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Essay about hernan cortes in his conquest in mexico
Hernando cortes facts if he is hero or villain
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Beatriz Bodmer Pastor writes in her article, “Hernán Cortés and the Creation of a Model Conqueror that Cortés explains his actions of rebellious in his letter to the king as service to his Highness. One of Cortes’s main goals with the letter is to make sure the king sees that his decision not to follow the orders of Diego Velazquez and then resist arrest were all for the benefit of Spain. He paints himself as the number one Christian and follower of the crown so that he will not be punished. Cortés does this through his whole second letter, emphasizing that his rebelling and conquering of Mexico after being directed not to was all for the greater good of their country. One of the tactics he uses is called providentialism, the belief that
In Matthew Restall’s book The Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, he argues that many of the widely accepted modern beliefs about the Spanish Conquest are misguided or skewed. These myths more importantly show how dependent history is on the perspective of the one who is writing it, and how the writer perceives the events happening around them. One example, is the myth of white Spaniards going to a foreign land on the decree of a king and finding barbarous natives who are inferior to these so-called great men. Using documentation written from both sides, and taking into account the context of the time period, Restall explores the myths of the Spanish Conquest in order to frame a less romanticized, well-rounded view of what actually happened
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
... will”, which gives Cortes all the power of the kingdom. Plus, Moctezuma is willing to give all the gold to Cortes without interfer. After all the lecture, Moctezuma take off, Cortes and his soldiers rest. All this was recorded during the presence of the great Moctezuma and the conquistador Hernan cortes, which later on would conquer Aztec’s empire, a thing that Moctezuma was afraid.
Hernan Cortes was born at Medellin in Spain in the year 1485 and eventually became one of the great Governors of Mexico City. It all started in 1518 when the Governor of Cuba (Diego Velazquez) placed him in charge of an expedition to explore Mexico for colonization. In February, 1519, Cortes was about to set sail when Velazquez changed his mind at tried to replace him; however Cortes in an act of mutiny pushed forward anyway. In March of 1519, Cortes claimed the land for the Spanish Crown (Charles V). Because of this great victory and the gold that Cortes sent back to Spain, he was named Governor and Captain General of Mexico in 1523.
In his letters, Cortés also gave justification and explanation of the actions he took in Mexico. He attempted this primarily through his portrayal of Montezuma’s system of governance as brutal and his people as disloyal to him. He described the apparent willingness of the peoples he encountered to abandon the Aztecs and swear allegiance to the King of Spain, “Although they were subjects of Montezuma. they had been reduced to that condition by force.and when they had obtained through me some knowledge of your Highness.
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...
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
On October 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus landed on unknown territory, however, in his perspective of Earth he thought he made a new route to Asia. He travels throughout the lands, soon, he discovers new forms of inhabitant plants, as well as, indigenous people that were native to those lands. Years later he soon unravels that it was all unaccustomed terrain. The monarchy of Spain also discovers Columbus’s new discoveries, then, they send more explorers to conquer the lands. In 1520, Hernan Cortes goes with the order from Spanish royalty to go to the newly discovered lands to conquer them, also, help expand the Spanish empire. Overall, Columbus and Cortes both reported the new lands they recently discovered back to Spain, however, their descriptions
In 1539 Hernando de Soto and five hundred adventurers began on a journey of exploration that would take 4 years and would travel through 10 states in the southeast United States. His goal was to discover a source of wealth, preferably gold, and around his mines establish a settlement. During his travels through La Florida he encountered numerous groups of native peoples, making friends of some and enemies of others. His expedition was not the first in La Florida; however, it was the most extensive. In its aftermath, thousands of Indians would die by disease that the Spaniards brought from the Old World. De Soto would initially be remembered as a great explorer but, would be later viewed as a destroyer of native culture. However, in truth de Soto was neither a hero or a villain but rather an adventurer.
Diaz del Castillo writes “The True History of the Conquest of the New Spain” after being a part of the expedition of what is now Mexico alongside Hernan Cortes. Diaz del Castillo came from a modest background considering his family was poor and he had little education. He was most likely recruited for Cortes’ expedition of New Spain because of he previously took part in other expeditions to the Americas and the Caribbean. The author has the intentions to give his viewpoint in order to uncover the truth about the conquest after Francisco Lopez de Gomara wrote an account that Diaz del Castillo disagreed with. Diaz del Castillo believes that much of the credit of the success of the
“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
While Cortes would go away, leaving his country under the power of his vice rulers, many started to think of ways of killing Cortes to overthrow his power. Between the times he would leave to follow his wish to explore the rest of the world, he was opposed by many and even targeted by many. The race to becoming the Governor had started among the all of those who either claimed to be better than Cortes, or simply wanted to increase their power. Cortes’ empire had now officially seen a downfall,
Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Díaz 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 a sheep's clothing and manipulated Montezuma through his apparent innocence.
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
Why was Cortes with 508 soldiers able to conquer the Aztec Empire with millions of people?