Cortes Vs Las Casas

In every historical event there tends to be conflicting sides, each member has their own point of view based on a plethora of statistics. These statistics include but are not limited to, socio-economic classes, race, geographical boundaries, gender, etc. When two cultures interact for the first time there is bound to be some discrepancies over what truly occurred. These discrepancies are portrayed quite well through Bernal Diaz’s The Conquest of New Spain and The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, either side showed similarities, but at the same time they showed even more metamorphoses, making it nearly impossible to say either account holds more water than the other.

Miguel Leon-Portilla author of Broken Spears- The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, tells the story of the Spanish conquest over the Aztecs from the Aztec point of view. It is more familiar in history that the Spanish led by Hernan Cortez defeated the Aztecs with a powerful army and established an easy victory all while having intentions to gain power and greed. However, Leon-Portilla focuses on the Aztec Empire and their story. Leon-Portilla does a great job giving readers the real occurrences and events from Aztec members. This paper argues that history must be told from all sides. It is more common to hear about the Spanish conquest

Q: What were Cortes' and Bernal Diaz's motives for writing their accounts of the conquest? How did these motives color their narratives of the conquest?

Leon-Portilla based the stories told in this book upon old writings of actual Aztec people who survived the Spanish massacres. The actual authors of the stories told in this book are priests, wise men and regular people who survived the killings. These stories represent the more realistic view of what really happened during the Spanish conquest. Most of the history about the Aztec Empire was based on Spanish accounts of events, but Leon-Portilla used writings from actual survivors to illustrate the true history from the Indians’ point of view.

The reading “An Aztec account of the Spanish Conquest” is mainly about a story when Hernan Cortes came for the first time at Tenochtitlan (nowadays Mexico City). The Aztecs believes that when Hernan Cortes arrive they believe the he was Quetzalcoatl, the main god in the Aztec culture. Cortes were friendly invite to the Aztec city as the most important guest, the Aztec people made a big party to celebrate the return of their god, but the Aztec people did not know Cortes intentions of conquer the empire. Later the Aztecs were betrayed by Hernan Cortes. Cortes’s army began to attack the city and at the end they take over the city.

Second, Diaz’s account written after a while of the event that builds it more reliable because usually who write during the war tends to his group on his writing. Moreover, in a time of a huge debate about Spain as an empire and treating Indians Diaz wrote his documents based on his memories and notes. Indeed, he was old when he wrote his book. So, it was possible that he missed some information or details, but not the main points and that one of the reason for using “it seems to me” frequently in his paper. In contrast, Cortez wrote his letter during the mission that let him use the warriors’ language that made him avoid mentioning the Aztec’s advantages. But, The Broken Spears is a recollection of Spanish by Indians’ records from the 16th century but, the exact dates are missed which are important to evaluate the information. In brief, Diaz’s account is more believable because he wrote it after a while of the event that let him revised his point of view.

The argument of Juan Gines de Sepulveda is that of negative feedback to what was experienced in the first encounter of the Spaniards and American Indians in the Sixteenth Century. Also, Sepulveda demonstrates through his opinion that war against the Indians is a rightful act due to the fact that the Indians are seen as lower beings. The proof that Sepulveda uses to support his position is the glimpse the Spaniards noted in the short time they observed the Indians. Sepulveda thought that the Indians were uneducated individuals that were uncivilized in the way they conducted their lives. This can be seen in that Sepulveda comments on how Indians are not educated because they seem not to have an alphabet, any knowledge of the sciences, or any

“The Broken Spears” is a collection of many accounts of the destruction of Mexico by

Cortés was intelligent and proficient in law and knew that he was committing treason when he first departed Cuba for the unknown. Frank Ross wrote in “The Codex Cortés: Inscribing the Conquest of Mexico” that Cortés had “conceived of his defense as a legal case which depended on showing that his sense of personal loyalty to the King motivated his actions.” He had to provide evidence that his expedition into the unknown was for the benefit of Spain, especially economically. In the Second Letter of Hernán Cortés to Charles V, Cortés describes the Tenochtitlan market as packed with sixty thousand people

Cortez and his force arrived in Tenochtitlan on November 8th, 1519. Tenochtitlan was the capital of what we know today as Mexico. Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities in the world at that time. Tenochtitlan was run by the Aztecs. Cortes then met Montezuma, the Aztecs’s emperor. Montezuma and the Aztecs thought Hernan Cortes was a god. They thought he was Quetzalcoatl. Cortez was there at the right time because the god was supposed to arrive the same year Cortes was there. Since they thought he was a god they would do anything for his command. Later on Montezuma suspected Cortez not to be the god. He gave him gold and jewels to try and get him to leave. It had the opposite affect and increased the Spaniards greed. Cortez then captured Montezuma as hostage to prevent the Aztecs attacking.

Any student of history has come to recognize the fact that history is written by the victor and in lieu of this, research becomes essential to uncover where the truth lies. The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, so ironically named, is a personal account for historical events leading up to the conquest of New Spain, formerly known as the City of Mexico. The author, Bernal Diaz, was a soldier of the conquering army who composed the document well after the events took place sometime between 1552 and 1557. Though the document did provide insight in regards to the victor’s perspective, it also served as a tool to rewrite the account of the conquered people.

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'

In June, fighting erupted in the capital. One night was named "Noche Trista" meaning sad night in Spanish, because Cortes

However, the story of the Aztec defeat and the successful resolution of the Spanish mission against incredible odds raises many questions. Regardless of more advanced technology and weapons, the Spanish force was vastly outnumbered and began a military campaign poorly supplied within an unknown territory against an unknown enemy. This paper explores the possibility that other key factors were at play, which provided the Spanish with a several of advantages and facilitated the successful resolution of their campaign. Furthermore, these factors allowed for an incredibly quick and effective subjugation of millions of people – considering that by comparison it took hundreds of years to expel the Muslim armies from southern Spain, a war ending in 1492 and in which many conquistadores fighting in the new world took part of. This paper will argue that internal religious quarrels, unsustainable tax obligations, and continuing military conflicts weakened the Aztec social fabric by increasing resentment among subjugated towns and cities and diminishing trust among Aztec citizens in their highly centralized government.

After one eventually comes the other. Cortes did not only focus on killing the Aztecs he is still remembered for the battles of “La matanza de Cholula” and “La matanza del templo mayor”. Cortes needed men to help him finish the Aztec empire. “La matanza de Cholula” was an attack by military forces of the Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortes in his path to the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan in the year 1519.(12) According to writings of Cortes it was a preventing action because there was a rumor that there was going to be a possible ambush inside the city of Cholula. The result was the death of 5 000 or 6 000 Cholula, mostly unarmed civilians in a period not exceeding six hours. (12) The other battle “La matanza del templo mayor” also known as the night of tears was the night that Cortes lost half of his men trying to escape from the city of Tenochtitlan were also many Aztecs died; this was the 20 of May 1520. (13) The 27 of June 3 days before the night of tears happened Montezuma was killed by his own people, this will lead to the first confusion; days later Cuauhtémoc will be the next leader of the Aztecs being recognized for a more aggressive leader. (14) Cuauhtémoc knowing that Cortes was trying to empower