ipl-logo

The Pros And Cons Of The Spanish Conquerors

165 Words1 Page

Although there are no written texts from the native people of the Americas or what the Spanish conquistadores of the 16th century would call, the ‘New World’, we still can grab some reality and understand the lives of these people from the lenses of the conquerors. Many of these native people of Americas did not have written language, therefore, we are not able to asses anything from their perspective. While some other groups of natives used to have written languages, the Spanish conquerors destroyed systematically their evidence. On top of all, 80-90% of the natives dies in the first century of the contact with the Spanish, hence, we must rely in what the Spanish authors of the 16th century wrote about the natives. This does not mean we cannot

Show More
Related

  • The Pros And Cons Of Aztec Warfare

    503 Words  | 3 Pages

    Modern Warfare and Technology has evolved to many different levels and is thought of as the most superior, but do not brush off the 1500’s Aztecs. They had a massive army and was virtually unstoppable. The Aztecs religion was such a strong part of their way of life, so much so that they killed thousands of people in one day. Only a brick wall could stop them, and their name is the Spanish and their small army of voyagers with Hernan Cortes. This Spanish group had an advantage with the way of their religions, the way of their technologies and their way of warfare, here is the supporting evidence.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Matthew Restall's Seven Myths Of The Spanish Conquest

    910 Words  | 4 Pages

    Matthew Restall’s book Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest takes a look at the history of the conquest of the New World, while at the same time, attempting to decipher through certain myths that have gained historical ground over time. He looks at what parts of these myths have some truth to them and what parts of them seem purely fabricated. While going through these myths, Restall starts from the beginning from the reader’s point of view. He does this in order to give the reader ideas of what the myths are, and where they come from. Restall then pushes aside what countless historians used to think to be true for hundreds or years, and shares a new, deeper look at some of the myths.

    Read More

  • Introduction Of 1491 Part 1 Mann

    1083 Words  | 5 Pages

    I knew nothing about Mesoamerican culture—I may not even have been familiar with the term “Mesoamerica” (Preface.) Later Mann picked up an article by William Denevan that started to address what America was like before Columbus. Years went by and he started to learn more about the topic and was waiting for someone to write a book on this so this new information could be widely known. Mann then decided that he would write the book on what he thinks the main ideas of the new findings were so other people could become educated on what America was really like before Columbus. Mann’s point of view came from him first

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Spanish Conquest Of The Aztecs

    491 Words  | 2 Pages

    Conquest of The Aztecs The Spanish Conquistadors were able to conquer the Aztecs because they had superior weapons, strategies, and alliances. If the Aztecs were powerful Indians, why did they not attack instead of giving the conquistadors gifts? What made them not attack? How did they permit the conquistadors conquer them?

    Read More

  • Native American 1491 Summary

    711 Words  | 3 Pages

    “1491” Questions 1. Two scholars, Erikson and William Balée believe that almost all aspects of Native American life have been perceived wrong. Although some refuse to believe this, it has been proven to be the truth. Throughout Charles C. Mann’s article from The Atlantic, “1491”, he discusses three main points: how many things that are viewed as facts about the natives are actually not true, the dispute between the high and low counters, and the importance of the role disease played in the history of the Americas. When the term “Native American” is heard, the average person tends to often relate that to a savage hunter who tries to minimize their impact on their surrounding environment.

    Read More

  • The Moral Effects Of The Columbian Exchange

    830 Words  | 4 Pages

    Historians differ on what they think about the net result of the European arrival in the New World. Considering that the Columbian Exchange, which refers to “exchange of plants, animals, people, disease, and culture between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas after Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492,” led to possibly tens of millions of deaths on the side of the American Indians, but also enabled agricultural and technological trade (Henretta et al. 42), I cannot help but reflect on whether the effects should be addressed as a historical or a moral question. The impact that European contact had on the indigenous populations of North America should be understood as a moral question because first, treating it as a historical question is difficult due to lack of reliable historical evidence; second, the meaning of compelling historical claims is contestable as the academic historian perspective tends to view the American Indian oral history as invalid; and finally, what happened to the native Indians is morally repulsive and must be discussed as such. The consequences of European contact should be answered as a moral question because historically, it is hard to be historically objective in the absence of valid and dependable historical evidence.

