The Broken Spears Summary

In Bartolome de Las Casas writings, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, he writes to the King of the atrocities that are occurring to the people of the New World. Las Casa states, “They are innocent

Every saga has a beginning and on October 12, 1492, a handful of Europeans began their quest for the invasion, control and conquest of what came to be called Spanish America. When invasion ended conquest continued as assimilation saw a merging of cultures between Spaniards and many indigenous people over three centuries. The indigenous people of Latin America had a unique culture, one that suited their way of life. Once the Spanish infiltrated their homeland, it was to change forever. Spanish ideology was vastly different from that of the simple-minded ideology of the Indian.

Since the Incas broke ranks it made it easy for the Spanish to kill Incas on their horses. The invention of using gun powder has a weapon had come from the Chinese and this knowledge had then been passed on to the Spanish. However the Incas were very isolated and as a result they did not gain knowledge from neighbouring civilizations like the Aztecs. This shows that due to their lack of specialization they did not explore and gain

The films “The other conquest”, “Jerico”, and “I the Worst of All” are all a depiction of what life would be like during the Spanish Conquest. These films give different point of views during the Spanish Conquest. The films give a person a well-rounded view of how the world really changed for different people during a historical movement. After watching these films, one is able to assess and determine their own truth about what exactly happened to Amerindians and Spaniards during this time.

It set in motion a civil war and put an end to whatever democracy there had been” (Parenti 2). Caesar’s assassination harmed Rome and did not help their political situation at all. It confused and infuriated the working class because they had lost their beloved king to greedy senators without a real explanation. In Meller and McGee’s book they state that instead of supporting the conspiracy, the “assassination did help Caesar’s reputation” (Meller and McGee 78). The commoners loved Julius Caesar more than ever because they did not agree with the justifications that were given to them during Julius Caesar’s funeral.

When the Spanish came to the Americas and met the Indios they didn’t know who or what they were. Many of the Spanish initially believed the Indios were barbaric savages. This was due to the fact that many of them were nudists, cannibals, they practiced human sacrifice, they had primitive weaponry compared to the Europeans, and they worshipped gods that Europeans believed to be anti-human. The Spanish weren’t even sure if the Indios were human. Because many Spanish people saw the natives as less than human, they started to take advantage of them and even waged battles with them.

Cassius influenced Brutus to conspire against Caesar by stating, Caesar “is now become a god… and his name has been sounded more than [Brutus’s]” (Act 1, Scene 2, Line 118-145-6). Cassius’s arguments convinced Brutus in proving Caesar's murder would be just, but Caesar’s death is unjust because he is being murdered out of Brutus and Cassius’s jealousy. Both of the individuals are envious of the power that Caesar is being given by the people of Rome and want to end his life before they will lose their own power in the senate after Caesar becomes king. Brutus’ naive mind was easily convinced by Cassius that Caesar was not the best choice to assume the Roman throne because he would not listen to their political thoughts.

They wanted to have control over the Maoris people themselves. Likewise, the white settlers thought the Native Americans were less intelligent because they couldn’t build proper houses, and so treated them as the inferior group in the society. Not only that, but both groups were taken advantage of in terms of land and trading. For instance, the Maoris’ officials would let the settlers have a piece of their land, in exchange for goods. Also, the Native Americans traded their lands for goods that the settlers had.

Zeus was as cruel as God, and they invariably thought of themselves, and considered their life insignificant. In the bible, God punished people who didn’t believed in him, even took their life. In the Greek myths, Zeus also took lives of neighbors of Philemon and Baucis, because he thought they who dwelt in the valley wicked and deserved penalty. The strong power .doesn’t mean they can hurt others, which makes think of officers.

(61) These two actions were Okonkwo’s fault, and were caused by his vulnerabilities. Because he lost his tribe and culture to the British missionaries and ended up committing suicide, Okonkwo’s punishment exceeded his crimes. Although his crimes were bad, he served his punishment for all of them. However, when he came back, Okonkwo’s tribe abandoned their culture for the Catholic one.

By the time the Spaniards marched all the way to the Aztec metropolis, Tenochtitlan, they had created several allies. Portilla explains that the people that sided with the Spaniards were enemies that had been conquered by the Aztec. The Mexica’s began to resent their “gods” and mistrust King Motcuhzoma for letting the Spanish conquistadors wreak havoc among the natives and their customs. Before long the author begins to describe the many battles fought between the Aztec warriors and the strangers. These were awful and terrible battles that continued for three years.

Religion also played a critical part in the defeat of the Incas. The Spaniards’ thought of themselves as superior and when Atahualpa threw their “Book” on the ground, the religious Spaniards were deeply offended. They immediately started fighting and quickly overpowered the surprised Indians. 22. Diseases probably played the biggest role in the collapse of the Incan empire.

The Indian people of El Paso hated the idea of a statue of such a terrible man being displayed in their city, to them it was like celebrating Hitler, but the amount of money that had already gone into the project was so excessive there was no turning back. One American Indian artist in the community, Maurus Chino, was so disgusted with the idea he started to get the word out about who Oñate really was and the genocide he caused. Maurus Chino started sculpting feet to honor those who lost theirs in the past to Oñate and it also showed that the American Indians of El Paso, Texas were, “putting their foot down,” to the completion and erection of the statue. There were meetings and votes to decide what to do, they couldn’t have a statue paid for by the public’s money, that the public hated, but the amount of money put into the project outweighed the opinions of the public. The best solution to the problem with the statue I believe was renaming it so that it would not be known as The Equestrian instead of Don Juan de Oñate.

The author of Broken Spears tries to emphasize the fact that the it was not only the Spanish who played a role in the collapse of the Aztecs. One of the most prime reasons the Spanish were victorious was because they were worshiped and viewed as gods due to their presentation. With this to their advantage, the Spanish took leverage over the Aztecs. The Aztecs welcomed the Spanish with offerings and celebration, this gave the Spanish the idea that they had control over them and began to gather this power into ideas to take over their people. The Aztecs had a tremendous cultural difference from the Spanish when it came to their ritual ceremonies, they included a human sacrifice in their ritual and this repulsed the Spanish.

The conflict and defeat of the Aztecs was not avoidable because the Spanish were looking for gold and land, and would have eventually come into contact with the Aztecs no matter who found the land of Tenochtitlan first. Since the Aztecs had everything the Spaniards wanted, it was likely that a battle between the two was bound to happen. In war the Spanish had a large advantage because of their weapons and battle gear. If the Aztecs came into contact with the Spanish, they were likely to die because of the disease the Spaniards carried with them. Also, a lot of enemies were created against the Aztecs because of the human sacrifices they had to make in order to nourish their gods.