Latin American Conquest Essay

Krystyna Ciszek [e-mail] LALS 101

2/14/14

The Conquest of Latin America

Latin America’s history was a blend of war, dominance and most importantly power. This description of the Latin American conquest is what stuck with me from my previous history classes. The stories of how the past was a battle over opportunity and possession, violence and anger, in every class lecture I attended. It was also known that throughout the land area, opportunity became a priority for the rich and most powerful. These levels of privilege and power overcame through historical time starting from the Indian rulers to the European conquerors as well as the men of European descent. They were also carried on through the Catholic Church, the wealthy and the physically skillful and even the gods of religions. Specifically, the Spanish conquered Latin America through the use of inferior weapons, enforced Christianity, and through their shaped strong military traditions that allowed them to out rule the other competitions and capture both empires’ allowing the emperors defeat the Incas and Aztecs. However, in these societies the greatest cause that led to their ultimate execution was the smallpox epidemic. The act of the allowing disease to spread through Latin America came across as acts of cruelty that unfortunately identified the Spanish as evil monsters in Latin history. As you can see, the answer to the question of whether or not the Spanish were evil is not so black and white. This act in history makes me question whether or not the Spanish were actually “evil” when qualities of courage and resolution were shown whenever an armed struggle broke out. Regardless if the Spanish were thought to be evil or not, this epidemic destroyed ...

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...eeded in enjoying themselves without going to extremes. Perhaps the Indians did not go to extremes because they were fearful of the rulers, of the Gods and did not have dominance as their first priority. As Columbus stated in his article, “They are not from any deformity of the body, but they are timid and full of fear. “(Columbus, 4) Maybe the Indians did not fight back because they already had all the treasures they wanted and didn’t crave any more. The Indians did not deserve the dreadful treatment during the plagues and daily life during the conquest, just as the Jews did not deserve the maltreatment in the concentration camps that Hitler held. However, the conquest was not as strategically planned to kill indigenous people as Hitler’s plan was but they still carried on with the mass murders therefore Cortez is just as in the wrong as Hitler in that sense.