Laws of the Indies

                On this week’s blog I will be focusing on the development of a set of urban laws that the Spanish created. These laws are vital to how cities were founded and built in the colonization of the Americas. These vital guidelines are outlined in the “Laws of the Indies”. According to Gasparini, the author of the essay I wrote, there are 148 laws that helped discover, establish and create the building of new cities.

When reading through all the laws, there are a few main points that I took away as being very important. To begin, the laws provide a spatial representation of information, giving guidelines about how a group or individual could discover or take over an area. These are laws numbered 1-31, discussing points such as no tolerance for encroaching on already inhabited and settled areas, as well as learning about natives that already lived in the area from a conquering point of view.

                The following section discusses more about the city planning aspects of the urban form. I found that the laws from this section could be broken into 3 groups or steps. The first step is about the physical structure of the land itself. People would want it to be fertile, close to water, and use the land to protect from others and the environment itself. Second, the laws focus on the selection of the site itself. The leader delineates land to others throughout an organization of a hierarchy of space. Once the other people have the land, they must begin farming or building on the land. Thirdly, there is a step in organizing the actual layout of the town. For a grid like plan there are many requirements such as the town square being the starting point of the town. Also, the street layout requires four principal streets within the square and four streets surrounding the square. In addition the size and overall design of the city will be varied based on the population. Finally, these laws are followed by laws for the commons.

                When reading the important features from the essay, it is obvious the Spanish had specific guidelines in its discovery and conquering of new cities. This shows that the urban form is created by specific rules which shows organization and advanced thinking in this period of time. When analyzing the three main areas of the Laws of Indies, it showed me that these laws had some control over the spread of the Spanish empire as well as stressed some importance about the original layout of the land, because they could see the importance of location and the physical environment in the long run. I also recognized that the laws do not directly state the city has to be built in a grid form, but because of the laws and restrictions, the grid pattern is enforced.

Overall the Spanish had specifics in creating their cities. From finding a location, to constructing the city, to planning the city, every step of the way was calculated based on these laws. It is fascinating to see how advanced thinking began that long ago. I believe that if these laws were followed in today’s society that we would have much more organized cities. Therefore, the Spanish had advanced laws that helped transform the urban landscape.

I will see you all next week for my final blog of the semester!

Granada: A Spanish Perspective

             On this week’s trip I will be comparing Santa Fe Granada and Granada. I will see the transformation in architectural design and organization between the old city of Granada, and the newer city of Santa Fe Granada. I am expecting to see different layouts, showing the dominance of conquest and the influence of the monarchs.

When travelling through Granada, the city seemed to have grown organically, much like that of Rome, and some medieval cities. Granada looks to me like an unorganized city where the social structure resembles the disarray of the layout.  

                On the other hand, when looking at Santa Fe Granada, it is basically a grid pattern, creating a very organized system. It reminds me of some of the areas I have previously gone to such as Timgad and other colonies of the Roman Empire. This layout shows the need for a fortified structure for a degree of defense. This place was destroyed and conquered by the Christian monarchs, showing the importance of a strong military presence. Since Santa Fe was an area reconquered by the Christians, the Christians would have wanted to establish this same element of strong military presence and control over the population. A grid layout includes many more important functions. The importances include felicitating order through ensuring certain buildings of importance are in the core, while others are in the outskirts. They also control the flow of people in the city, as well as stand for defense mechanisms, and an organization of the distribution of resources. The overall purpose I believe though is to control society through a hierarchy of space like we have seen in many of my previous trips.

               

            When looking at some of the identities in Granada, I was able to see through the Cathedral Granada many unique features describing the Spanish architecture. First, the cathedral was larger than the rest of the area, making me think it was a focal point of the area, and a point of direction. You can also see the importance that art and architectural design played in this culture. Finally, while looking at other places such as the Courtyard in the Alhambra, the ornate designs and overall beauty shows the importance of power within the compounds, as well as the conquered influence on the area.

                Overall, I am able to say that old Granada was organic in nature much like that of Rome in which I travelled to earlier in my blog, and Santa Fe Granada has a more grid-like organization like Pikillacta and Timgad. The organization of the newer Granada stands for many importances, and shows the development and use of land over time.

A Trip to Tenochtitlan

             For today’s journey on Google Maps we will be visiting the capital city of the Ancient Aztec Civilization, Tenochtitlan, also known as the large metropolis Mexico City. Spanish colonizer Cortes arrived at this very populous city in the early 1500’s, and colonized the area and destroyed the aboriginal population. When looking at the objective of this blog, I must compare these two important cities, from a representation of the past and present, by analyzing the size and scale of the cities.  

