The Legacy of Mesoamerica History and Culture of a Native American Civilization, 2nd Edition

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Introduction

The Spanish explorers and conquistadors who first made contact with the Mesoamer-

ican world were surprised by its complexity and grandeur, for they had become ac-

customed to the simpler ways of the previously subjugated natives of the Caribbean

Islands. Their testimony constitutes an informative beginning place for our study of

the Mesoamerican world, whose origins, conditions at European contact, and trans-

formations resulting from colonization and (more recently) modernization are the

subject of this text.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF MESOAMERICA

BY THE SPANIARDS

As we will now see, the Spaniards were extremely impressed with the level of cultural

development achieved by the Mesoamerican peoples. In reviewing the Spaniards’ first

impressions, the reader should take particular note of the complexity and diversity of

Mesoamerica. We begin with Columbus and his fourth voyage to the New World.

Columbus Meets the Mayas during His Fourth Voyage

The first Europeans to make contact with Mesoamerican peoples were Christopher

Columbus and his men during their fourth voyage to the New World. Columbus

began the voyage in 1502. Departing from Spain, he touched down on the island of

Española (present-day Haiti and Dominican Republic), and then sailed directly to the

Bay Islands located off the coast of Honduras. While at harbor in one of the islands,

a large canoe of “Indians” arrived, bearing merchandise brought from areas to the

west. Many years later, Columbus’s son Fernando described the canoe and its people

as follows:

[The canoe was as] long as a galley and eight feet wide, made of a single tree trunk....

Amidship it had a palm-leaf awning like that which the Venetian gondolas carry; this gave