thinking and still continues today. With much work, it can be stopped and situations like the relationship between the conquistadors and the natives can be prevented. The conquistadors simply valued the wrong things, putting money over life. As Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a conquistador once said, "We came to serve God and to get rich, as all men wish to do."
The passage from Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s The True History of the Conquest of New Spain is a clear example of a narrative source. Díaz is presenting his personal account of Hernan Cortes’s expedition into Tenochtitlan. An interesting aspect of this narrative is that it was written almost 50 years after the events described occurred . Bernal Díaz del Castillo was only 24 years old when on November 8, 1519 he and the rest of Hernán Cortés’s expedition first entered the city of Tenochtitlán .
World. This paper will compare three primary sources about this event. First, an informing letter sent from Cortez to King Charles V, the king of Spain. Second, the Broken Spears which is an Indian recollection about the conquest of Mexico. Lastly, Bernal Diaz’s (one of Cortez’s men) account was written by him to share his experience with Aztec civilization. Moreover, this paper will show the credibility of Diaz’s account compared to the other sources because the objectivity of his tone, written after
of Moctezuma. At that time Marina spoke no Spanish. She translated what the Aztecs said into the Mayan dialect understood by de Aguilar and he relayed it to Cortes in Spanish. The process was then reversed, Spanish to Mayan and Mayan to Nahuatl. Bernal Diaz, author of "The Conquest of New Spain" authe... ... middle of paper ... ...e was full of corpses. The dry land and stockades were piled high with the dead. We also found Mexicans lying in their own excrement, too sick to move." After the Conquest
Mexica. The first source is an excerpt from The True History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a Spanish conquistador, who participated as a foot solider in the conquest of Mexico with Hernán Cortés. Although Díaz del Castillo was a witness of the conquest, he wrote his account of what he had witnessed decades after the Spanish victory, in 1521. In his account, Díaz del Castillo concentrated on the ways in which the Spanish viewed the Nahua peoples. The second source is taken
Lawyer: Firstly, Your Honour and members of the Jury, I thank you for your time. My name is Evelynne Lee and I am a lawyer for the Defence.I am here today to prove that the intentions of Hernan Cortez were good and honorable and is innocent of the crime of genocide against indigenous civilisations. It is my belief that the Defendant is not responsible and innocent of the charges on the basis that the intentions of Cortes were good and honourable. To prove my statement about Cortes, I intend to call
Hernan Cortes After evaluating the murder of Moctezuma II, the following conclusions are deducted. The jury ruled that Hernan Cortes was innocent in the charges of premeditated murder out of jealousy of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II. Hernan Cortes was innocent because there was the lack of murder. Without hard evidence connecting him and the Spanish army to the murder. Without the presentation of hard evidence and the extreme ambiguity as to what happened on the day of death of Moctezuma II and the
observation to then spread the news that she had died. She erased her existence for the status of the family. In the eyes of Diaz del Castillo and Cortes, their perspective on La Malinche is different. To Bernal Diaz, he praised her beauty and intelligence and viewed her as a women that possessed much valor, something uncommon being said from a conquistador. She served her purpose to Castillo as helping him appreciate the indigenous women for the first time, as he acknowledged that “without the help of Dona
Indian women had played roles in the beginning of American history. The two famous women were La Malinche and Pocahontas. Both of them were not educated, that’s why their stories were written by others. Bernal Diaz, Spanish conquistador and Cortez’s companion, wrote about Malinche. Whereas, John Smith, English soldier wrote about Pocahontas. Malinche played the role of translator, advisor and lover of Cortez, while, Pocahontas played the role of peacemaker. There are also some contradictions in Smith
ALBUQUERQUE, AFONSO DEAfonso de Albuquerque (14??-1515) was a Portuguese soldier and explorer who sailed to the Spice Islands (the Moluccas, a group of Islands in Indonesia) in 1507-1511, trying to monopolize trade with this area; from Europe, he sailed around Africa to the Indian Ocean. He was appointed the Viceroy of India by King Emmanuel in 1509. He forcibly destroyed the Indian city of Calicut in January, 1510, and took Goa (in southern India) in March, 1510, claiming Goa for Portugal. AYLLON
In Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s The History of the Conquest of New Spain, the first hand account illustrates a barbaric and pagan society where sacrifices are pervasive in everyday life. However, David Carrasco’s essays titled “The Exaggeration of Human Sacrifice” and “Human Sacrifice / Debt Payments from the Aztec Point of View” shed a significant amount of insight into the religious roles that human sacrifice played in Aztec society rather than the cruel and barbaric connotations which Díaz heavily
The Conquest of New Spain 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
La Malinche Today in Mexico, the word “malinche” or “malinchista” is used to describe a person who betrays his or her own people. This term has its origins on the name of the Native American woman, la Malinche or Doña Marina. She played an important role in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire. La Malinche became Hernan Cortez’s translator, advisor, and lover during the conquest period. Her knowledge of Mayan and Nahuatl languages gave Cortez the necessary tools to conquer the Aztec empire.
large European city. Also, these cities had very complicated commerce and agricultural systems to sustain such a large population. Even the Spanish Conquistadors had never seen such a wondrous and large city before. As Spanish conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo said, “Some of the soldiers among us who had been in many parts of the world, in Constantinople, and all over Italy, and in Rome, said that they had never seen so large a market place and so full of people, and so well regulated and arranged”
A brief account of the destruction of the Indies. This account is a voice to create awareness for the silent indigenous people. It is a real account of what was happening in the new world real world. It was written by the bishop Don Bartolommeo de las Casas to inform the lord the Emperor. He talks about what is happening to the Indies, “Some of the things that have occurred in the Indies, however, are quite terrible, the slaughter of innocent people, the depopulation of entire villages, provinces
As identified by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, faithful comrade of Hernán Cortés in the conquest of Mexico, “the Spaniards arrived in America to serve God and His majesty and also to get riches.” Collectively, the Spanish showed an undeniably profound interest in the resources they
descriptions of these settlements. Christopher Columbus and Hernando Cortes can be credited with much of these writings, although other explorers contributed their findings as well. During this period, authors such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Bartolome de la Casas, and Antonio Vierra. This is also when the first notable mentions of poetry are found. The 1500s-1600s were a time of artistic creativity much like that of Spain and Portugal. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a talented
Works Cited BBC. BBC Historical Figures. November 9, 2009. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/cortes_hernan.shtml (accessed November 9, 2009). Castillo, Bernal Díaz del. The Conquest of New Spain. Encyclopedia Britannica. Hernan Cortes. November 9, 2009. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/138839/Hernan-Cortes-marques-del-Valle-de-Oaxaca (accessed November 9, 2009). Jacobs, W.J. Hernando Cortès. New York: Franklin Watts Inc., 1974. Knight, Kevin. Catholic Encyclopedia.
The mere fact that the conquistadors had reliable translator, was undoubtedly a huge success for them; however, there is evidence that La Malinche was not limited to only the role of an interpreter, but became influenced by many things. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a soldier in the conquest was very often and reverently speaking of Dona Marina. He argued that without the help of Dona Marina, they would not have understood the language of New Spain and Mexico. However Indian sources were even more
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