Cities of the New World

 

Let's explore the history of the cities of the Americas. Starting from the older, of course.

I invite everyone to post the history of his/her own city, or of a city they know, giving is located in the Americas, of course.

 

 

Etching, from Daniel Meisner, Sciographia Cosmica, published by Paulus Fürst, 1637–42
Deák 6

High in the Andes lies Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incan empire. Founded around 1200 C.E., it was inhabited by rulers and nobility who lived in magnificent palaces and temples. Its fabled wealth of gold attracted the Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro in 1532. After deposing the leader Atahualpa, Pizarro plundered and sacked the city. A colonial settlement soon sprang up on the site, built on the foundations of the Incan city, and today it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Western world.

 

Cuzco, the puma city

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inca wall

 

 

Church on top of the temple of the sun

 

 

 

 

The Arrival of the Hummingbird

It was not until the 13th Century when the Mexica, whose principal god Huizilopochtli (Left-handed Hummingbird) represents an austere, warrior-like figure, arrived in this region from Aztlan (a possibly mythical place). Led by the priest Tenoch, they fought against the more established tribes to secure their own place on the banks of the lakes. Around 1299 they settled at Chapultepec, a site privileged by its strategic location and natural resources, only to be driven out by the Acohuas - forcing them to take refuge on a large island in the lake.

Here the secular pilgrimage of the Mexica came to its end; the signal for this was the vision of an eagle devouring a snake while perched on a cactus growing on the island. Thus was founded the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan on June 8th 1325.

The intense activity of the Mexica and their contacts with numerous local peoples led to their rapid assimilation of knowledge and cultural expression. Over a relatively short period of only two hundred years they were able to conquer surrounding tribes, build an extraordinary city, and spread their presence to such distant lands as the Soconusco (southern Chiapas). This expansion was achieved under the direction of such outstanding rulers as Izcoatl, Moctezuma I, Axayacatl, Tizoc, Ahyuizotl, and Moctezuma II and their highly-disciplined groups of eagle-warriors and jaguar-warriors, together with the prosperous activities of craftsmen and traders. Today, the names of many of the nations subject to tribute by the Mexica can be seen carved in stone or painted into ancient codices.

The memory of Aztlan (city-island) is expanded and consolidated based on the ancient models of Teotihuacan and Tula: the astronomical orientation of the principal avenues of the city with a ceremonial enclosure at its center. This complex was enclosed by a wall (coatepantli), within which the principal buildings were constructed.

 

Pictures of ancient Tenochtitlan,

 

 

Tenochtitlan was a city crossed by channels and most of the commerce was carried by boats

 

 

Today is buried underground Mexico city

 

 

 

 

Mexico's flag symbols remembers the foundation of Tenochtitlan, including a glyph that said: tenochtitlan

 

 

The sign for the Aztec capital, Tenochtitl�n, was a stone (tell) from which sprouted a prickly pear cactus (nochili), so the Tenochtitlan glyph means cactus in the stone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But you can still see some remains of the ancient channels and chinanpas in Xochimilco.

 

 

 

 

Santo Domingo, in Dominican Republic, is an interesting city. It was the first European city founded inthe new world. As such, it has many first, such as the first Christian temple, the first fortress, the first convent, the first european palace, etc. But also it has an absolute record: Established in 1538, Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) is the oldest university in the New World.

 

Bartholomew Columbus, brother of Christopher Columbus, founded the settlement and named it after Saint Dominic, which is today the oldest European city in the New World. In reality, the city dates back to 1496, the period when the first Europeans settled there, although it was officially founded on August 5, 1498. Governor general Nicolás de Ovando arrived in 1502 with a fleet of 30 ships and 2,500 men. Santo Domingo was destroyed by a hurricane shortly after his arrival and he had it rebuilt on a different site nearby (Meining 1986:9). The original layout of the city and a large portion of its defensive wall can still be appreciated today throughout the Colonial Zone, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1990. The Colonial Zone, bordered by the Río Ozama also has an impressive collection of 16th century buildings, including palatial houses and majestic churches that reflect the architectural style of the late medieval period.

