3. What can you infer about Cortes’ motives in writing about “the wonders of Tenochtitlan” and the Aztecs? Why did he choose to write about the topics he addressed in this letter? Who is is intended audience, and how might that have influenced the letter?…
Hernan Cortes led a campaign against The Aztecs. He brought only a few hundred Spaniards soldier and defeated millions of Indians on their home territory. Such a feat would’ve been impossible had it not been for several key factors. In a war, numbers does not mean victory and Cortes was fortunate enough to make up for his lack of men with the aid of other Indians, nature, and religion.…
Cycles of Conquest, by Edward H. Spicer, is notably a classic, “essential” book for readers learning about the history of cultural change in the southwest. Published in 1962, Spicer’s work offers a scope of the histories of southwestern Native Americans—based on available knowledge. Edward Spicer introduces the first part of his book by stating several times that the historical lens is distorted because it is the history of the Spanish and their contacts with Native Americans, rather than the history of the Natives, from the Natives. He writes, “it is in full recognition of the fact that the information about the Indians themselves is secondhand and terribly biased that the exposition of the ‘history’ of the contacts of the Indians of northwestern…
Hernan Cortes landed on the east coast of the Aztec empire where the natives mistaken for Quetzalcoatl, a deity. Cortés became allies with some of the native peoples he encountered, but with others he used deadly force to conquer Mexico. He marched to Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital and home to ruler Montezuma II. Cortés took Montezuma hostage and his soldiers raided the city. Cortés left the city after learning that Spanish troops were coming to arrest him for disobeying orders.After facing off against Spanish forces, Cortés returned to Tenochtitlán to find a rebellion in progress. The Aztecs eventually drove the Spanish from the city, but Cortés returned again to defeat them and take the city in 1521. In 1528, Pizarro went back to Spain and managed to procure a commission from Emperor Charles V. Pizarro was to…
_The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of _Mexico, edited and with an introduction by Miguel Leon-Portillo (Boston: Beacon Press, 1992), pp. 196 Reviewed by: Nicholas Adams Broken Spears is an accumulated, chronological collection of texts and accounts of the invasion of the Aztec empire by the Spanish from April 22, 1519 to August 13, 1521. This time period from arrival to the surrender of the Aztec empire to the Spanish is filled with interactions between two different people and the events that encompass what it takes to conquer an indigenous people with complete disregard. Broken Spears also allows the history of the conquest of the Aztec empire to be seen from the Aztec point of view, as priests and natives who survived…
Hernan Cortes was a Spanish In Fall of 1518, Cortes was to set on his own voyage to the Aztec empire. He set sail for Mexico with less than half of a thousand men and eleven ships. His soldiers had far more superior weapons and they had horses. The Aztecs were very afraid of the horses because they had never seen anything like them before.…
The Spaniards allied with the Tlaxcalan indians and marched into Tenochtitlan. Montezuma welcomed in Quetzalcoatl’s men with open arms, but Hernan Cortes seized power of the empire by using Montezuma as a figurehead against his will, while Cortes made all the real decisions. Cortes acted as a secret leader until 1520, when events caused tension to escalate, and Cortes demanded Montezuma command his people obey the Spaniards. The Indians didn’t like this at all, and showered their leader in stones, he then went on to die days later in June of 1520. The spanish originally went to Mexico to search for land and gold, or other plunders because they had no prosperity back home in Spain. When they reached Mexico, they discovered the Aztec people and the native indians of the land, and decided to try to eliminate them and their ways (cannibalism, human sacrifices, etc. didn’t appeal to the Spanish, and they didn’t want people like that inhabiting the same land as…
In Aztec time, their self made weapons had changed dramatically after the arrival of the Spanish. Aztec weapons were improved with much stronger ones from the Spanish. There are a few long and short term effects between both of the nations. This essay will explain the short and long term effects of the arrival of the Spanish on Aztec warfare.…
Cortez was born around 1482 AD. He was born into a noble family. He was a conquistador. He’s known as the man who conquered the Aztec Empire and claimed Mexico for the Spanish. He commanded his own expedition to Mexico, even after he was commanded not to.…
