Conquest of Mexico
In 1519 Hernán Cortés led a couple hundred other Spaniards inland to the impressive Empire of the Mexica ruled by the Great Montezuma. Many historians today tell how quickly and almost effortlessly these Spaniards conquered the Empire. They paint an image of ignorant, helpless Indians practically giving up their land out of fear of this group because certainly the Spaniards must be gods since they have powerful weapons and strange animals. We know neither Cortés nor any of his men were gods, of course, but what was it that allowed Cortés to prevail over the inhabitants of the land?
The First Expeditions
To begin, in 1517 Francisco Hernández de Córdova, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, and some other gentlemen embarked on a journey to explore new lands in hopes of seeking employment since they had yet to find it in their new home of Cuba. In need of additional provisions, the governor of Cuba, Diego Velásquez, loaned the group supplies and a boat with the agreement that they return with Indians to be used as slaves.
At Cape Catoche of the Yucatan Peninsula, Córdova’s men first encountered a group of Indians who at first appeared friendly and welcoming only to draw those who disembarked along the road to their village where they then ambushed the explorers. In that battle, fifty soldiers died and the captain and the remaining men all suffered many wounds. The explorers continued to receive this type of reception from the Indians they encountered at every stop along the coast of the peninsula. Nearly dieing of thirst for want of fresh water, Córdova and his men tried again and again to safely land and gain casks of fresh water. At Champoton they encountered fresh water. Yet again they met with hostile, warring Indians. Only one man escaped without harm, but the Indians captured him. Once the Indians retreated, Córdova and his men quickly filled the casks with fresh water and returned to their ship. In light of the fact that the voyage proved to be somewhat of a disaster and all the men were either ill or wounded, they decided to return at once to Havana. (Díaz)
Once in Havana, Córdova sent a report to Governor Velásquez word of their return. In addition to reporting about the warring natives, Córdova described the discovery of heavily populated lands where the people lived in masonry houses, wore cotton garments,...
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... Spaniards, and various Indians battled day after day often regaining what they had lost in the night as they retreated for rest.
Cortés had previously been adamant about only causing harm to the Indians when absolutely necessary. The new lord refused to withdraw and admit defeat. Finally, Cortés called for all buildings to be decimated. He had envoys at all entrances to the city by that time, and escape was impossible. July 26, 1520, after 12,000 dead, Cortés claimed Mexico City for Spain.
Works Cited
Cortés, Hernando. 5 Letters of Cortés to the Emperor 1529 – 1526. Trans. J. Bayard
Morris. New York: W. W. Norton, 1962.
Díaz del Castillo, Bernal. The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico,1517 – 1521/Edited from the only exact copy of the original MS. (and published in Mexico) by
Genaro García. Translated with an introd. And notes by A.P. Maudslay. Introd.
To the American ed. By Irving A. Leonard. New York: Farrar, Straus, and
Cudahy, 1956.
Helly, Mathilde. Montezuma and the Aztecs/Mathilde Helly and Rémi Courgeon. New
York: Henry Holt and Company, 1996.
Morris, J. Bayard, trans. 5 Letters of Cortés to the Emperor 1529 – 1526. By Hernando
Cortés. New York: W. W. Norton, 1962.
From a proud Conquistador, to a castaway, a slave and trader, and then medicine man, Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to explore much of the southern coast of Texas. Cabeza was a 37 year old military veteran in 1527 when he left on the Narvaez Expedition to find gold and colonize the Gulf Coast. He was the expedition’s treasurer. Cabeza de Vaca was enslaved by Indians in 1528 when one of the rafts the crew made crashed on present day Galveston island, he then escaped in 1530 and joined/was enslaved by another tribe called the Charrucos until his escape with 3 other survivors in 1534. He then walked to Mexico City. Cabeza survived this ordeal because of the incredible patience he had, his skills of diplomacy and goodwill, and his amazing wilderness survival skills.
For three centuries they fought to survive the invasive Europeans never letting go of their
In An Account, Much Abbreviated, of The Destruction of The Indies, the author is giving an introduction on Bartolome De Las Casas who was a Christian missionary at the time of the Spaniards discovering the New World. He had a rather self-taught oriented theology, philosophy and law. He went to Hispaniola ten years after its discovery in 1502 ; in Santo Domingo he was ordained priest in 1512 and a year later he went as a chaplain in the expedition that conquered Cuba . After going to Hispaniola years after Columbus settled there, he did not support what the Spaniards did to the indigenous people. From 1551 until his death , Las Casas role was to bring the complaints to the authorities of the indigenous population of the Spanish America. Dissatisfied
Francisco traveled to New Spain in 1535. He got a job working for the government. Within three years of his arrival, he had put down a slave rebellion, become governor of Nueva Galicia, and had married Dona Beatriz, the daughter of the colonial treasurer. But he wanted more. He set out, convinced by the rumors of cities of gold, but what he found wasn’t what he was looking for.
In 1518 Hernán Cortés took command of an expedition to secure the interior of Mexico in the name of the Spanish Crown. In the letters he detailed his expedition and the land and peoples they conquered and encountered. The first letter, dated 1519, is a problematic document as it is written in the third person and was most likely not actually written by Cortez. The second and third letters are much more reliable and were published in Seville in 1522 and 1523 respectively. The culture, geography, economy and other details of the Aztec civilization, as well as Cortés and his forces’ interaction with them, are detailed in his letters which are addressed to the monarch of the sponsor of his force, Spain.
