Cancún & the Yucatán - Monkey Max Music and File Download

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Part I: Introducing Cancún & the Yucatán
Indians had no resistance. In the end, the Aztec capital fell, and, when it
did, all of central Mexico lay at the feet of the conquistadors.
Having begun as a pirate expedition by Cortez and his men without the
authority of the Spanish crown or its governor in Cuba, the conquest of
Mexico resulted in a vast expansion of the Spanish empire. The king
legitimized Cortez following his victory over the Aztec and ordered the
forced conversion to Christianity of this new colony, to be called New
Spain. In the two centuries that followed, Franciscan and Augustinian
friars converted millions of Indians to Christianity, and the Spanish lords
built huge feudal estates on which the Indian farmers were little more
than serfs. The silver and gold that Cortez looted made Spain the richest
country in Europe.
The Colonial Period
Hernán Cortez set about building a new city upon the ruins of the old
Aztec capital. Over the three centuries of the colonial period, Spain
became rich from New World gold and silver, chiseled out by Indian
labor. A new class system developed. Those born in Spain considered
themselves superior to the criollos (Spaniards born in Mexico). Those of
other races and the castas (mixtures of Spanish and Indian, Spanish and
African, or Indian and African) occupied the bottom rungs of society. It
took great cunning to stay a step ahead of the avaricious Crown, which
demanded increasing taxes and contributions from its fabled foreign
conquests. Still, wealthy colonists prospered enough to develop an
extravagant society.
However, discontent with the mother country simmered for years. In
1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and crowned his brother Joseph king in
place of Charles IV. To many in Mexico, allegiance to France was out of
the question; discontent reached the level of revolt.
Independence
The rebellion began in 1810, when Father Miguel Hidalgo gave the grito, a
cry for independence, from his church in the town of Dolores, Guanajuato.
The uprising soon became a full-fledged revolution, as Hidalgo and Ignacio
Allende gathered an “army” of citizens and threatened Mexico City.
Although Hidalgo ultimately failed and was executed, he is honored as
“the Father of Mexican Independence.”
Political instability engulfed the young republic, which ran through a
dizzying succession of presidents and dictators as struggles between
federalists and centralists, and conservatives and liberals, divided the
country. Moreover, Mexico waged a disastrous war with the United
States, which resulted in the loss of half its territory.
Political instability persisted and included a brief period where the control
of the country was assumed by Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who
accepted the position of Mexican emperor with the support of French