From 1492 To 1750 In The
From 1492 to 1750 in the Americas and Africa, there were social and political changes such as shift in power in the Americas, the power going from the natives to the Europeans; a change in the demographics of the Americas, Europeans became a part of the population and the population of native decreases dramatically; and a change of Africa where Africans were taken from their homes and sold for slavery. In the Americas there was a dramatic political change of power going from the natives in America to the Europeans. Document two suggests that when the Europeans came in, they destroyed the cities that the natives of America had already built and established. Hernan Cortés, in his letter to King Charles V, says “this great city Tenochtitlán is built on the salt lake…”, “The city is a large as Seville or Cordoba. “, “there are bridges, very large, strong, and well constructed…”, “The city has many squares where markets are held…”, suggesting that the cities that the natives had already built were like the Spanish’s, before they took over and destroyed them. As a European conqueror Cortes would have seen the strength of the cities and would have seen how they functioned. In his letter he was contradicting himself because while he says “their fashion of living was almost the same in Spain, with just as much harmony and order…” he follows his statement with “…considering these people were barbarous…”, saying that although they lived almost as amazing as the Spanish, he still considered them of less worth than the Europeans. Natives were also put to work as slaves as stated in a letter from King Alfonso of Kongo to King João III of Portugal. He states that “…many times noblemen and the sons of noblemen, and our relatives were stole, and they take them to be sold to the white men who are in our kingdoms…”, stating that the African natives were taken from Kongo and used for the Europeans as slaves. Many people that were taken from Kongo were “…immediately ironed and