Portilla The Broken Spears Summary

How would you feel if you welcome an outsider into your home but, they end up betraying your trust, that’s what happened to the Aztecs and their empire in the Spanish conquest of 1521. Hernan Cortes, a Spanish conquistador sent by King Charles V, arrives in Central America in 1519 and starts to hearing things about the Aztecs, a very wealthy civilization. Once the Spanish find the city Tenochtitlan (capital city of the Aztec Empire), with the help of the Tlaxcalans (enemies of the Aztecs), they are welcomed by the Aztec leader Montezuma II because he thinks that Cortes is the white skinned god Quetzalcoatl who is to arrive from the east, according to Aztec legend. Then Cortes orders his men to destroy religious statues and idols belonging to the Aztecs, so Cortes has Montezuma II arrested and taken hostage to hopefully prevent an attack from the Aztecs. While other conquistadors killed Aztec priests whilst in one of their religious celebrations.

In 1519, Hernándo Cortés, a Spanish Conquistador ventured into Tenochtitlan, the capital of Aztec empire, searching for gold and glory. He set out to conquer the empire and to capture the Aztecs in order to achieve his ambitions. Moctezuma, the highly respected leader of the mighty Aztec Empire, came confronting with Hernán Cortés, the leader of a small band of professional European soldiers from a huge island that lay six day’s sail to the east. In “Malintzin’s Choices: An Indian Women in the Conquest of Mexico” and “Mexico and the Spanish Conquest”, Camilla Townsend and Ross Hassig respectively present one histories in their own interpretations of the conquest of Mexico.

Battle of Tenochtitlan – Fall of the Aztec Empire The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the historical Battle of Tenochtitlan and apply critical reasoning and battle analysis techniques to assess the utilization of intelligence assets and provide alternate outcomes. Prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519, the mighty Aztec Empire was at the height of its power. From their capital city, Tenochtitlan, the Aztec controlled much of what is now known as Mexico and Central America, ruling an estimated 15 million people. The Aztec palaces were as vast and sophisticated as any of those in Europe and their temples rivaled the Egyptian pyramids.

Brittanica shares that, “Cortés entered the city on November 8, 1519, with his small Spanish force and only 1,000 Tlaxcaltecs. ”Hernan now entered the Aztec capital, and prepared for war. History quotes, “Seizing his chance, Cortés took Montezuma hostage and his soldiers raided the city.” Cortez now took over Tenochtitlan, and it wasn’t a long or hard fight for the Spanish before they won. On August 13, 1521, the Aztec empire fell and Cortez won.

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.

From 1540 to 1600 the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico were subjected to seven consecutive waves of soldiers, missionaries, and settlers. These encounters, referred to as the Entradas, were characterized by violent actions between Spanish colonists and Pueblo Indians. The Tiguex War, fought in the winter of 1540-41 by the expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado against the twelve pueblos of Tiwa Indians, was particularly catastrophic to Pueblo and Spanish relations. (Handbook of North American Indians. pg.

The Broken Spears, by Miguel Leon-Portilla, is an all-inclusive and compelling account of the Spanish conquest, told by the Aztecs also known as the conquered. Leon Portilla’s choice of events depicted in this book collides together giving the reader a broad view of the Spanish conquest. This book gives a history of emotional and spiritual human experiences, allowing the readers to comprehend, and relate to the Aztecs as they went through terror and faced their fears. This book provides an extensive amount of details concerning lack of leadership, bias and technological hardship that led to the Aztec defeat. After reading this book the reader will start to understand how and why the Aztecs suffered .

