The Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire is a significant event in the Spanish colonization occurring around 1519. The Spanish conquistadors were led by Hernan Cortes. The Spanish used the Aztecs rival tribes to fight against them that aided in their victory along with slaves who drained the Aztecs water source and diseases such as smallpox that was brought upon the civilization that drastically decreased the Aztec population. Another aid in the fall of the Aztec empire was the assistance of an Aztec woman named La Malinche. La Malinche was a woman who played a major role in the Spanish conquest, she was the interpreter for Hernan Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors. She would translate either Mayan or Nahuatl language to Spanish for Cortes’ …show more content…
The codex speaks about the fear that the people appear to have towards the Spaniards. Fear in making mistakes that will cause them their life, death shall come to them by the hands of the grim reaper who’s dressed as the Spaniards. In the Florentine Codex Sahagún states, “They were greatly afraid; they were limp with fear; they were taken aback” (Sahagún 124). It wasn’t only fear to them but also to Cortes’ right hand lady Marina, more commonly known as La Malinche, they feared her even though she was once one of them. The fact that she was with the Spaniards changed their entire image of her and was portrayed as someone new, with a new title to her name described as a Christianized woman married to a Spanish Conquistador leader. In the image of “El sueño de la Malinche” Ruíz depicts the civilization lying on the back of La Malinche, one wrong move and she destroys it. It is no wonder that the indigenous people fear her, for alongside Cortes she was the one who gave him the power that caused the downfall to the Empire. Since she was once one of them she held many secrets to their weaknesses and
History is usually outlined by critical moments which have had enduring effects in the world. Several turning points have defined the history of Latin America. Two major climaxes in Latin American History were the 19th-century Wars of Independence and the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Both of these events have significantly changed the course of Latin American history.
Anais Nin once said that “we write to taste life twice: in the moment and in retrospection.” In his book, Seven Myths of Spanish Conquest, Matthew Restall tries to change our perception of the past in other to open our eyes to what life was really like during the colonial period. As Restall puts it, the main propose of the book is to “illustrate the degree to which the Conquest was a far more complex and protracted affair” (p.154) than what was supposed in the latters and chronicles left by the conquistadores. Each one of Restall’s chapters examines one of seven myths regarding the mystery behind the conquest. By doing so, Matthew Restall forces us to look back at the Spanish conquest and question
Looking back into the history of certain events affords the modern researcher the ability to examine a variety of documents and artifacts. It is important, however, to take into account biases, inaccuracies, errors in translation, and overall misinformation when examining primary sources, particularly historical documents. Examining the history of the conquest of the Aztec empire is no different, and in a scenario as tense as it was it is extremely important to consider the authorship of the text. Bernal Diaz’ The Conquest of New Spain and Miguel Leon-Portilla’s The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico offer two distinct looks into the same event in history. Both documents offer differing takes of the same events, so when
The Aztec Empire was the most powerful Mesoamerican kingdom of all time. They dominated the valley of Mexico in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Aztecs were an advanced and successful civilization that built beautiful, sophisticated cities, temples, and pyramids. They also created a culture full of creativity with mythological and religious traditions. Aztecs lead a structured and evocative life that let their society to become a very superior civilization. The Aztec’s communication skills were very well developed for their time; through religious beliefs, government involvement, and family life they lived a full and productive life. Until in 1519 when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico, and defeated the Aztecs.
The Inca Empire Janos Gyarmati’s Paria la Viexa and an expanding empire: Provincial centers in the political economy of the Inca Empire proved that the Inca’s built an empire unlike any other. From 1440 to 1532 A.D., the Inca Empire dominated the Americas. Known as “the fastest growing and largest territorial empire”(Gyarmati 37) of its time, the Inca Empire left a mark with their complex, perpetual and innovative economic, road, and settlement system. The Inca’s were advanced for their time, however, they lacked a system that would guarantee the survival of their kin. In order to strive, for the long-term, the Inca’s created provincial centers that would ensure their growth and economy for the generations to come.
In 1519, Hernan Cortes left Cuba with only a small fraction of his huge army, 11 ships, 500 men, and 15 horses. After Cortes came to a halt for a series of short stops in Yucatán where gold was rare to find, instead he found a gift with no price worthy of it of translators, one "La Malinche" who later became his wife and also made legendary. She was an Aztec girl that was traded into Mayan slavery; another translator he found was a shipwrecked Spanish man who had also lea rned the Mayan language after seven years of slavery. He then soon learned that the land was ruled by a great leader in the city of Tenochtitlán. Then ambassadors from the Aztec Emperor, Moctezuma II arrived with gifts, in attempt of keeping him at a distance and preventing him from attacking by satisfying Cortes with gold.
“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
In 1519 Hernando Cortes` led over 500 men into Aztec territory in search of gold, what he found were the magnificent golden statues of the Aztec deities. The Aztecs believed him to be the representative for some white skinned god, and hence feared and respected him. It was not until they saw him melting their statues and shipping the blocks of gold to Spain that they acted. They attacked Hernanado and his men, and succeeded in driving them off. However, Cortes returned later with the support of local Indian tribes that hated the Aztecs for centuries of cruel treatment to defeat the mighty Aztecs and take the empire. This ended the Aztec civilization forever.
