Student question on the Spanish conquest
History 1100.3 student Nicholas Wood emailed me the following question:
The Spanish did not know exactly where to look for gold at first, but they suspected and hoped (and, after Cortés, knew) there were large, wealthy cities in the mainland interior. The basic procedure was to ask natives they met/conquered where the next towns were and what was there. I don't know how much Cortés knew before he set out into central Mexico, but the Spaniards probably knew from the coastal peoples they had already made contact with that there were some potentially rich targets in there somewhere.
Cor
tés and his small force were able to beat the Aztecs because they were able to gain native allies in the neighboring peoples that the Aztecs had already conquered. One example was the people of Tlaxcala, a city on the way from the coast to Tenochtitlan. Cortés and his native interpreter/mistress La Malinche had a fairly easy time recruiting natives to rise up against their Aztec overlords, and thus turned the Valley of Mexico's large population into an advantage for the Spaniards. The smallpox epidemics that broke out after the Spanish had visited also helped.
As to why the Spaniards weren't immediately killed, the Aztecs were not on the coast, and so could not have done this. The Aztec's native enemies did not want to kill the Spaniards, but instead saw their coming as at least potentially a good thing. Taking their weapons would not have done much good since the natives would not have known how to use, make, or maintain them. A few guns and cannons were not the key factor in the toppling the Aztec Empire in any case: there the keys were native allies and disease.
when spain sent an exploration to the new world why did they pick this certain place to land, did they know that there would people and gold there or did they just get lucky. when they landed why wouldn't the aztecs just fight them and take there weapons instead of trading with them or at least learn how to make the spanish weapons so that they didn't have to realy on the spanish for there weapons.This is a good question. I am not a Latin American specialist, because here is my best attempt at an answer:
The Spanish did not know exactly where to look for gold at first, but they suspected and hoped (and, after Cortés, knew) there were large, wealthy cities in the mainland interior. The basic procedure was to ask natives they met/conquered where the next towns were and what was there. I don't know how much Cortés knew before he set out into central Mexico, but the Spaniards probably knew from the coastal peoples they had already made contact with that there were some potentially rich targets in there somewhere.
Cor
tés and his small force were able to beat the Aztecs because they were able to gain native allies in the neighboring peoples that the Aztecs had already conquered. One example was the people of Tlaxcala, a city on the way from the coast to Tenochtitlan. Cortés and his native interpreter/mistress La Malinche had a fairly easy time recruiting natives to rise up against their Aztec overlords, and thus turned the Valley of Mexico's large population into an advantage for the Spaniards. The smallpox epidemics that broke out after the Spanish had visited also helped.As to why the Spaniards weren't immediately killed, the Aztecs were not on the coast, and so could not have done this. The Aztec's native enemies did not want to kill the Spaniards, but instead saw their coming as at least potentially a good thing. Taking their weapons would not have done much good since the natives would not have known how to use, make, or maintain them. A few guns and cannons were not the key factor in the toppling the Aztec Empire in any case: there the keys were native allies and disease.
posted by Jeff Pasley at 9:36 PM
2 Comments:
I found it interesting that Cortes, though the instigator and continuum for the breakdown of the Aztec culture, was not the main cause of the empire's downfall (Disease and weaponry played a part as well to weaken the Aztecs, but remained only helpful tools on the part of the Spanish). Though despicable, Cortes was highly intuitive, and realized that he would have been able to do little without the support of enemy tribes of the Aztec, which at once lent him numbers and willing guides to navigate him through the unfamiliar terrain. Ironically, it was the country's natives that undermined both the Aztecs and themselves, allowing Cortes and a comparatively scant handful of men to claim the empire's wealth and topple their culture with ease.
Gary Jennings's novel Aztec, the fictional account of a South American native, gives a broad and colorful view of the height and downfall of the Aztec empire, and it seems as if Jennings has done his homework in terms of historical accuracy and detail. I found it a compelling read, if anyone else is so inclined.
I would also add that if anyone is interested in the Aztec culture before the Spanish arrived to check out historian Inga Clendinnen's Aztec: an Interpretation. I would warn that there is lengthy discussion of ritual sacrifice and cannibalism, but the book is very readable.
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