Lmst

#Tenochtitlan was NU 000-300,000 people, more than most Espen and was one of the largest cities in the world in the early 1500s. Spani #conquistadors (conquerors) called it the "Venice of the #NewWorld" because of its many canals.

Conquistadors vs. Aztecs
#Conquistadors #AztecEmpire #HistoryUnfolded #EuropeanExploration #AdventureAndProfit #HistoricalClashes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqwjcWHHcaY

@LiveScience @livescience-LiveScience by #Conquistadors you mean #looters, of course.

I'm delighted to welcome Dirk Strasser and his new book, Conquist, to the blog #HistoricalFantasy #MagicRealism #Conquistadors #Incas #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @thecoffeepotbookclub @DirkStrasser @cathiedunn

http://mjporterauthor.blog/2024/10/10/conquist/

One of the world’s biggest cities may be just months away from running out of water

by Laura Paddison, Jack Guy and Fidel Gutiérrez, CNN

February 25, 2024

"Alejandro Gomez has been without proper running water for more than three months. Sometimes it comes on for an hour or two, but only a small trickle, barely enough to fill a couple of buckets. Then nothing for many days.

"Gomez, who lives in #MexicoCity’s #Tlalpan district, doesn’t have a big storage tank so can’t get water truck deliveries — there’s simply nowhere to store it. Instead, he and his family eke out what they can buy and store.

"When they wash themselves, they capture the runoff to flush the toilet. It’s hard, he told CNN. 'We need water, it’s essential for everything.'

"#WaterShortages are not uncommon in this neighborhood, but this time feels different, Gomez said. 'Right now, we are getting this hot weather. It’s even worse, things are more complicated.'

"Mexico City, a sprawling metropolis of nearly 22 million people and one of the world’s biggest cities, is facing a severe #WaterCrisis as a tangle of problems — including geography, chaotic urban #development and leaky #infrastructure — are compounded by the impacts of #ClimateChange.

"Years of abnormally low rainfall, longer dry periods and high temperatures have added stress to a water system already straining to cope with increased demand. Authorities have been forced to introduce significant restrictions on the water pumped from reservoirs.

"'Several neighborhoods have suffered from a lack of water for weeks, and there are still four months left for the rains to start,' said Christian Domínguez Sarmiento, an atmospheric scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

"Politicians are downplaying any sense of crisis, but some experts say the situation has now reached such critical levels that Mexico City could be barreling towards 'day zero' in a matter of months — where the taps run dry for huge swaths of the city.

Historic lows

"Densely populated Mexico City stretches out across a high-altitude lake bed, around 7,300 feet above sea level. It was built on clay-rich soil — into which it is now sinking — and is prone to #earthquakes and highly vulnerable to climate change. It’s perhaps one of the last places anyone would choose to build a #megacity today.

"The #Aztecs chose this spot to build their city of #Tenochtitlan in 1325, when it was a series of lakes. They built on an island, expanding the city outwards, constructing networks of canals and bridges to work with the water.

"But when the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century, they tore down much of the city, drained the lakebed, filled in #canals and ripped out #forests. They saw 'water as an enemy to overcome for the city to thrive,' said Jose Alfredo Ramirez, an architect and co-director of Groundlab, a design and policy research organization."

#WaterIsLife #ClimateCatastrophe #Overdevelopment #Colonialism #Conquistadors #CorporateColonialism #AncientTechnology #ExtremeHeat #GlobalWarming #Mexico #ExtremeDrought #Extinction

Great story and history here as the First Nation in Yuquot, the home and nation of Maquinna who first met Spanish colonizers in the 1700s on the West Coast of Canada restore a church building. It includes stained glass windows donated by the Government of Spain in the 1950s when this structure was built.

"It's a striking combination of elements, in a building that still wears the mark of a Euro-centric worldview. At the church’s entrance are two stained glass windows that were donated by Spain in the 1950s, depicting Europeans in the centre as the local First Nations are in the darkened periphery.

“These windows are now jarring remnants from a colonial past,” explained the First Nation on its website. “One window shows representatives of Britain and Spain, Quadra and Vancouver, conferring about ‘sovereignty’ over Nootka Sound in 1791.””

I visited this spot about 10 years ago. It's a wonderful journey from Gold River on the mail ship (Yuquot III I believe) to the island settlement. There is the Mowachaht/Muchahlaht First Nation village site, a lighthouse, and this church among other buildings and things. There is also a fantastic beach on the windward side. We were able to go inside the church. It was still fairly derelict when we were there, the restoration had not begun and the West Coast weather is very harsh.

Oh, and I must add. No treaty was signed with the Mowachaht/Muchahlaht Nation in Yuquot. These were two “great" colonizer nations stealing land from dozens of First Nations that had lived there for millenia, and still do.

https://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2023-09-08/gathering-place-past-restoration-yuquot-church-continues

#España #Quadra #UK #Vancouver #FirstNations #Yuquot #VancouverIsland #Colonialism #Settler #Conquistadors #Catholic #Catholicism #FensterFreitag #WindowFriday

A picture from the article - Copyright Hashilthsa - Eric Plummer - Shows a depiction of men in colonial naval garb. One is sitting at desk with a document in front of him. 3 are standing around him. There are First Nations people sitting and standing and two triple masted sailing ships are in a harbour behind them. One flying a Spanish flag and one British.

The staggering quantity of gold the conquistadors extracted from the Americas allowed Spain to become the richest country in the world. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2045/the-gold-of-the-conquistadors/ #History #Conquistadors #Gold #SpanishEmpire

Yesterday,
@JosepBorrellF said "like the Conquistadors, we must reinvent the world". Today, I can only find coverage on a few Spanish and Portuguese news sites about it. Why isn't the whole world screaming about this? Or Europe, at least?

https://www.eldiario.es/internacional/borrell-diputados-latinoamericanos-bruselas-descubridores-conquistadores-inventar-nuevo-mundo_1_9760696.html
#conquistadors

The team from Spain is going to the plane. #ByeFelicia

#WorldCup
#CopaMundialFIFA
#Conquistadors
#GenocideintheCarribean

Old town #Cartagena #Colombia is awash with #chess sets, but most of them are mass produced. It took the curator of this account three days to find a hand-made set. This one was found in a shop (incongruously called "Hat and Bad") alongside a simply stunning larger board, which will be a followup post.

Like many chess sets in #latinamerica, the pieces are carved in the style of the #maya and the #conquistadors.