The Conquest of New Spain Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Daz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés' strategy in making Mexico "New Spain." He came as a wolf in sheep's clothing and manipulated Montezuma through his apparent innocence.
...in slavery by the Maya merchants. La Malinche was giving to a Spanish Conquistador after conquering a city called Tabasco. While in his possession, she learned Spanish and become Hernan Cortes personal interpreter. Eventually falling in love with Cortes and become his mistress. In this adultery relationship she bore him two sons. Eventualy She learn that Cortes was heading back to Spain with out her. Those Cusing her to comit a hanes crime of killing her two sons by the bank of a lake that “would be ome the foundation for Mexico City”. http://thehauntedinternet.com/lallorona.html..
The downfall of the Aztec Empire was a major building block of the Spanish colonial empire in the Americas. Spain’s empire would stretch all the way into North America from the Southwest United States all the way up the Pacific Coast. The unfortunate side effect of this was the elimination of many nations of indigenous people. The three major themes shown in this conquest really give deeper look into the anatomy of this important historical event. Without context on the extent of native assistance given to Cortez in his fight with the Aztecs, a reader would be grossly uniformed. The Spanish conquest was closer to a civil war than an actual conquest. Until reading detailed personal accounts of the fighting it is difficult to judge the deadly effectiveness of the Spaniards technological superiority. Without it is difficult to imagine 500 conquistadors holding thousands of native warriors at bay. Once the greed of Cortez and greed in general of the Europeans one understands that if it wasn’t Cortez if would have just been a different man at a different time. Unfortunately fame and prosperity seem to always win over cares about fellow human beings
The author argues that the Spanish were completely at fault for the total destruction of the Aztec Empire. In Broken spears, the author explains how many factors other than Spanish power contributed to the downfall of the Aztecs. Not only did the Spanish have many advantages over the Aztecs, but also they also exploited them and took advantage of the cultural difference. The main key aspects to the Spanish victory, is that the Spanish were viewed as gods at first because of their appearance, the Aztecs welcomed the Spanish with gifts and festivities, which showed the Spanish had total control of people. The Aztecs also held a ritual ceremony for the arrival of the “god” that included a human sacrifice, which was seen by the Spanish as a disgusting act, this trigged Spanish hatred for the Aztecs. When the Spanish saw the resources that the Aztecs had, they quickly started taking advantage of the Aztecs weaknesses. The Spanish had more power; they were better equipped than the Aztecs and more advanced. The Aztecs’ leader Montecuhzoma was a weak leader, he was more of a coward, more concerned with his well being and safety than the safety of his people and kingdom so he quickly surrendered under pressure. The Spanish used surrounding enemy tribes to take over the Aztec lands, then began to massacre men, women and children. When the Aztec became angry and started to fight back, they were quickly wrecked by the diseases the Spanish ...
The myth talks of a woman living in the time of the Aztecs who is caught between her culture and that of Cortez cultures in the time of Hernando Cortes. The woman served as a mediator between Cortes and her people. She was his lover and stood aside as Cortes conquered her people making her seem as a traitor (Fitts).The woman and Cortes had a child; then Cortez abandoned the both of them, and the woman stayed alone the rest of her life. La Malinche means “bad woman” the woman got this name by turning on her people for Cortes by selling them out for revenge from how badly they treated, and ultimately destroys the civilization
...nd in the west which would help to establish a fighting force in the pacific against the growing threats of the Asian empires such as Japan. Hawaii was annexed during this war and became a U.S. Territory later becoming a state in 1959. It seemed for everyone except Spain, the War was a good thing. Perhaps American loses would have been far less had it not been for the infectious diseases that Americans had never encountered. Because of his leadership and victories in the Spanish-American War, Lt. Col Theodore Roosevelt would later become the 26th president of the United States. He would die in 1919 and is to this date, revered as one of America’s greatest leaders. Because of Theodore Roosevelt’s leadership, he would influence the decisions of his cousin who would lead the nation out of a “Great Depression” and into another “Great War (WWII)” in the 1930’ and 40’s.
Her mom remarried once her father passed away. Malinche was sold to slave traders who of course spoke a different language and she started learning it. Slowly becoming a bilingual tongue opened her a couple doors. According to some, she even learned to speak other languages that gave her an advantage in the conquest. Since she started learning these languages that were very broad in Mexico, she started using that gain as a backstabbing technique towards Mexico. Once she met with Hernan Cortes and Malinche found out who she was and her capabilities, he recruited her and took her to meetings that he wanted her to be a part of. He used her for her capabilities of speaking different languages. In other words, he practically used her for being able to speak different languages which was a gain on his side of the conquest. She was able to get him through a deep part of Mexico which he wouldn’t have gotten to without her. She was able to understand the language and used that to beat Mexico off of their own