Aboriginal Indigenous Peoples And Colonisation History Essay

The main features of the Mayans culture prior to colonization consist of their ideas, customs, traditions, and their way of life. The Mayans expressed their cultures with the things which they did and made.

The Mayans customs were a huge part of the Mayan culture; they were very strict on what they believed. Such as when a person passed away, the poor people would be buried in simple graves under their houses, as for the wealthy people were buried in tombs accompanied with some of their belongings such as their jewellery, pottery, and essential needs. This was done, as they believed that the person would rejoin the Gods when they died. They also believed in human sacrifices, to satisfy the gods, as they believed that the gods needed human blood to grow stronger. So the human would rip out their hearts, or by throwing themselves down a cliff.

The Mayan¿½s creativity prior to colonization by the Spanish, were that they carved stone, made pottery and made jewellery such as necklaces made out of jade and other stones. They also carved jade into statues, and many other cultural objects.

The Mayan¿½s cultural religion was very important for the Mayans. They had many religious festivals for the gods, and sometimes heroes of Mayan Culture. Their gods, symbolises most things, from weather, harvest, birth, death, and war. The Mayan¿½s religion was very important for the Mayan¿½s life, they believed that the gods would only bring them corn if they obeyed and worshipped it.

The Mayan¿½s would at times, during special occasions such as at big festivals for religious reasons would have dances where they are dressed up with a mask to make them look like the gods. These special dances, and festivals are done on many occasions, such as insure the success of crops.

Before the colonization by the Spanish, the Mayan¿½s revolved their life on farming, farming beans, squash, tomatoes, chilli peppers, avocado, and maize. Maize was the Mayan¿½s most important crop; this was the basic food that was supplied in every meal.

The Mayan¿½s learned how to read and write from priests and nobles, they learned how to read the stars and tell the future. Most of the Mayan¿½s did not go to school, they would be taught how to farm and make cloth by their parents as they lived their lives.

The Mayan¿½s built building which looks like pyramids with steps on the sides with a flat top. The Mayan¿½s also usually build temples on top of their pyramids in order for them to worship the gods. The temples were always decorated beautifully with paint or carved stone.

These are just some of the many cultures of the Mayan¿½s prior to colonization by the Spanish.

3.

Mayan Timeline before contact with the Spanish.

4.

Map of where Mayan¿½s used lived.

Stage Two: During Contact and Comparison to Aboriginal Contact

1.

The non-indigenous people who colonized the land were the Spanish.

2.

The Spanish first landed in Yucatan, Maya in 1511 by accident, when a small boat with a dozen men was blown there by a severe storm. They were taken captive and several were killed, and the rest imprisoned as slaves, and a number of them were sacrificed to the Mayan Gods. The next contact was not until 1517¿½19, when Francisco Hern¿½ndez de C¿½rdoba sailed from Cuba to Maya, he was in search for slaves to replace the native Cubans who had been dying off in great numbers, which lead him to want to colonize the land of the Mayans.

Archaeologists claim that the Spanish came to take over the land and bring back the riches, such as gold, and silver. It is said that the Spanish did not colonized the land, until a long time later, because they found that Central Mexico and Peru had more promising reports of riches, therefore they moved there.

3.

The nature of the arrival of the non-indigenous (Spanish) people on the indigenous people¿½s land, were friendly at first, as they did not plan to colonize the land yet, they greeted and offered to trade with the Mayans goods for mainly gold. But a while later they became less friendly; they started to kill and take Mayan¿½s as slaves. A while later the non-indigenous (Spanish) people wanted to colonize the land, for their own use, they used modern weapons to fire at the Mayans, such as guns, canons etc. This was when gunpowder was first introduced to the Mayans.

The Spanish wore shining armour, carried muskets whose reports echoed off of the nearby mountains like thunder, commanded horses and dogs. As they became more violent the governor of Cuba, ordered an expedition sent out with four ships and 200 men to help them take over and colonize the Mayans.

As the non-indigenous (Spanish) became more violent, they managed to take over several cities quite fast, but later it began harder for them to take down more cities, they ordered more men to be sent in to help take over then land. They became even more violent, after about 20 years the Spanish overcame the Mayans as they were more power and larger in numbers.

At first it was a friendly greeting with the Mayans but later resulting to a violent end.

4.

The response of the non-indigenous (Spanish) people as seen by the indigenous people were a lot different to those of the arrival of the non-indigenous (Spanish) people on the indigenous people¿½s land.

