Washington and this monument.... yes. you know the one.

http://www.visitingdc.com/images/washington-monument-address.jpg accessed March 13 2013


Epic and Iconic pop culture imagery of this monument here: 

The George Washington monument is one that speaks to the power of a new empire. Rising pointedly to touch the sky, it overtakes it's location. A mass of land surrounds it, however the monument cannot be missed for its austere and powerful simplicity. Accordingly, Farrar in her book Building The Body Politic, speaks of the relationship to power and the built environment by borrowing from Michel Foucault. Spaces over lap to assert a specified control over the public. This monument does just that. The spaces are three in nature, between words and things, To Foucault this was regarded as mythic metaphors and the material constructions to image these, like the confessional.  Th Washington monument acts in the same way, a place where there is an overlapping of thought and construction to portray this thought. A metaphorical assertion of  power of George Washington himself, and the Victory of the American Revolution of the civil war. The shape takes on a phallic image and presents the greatness of the powerful American resolve. 

Grid as Law

Urban Form, The Grid and Settlement Laws

How did the Spanish articulate what newly founded cities are to look like?

Principle objectives is to minister to the aboriginal peoples and the only way that you can repopulate an area is if the peoples of that area are properly looked after under the new laws of the ones doing the conquering. The area must be elevated in order to put upon it the Spanish ideal. It must not be too high or too low, in order for easy access. Lands near water are not allowed, due to the potential for pirates and other scavengers who will not take the Spanish Law into practice. The new habitable areas must be able to be considered a town, village or other vernacular that describes an urban environment to allow for citizens to interact as neighbors. 

Are their dimensions and plans provided? 

The plans provide that the size of the common area, the plaza, should correspond to the number of citizens in the area. and that all should be built around this common ground. Beginning with four principle streets, and depending on the weather the streets that follow should be either narrow or wide. 

How is the space organized?

The space is organized with the common meeting area in the center and everything surrounding it to point directly back to this space. 

The cities, towns, and villages were built in order for the suppression and control over the population. By having the center being the common plaza of which the government could hold public meetings and the inhabitants could feel a sense of belonging in order to perform the needs of their rulers.

Santa Fe De Granada

As with all talk of colonialism, Religion is one of the greatest factors of  war and conquest. As we see here in this map.

The Conquest of Spain - National Geograhic

A great visitor's blog here: http://www.trevorhuxham.com/2012/12/granada-spain-city-of-magic.html

Granada Today! http://www.visualnews.com/2011/02/18/granada-spain-is-a-stunning-graffiti-meca/ 

Mexico City and how it rose from Tenochtitlan

Diego Rivera, the Great City of Tenochtitlán, 1945 http://www.flickr.com/photos/sftrajan/2597108228/in/photostream/ accessed March 5 2013

The Aztec City of Tenochtitlan as the modern city of Mexico city and how the people of the new city overtook the ancient city what it meant to the citizens of Mexico. Originally inhabited by outcasts, Tenochititlan was created out of a difficult landscape and the need for a large community of trade and progress.Mexico City is considered one of the world's largest cities today and this came to be from the in-habitation of the Aztecs within their capital city. Colonized by the Spanish Governor of Cuba, through a program of capture initiated by Hernan Cortes. (information found on all websites)

To plan a tour of Mexico city go here http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mexico/mexico-city/history

To follow the satellite view of Mexico City go here: http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/google_map_Mexico_City.htm

The main site for the governing and conquerors of New Spain, as Mexico was becoming named and the area. Tenchtitlan did not have a chance to overthrow the Spanish due to a high amount of the native peoples contracting a multitude of plagues. "While the Spaniards prospered, the conquered peoples declined disastrously, less because of harsh treatment than because of a series of plagues, many of them new diseases brought over from the Old World, such as smallpox and measles. The native population of the Valle de México shrank, by most estimates, to less than 100, 000 within a century of the conquest." (as found http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mexico/mexico-city/history)

Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mexico/mexico-city/history#ixzz2MjB6tflz  of

For a more detailed description and analysis of Mexico City please visit here: http://www.aztec-history.com/mexico-city-history.html and here http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/587434/Tenochtitlan 

Tula and Chichén Itzá

 Pyramid B Tula 

Temple of Warriors of Chichén Itzá 

Teotihuacan

                                                    

Teotihuacan, http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/cstone/span312/teotihuacan2.jpg
accessed February 7 2013

 Teotihuacan was a once vibrant and powerful empire in Mexico, now a place for intense archaeological study.

