2 ENCOUNTERS: Chocolate Encounters: Mexica and Spaniards
2 ENCOUNTERS
2 ENCOUNTERS: Chocolate encounters: Mexica and Spaniards
Encounters in Mesoamerica between the local Mexica populations and the invading Conquistadors and Europeans from Spain resulted in the decimation of the indigenous people and conquering of traditional native lands and wealth, as well “discovering” chocolate and importing it to Europe.
The Mexica occupied Mesoamerica, Mexico and Central America, easily invaded from the Atlantic ocean by ships of the Spanish carrying Conquistadors and other Europeans from across the ocean.
What happened when the two groups interacted? What did each want out of the encounters? What behaviors led to the devastation of the native peoples and the occupation by the Spanish?
In Central America, theMexica people of Mesoamerica had an Aztec Confederation and three part alliance between Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. The Mexica were political and hierarchical, and the elite had access to ownership of the cacao trees. (Lecture 4)
The Mexica used cacao as a currency and items of status. Cacao beans had a certain value equating to other items. “An ideal medium of exchange, the cacao bean was also accepted as legal tender throughout Central America; it lent those who traded it the status of bankers and luxury goods merchants…” (de Orellana 75) Throughout the world, small natural items have been used as currency, such as Native American Indians used cowrie shells. The Aztecs and Maya were no different in using a cacao bean as currency and commodity.
The Spanish invaders were on voyages of exploration, and later, colonization with intent to gather gold and other commodities, just like anyone else who came to the Americas. However, the indigenous people were conquered and many became enslaved. The Spanish also later imported African slaves to help work the plantations that they took over from indigenous people.
The explorer Hernando Cortez was offered a drink of chocolate as a gift, and apparently didn’t think much of it, but thought it was stimulating. Other Spanish explorers thought it wasn’t fit to drink. One Spanish colonizer, Girolano, Benzoni, said that it, “...wasn’t fit to drink.” (Lecture 4) However, it finally became liked, and it became popular with them.
The Spanish took cacao and chocolate back to Spain, and then it disseminated to the rest of Europe for medicinal purposes. One could mix a treatment for ailment into a chocolate base as a medicine. As a medicine, it was okay to have the chocolate. In fact, there was a big debate at one point with the church as to whether it was okay to drink chocolate during fasting days. There were some that thought it was a food, so it wasn’t okay to eat it. There were some that thought it was a drink, so they could eat it. Labeling it as a medicine helped in this issue, because then it was okay to ingest it.
Indigenous chocolate recipes were recorded in special pictogram books called codexes. Codexes contained the stories, history, and laws of the Maya and indigenous peoples. The Europeans didn’t know what they were or how to read them.
There was a reaction called the Columbian Exchange. The Mexicas culture invaded the Spanish conquerors' lives, as well as the conquerors' ways invade the Mexicas lives. In the Columbian Exchange.
“The Columbian exchange was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, and germs between the Americas West Africa, Europe and Asia via Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The term was coined in the 1970s by Alfred Cosby to refer to this environmental exchange and its consequences…He argued that taking together, the profound ecological transformations that overtook the world of the 16th century were the biggest revolution that human agency has ever made. New crops, animals, and germs arrived in the Americas from Europe, Africa and Asia. In a reverse movement, organisms of all types traveled from the Americas to Europe and to the rest of the world, cacao being one of them.” (Lecture 4, Juarez-Dappe)
Overall, colonization of Mesoamerica was a blow for the indigenous peoples because they inherited disease from the Europeans. While the new animals and crops were helpful, not as many indigenous people would have died if not for war and disease brought by the Europeans. The exchange was far more beneficial and less dangerous to the Europeans as they gained many new crops such as coffee, cacao, potatoes, and others. They also gained or took by force such things as gold and silver. In the process of colonization, much more was lost by the indigenous people, including their lives. The identities of the Mexicas were also subsumed to the Europeans by decimating the populations, the introduction of African slaves, converting them to Christianity, and deeming them less than themselves, when they had been a fully-functioning civilization on their own.
Bibliography
de Orellana, Margarita, et al. “Chocolate: Cultivation and Culture in Pre-Hispanic Mexico.” Artes de México, no. 103, 2011, pp. 65–80. “The Cliocolille Trade in Mexican Territory: from Aztec to Colonial Times” Harwich, Nikita.
Juarez-Dappe, Patricia. History of Chocolate Class 429. Fall 2023. California State University Northridge. Lecture 4. csun.edu.
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