One of the most interesting aspects of Diaz’s narrative is towards the end when Cortés broaches the subject of Christianity with Montezuma. Conversion and missionary work was one of the most important and lasting goals of the conquistadors and other contemporary explorers, they were charged with this duty by the rulers who sent t...
C. W. Hackett, ed., Historical Documents relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, vol. III (Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1937), 327-35.
Milanich, Jerald T. and Susan Milbrath., ed. First Encounters: Spanish Exploration in the Caribbean and the United States1492-1570. Gainesville: U of Florida P, 1989.
When the Spaniards arrived on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico in 1519, they encountered the advanced society of the Aztecs. With Tenochititlan at its capital, the Aztec empire was vast. The Aztecs had substantial wealth from trading and extensive payments of tribute from conquered peoples. Bernal Diaz in his The Conquest of New Spain comments, "We were dazzled at the richness of the country that we passed through" (282). The Spaniards encountered a powerful, advanced people in the New World, making Cortes and his crew of approximately 600 seemingly ensured of defeat. The Aztec religion lends much to Spanish success in conquest.
Edited by Richard Boyer & Geoffrey Spurling. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000. Busch, Christian. A. Don Manuel Valdivieso y Carrion Protests the Marriage of His Daughter to Don Teodoro Jaramillo, a Person of Lower Social Standing. Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History, 1550-1850.
“The Conquest of New Spain” is the first hand account of Bernal Diaz (translated by J.M. Cohen) who writes about his personal accounts of the conquest of Mexico by himself and other conquistadors beginning in 1517. Unlike other authors who wrote about their first hand accounts, Diaz offers a more positive outlook of the conquest and the conquistadors motives as they moved through mainland Mexico. The beginning chapters go into detail about the expeditions of some Spanish conquistadors such as Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, Juan de Grijalva and Hernando Cotes. This book, though, focuses mainly on Diaz’s travels with Hernando Cortes. Bernal Diaz’s uses the idea of the “Just War Theory” as his argument for why the conquests were justifiable
On June 17, 1527, Cabeza de Vaca set sail on the order to conquer and govern the lands from the Rio Grande to the cape of Florida. However, during his journey he encountered much devastation such as the wrecking of his ship which resulted in his separation from the majority of his Christian companions. Praying to God after every ordeal, Cabeza routinely sought after his Christian religion to guide him through his unexpected journey. While traveling through the interior of America, he also encountered many native tribes which inhabited the land. While most of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century spread their religion through warlike ways and rearranged societies for the sole purpose of their own economic gain, Cabeza thought that kindness was the only way to win the hearts of the natives and without clothes or any material possessions, he upheld his promise and beliefs. After being enslaved by the natives Cabeza moved from tribe to tribe with the hope of finding his fellow Christians while praising and thanking God that his life was spared. Moving from tribe to tribe as a medicine man Cabeza still lived by his Christian teachings and implemented them into the way that he communicated with the natives, ultimately converting many tribes into Christianity. The religion of Christianity directly influenced the way in which Cabeza de Vaca interacted and felt toward the natives, thus throughout the duration of his time traveling across the interior of America, Cabeza was able to continually practice his religious beliefs while also being able to convert many Indians to his religion at the same time.
Ponce de Leon sailed to Puerto Rico in 1506 with two hundred men to the island and found out that it had rich gold deposits. He enslaved the natives, and forced them to mine gold for him. Ponce de Leon left Puerto Rico and returned again in 1508, this time he brought with him only fifty men. On this voyage, his ship went through a terrible storm that caused him to run onto the rocks on two occasions. The crew was forced to throw over much of their supplies in order to keep the ship from sinking.
In the first part of the document, Cortés and his men spend their time at Montezuma's palaces. Seeing the extravagant wealth of the Aztec king, Cortés begins his seduction (all the while knowing that Montezuma believes that he may be the fulfillment of a prophecy). He embraced Montezuma with the greatest reverence and "…told him that now his heart rejoiced at having seen such a great Prince, and that he took it as a great honour that he had come in person to meet him and had frequently shown him such favor" (World History: Castillo, 247). Cortés and his men are brought into the house of Montezuma and all of his riches are now at their disposal to observe and share in. Montezuma tells Cortés: "Malinche you and your brethren are in your own house…" (World History: Castillo, 247). The wealth of Montezuma is magnificent. Each soldier is given tw...
Cortes was able to conquer the Aztecs for several very different reasons. In combination these reasons allowed him to have the upper hand in the conquest of Mexico. Arguably these reasons can be sorted into six different categories. The various causes for Cortes' success will be assessed in a climax pattern. To begin with the Aztecs had a harsh tribute system that was not popular among the people of Mexico. This cruel tribute system allowed Cortes to act as a liberator. Furthermore, with the Spanish brought several diseases into Mexico in witch they were immune to but the Aztecs were not. The spread of diseases such as small pox reduced the Aztec population and furthered Cortes' success unintentionally Also Marina was a tribal girl given as a gift to Cortes, she proved invaluable in translating local dialects in combination with Geronimo de Aguilar. Also an important aspect of his success was due to Montezuma's belief that Cortes was Quetzakoatl. A predominant reason for the Spanish success was due to their weaponry especially their armour and firepower. Perhaps the most important reason of all was that of Cortes' Indian allies such as the Tlaxcalans who made up the majority of his combined army. All these reasons worked together to allow Cortes, originally with 508 men to conquer the Aztec Empire of millions of people.