At first, when the non-indigenous (Spanish) people accidently landed in Yucatan, in Maya 1511, in a small boat, due to a severe storm the indigenous people (Mayans) were violent. They took the non-indigenous (Spanish) people and killed several of them, imprisoned some as slaves and the rest were sacrificed to the Mayan Gods.

During the next encounter with non-indigenous (Spanish) people, some towns greeted the non-indigenous (Spanish) people with friendship and offered to trade goods with them, while some other town, greeted them with hostility and shot arrows when the Spanish approached close to shore.

Later the Mayans notice that the non-indigenous (Spanish) people, wanted to take over their land, they started to become violent and try to win their land. Eventually, the Mayans got defeated and the non-indigenous (Spanish) people took over and colonized the land.

At first encounters, the response of the non-indigenous (Spanish) people as seen by the indigenous people changed from friendly to violent.

5.

The colonization experience of the indigenous people of Australia to the Mayans is very similar in some ways and in other ways nowhere near similar.

The similarities between indigenous people of Australia and Mayans are that they both had to fight violently to try and regain their land, but they both failed and had to move towards other parts of their land.

Also, both the indigenous groups experienced diseases such as small pox epidemic, which were brought to them by the non-indigenous people who set foot onto their land. This resulted in many indigenous people dying, the indigenous people of Australia and the Mayans.

The difference between the indigenous people of Australia and Mayans people were that they were both colonized by different people. The Aboriginals was colonized by the European, while the Mayans were colonized by the Spanish. They were both colonized for different reasons, the Mayans for more land and to find gold, and a new location for the criminal population.

During the colonization of Australia the Europeans were not friendly in any way to the Aboriginals, they moved the aboriginals back inland, where there is hardly any food and the land was bad. The Europeans took all the best lands, forcing the aboriginal to get move towards their neighbour¿½s lands. While, the colonization of Maya, the Spanish at some stages were friendly to the Mayan¿½s and they traded goods with each other. Later they became violent, not the same as the European who took over the aboriginal land.

Stage Three: Consequences of Colonisation and Comparison to Aboriginal experience.

1.

The results in colonization for the indigenous people (Mayans) were that many of the started to die due to numerous amounts of reasons. The effects/results of colonization for the indigenous people are that they died of hunger. It is said that because of the small amount of land the Mayans had remanning they could not live on it, due extended drought caused diminished crops which couldn’t feed the population. This resulted in many people dying.

Also, many of the Mayans caught diseases which were introduced to them by the Spanish, also contributing to killing a number of them. Other claimed that the results of colonization for the Mayans resulted in the reduction of many people because the soil over farmed, so diminished crops couldn’t feed the population.

A large number of indigenous people have been wiped out due to colonization, leaving only a small amount of Mayans left.

Another thing that resulted because of colonization is that the Mayan needed to leave their cities which they built to try and get away from the Spanish. They lost many cities and now only a few remain for people to see.

All the results of colonization for indigenous people all contributes to something bad.

2.

The results in colonization for the non-indigenous people (Spanish) were good for them. The Spanish people managed to get supplies of gold and silver which, at that time were one of the most important things on their life.

Also, as a result in colonization for the non-indigenous people (Spanish) they managed to get more land and expand, building their building on past Mayan land. The Spanish also managed to get Mayan and use them as slaves which were used to replace the native Cubans who have been dying due to diseases. They made the Mayans build building from them, such as churches and made them work on farms for them.

The non-indigenous people (Spanish) were able to grow crops which cannot be grown on their lands, for some reason. They are also able to easily trade with other countries.

All the results of colonization for non-indigenous people all contributes to something good.

3.

The results of colonization of the indigenous people of Australia are similar to those of the Mayans. Both had no immunity to the diseases brought over by the non-indigenous people, resulting in a lot of deaths. Due to colonization the indigenous people of Australia population decreased as many died when trying to save their land, this is similar to those of the Mayans.

Many of the indigenous people of Australia died of hunger as the non-indigenous people hunted more than what they needed, making it harder for the indigenous people of Australia to obtain food to stay alive. The Mayans also, were low on food as numbers increased and food supplies from crops etc fell.

Colonization resulted in both indigenous groups coming to an end, with the amounts of indigenous people of Australia low and the amounts of indigenous people of Maya low. Also, another result due to colonization is that, the non-indigenous people pulled their cities apart, making it harder for the indigenous people right now to understand the ways of life of their culture and how their ancestors used to live.

Therefore, the results of colonization of the indigenous people of Australia are alike to those of indigenous people of Maya.