by the Spanish crown through an exception in 1503 to the decree that prevented the enslavement of the natives. An exception that was sustained in the alleged cannibalism and anti-Christian spirit of the indigenous people.

However, the greatest war of conquest took place against the two great American empires Pre-Columbian: the Mexica Empire in Mesoamerica and the Inca Empire in the Andean Cordillera south american

The arrival of the Spaniards in Mesoamerican territory coincided with the expansion campaigns of the Aztec Empire, commanded at that time by the tlatoani Moctezuma Xocoyotzin. There were many peoples at odds with and oppressed by the Mexica, who saw in the arrival of European settlers the opportunity to defeat a common enemy.

Commanding the Spanish expedition to Mexica territory was Hernán Cortés, who left Cuba in 1519 for the plateau of the Anahuac. Their arrival was diplomatically rejected from the beginning by the Aztecs, who were torn between considering them conquerors and emissaries of the divinity. Allied with the Tlaxcalans, Totonacs, Texcocans and other indigenous peoples enemies of the Mexica Empire, the Spaniards undertook a seditious plan to infiltrate the capital and kidnap the emperor, forcing him to fulfill his Will.

This led the Mexica people to rebel against their own emperor and a bloody war took place, which culminated in 1520 with the fall of the Empire and the conquest of its capital, the ancient city of Tenochtitlán, named after 1534 the capital of the Spanish viceroyalty of Nueva Spain. Between the war, the new diseases brought with them by the Europeans and the destruction of the economy Aztec, the deceased numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

on the other side of the continentSome twelve years after the fall of Tenochtitlán, another empire faced the invaders: the Tahuantinsuyu o Inca Empire, located in the South American Andean region. The first encounters between Incas and Europeans had occurred around 1526, as part of the exploration of the Pacific coast, and although they were peaceful, they had also aroused European greed for the gold that the natives dispensed without giving it much. importance.

Thus, in 1532, the conquerors Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro arrived in Inca lands at the command of the so-called "Armada del Levante" in 1532, ready to conquer and plunder.

As luck would have it, the Spanish arrived at the end of a bloody civil war between the heirs to the throne of the Empire, the sons of the Inca Huayna Cápac: Huáscar and Atahualpa. The Spanish quickly became a source of tension with the natives and summoned the Inca Atahualpa to Cajamarca, with the promise of smoothing things over and making peace. But both sides distrusted the other and soon the first confrontations took place, which allowed the conquerors to capture the Inca monarch.

The looting of native gold began: it was supposed to be the ransom payment for Atahualpa, and it took place in a climate of calm and normality in the Empire. Tons of gold and silver were extracted from the Inca cities and shipped to Spain, and in 1533 Atahualpa was sentenced to die. for idolatry, heresy, regicide, fratricide, treason, polygamy and incest, and he was strangled in a square by the Spanish people. In his place, Pizarro appointed as Inca one of Atahualpa's younger brothers: Túpac Hualpa, who recognized the vassalage of the King of Spain.

However, the war could not be avoided. Despite having eliminated the Inca and having the support of the enemy indigenous nations of the Inca empire, the troops loyal to Atahualpa rose up in war against the Spanish and faced them in a long series of battles that culminated in the capture and looting of the capital of the Empire, the sacred city of Cusco. There another alderman was appointed: Manco Inca. There, in 1534, Pizarro refounded the city of Cuzco as the capital of a new Spanish viceroyalty that would be created in 1542: the Viceroyalty of Peru.

Meanwhile, Quito was founded to the north and the war continued in numerous pockets of resistance, which continued on a war footing for years. There was a resurgence of the Inca resistance in 1571, led by Tupac Amaru I, who was defeated and captured the following year. With his public execution in Cuzco's central plaza, the Spanish conquest of Tahuantinsuyo, now called Peru, reached its end.

Third stage: the end of the conquest and the beginning of the colony

The conquest of the rest of the pre-Columbian peoples continued for centuries and was inherited by many of the new nations. Hispanic Americans in the nineteenth century, so that it is always difficult to establish a closing date for the very process of conquest of the called "New World".

The truth is that at the end of the 16th century life in America had changed radically and for always, as new institutions and a new social order were imposed by the hand of the Europeans.

African slaves arrived on their ships, bringing with them a cultural, genetic and religious heritage, along with that of thousands of European citizens who made their home in the new world. The new society consisted of racial castes and an exploitative economy that traded under strict terms with the Spanish metropolis.

But despite the Spanish victory, a new war was looming in the distant future, when after almost three centuries of colonization, a new culture will seek its place in the world, throwing off the Spanish yoke and assuming its own identity: that of Latin America or Latin America.

References:

• “Chronicle (journalistic genre)”in Wikipedia.
• "Conquest of America" ​​in Wikipedia.
• “The conquest of America” (video) in InFocus.
• "Chronology of the conquest and colonization of Spanish America" ​​in the Hispanotheque.
• "The process of conquest" in the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

What is a journalistic chronicle?

The journalistic chronicle is a type of narrative text Y expository, that among the journalistic genres occupies a particular place, being considered as a hybrid genre. This means that it combines features of the informative genres and the interpretive genres, that is, it recounts a series of real events, not fictitious, providing objective, verifiable information, but also showing a subjective, personal view that reflects the way of thinking of the chronicler.

The chronicle is a modern journalistic genre, rooted in the travel accounts and diaries of the great explorers of yesteryear (such as the Chronicles of the Indies of the Spanish conquerors in America), reinvented in light of current journalistic needs. It is typical of war reporters, investigative journalists, and even writers, in what has been baptized as the journalistic-literary chronicle, because it uses traditional expressive resources of writing literary.

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