There are gaps that exist in history regarding the emergence of the Latin America. There are several myths and tales surrounding the history behind the Latin America. The most popular accounts of the history of the Latin America are the Seven Myths of the Spanish conquest highlighted by Matthew Restall and the ‘Song of the Hummingbird’ as stated by Graciela Limon. Matthew Restall’s ‘Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest’ considerably acknowledge the importance of germs and steel to explain how the colonization of the America’s proceeded. Graciela Limon’s ‘The Song of the Hummingbird’ seeks to explore the history of the Americas by illustrating how the Spaniards wiped out the civilization of the Aztecs.
A key factor in the Spanish conquest was the political alliance with allies. According to Restall, the Spaniards were able to effectively marshal thousands of the native allies into a battle against the Aztec. However, he contests “The Myth of Completion” and “The Myth of Native Desolation” citing that the conquest was never completed as asserted by the Spanish. Therefore, the resulting colonial polities became part of the co-production of European power and allied native support. Such a co-production of modern history had the potential of reshaping European and non-European people around the world. The myth of “Steel and germs” is also contested on the basis of credibility because the Aztecs and Incas were themselves imperial formation of relatively recent origin with concentrated wealth and power. Therefore, when the Europeans arrived, the natives were uncertain whether the visitors were enemies, gods or evil spirits. It is said that Cortes and Pizarro recruited allies among the disaffected natives and made their armies as large as those of the Aztec and Inca forces. Despite the hesitation of the Aztec Emperor and the indigenous allies, the Spaniards were hard fought by the Aztec.
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Therefore, Restall’s contribution to the history of the Spanish conquests is one delightful piece that addresses issues that have for a very long time intrigued scholars. Columbus, Cortes and Pizzaro are pointed out as the most instrumental figures that transformed the history of the Americas. The minor conquests in Northern Africa and the nearby Caribbean Islands influenced the Spaniards to develop a set of expectations as well as standard procedures in combat against the native populations making them to gain indigenous allies. However, much of the success of the Spaniards in combat was attributed to Cortes and Pizarro leaving out their predecessors who developed the art of combat. Majority of the individuals that joined the expedition were never soldiers as view had military experiences from the Old World. Majority of them were young merchants, artisans, notaries and urban workers. The blacks that were included in the expedition were commonly acculturated. Members of the European societies were also part of the expeditions. The native allies benefited the Spanish expedition considerably. The many allies that supported the Spaniards were politically motivated as such gestures would make them as autonomous as possible through the support they offered the Spaniards. Such allies provide food, served as spies, rescued the injured Spaniards and cleaned up the battlefield after an engagement involving Spaniards ended. However, their action in combat as well as their decisiveness was so overrated. The Indian allies were also present at battles but they were more of support personnel that warriors.
The Castilian monarchs gave official approval for the plans of Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus for a voyage to sail to India westwards. Therefore, the queen funded the expedition hence the profits would flow to her. While extending its sovereignty to the overseas territories, the monarchy had the authority for expeditions of discovery, settlement as well as conquest. Columbus accomplished four voyages to the West Indies and the monarchs granted Columbus governorship of all the new territories. Moreover, the monarchs financed most of his trans-Atlantic voyages. Columbus later founded the La Navidad on the Island that was later named Hispaniola, the present day Haiti during his first voyage. Columbus’s brother founded the Santo Domingo in 1946. A phase of inland expeditions and conquests followed the first mainland explorations.
By the end of the 16th century, Spaniards occupied most areas of the Spanish America while vast regions particularly the interior of south America and the northern Mexico were largely unoccupied by Europeans. However, the Spanish writers portrayed Americas as fully conquered during those times. As such, they considered the conquest as complete and the Spanish victory as certain. During such a period, each Spanish expedition required a translator to help them communicate with all the people encountered as they did not want to experience any element of language barrier (Restall, 2004). One such typical example is La Malinche who was Corte’s translator, mistress and advisor. Some of the leaders even went as far as kidnapping natives and taking them to the Spanish territory for training in the Spanish language. However, accurate translations between the two sides did not go for long. This made their engagements to be characterized by miscommunication as well as cultural misunderstanding.
Restall sheds more light on the Myth regarding native desolation that embraced such concepts as Indians believing that Spaniards were gods as well as the natives becoming more culturally passive as a result of depopulation and a great sense of defeat (Broers et al, 2003). Moreover, the Spanish leaders commonly portrayed themselves as the envoys of a powerful leader across the ocean. The native people in the 16th century faced serious epidemics of lethal diseases well as onerous colonial demands. However, the natives did not sink into depression and inactivity as a result of the conquest but they persistently sought the means to continue local ways of live even in the face of life threatening circumstances.
Graciela Limon’s novel, “Song of the Hummingbird”, illustrates how the culture of the Aztecs was diminished by the Spaniards. Arguably, the Darwinian principle of natural selection may have motivated the Spaniards to slaughter the Aztecs. The novel depicts the Aztecs as people who were willing to make peace with the Spaniards until when the latter began to be aggressive against the Aztecs. The Spaniard did not take their time to understand the culture of the Aztecs but they were disgusted by the Aztec culture of performing rituals that involve human sacrifices.
The great number of sacrifices during the reign of some of the kings may have embittered the Spaniards who resolved to kill them. The Aztecs rule was mostly through fear as well as a perceived divine right. This made the Aztecs to accumulate enemies, a fact that made it easier for the Spaniards to marshal allies with an objective to fight the Aztecs. The sacrificing of very many citizens was so intimidating for the onlookers like the Spaniards as well as the natives (Limon, 2004). The Aztecs expanded their empire and maintained economic dominance, political, and military power. The kingdom used more violent tactics on its subjects when faced with troubles. Failure to pledge loyalty to the king would lead to automatic death. For instance, the king ordered the killing of all adults in two towns in 1488-89. As such, the kingdom was hanging on a precipice as the subjects were no longer loyal to the kingdom. The made the kingdom porous with people like Pizarro manipulating the natives to fight against the kingdom that had killed most of their sons through sacrifices.
As the Aztec Kingdom grew, it became very hard to separate Aztec religion from the politics of the empire. They would even go to war if they felt that there gods were offended by particular groups of people. The captives from such battles would be used as sacrifices. This led to the empire being constantly at war with enemies. The desperation of the king made him to believe more in the gods to an extent he unsuspectingly received Cortes when he arrived at the eastern shore on the Mexica and proclaimed that their lord Quetzalcoatl had arrived (Broers et al, 2003). As such, it was easy for Cortes to make the natives believe that he was a god or rather a representative of the gods. The Aztec empire had made so many enemies it had no allies to trust in the face of war. When Cortes began to conquer the empire, the king initially blamed his generals and soldiers for failing to protect the empire hence failing him as well as the empire. Despair had engulfed the Aztec people and when the opportunity to bring down the kingdom through Spaniards presented, they seized it with both hands and fought their own empire
The Spanish conquest of Mexico is generally understood historically as the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire between 1519 and 1521. The conquest was a base for other conquests in other regions which include the Spanish conquest of Yucatan, the Spanish conquest of Guatemala, the war of Mexico’s. The Chichimeca war in that occurred in northern Mexico widened the Spanish control over the territory as well as the indigenous populations. The conquest of Peru marked victory over the Inca Empire in 1532. The Spanish conquest of Yucatan took a very long time from 1551-1697. The battle was between the Spaniards and the Maya peoples around the Yucatan Peninsula which is of the present day northern Central America and Mexico. The founding of the Spanish city in present day Veracruz by Cortes on April 22, 1519, mark the beginning of 300 years of Spanish hegemony over the region. Therefore, the assertion of royal control over a decade considering the importance of the region led to the establishment of a the viceroyalty of new Spain which was established by Charles V followed by the appointment of Antonio de Mendoza as the first viceroy. Moreover, Spain colonized and exerted control over Alta California through the Spanish missions over California until the Mexican secularization act of 1833.
In conclusion, it is demonstrable that the history of the Latin America indeed has a lot of complexities in terms of its historical backgrounds. It is also important to note that the most familiar accounts of the history of the Latin America are the Seven Myths of the Spanish conquest highlighted by Matthew Restall and the ‘Song of the Hummingbird’ as stated by Graciela Limon. Restall’s contribution to the history of the Spanish conquests is one delightful piece that addresses issues that have for a very long time intrigued scholars. Matthew Restall’s ‘Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest’ considerably acknowledge the importance of germs and steel to explain how the colonization of the America’s proceeded. Graciela Limon’s ‘The Song of the Hummingbird’ seeks to explore the history of the Americas by illustrating how the Spaniards wiped out the civilization of the Aztecs.
References
Broers, M., Gesink, I., Rosenzweig, R., Kudlick, C., Hart, D., Krech, I., & Sayre, G. (2003). Burying the white gods: New perspectives on the conquest of Mexico. The American Historical Review, 108(3), 659-687
Limon, G. (2014). Song of the Hummingbird . Arte Publico Press.
Restall, M. (2004). Seven myths of the Spanish conquest . Oxford University Press.