When discussing the importance of Spanish alliances, it is important to discuss Matthew Restall’s interpretation of “the myth of the white conquistador”. A common myth in regards to the Spanish Conquest is that the Aztecs were conquered by a small group of white Spanish men. Within Restall’s book titled “Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest”, he debunks the myth of the white conquistadors. Restall’s argues that “there is no doubt that the Spanish were consistently outnumbered by native enemies on the battlefield. But what has so often been ignored or forgotten is the fact that Spaniards tended also to be outnumbered by their own native allies. Furthermore, the invisible warriors of this myth took an additional form, that of the Africans, free and enslave, who accompanied Spanish…
The Spanish conquistadors were successful in their battles against the inhabitants of the New World largely due to the native disunity among the various tribes of Mexico. Local tribes had differing political, religious, and cultural beliefs, and often waged wars against each other. As a result, an enemy’s enemy often became an ally, as evidenced in Cortes’ alliance with the Tlaxcalteca group. Tlaxcalteca was an enemy of Cholula, and members in the Traxcalteca community “brought certain rumors to Cortes, so that he would destroy [the Cholula]” (40). When the Spaniards heard this, they were “guided and accompanied by the Tlaxcaltecas… and they marched in battle array.” Tribes which allied with Cortes provided rations, man power, and information of the New World which significantly helped Cortes on his conquest in the New World. Hence, Spaniards were able to achieve success in their war efforts largely because of their alliances with other Native American tribes.…
“From the fact that the Indians are barbarians it does not necessarily follow that they are incapable…” (de Las Casas 3). In For the Record, it starts off right away in this section of how the Europeans while not sure of what to make of the Indians they knew that these were not the savages as some had described. De Las Casas goes on to describe of a people that were both loyal and committed to the community and to their fellow man. De Las Casas main adversary, Gines Sepulveda, failed to see the parallel in the fate of the Spaniards at the hands of the Romans and Caesar Augustus. “Now see how he called the Spanish people barbaric and wild” (de Las Casas 3) demonstrates the same philosophy of the thoughts of Europeans as they encountered the Indians. Shall those that are fearful for the loss of all they have worked for not fight back and retain what is rightfully theirs. The Indians, especially the Aztecs had built cities, established political and economic organizations and created richly diverse civilizations. In The Jesuit Relations they recount the gratitude shown to the hospital nuns “The Savages who leave the hospital, and who come to see us again at St. Joseph, or at the three Rivers,…
Hernan Cortés was a Spaniard who defeated the Mexica Confederation in many different ways. The most successful tactic he used to defeat the Aztecs were by European Weapons, but he also had different ways. Cortés had different advantages that the Aztecs didn't, the Spanish brought over small pox. Many of his people were immune to it while the Mexica Confederation was not. Many people thought the Spanish were gods and gave them many gifts. Motecuhzoma thought Hernan Cortés was Quetzalcoatl, which was a god they were waiting for. He had two translators that were able to help him through his journey. The two translators knew different dialect; he had La Malinche and Geronimo de Aguilar. Hernan Cortés had many advantages that allowed…
The myth is that the conquistadors conquered the America’s relatively quickly in a sovereign effort but Restall explains that the Spaniards had a lot of help from the Natives and African’s and the “completion” of conquest was anything but; as mass portions of the land remained unscathed by the conquest. Restall effortlessly explains how the conquistador myths of superior communication between the Spaniards and Natives were just as fabricated as the modern misconception of inferior communication by historians. The communication between the two, or lack thereof, fell somewhere between both myths. Restall uses his concise writing style to explain the resilience of the Natives, debunking the myth of Native desolation and how the myth of superiority derives from Eurocentric beliefs of racial dominance which lead to racist ideologies that “underpinned colonial expansion from the late fifteenth to early twentieth centuries.”…
Bibliography: Hernan Cortés, and Anthony Pagden, In _Letters from Mexico_ (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 11.…