1600

Events in 1600 5

• 1521 – 1600 After the conquest -- New Spain rises The destruction of Tenochtitlan in 1521 is not the end of the story but the beginning of a new and terrible chapter. The Spanish build Mexico City directly on the ruins of Tenochtitlan -- the Templo Mayor is demolished, its stones used in the new cathedral. Cuauhtémoc, the last tlatoani, is tortured (his feet burned to make him reveal the location of hidden gold) and eventually hanged in 1525. The encomienda system enslaves the surviving indigenous population; the Inquisition burns the codices; epidemic disease does the rest. Yet Aztec culture does not vanish -- it hybridises. Indigenous communities maintain their languages, their agricultural systems, their oral traditions. The Virgin of Guadalupe, appearing to the indigenous convert Juan Diego in 1531 on a hill sacred to the goddess Tonantzin, is the defining moment of Mexican syncretism. The civilisation is destroyed; the culture endures.
• 1521 – 1600 Cuauhtémoc -- the last eagle Cuauhtémoc ("Descending Eagle," c.1496-1525) is the last tlatoani of Tenochtitlan -- the young ruler who takes power after Cuitláhuac dies of smallpox and leads the defence of the city through the 75-day siege of 1521. He is approximately 25 years old when he becomes tlatoani; he is approximately 26 when the city falls and he is captured attempting to flee by canoe. His capture ends the Aztec empire. Cortés has him tortured (his feet burned over hot coals, to force him to reveal the location of Moctezuma's treasure), then keeps him as a captive for four years, then has him hanged in 1525 on dubious charges of conspiracy during the Honduras expedition. His dignity throughout captivity and torture -- reportedly telling his companion "Am I now in a bed of roses?" when the companion cried out from the pain -- makes him the supreme symbol of Aztec resistance. He is the national hero of Mexico, his statue prominent in Mexico City's Paseo de la Reforma.
• 1528 – 1600 Claude Le Jeune French Renaissance composer Claude Le Jeune was a leading Huguenot composer who applied ancient Greek metrical principles to French verse in musique mesurée, creating a distinctive and influential style.
• 1600 Gilbert — magnetism and Earth as a magnet De Magnete: magnetic declination and Earth's magnetic field In 1600, William Gilbert of Colchester published De Magnete, the first major English scientific work based entirely on experiment. He demonstrated that the Earth itself is a giant magnet, explaining the behaviour of compass needles, described magnetic declination, and distinguished magnetism from static electricity. Gilbert's experimental method was a direct forerunner of the Scientific Revolution.
• 1600 – 1649 Charles I Execution The Rump Parliament Following the Civil War, the King was tried and executed for high treason.