Conquistadors And How Has This Affect The Enduring Legacy Of The Aztecs
Did the Spanish Conquistadors misrepresent the Aztecs, and how has this affected the enduring legacy of the Aztecs?
[Note of clarification]: This essay is referring to the Aztecs as the Mexicas, due to misinformed terminology popularised by the Spaniards, the name ‘Aztecs’ proved to not be appropriate or correct when referring to the people who controlled the Tenochtitlan region in 1519, when the Spanish arrived. Though the name Mexica still begs some ambiguity in context, it is more respectful when referring to the people of the ‘Aztec Empire’.
The Mexicas were an indigenous Mesoamerican civilisation, prominent within the 16th century, who have incessantly suffered the misinterpretation and misinformation of their society due to the misleading
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Since the release of the Spanish Conquistador’s misinforming documents, the public has consistently villainised the Mexica, disrespecting their culture and failing to properly acknowledge their genuine history, often being compared to the Nazis. This view of the Mexicas provided by the public supplies key insight into the misinterpretation of the Mexica culture, though Richard A. Koenigsberg would disagree otherwise arguing that in comparison to the Western world who “frames war to establish that its ideas and beliefs are “real and true”” , the Mexicas acknowledged that sacrifice was for the “purpose of war” endorsing the humanity behind the Mexica’s rituals in contrast to the Western war. The Western perspective in regarding the Mexicas as mass murders is ironic as the Mexica’s are moreover commonly acknowledged as victims of genocide caused by nonother than their colonisers, the Spanish Conquistadors themselves. Additionally, another piece of evidence in the misrepresentation of the Mexica’s span from the name change from ‘Aztec’s’ as well. In the period of 1780, Francisco Javier Clavijero Echegaray published his work, La Historia Antigua de México, evidentially altering the Mexica’s name to the ‘Aztecan’s’, spurring the name ‘Aztec’ to spread throughout Western culture. The disregard of the Mexica’s cultural roots from a Westerner’s perspective, generated interest from historians, revealing that their evidential name is Culhua-Mexica, demonstrating the immense impact the Spanish had onto the legacy of the Mexicas. Though many historians are attempting to restore legitimate
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