Learning academy looks at European conquest of Mexico

The Academy for Learning in Retirement’s (ALR) April 2022 series, via Zoom, will discuss the European conquest of Mexico and the smallpox pandemic that spread in the wake of that conquest, ALR said in a news release.

The presenter, Rani Alexander, Ph.D., is a professor and department head in the Department of Anthropology at New Mexico State University.

There will be two presentations in this series:

• Tuesday, April 12: Conquest or Invasion: How did a Ragged Band of Foreigners Topple the Most Powerful Empire in Ancient Mexico?
• Thursday, April 14: The First Global Pandemic.

Alexander will discuss seven myths about the Spanish conquest of Mexico and the impact of the European invasion on further cultural developments of indigenous societies in the Americas, ALR said.

Alexander will also discuss the smallpox pandemic and other diseases that followed the conquest. Did the epidemics lead to a 90 percent decline in the indigenous populations of Mesoamerica? Were there other causes that contributed to this demographic disaster?

Register for the presentations at dacc.nmsu.edu/ALR. ALR will e-mail a Zoom link to registrants the evening before each presentation.

Programs begin at 10:30 a.m.; audience members may log in after 10 a.m.

Members who enroll for the full-semester tuition option will receive recorded broadcasts of ALR’s January, February and March presentations. Registration for the two April sessions alone is $10.