 Teotihuacan is translated into "the place where the God's were created"[i]

The population of the area was at its largest during the 1st to the 3rd centuries AD. Over the course of a few hundred years the area was witness to different forms of leadership and rule, and its monuments are testament to the multiple ideas on government and power.[ii] A place, that originally was home to “2,200 large multi-family units.”[iii] This demonstrates the initial power structure of Teotihuacan. There were a lot of people to feed in a single area, and there was an intense competiveness in order to utilize the resources available.[iv] Due to a large growth of the population, the scramble for resources, and the influx of other cultures moving into the area, as with all issues of colonialization, the cultures of Teotihuacan blended and created a new social structure.[v]

One change was also within their religious practices. One such religion was informed within The Feathered Serpent Pyramid.

---

[i] UNESCO Website, Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/414 accessed February 8, 2013

[ii] Sanders, William T., Evans, Susan Toby, Rulership and Palaces at Teotihuacan, in Palaces and Power in the Americas: From Peru to the Northwest Coast Ed. JJ Christie and PJ. Sarro. The University of Texas Press 2006

[iii] Ibid

[iv] ibid

[v] ibid

The Feathered Serpent Pyramid

The Feathered Serpent, Screenshot http://www.academia.edu/217758/The_Feathered_Serpent_Pyramid_at_Teotihuacan_Decay_Conservation_and_Future_Perspectives
Accessed February 8 2013

Expertly Compiled Forum on Teotihuacan, screen shot accessed February 7 2013

Ancient Mysteries - The puzzling Pyramids of Mexico 4/5: Act IV at 7.09 and continue here

What is Colonialism?

This blog assignment will be a short inquiry into the nature of colonialism as it pertains to two quite different locations. 

Pikillactu in Peru Two images of Pikillacta, http://www.flickr.com/photos/heystack/8224022558/sizes/z/in/photostream/ accessed January 18 2013

and Thamugadi (Timgad) in Algeria  Trajan's Arch, Thamugadi, Algeria, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvNVhob_CqJiPtpLOQdnEG2Ph3vJySfJFk7l50ddm9ZFSQxpujmtyiDQF3sW3xeF6lU4PYFL5sIUiuiYTS0zoPA8bPEfH3I-gxFnmh0Cexu4AA9a5Y35fYnijBEmv7AVPEKFLFBy7cswke/s1600/05-thamugadi-algeria-city-layout-670.jpg accessed January 18 2013 (images were also found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/haqqoo/sets/72157626411041658/ accessed January 18 2013)

I have absolutely no knowledge of either location, so please forgive me if I find misguided information on either area. 

To begin I will speak of the Roman city of Thamugadi. 

Map of the Roman World, http://schools.nashua.edu/myclass/lavalleev/Art%20History%20Pictures/ch10/map10.jpg accessed January 28 2013

Conquered in 100ce, Thamughadi was created as a military encampment. The Roman emperor Trajan stretched the Roman rule far throughout Europe and into North Africa. Thamughadi is located in the province of Numidia of Algeria. The Romans would take the very best of their grand architectural achievements of the city of Rome and recreate this in a grid-like formation in centralized locations of their empire. Thamughadi has many of the same structures as we find in the Roman Forum. The temples, regia, and victory arches that were erected to signify power and control. This area is considered an area of colonialization. Algeria, has a history of constant invasions by many civilizations throughout history. The building projects, such as Trajan’s Arch reminds us of a lost history before settlers claimed the area as their own. This has been copied over and over in all continents.

A grid like formation of settlements is also witnessed in the area of Pikallacta in Peru. Archaeologists and scholars have questioned how the space has functioned over the past few hundred years. What Pikallacta signifies to the west is a need for a constant educational process through discovery. Based in Lucre Basi at the eastern end of the valley of Cuzco, the area has thought to be an administrative complex engineered by Wari warriors. However, over the years people have thought it to be a storage container for the Inca, due to indicators of spiritual sacred spaces within the area. As opposed with Thamughadi, Pikallacta seems to no longer identify with a group of people because there are very small indicators of one time inhabitants. Thamughadi, we know was settled and through the architectural Roman program we can base the structures on Roman norms of the time. However, due to its very organized manner of formation scholars such as Edmund Thomas confirm that it could only have been used for military purposes. Wari architectural style was known for rigid, geometric rectangular plans,(Ross, p.15) and Pikallacta is a mathematical experience. Compounds are seen to have been home to administrative centres and elite residences, with a definite route of access between each. It is very calculated and this can only be referenced in terms of control. 

Disclaimer: I am unsure of how to properly insert reference points on blogger ... I have found information and used a couple of sentences from class texts and online sources. 

http://archive.org/details/lesruinesdetimga00balliala

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/algeria/timgad/sights/archaeological-site/timgad

http://archaeology.about.com/od/pterms/g/pikillaqta.htm