S.

Alshammari

Paper #1 Sarah Alshammari Professor Harrisscott Hist125 March7,2014

S.Alshammari ]

The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire took place in 1519 and was an important event in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. It occurred in 1521 when Tlaxcala warriors who were a native civilization not completely under Aztec control led by Hernan Cortez, who led the mission to take over Tenochtitlan The Capital of the Aztec Empire. The Spanish tried to expand their control over the new world. After many trails and very expensive efforts to explore Mexicos Yucatan, Cortez led the exploration mission. Through highly detailed letters Cortez kept King Charles V informed about what was happening in their journey to explore the Americas. Cortez justified his own leadership and the costs of the conquest. Cortez embellished a positive explanation in the letters of the events taking place. Cortezs letters reveled doubts he experienced in attempting to understand the Tlaxcalans. After reading the three accounts, which are Second Letter of Hernan Cortez to King Charls V of Spain, Excerpt From The Broken Spears, an Indian account of the conquest of Mexcico and Bernal Diazs account From True History of The Conquest of New Spain. The account represented by Cortez is the most believable, because of the audience, the description of the events and the date the account was written in. After the conquest took place Hernan Cortez wrote a series of letters to King Charles V. The letters to King Charles V contained highly detailed information about the events that were happening in the Americas at the time. Cortez used words like Your majesty and Your highness to address King Charls V, When they saw that they could not resist, several men of rank of the town came to me and begged me to do them no more harm, for they wished to be Your Highness's vassals and my allies and They now saw that they were wrong in not having
Comment [GEZ1]: delete

S.Alshammari been willing to assist me; from thenceforth I would see how they would do all that I, in Your Majesty's name, commanded them to do, and they would be Your faithful vassals(Cortez:1). The word choice Cortez used to address King Charles the V shows that he was truly writing to the King. Moreover, Cortezs audience makes his account more believable than the Aztecs and Diaz because he was writing to his king, and in writing to high positioned royalty one finds in

difficult to lie.Expert from The Broken Spears, is an Indian account of the conquest of Mexico .The Broken Spears is a collection of Indian records that were translated in the 1960s to Spanish by a Spanish historian named Miguel Leon Portilla .In this account the Aztecs were writing to their people about what was going on when Cortez was exploring the Americas. In this account the Aztecs did not use any words that indicated that they were writing to a higher force; which makes it less believable because it was written from the people to the people. A great many died from this plague, and many others died of hunger. They could not get up to search for food, and everyone else was too sick to care for them, so they starved to death in their beds ( The Broken Spears,3). Then they arrayed the Captain in the finery they had brought him as presents. With great care they fastened the turquoise mask in place, the mask of the god with its crossband of quetzal feathers. A golden earring hung down on either side of this mask. They dressed him in the decorated vest and the collar woven in the petatillo style - the collar of chalchihuites, with a disk of gold in the center.(The Broken Separs :1)The True History of the Conquest of New Spain was Bernal Diaz del Castillo joined the historian expedition of Cortez to subjugation of Mexico and some parts of Central America. The audience in this account makes it less likely to believe ,for they were the Spanish and Diaz couldve wrote this account for their entertainment and to fulfill their curiosity . Let the curious readers consider whether there is not much to

S.Alshammari ponder over in this that I am writing. What men have there been in the world who have shown such daring? But let us get on, and march along the Causeway..

Cortezs account is known for the way it was well described and detailed to King Charles; which also added to the believability of the account. Indeed, I heard it whispered, and almost spoken out loud, that I was a Pedro Carbonero to have led them into this place from which they could never escape. Words like whispred and spoken out loud added more detail to what was going on , which shows how Cortez was delivering the actions as they have happened .In Diazs account the detailed may seem less believable since he wrote the account twenty years after. Writing specific details of what happened more than two decades later made it lose its credibility. However , Diaz was impressed by the Aztecs empire and many of the details he used in the account referred back to their great empire . When we arrived near to Mexico, where there were some other small towers, the Great Montezuma got down from his litter, and those great Caciques supported him with their arms beneath a marvellously rich canopy of green coloured feathers with much gold and silver embroidery and with pearls and chalchihuites suspended from a sort of bordering, which was wonderful to look at.. On the other hand, the Aztecs detailed were violent and focused more on the worriers and the plague and the other people who suffered from hunger and died because of it, which shows how they were focusing more on the bad side than the attractivments. A great many died from this plague, and many others died of hunger. They could not get up to search for food, and everyone else was too sick to care for them, so they starved to death in their beds..

Although, the three account were written in different times they were also written from different perspectives, which was also a factor in choosing a believable account. Cortezs account was

S.Alshammari written a short period of time after the event took place and he wrote the letters while he was in the Americas to King Charles V. Therefore having his account be the most related to the date gives it more believability and credibility. Unlike Cortez , Diaz wrote his account twenty years

after the exploration mission took place ,which makes it less likely to be the most believable out of the three accounts . Lastly the Aztecs account was written in the sixteenth century and in the 1960s it was translated to Spanish , which makes it less credible due to the fact that it may not have been translated accurately since it was translated ages later.

In conclusion, after reading all the accounts. I choose the Spanish account represented by Cortez as the most believable and well described, Cortez was writing it to the King after a short period of time the event took place, and his letter contained better description and details.