Cortes and Montezuma

There was a man named Cortes, and he wanted to get Tenochtitlan for himself, so he took a fleet of army soldiers down there. The Aztecs thought that the gods were coming, so they brought out gifts of gold. Cortes told his men to keep riding, and they went into the city. The king dreamed that the gods were coming so he finally decided to let them into the city. They had a big party, and they were selling things. Finally Cortes killed several of the Aztecs, and the Aztecs thought, "The gods wouldn't behave this!" So they armed themselves and started fighting. The Spanish quickly his in the castle. Now they were besieged by enemy soldiers, so they waited there for days and days. Finally one of them looked down out of the window, and saw that there were no enemy soldiers. So they went out and found some wood because there was no bridge across the moat. Now the enemy had a plan, but they didn't know it. They built a bridge across and they started filing across. On the way across, they had their pockets so loaded with gold from the city that when the enemy canoes came up, they couldn't get away and some of them were drowned. Only Cortes and some of his best soldiers got away. They got in their ships and sailed away and got more soldiers. They went back and fought and fought and fought. Finally, the enemy was forced to surrender, so the soldiers and Cortes marched into the city. now Cortes was the ruler of the new Spanish kingdom.

The Slave Trade

When Ferdinand and Isabella were paying for explorers to cross the Atlantic to the new World they weren't just doing them a favor. They did it for gold. When Columbus went there he claimed it for Spain. He said that they had to follow Spain's laws, and if anyone found gold there they could take it. They made villages there, and they took land away from the Incas and the Mayas, and the Aztecs. This began a sad time in history because they took people from African villages, and also took Incas, Aztecs, and Mayans when the Muslims didn't have enough slaves to sell. They were put on ships and taken to America. They weren't allowed to go up on deck, and they didn't get enough sunshine, air, water and food. Most of them died on the long and rough journey. When they reached land they were forced to work without pay.

The Incas

I'm going to narrate about the story the Incas told about their gods and how their civilization came to be.

The sun god would rise up and then go down into the sea and then go up again. But one day when he was down, he didn't like what he saw because people were living like wild animals. He told his wife he had a problem because the people were fighting and quarreling, and he wanted there to be peace. So they sent their son and daughter down with a golden staff to teach the people how to be civilized. They told them that wherever the staff leaped out of their hands and sank into the earth, that was where they were to build a city. the gods can only enter the earth through a door of still water, and they found the door in lake Titicaca. They went down and came up again, and taught people how to be civilized. The brother was carrying the golden staff, and suddenly it leaped from his hand, so they knew they had to build a city. That is how they explain how their city came to be and why they think the emperors are sons of the gods.

The Aztecs

The Aztecs wandered from place to place but they had no home, but the priests saw a small island in a lake. A small cactus with an eagle holding a snake in its talons was there. The priest said it was a sign from the sun god that they should go and live there. It was marshy, but they were determined to live there, so they made walls and put mud and dirt and stones inside the walls. The drawbridge was logs.

They ate tomatoes, and chocolate made from cacao seeds. They shot birds and ducks and animals for food. They also ate fish eggs, deer, and other animals. They also made cakes from algae. They kidnapped men women and children for sacrifices. They had canals that let water out from the towns foundation. People brought them vegetables, but they usually grew their own on floating mats, and some people built their houses in their floating gardens.

The Mayans

There were people living in North and South America before Columbus came there. They started living there when the Roman Empire was just crumbling, and they had been there for hundreds of years. The people who came out to meet Columbus had scars, and they told him they were from fighting off their enemies. He wrote about it in his journal. They had other gods other than the one we worship. They thought that the gods were cross-eyed, and they thought that the emperors were descendants of the gods, so when an emperor's baby was born, his mother hung a toy between his eyes so the baby would have to cross his eyes to look at it.

All the Mayan games ended with bloodshed. The person that got the ball through the hoop twenty feet off the ground with his hips, knees, or elbows was declared the winner. The others were taken to the temple and their heads were cut off.

People started going away because they hated their emperors, because they were so mean. Their enemies kept on attacking them, and as they, left their empire began to crumble and the buildings disappeared into the jungle -- temples, houses, and palaces all disappeared.

Christopher Columbus

People wanted to try get to India, but one stopped when he got to the tip of Africa because his sailors were afraid of what might be next.

When Christopher Columbus wanted to reach India, his plan was to go straight into the Atlantic Ocean, because someone said that the earth was round and if he could go around, he would bump into India's east side. He went to the Portuguese because they had tried hardest to get to India, but they laughed at him and told him the ocean was bigger than he thought.

Columbus went to some other kings but no one agreed to his idea. Finally he went to Ferdinand and Isabella. Ferdinand didn't think it was a very good idea, but Isabella thought that it was a great idea, and that Spain could become richer and richer and be the richest kingdom in the world. After the war they were having, she got him the supplies he needed. So he set off and he found a whole bunch of people that were crying because they were Jews and the law said that no Jews were allowed.

Bit by bit the men on ship started complaining, and some started getting sick and dying. Their gums started turning black. So they started planning to kill Christopher Columbus. Finally Columbus agreed that if there was no land in three days, they would go home. On the second day, somebody shouted "Land!" So they got off their ship and they reached some little islands. He brought out some things from Spain, but the people that lived on the island didn't bring him gold and stuff; they brought him reels of cotton, strange foods, bell peppers and parrots. He brought it back to Ferdinand and Isabella. Isabella thought it was worth it to try again. He hadn't found India; he had found North and South America. But Vasco de Gama did eventually manage to sail around Africa to India

Akbar of India

When Babur the Tiger's son Hamayan came home, he slipped on the steps of his library, hit his head, and died. His son Akbar was crowned emperor. He wanted to be a good emperor, so though he was a Muslim he let Hindu worship continue. He was so good that people wrote stories about him. Here is one of those stories:

The emperor was in his palace, and there was a man named Gulshan, and people said he always brought bad luck. Whenever the eggs rotted, the cook shouted, "Gulshan must have been here! He always brings bad luck!" And whenever the bread burned, the baker said, "Gulshan must have been here, because he's bad luck!" And whenever it rained on a feast day, everybody blamed Gulshan.

Akbar said that Gulshan should bring him his breakfast the next day. Gulshan was horrified, but when he got up, he went and got ready and brought the emperor's breakfast. While the emperor was eating breakfast, there was a hair in his bread. He said, "Well, I've gotten hair in my bread before." Then a sand fly bit him, but he said, "I've been bitten by flies before." But the he really started having some bad luck, and he said that Gulshan really was bad luck and that he had to be hanged.

While Gulshan was in prison, Birbal came and said he would speak for him. He told the emperor, "He causes bad luck but you made him get hanged. Which one of you is having worse luck?" The emperor laughed and said that he could go free, but he had to find another house to serve in!