Tenochtitlan and present day Mexico City have many similarities. First, Tenochtitlan was a political and cultural center much like Mexico City is today. It is said that the Aztec City is actually buried underneath Mexico City today. Within my ability to view these places, Mexico City seems to incorporate a much larger expanse than Tenochtitlan. According to some specific stats found from research, Mexico City includes 21 million people in the metropolitan area, and nearly 1500 square kilometers of space. As for Tenochtitlan, it had nearly 225 000 people in the area which was a lot of people for a city back then, but only covered an area of approximately 10 square kilometers, which shows the greater density and centrality. The larger population may have resulted in a more stable economy.

           

           It seems as if the growth of Mexico City is rooted from the Aztec City from the past. Tenochtitlan was the largest city of the time with power and beauty to its array of attributes. Mexico replicates this characteristic from a modern day example, as Mexico City is the largest metropolitan city in the western hemisphere today, and has major influence over the neighbouring areas just as Tenochtitlan did. I can see that the size of these areas, the unique organizational features of both areas, and the dominance and grandeur is relevant in both cities.

The colonization of Tenochtitlan is in direct line with the importance that the great city stood for at the time. That Mexico City was founded on the remains of the Aztec city suggest that the Spaniards wanted to erase all traces of the old empire. The city’s elegant beauty, and strong size, was very influential to the Europeans. Cortes believed that this already fairly developed city would stand as a good place to create the capital city, and in addition the island interior for the city is spatially perfect for control and organization. The city and takeover shows the power that comes along with the unique land shape and the overall size. I believe Cortes was intelligent in choosing this site for development because it was a large area, had an inland mass which could act as protection as well as the control of power, and it could stand out from the rest of the area, making it a more visually pleasing setting.

 

Chichen Itza- A Toltec Impression

          On my most recent adventure, I took a trip through Chichen Itza and Tula, Mexico, comparing them on how their architectural forms are similar, but also different. By doing this exploration I was able to learn more about the relevancy of a Toltec occupation of Chichen Itza. For this trip I used Google Maps as a guide for a first-hand view.

          As I began my trip, I started at Pyramid B in Tula. This pyramid is located on the Eastern side of Mexico, and is most noted for its architecture and stylistic figures. This area was founded by the Toltecs. After learning a bit about the Toltec history, I was able to dive in and learn about the architecture. Toltec architecture was influenced significantly by militaristic actions and religion. The theme of war is very relevant in the art work on the walls, telling stories. In addition, the temples had horizontal roofs, and were made of limestone. The architecture and stone figures were monumental in the fact that they gave the ancient civilization precision and grace.

 

          What I found really fascinating was something called the Telamon of Tula. These are large figurines standing nearly five meters tall on top of the pyramid, representing the Toltec gods. It is speculated that these used to be exquisite columns for a roof that previously existed. All in all, the large size of the pyramid, the precision of design, the intricate columns, and the overall build with a flat roof, sloping style stairs, and the themes of war and religion built into the walls, tells me a lot about the Toltec beliefs and their architectural mentalities that may have transformed Chichen Itza into what it stood for.

          As for Chichen Itza (meaning at the mouth of the well of Itza), it was one of the larger Mayan cities, in Mesoamerica. The city with a diverse population, had many unique architectural styles, and some monumental buildings describing the activities that occurred in the area. The building I am exploring today is the Temple of the Warriors. This temple was known for its great gatherings. This same temple was built of four platforms, surrounded on the south and west sides by nearly 200 round and square columns. These columns are ironically carved with Toltec warriors giving myself the first reason of why Chichen Itza may be a Toltec site. The temple also had the class ramp style that Chichen Itza was known for, allowing for an open stairway up the structure.

         

          When comparing this temple to Pyramid B in Tula, there are some direct correlations showing the Toltec influence. Firstly, all of the columns located within the area are representations of Toltec warriors, which shows the direct influence of the Toltec people.  The temple from a structural standpoint, also has a flat roof like Pyramid B in Tula. In addition, they both have the ramped staircase and the vertical walls, which is very common in Mayan architecture, and shows the stylistic appearance of the time period. One of the biggest symbolic differences I found was that of the serpent representations on top of the pyramid. From all of these similarities, and few differences, it is clear that from the structural layout of stone walls, military and religious design, and artistic columns and artistic expressions, this architecture has come from the same influence.

          Therefore, after visiting these fascinating sites, I can conclude that due to the structural and architectural similarities between Pyramid B and the Temple of Warriors, Chichen Itza is of Toltec dominance. That is all from this trip, but stay tuned for my next adventure!