Victors and Vanquished

The Spanish conquest of Mexico is an epic baloney that is on a lower floorstudied. The historical documents recounting the events be e very pen through the memory of the conquerors or the conquered, and as a result thither is a heavy(p) disparity in the positions, those facts changing depending on which side produced the documents. We give take a look at several of the documents published in Victors and Vanquished from two the Spanish and Nahua perspectives, analyzing them for bias, lessons learned, as nearly as the different contrasts amid different perspectives.In addition I turn over it is master(prenominal) to look at the overall demand loafer the Spanish conquest. In Bernal Diaz twinkling writing in the book he speaks of the Spanish movement from Santa Maria de la Victoria to San Juan de Ulua. When The Spaniards arrive they contract their runner meeting with repre displaceatives from Moctezuma. According to Diaz, Cortez treats the ambassadors very well, and i t seems that Cortez is sooner intended on making a commodity impression with Montezuma as well as the locals, confessing that they are on that point to entirely concern with the Indians.When Montezumas ambassadors return from delivering Cortez pass on to their king, they bring ski binding a unspoilt amount of treasures with them. The ambassadors also tell Cortez that Montezumadoes non think an discourse is necessary. This is an raise educational activity and approximatelything that I cerebrate may have shown the hidden motivations behind Montezumas thinking. I have to wonder if Montezuma was hoping that if he sent an acceptable amount of meretricious and nearly kind words the Spaniards would accept it graciously and be on their way.When a soul in power says something along the stresss of, an interview is not necessary (pp 90), it is a polished way of saying, I do not want to be interviewed. Political nicety is not something that is new to modern times. unfortun ately for Montezuma, by sending all that gold, his computer program backfired as the Spaniards noted that with the helmet filled with ok grains of gold it, showed us that there were good mines there. (pp 89-90) Shortly after this, Cortez informs Montezumaof his strong intentions on meeting him.Another interesting fact is that Cortez seems very focused on conveyance of title the idea that he is there with calm intentions, despite the eight hundred Indians he had left dead in Tabasco. I can understand Cortez desire to trade and explore a new soil with new people, simply the bottom line is that he had more on his sagaciousness than trading and exploration. He and his men had acquire a less than warm take in in Tabasco, and rather than find other r come come ine or turn back (which of course they couldnt do) they opted instead to use up around eight hundred of the innate peoples.When Montezuma sent that helmet filled with gold to Cortez I believe he sealed his fate. Cortez acts of humanity from that point forward were a office to an end, a necessary deposit on what he hoped to be a walloping payoff. The next few writings Id care to look at deal with the Chalula slaughterhouse. In Adres de Tapias mark of the incident the Cholulans put up a very friendly front, but are however maculationting to kill the conquistadors all along.The eyepatch is un put outed through Dona Marina (Cortez translator and suffer to his son) once the conquistadors are informed of the p cluster they confront the Chalulan warriors (who were at the time under the guise of slaves). They end up fix the warriors in a courtroom and then(prenominal) according to de Tapia, he ordered most of the lords to be killed. (pp 118) Then the Spaniards and Indians (Tlaxcalans) went throughout the city, violent death warriors and burning houses. (pp 118) De Tapia makes it sound as if the Spaniards were solely executing those guilty of treason and lies. besides I think one has to inq uiry if the destruction of the entire city was necessary. along with this, the Tlaxcalans were cited to have made off, with a great amount of plunder. (pp 118) It is hard for me to believe that go the Tlaxcalans were making off with all that plunder, the conquistadors were rest by not indulging themselves. In my opinion, the Tlaxcalans provide a good scapegoat for the conquistadors. The other side of this story written by Sahagun offers some key differences (as expected).Sahaguns story is much simpler than de Tapias with the conquistadors arriving in Cholula and having been previously warned by the Tlaxcalans that, the Cholulans are very evil they are our enemies. (pp 121) They simply smother a general summons for the higher(prenominal) ranking officials and warriors to assemble in the courtyard and slaughter them followed by the city. According to Sahugun the Chalulans were not even armed. Sahagun goes on to describe the conquistadors as a war machine.Mentioning all the iron incorporated with their weapons and armor, and making it sound like they steamrolled through Chalula which was a small ascertain on their way to Mexico. One interesting fact is that in this account there is no hint of the plunder that Diaz had mentioned. assumption over the Nahuas obvious spite for the conquistadors it seems presumable that they would take every opportunity to mention all the negative aspects of the Spanish conquest. This leads you to believe they either did not know closely it, or it didnt happen (most likely the former. They do make mention of the conquistadors voraciousness when shortly after Montezuma sent them gold gifts and, Like monkeys the grabbed the gold. It was as though their patrol wagon were put to rest. (pp 122) The Spaniards entry into Tenochtitlan was signly surprisingly dovish. With each leader olfactory modalitying out the other, Montezuma especially seems to be very accessible toward the Spaniards treating them as teules (gods). T his shaky peace ends on the spur of the moment with a bloodbath during the fiesta of Huitzilopochtli. on that point are three documents dealing with this debacle that Id think are important to look over. All the documents are fairly short in length, but there are a lot of things to consider. The first document written by Francisco Lopez de Gomara (whom Bernal Diaz often mentions with disdain) discusses the fiesta covering some of the rituals and dances, then quickly progresses to the Indian murders. The yet motivation Gomara offers as to why the Spanish so abruptly decided to discard peace was that, they coveted their gold and jewels. (pp 162) so the Spaniards locked the doors to the temple and murdered all that were inwardly taking from them their treasures. Given the conquistadors track write down up to this point it is not flimsy that this could happen, but I find myself inquire if there wasnt something more persuading them. The Florentine Codex and the Codex Aubin which both cover the massacre from a Nahua perspective are very similar to that of Gomaras with no real outstanding differences.This begs the doubt, was the treasure limn at the ceremony reason decorous to attack? I think that question is answered in another source. Bernal Diaz while describing the initial entry of the Spaniards into Tenochtitlan seems to be fairly peaceful as mentioned before. There is, however a spell point is his writings. The Spaniards find a cemented door near there accommodate in the city and end up breaking into it, only to discover a large storehouse of treasure.The description of the colossal quantities of gold was like a dream. straightway after this stripping the Spaniards start to feel like they are wearing out their welcome, and that the Aztecs are becoming more ill toward them. This should not be surprising given that they had broken into the Aztecs treasure vault, of sorts. However the conquistadors discovery of the chamber seems to be the major t urning point in the relations between the Aztecs and the Spaniards and is what I believe led to the massacre and ventual conquer of the empire. In my opinion the Spaniards rapaciousness was ultimately one of the biggest driving forces behind the destruction of the Aztec empire. When analyzing historical documents it is very knockout to try and read between the lines and soften fact from fiction. Undoubtedly emotions and time debauch peoples memories. However with so many various sources I think you begin to realize the truth stereotypically resides someplace close to the middle.