Shull School RENAISSANCE

Detail of Pizarro's tomb

Francisco was second cousin to Hernán Cortés, the famed conquistador of Mexico.

became the first Europeans to view the Pacific coast of the New World

Peru.

The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. They called themselves Mexica (pronounced [meˈʃikaʔ]). The Republic of Mexico and its capital, Mexico City, derive their names from the word "Mexica".

While the Inca often tolerated or incorporated the religions of their conquered ayllus they also imposed a state religion upon them. The Inca empire was a theocracy in which the Inca king, Sapa Inca, was the descendant of Inti, the sun god. The Inca required tribute, especially before and after battle, to certain gods. Regular and general festivals punctuated the labors of the empire's subjects with food drink and entertainments. Inti Raymi, the festival of the sun god, lasted nine nights, during which Sapa Inca would provide Aqhachicha, a maize beer, to first Inti, then himself, then the nobles, and finally to all people who attended.

Claudius Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy

Although the basic tenets of Greek geocentrism were established by the time of Aristotle, the details of his system did not become standard. This honor was reserved for the Ptolemaic system, espoused by the Hellenistic astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus in the 2nd century AD. His main astronomical book, the Almagest, was the culmination of centuries of work by Hellenic, Hellenistic and Babylonian astronomers; it was accepted for over a millennium as the correct cosmological model by European and Islamic astronomers. Because of its influence, the Ptolemaic system is sometimes considered identical with the geocentric model.

Aryabhata, 5th century, developed a computational planetary model which has been interpreted as heliocentric

To anyone who stands and looks at the sky, it seems clear that the Earth stays in one place while everything in the sky rises and sets or goes around once every day.

To anyone who stands and looks at the sky, it seems clear that the Earth stays in one place while everything in the sky rises and sets or goes around once every day.

Kak interprets this to mean that the Sun is stationary, hence the Earth is moving around it. A more common interpretation, however, is that the Sun "never actually sets or rises" because it was believed to have two sides: one light and one dark. Consequently, when the sun reaches the western horizon, it simply flips on itself and invisibly returns to its original place in a continuous cycle

. From his estimates, he concluded that the Sun was six to seven times wider than the Earth and thus hundreds of times more voluminous

Contemporary painting of Hernán Cortés.

Map depicting Cortés' invasion route

Emperor Charles V with Hound (1532), a painting by the 16th century artist Jakob Seisenegger.

Monument in Mexico City known as "Monumento al Mestizaje.

When the Governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés, he fought them and won, using the extra troops as reinforcements.

Born in Medellín, Extremadura, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés chose to pursue a livelihood in the New World.

As a result of this and his revolutionary theological views, his legacy remains controversial

Born {birth date [Eisleben], [Electorate of Saxony Died {death date and age Eisleben, Saxony, Holy Roman Empire

At Wartburg Castle

In 1516-17, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money to rebuild St Peter's Basilica in Rome