The Spanish retreated from Tenochtitlan, by fighting their way out, away from the angry mobs. The Spaniards took shelter with the Tlaxacan where they devised a plan to finally to conquer the Aztecs once and for all. The Spaniards, Tlaxacan, and other allied tribes all returned to Tenochtitlan with reinforcements and a siege. After eighty days of bloody battles Cuauhtémoc surrendered to the Spaniards, and that was the end of the Aztec

The Broken Spears by Miguel Leon Portilla portrays many themes about the spanish conquest in the account of the Aztecs. However, The Seven Myth of the Spanish Conquest by Matthew Restall conveys themes harmonize with The Broken Spears concepts. In The Broken Spear the spaniards were perceived as barbaric by the Aztecs and vise versa. When the spaniards attacked during the fiesta of Toxcatl they performed a lot of bloodshed and barbaric actions.

In this week’s reading, “Spanish Conquest” by Elizabeth Carmichael and Chloe Sayer discuss the subjugation, ethnocide, and struggle the indigenous population of Mexico endured during the Spanish conquest. The Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortez, enslave and forced the Aztecs to believe that Christianity was the one true religion. Therefore, the indigenous people were forced to convert their faith through the Spanish missionaries to lose their indigenous roots. Later, the authors explain the many difficulties and conflicts Spanish priest underwent to teach the Christian faith to the Aztecs. The Spanish friar first taught the indigenous people Christianity in Nahuatl.

While many worldviews exist, The fall of the Aztec empire was unavoidable. The Aztec’s were a group of people who were very religious and lived in Mexico for hundreds of years but one day a group of Spanish people arrived and executed all of the Aztec people. Many of them died from diseases the spanish brought with them like small pox. The others were killed by the spanish and some were taken to spain as slaves. This was led by an explorer named Hernan Cortes.

So with the tactic, Guile and surprise, which was used with great effect against the Americans, the natives had to find a solution to this Spanish strategy. So, the Aztecs soon became aware of the ways that the Europeans fought, and this almost led to their victory. This, near destruction of the Spanish was not only from the pure initiative of the Aztecs and predictability of the Spanish but also from the massive numbers, especially the Incans, had over the Spanish “ If twenty-five thousand indians perished for every spaniard, his men would still be destroyed” - Cortes (page 171, 1969, the conquistadors, George Rainbird). All the Aztec and Incan warriors were familiar with the land, giving them the advantage of the land “ Which ever figure is correct, it’s terraces and it’s single stairway of 114 steps made it a natural fortress” (page 171, 1969, The Conquistadors, george rainbird).

Moctezuma (1466-1520), was the ninth emperor of Mexico from 1502 to 1520. The Aztec Empire, which Moctezuma ruled until 1520, was taken over by Guetemoc after he was killed by his own men. The fall of the Aztec Empire was caused by Hernan Cortes, a Spaniard who invaded Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Empire, in the year 1519. This letter will include reasons as to why Moctezuma is considered to be a traitor and coward by his own people for betraying them in a time when they needed a strong leader. Hernan Cortes was one of the most famous conquistadors in Spanish history.

These differences were also smaller details under the larger ideas of barbarianism, new cultures, and the even bigger idea of inhumanity. The Spanish saw the Native Americans as slaves because they showed to be hard laborers and gave into the Spanish power. The Native Americans had a natural knack for manual tasks, so much that most Spaniards compared them to insects because both insects and Native Americans could do certain tasks that normal humans, such as high class Spaniards, could not. The Spaniards would never do such work as they believed that work was meant for slaves. When the Spanish took over the Aztec capital city, Sepúlveda remarks of how the Native Americans were “oppressed and fearful at the beginning.”

The Mexica people of Tenochtitlan, situated on an island in Lake Texcoco and the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan’s two principal allied city-states, the Acolhaus of Texcoco and the Tepanecs of Tlacopan, formed the Aztec Triple Alliance which has also become known as the “Aztec Empire”. Henan Cortes, along with a large number of Nahuatl speaking indigenous allies, conquered Tenochtitlan and defeated the Aztec Triple Alliance under the leadership of Moctezuma II. In the series of events often referred to as “The Fall of the Aztec Empire”. Subsequently the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital.