The Seven Myths of the Spanish

ConquestBy Denice Perez

Overview

•The book study of myths related to the Spanish conquests in Central and South America.

A Handful of AdventurersChapter 1

Neither Paid Nor ForcedChapter 2

It’s a myth that literacy was an advantage for the Spaniards.

The conquistadors had wealth and other connections.

In reality they professionals when came to trade.

Under the Lordship of the King

Chapter 4The belief that all of the Americas was under Spanish control within a few years after the initial contact.

In other areas of Latin America, Spanish control was never complete and rebellions were continuous.

Continued Chapter 4

He shows that the colonization of the Americas did not happen as one fell swoop, but rather as a historical process starting centuries before the magic years of 1492 and 1521.

The Lost Worlds of the Malinche

The beliefs that the Spaniards and natives had perfect communication and that each group understood the other's words and intentions unhindered, or alternatively that many of the crucial events of the conquest were a result of the two groups misunderstanding each others' intentions.

Continued Chapter 5He claims that communication between the groups were in fact very difficult at first, and that the rendering of passages of speech made by one group to the other in post-conquest sources cannot be understood as having been recorded "verbatim" even though it is understood and interpreted that way.

He also shows that the natives cannot be said to have crucially misunderstood or misinterpreted the Spaniards' intentions, but rather that they had a good understanding of how the Spanish worked at a very early stage in the conquest.

The Indians are Coming to an End

The belief that the indigenous peoples of the Americas resigned to their fate, included themselves in the new European order and ceased to exist as ethnicities

He also argues that many of the indigenous peoples never felt "conquered" but rather that they had formed a partnership with a new power to both of their advantage

this is displayed with the case for most of the allied forces that helped Cortés defeat the Aztecs.

Apes and MenChapter 7

The belief that the success of the Spanish conquest was due to either the supposed technological superiority of the Spaniards or a kind of inherent cultural superiority and that Spanish victory was therefore inevitable.

This claims that such technological advantages as handguns, cannons, steel armor, horses and dogs weren't of great consequence in the actual fighting since they were all in short supply, and that the Aztecs were not daunted by this new technology for long.

ContinuedHe also refutes the notion that the Indians' lack of alphabetic writing constituted a major drawback. Nor were the Indians childlike, naive or cowardly in comparison with the Spanish such as many early Spanish sources have painted them.

He argues that the factors behind the success of the conquistadors were mostly the devastating effect of European diseases for which the Indians had no resistance, the disunity between indigenous groups some of which allied with the Spaniards early, the technological advantage of the steel sword, native battle practices that were not upheld by the Spaniards.

Such as killing non-combatants and civilians, and most importantly the fact that the Indians were fighting on their own ground with their families and fields to care for, which made them quicker to compromise.