The city's most important colonial buildings include the Catedral Santa María La Menor (Catedral Primada de América), which is the first Catholic cathedral in America; the Alcázar de Colón, once the residence of Don Diego Colón, the son of Christopher Columbus who became viceroy of the colony; the Monasterio de San Francisco, the ruins of the first monastery in America; the Museo de las Casas Reales, the former Palace of the Governor General and the Palace of Royal Audiences; the Parque Colón, a historic square; the Fortaleza Ozama, the oldest fortress in America; the Pantéon Nacional, a former Jesuit edifice now hosting the remains of various renown members of the Dominican Order; and the Iglesia del Convento Dominico, the first convent in America.

Throughout its first century, Santo Domingo was the launching pad for much of the exploration and conquest of the New World. The expeditions that led to Ponce de Leon's discovery of Puerto Rico, Hernando Cortes' conquest of Mexico and Balboa's sighting of the Pacific Ocean all started from Santo Domingo.

 

Pictures,

 

 

Columbus palace,

 

Universidad Autonoma Santo Domingo

 

 

Santa Maria La Menor, first Christian temple

 

 

 

Columbus lighhouse

 

 

 

 

The city

 

 

 

 

 

 

History, from Wiki:

 

The current Havana area and its natural bay were first visited by Europeans during Sebastián de Ocampo's circumnavigation of the island, in 1509.^[7] Shortly thereafter, in 1510, the first Spanish colonists arrived from Hispaniola and began the conquest of Cuba.

Conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded Havana on August 25, 1515 on the southern coast of the island, near the present town of Surgidero de Batabanó. Between 1514 and 1519, the city had at least two different establishments. All attempts to found a city on Cuba's south coast failed. The city's location was adjacent to a superb harbor at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, and with easy access to the Gulf Stream, the main ocean current that navigators followed when traveling from the Americas to Europe. This location led to Havana’s early development as the principal port of Spain's New World colonies. An early map of Cuba drawn in 1514 places the town at the mouth of the river Onicaxinal, also on the south coast of Cuba. Another establishment was La Chorrera, today in the neighbourhood of Puentes Grandes, next to the Almendares River.

The final establishment, commemorated by El Templete, was the sixth town founded by the Spanish on the island, called San Cristobal de la Habana by Pánfilo de Narváez: the name combines San Cristóbal, patron saint of Havana, and Habana, of obscure origin, possibly derived from Habaguanex, an Indian chief who controlled that area, as mentioned by Diego Velasquez in his report to the king of Spain. A legend relates that Habana was the name of Habaguanex's beautiful daughter,^[8] but no known historical source corroborates this version.

Havana moved to its current location next to what was then called Puerto de Carenas (literally, "Careening Bay"), in 1519. The quality of this natural bay, which now hosts Havana's harbor, warranted this change of location. Bartolomé de las Casas wrote:

...one of the ships, or both, had the need of careening, which is to renew or mend the parts that travel under the water, and to put tar and wax in them, and entered the port we now call Havana, and there they careened so the port was called de Carenas. This bay is very good and can host many ships, which I visited few years after the Discovery... few are in Spain, or elsewhere in the world, that are their equal...^[7]

Shortly after the founding of Cuba's first cities, the island served as little more than a base for the Conquista of other lands. Hernán Cortés organized his expedition to Mexico from here. Cuba, during the first years of the Discovery, provided no immediate wealth to the conquistadores, as it was poor in gold, silver and precious stones, and many of its settlers moved to the more promising lands of Mexico and South America that were being discovered and colonized at the time. The legends of Eldorado and the Seven Cities of Gold attracted many adventurers from Spain, and also from the adjacent colonies, leaving Havana and the rest of Cuba largely unpopulated.

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Pictures:

 

Havana's capitol. U.S. influence there is undeniable.

 

 

El morro castle

 

University of Havana

Museum of the Revolution

 

Port

Old cars

Heminway's bar

Heminway's house

 

Havana's track buses