Topic: Expanding Contacts

TOPIC: Expanding Contacts

Depth Study 6c: The Spanish Conquest of the Americas c. AD 1492 – c. 1572

Year 8

Duration:

Detail:

Site Study

• 
  How do we know about the Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs?
  
• 
  Why and where did the societies of the Aztecs develop?
  
• 
  What were the defining characteristics of Aztec society?
  
• 
  What have been the legacies of the Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs?
  

Both these site studies will help to address the key framing questions for this unit of work. The resource listing has taken into account both of these sites and therefore much material that could be used has been identified.

• 
  Who were the Aztecs? Were where they located?
  
• 
  What was life like in Aztec society prior to the arrival of the Europeans? What were the key features and beliefs of Aztec society?
  
• 
  How and when did the Spanish arrive in the Americas?
  
• 
  What is conquest and colonisation?
  

• 
  discuss and recount stories of family and local history
  
• 
  sequence familiar objects and events
  
• 
  distinguish between the past, present and future
  

• 
  explore and use a range of sources about the past
  
• 
  identify and compare features of objects from the past and present
  

• 
  What motivated the Spanish to sail to the Americas?
  
• 
  What was the nature of the interaction between the Spanish and the Aztecs? Why did the conquerors and the conquered react and behave in the ways that they did?
  
• 
  What are the long-term effects and legacy of colonisation in the Americas? Who benefitted from the effects? The “Columbian Exchange”
  

• 
  explore a point of view within an historical context
  

• 
  recognise that people in the local community may have lived differently in the past
  

Differing perspectives (European vs indigenous) on:

• 
  The sophistication or otherwise of Aztec culture/society – Were their cultures advanced and sophisticated or backward and heathen?
  
• 
  Why did the Spanish have and take the perspective they did on the peoples of central and South America?
  
• 
  The impact of the Spanish conquest on Aztec society - Was conquest and colonisation a good or a bad thing? For whom and why? “The Columbian Exchange.”
  

• 
  pose questions about the past using sources provided
  

• 
  develop a narrative about the past
  
• 
  use a range of communication forms (oral, graphic, written, role play) and digital technologies.
  

Historical Concepts

• 
  HT4-1 describes the nature of history and archaeology and explains their contribution to an understanding of the past
  
• 
  HT4-2 describes major periods of historical time and sequences events, people and societies from the past
  
• 
  HT4-3 describes and assesses the motives and actions of past individuals and groups in the context of past societies
  
• 
  HT4-4 describes and explains the causes and effects of events and developments of past societies over time
  
• 
  HT4-5 identifies the meaning, purpose and context of historical sources
  
• 
  HT4-6 uses evidence from sources to support historical narratives and explanations
  
• 
  HT4-7 identifies and describes different contexts, perspectives and interpretations of the past
  
• 
  HT4-8 locates, selects and organises information from sources to develop an historical inquiry
  
• 
  HT4-9 uses a range of historical terms and concepts when communicating an understanding of the past
  
• 
  HT4-10 selects and uses appropriate oral, written, visual and digital forms to communicate about the past
  

• 
  Continuity and change: to examine how societies of the Americas emerged and developed over time and how these societies responded to and changed as a result of European contact
  
• 
  Cause and effect: to examine the events, decisions and developments that produced the situation whereby the Spanish came to be the conquerors of the Americas
  
• 
  Perspectives: to examine the differing ways in which the Spanish and the peoples of the Americas came to view each other and how and why their respective views were shaped and thus differed
  
• 
  Empathetic understanding: to examine the respective points of view of the Spanish conquerors and the conquered peoples of the Americas and to appreciate and understand their differing views and perspectives
  
• 
  Significance: to examine how important the conquest and subjugation of the Americas was to not only the Spanish and the indigenous peoples the longer term impact on shaping world events and history
  
• 
  Contestability: to examine how historians dispute interpretations of the Spanish conquest by looking at both the Spanish and the indigenous perspectives