    Read More

  • Cultural Differences: Similarities Between Spanish And Native Americans

    1187 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the 16th Century, Spain became one of the European forces to reckon with. To expand even further globally, Spanish conquistadors were sent abroad to discover lands, riches, and North America and its civilizations. When the Spanish and Native American groups met one another, they judged each other, as they were both unfamiliar with the people that stood before them. The Native American and Spanish views and opinions of one another are more similar than different because when meeting and getting to know each other, neither the Spaniards nor the Native Americans saw the other group of people as human. Both groups of people thought of one another as barbaric monsters and were confused and amazed by each other’s cultures.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Spanish And English Colonization

    842 Words  | 4 Pages

    The English were more concerned with finding gold rather than building functioning societies; which were primarily built around biblical teachings, while the Spanish intended for European national power to extend to western civilization beginning with Catholicism and influence of the pope. English settlers were driven from England due to religious practices and perceived themselves as saving the Indians from the Spanish and their tyrannical ways. For the English, owning land would give men control over their own labor and the right to vote in most colonies, and this land possession would show wealth. This new obtained wealth would not only have demonstrated power, but it could also be used to influence a society a certain way to convince others to follow suit. The English believed that their motives for colonization were pure, and that the growth of empire and freedom would always go together, unlike the Spanish.

    Read More

  • The Indian New World James Merrell Analysis

    696 Words  | 3 Pages

    Historians who practice historiography agree that the writings from the beginning of what is now known as the United States of America can be translated various ways. In James H. Merrell’s “The Indians’ New World,” the initial encounters and relationships between various Native American tribes and Europeans and their African American slaves are explained; based on Merrell’s argument that after the arrival of Europeans to North America in 1492, not only would the Europeans’ lives drastically change, but a new world would be created for the Native Americans’ as their communities and lifestyles slowly intertwined for better or worse. Examples of these changes include: “deadly bacteria, material riches, and [invading] alien people.” (Merrell 53)

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account Of The Conquest Of Mexico

    1506 Words  | 7 Pages

    This power imbalance and these payments are key in the subjugation of the natives. Furthermore, the paternalism of the Spanish toward the Indigenous peoples is obvious: “Captain [Cortes] stared at him [Cuauhtemoc]…then patted him on the head” (p.117). Post-conquest, and still today, “difficult relations” between the descendants of the Indigenous peoples and the “others” (p.117) still exist. The European view of the natives “as idolatrous savages” or, on the contrary, as “models of natural virtue” (p.175) demonstrate the versatile and often contradictory views held. Similarly, the Aztecs at times saw the Spaniards as gods, and other times as gold-hungry savages who “fingered it like monkeys” (p.51).

    Read More

  • Spanish Colonial Pros And Cons

    1812 Words  | 8 Pages

    The Spanish colonization of the Americas was a complex and lengthy process that involved a wide range of strategies and institutions. One of the pivotal rudiments of this process was the establishment of presidios, which were military strongholds used by garrisons of varying sizes to cover and protect Spanish homes and populations from external risks. The presidios were constantly located in remote regions. The garrisons that occupied these strongholds consisted of legionnaires known as dragones de cuera, brave soldiers trained for frontier warfare. Meanwhile, the Spanish carried out different missions to convert the indigenous populations to Christianity, for which they reckoned on religious institutions.

    Read More

  • Columbian Exchange Dbq Essay

    407 Words  | 2 Pages

    On October 12, 1492, an Italian merchant by the name of Christopher Columbus landed on an island in the New World. With him he brought three ships and a small crew of Spaniards. After exploring other islands, Columbus came one that he called Hispaniola; here, they found seemingly primitive and naϊve natives that they immediately began to take advantage of. However, little did they know that this first meeting would bring exploration of South and Central America that would wreak havok among the Natives. Throughout the period of European Expansion, Natives were ripped from their home and forced to work day in and day out.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of The Aztecs

    951 Words  | 4 Pages

    As a young conquistador coming to a strange land that has a large pyramid with thousands of people surrounding it as they were chanting and yelling while looking toward the very top of the stairs that led to the top of the pyramid. You see people at the top and notice how they are cutting out the hearts of these human sacrifices and tossing them down the stairs. You stare in horror and notice what a terrible and cruel place you have come across. There was human sacrifice going on and gruesome wars over land that ultimately led to more and more death. But then you take another look around and see their agriculture and all the amazing irrigation systems they have set up and you 're completely shocked about how well their farming systems are.

    Read More

  • How Effective Was The Spanish Conquest Of The Maya Indians?

    467 Words  | 2 Pages

    essie Sisavat Professor Duarte History 40 September 21, 2015 Reaction One 1. How effective or not was the Spanish conquest of the Maya Indians and why? Explain.

    Read More

  • Native Americans In 1492 Essay

    883 Words  | 4 Pages

    Before the Spanish ship that changed it all, which arrived in the “New World” in 1492, thriving organized communities of native people had centuries of history on the land. That ship, skippered by Christopher Columbus, altered the course of both Native American and European history. 1492 sparked the fire of cultural diffusion in the New World which profoundly impacted the Native American peoples and the European settlers. Prior to European contact, Native Americans lived as hunter-gatherers, living and traveling in groups of typically less than 300 people. These Native Americans spoke over 400 languages and practiced a myriad of different religions (The American Pageant).

    Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of The Spanish Conquerors

Open Document