Colonization | A Moment in Time

Mexico: Miguel Hidalgo

June 6, 2020PermalinkMetasebia TessemaToday's AMITColonization, Mexican History

Lead: In 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo led an uprising against Spanish colonial rule in Mexico. Although he was defeated, he became a symbol of Mexican Independence.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Miguel Hidalgo was born in 1753 in the central highlands of Mexico near Guanajuato. Hidalgo was a “criollo” – born in Mexico but with Spanish ancestry. He studied in Valladolid, now Morelia in central Mexico, at first with the Jesuits, and, after their expulsion, at the College of San Nicolas Obisbo where he earned a degree in theology, philosophy and the liberal arts. He was most certainly influenced by the subversive ideas of the Enlightenment. Ordained a Catholic priest in 1778 he taught as well as doing parish work. Hidalgo was a most complex man, some would say poorly managing his passions. He loved gambling, owned multiple haciendas, and fathered several children, but at the same time combined his spiritual duties with a keen sense of social justice. In 1803 Father Hidalgo moved to Dolores, a town in the Mexican highlands of mostly poor indigenous people. He introduced new farming techniques and helped to develop a brick-making and pottery industry.

Mexico: The Aztecs: Conquered by the Spanish

March 6, 2000PermalinkMetasebia TessemaToday's AMITColonization, Mexican History

Lead: In just two years, the Spanish Conquistadors, led by Hernan Cortez, were able to almost completely destroy the Aztecs, one of the most advanced indigenous empires of the Americas. Beware Spaniards bearing disease.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: During the late fifteenth century, the Spanish began to occupy the Caribbean, and in 1519, with relatively few resources, invaded present day Mexico and conquered one of the most war-like civilizations in the Americas. In February of that year, Cortez and approximately five hundred soldiers arrived on the Mexican coast. Cortez either burned or scuttled his ships to discourage his already restless company from any thoughts of turning back. They brought with them things Native Americans had never seen before: guns, cannon and between ten and twenty horses. With these weapons and horses, Cortez was able to instill fear in and defeat the indigenous armies.

Founding of Georgia – II

February 7, 2000PermalinkMetasebia TessemaToday's AMITAmerican History, Colonization

Founding of Georgia – I

February 7, 2000PermalinkMetasebia TessemaToday's AMITAmerican History, Colonization

Mexico: The Second Empire- French Rule in Mexico

January 31, 2000PermalinkMetasebia TessemaToday's AMITColonization, Mexican History

Lead: From 1864 to 1867 Mexico was under French Rule established by Emperor Napoleon III. This infamous, yet brief, period is known in Mexican history as the Second Empire.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: The French first arrived in Mexico in 1862. Poorly run national finances meant Mexico had amassed substantial foreign debt with Spain, Great Britain and France. Under a huge economic strain, Mexico, under liberal President Benito, stopped making payments. France’s ruler, Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, sought not only to collect the debts owed to France but to promote French interests by expanding French presence and influence in the markets of Western Hemisphere and, thus, to help recapture the past imperial glory of earlier Napoleonic times. After years of political unrest, violence and revolution in Mexico, a conservative faction in the Mexican ruling class, supported the French intervention and the installation of a monarch, believing it would improve political and economic stability.

Time Capsule: 1990 – Beginning of the End to Apartheid

January 24, 2000PermalinkMetasebia TessemaToday's AMITAfrican History, Colonization

Lead: On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela and other South African black leaders were released from jail. This was the beginning of the end of South Africa’s brutal regime of apartheid.

Intro.: An A Moment in Time Time Capsule with Dan Roberts.

Content: The official system of apartheid, that egregious scheme of oppression and separation forced upon South African blacks by the white dominated minority government, was not implemented until 1948. Yet it reflected the reality of South African life had emerged since the arrival of the first Europeans in the 1600s. From the time the Dutch established a trading outpost on the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, white settlers and indigenous Africans had clashed violently. As the riches of the cape colony and attending regions became more and more evident (particularly after the discovery of gold and diamonds in the Transvaal) Africans increasingly lost their independence, land and freedom to move about without documentation.

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