Maarten E.R.G.N.

Jansen:
Matthew Restall, When Montezuma Met Cortés. The True Story of the Meeting that
Changed History, New York, HarperCollins, 2018.
Rivista italiana di storia internazionale, I, 2 / 2018: 359-364 [Recensioni]

In 2019 it is 500 years ago that the Spanish conquistadors invaded the Aztec empire, a
colonial enterprise with huge impact, which ended the autonomous development of
indigenous cultures in Mexico and Central America and produced a demographic catastrophe.
The book When Montezuma Met Cortés re-examines the beginning, the protagonists and the
circumstances of this dramatic process. The author, Matthew Restall, professor of Latin
American History at Pennsylvania State University, is a leading authority on the Spanish
conquest and early colonization of Mexico and Central America, and has written numerous
articles and several books on the subject (e.g. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, 2003).
No wonder, he combines an impressive detailed knowledge of all relevant historical sources
(chronicles and archival documents in Spanish, Nahuatl and other languages) with a
wonderful humanist erudition concerning later artworks (paintings, operas, literature etc.)
about this impacting event. Modern theoretical currents further inform his analysis. Its main
thrust (sometimes referred to by the author as ‘New Conquest History’) is a deconstruction of
the sources from a critical decolonial perspective, which makes use of an in-depth study of
Spanish and Aztec (or rather Mesoamerican) cultural paradigms and mentalities.
The main text of Restall’s work is divided in four parts of two chapters each, which deal with
the key aspects of the historiography of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Very well written, it
immediately captivates the interest of the reader, but it also contains a valuable up-to-date
scholarly apparatus. A timeline and an appendix of central terms and personages with a
schematic representation of the dynasty of the Aztec rulers, their family and descendants,
guide the reader through this complex subject matter. A gallery of 16 pages of color photos
provides important visual documentation. Abundant notes (pp. 373-468) and extensive
bibliography (pp. 469-508) contain the necessary references to sources and recent studies,
while an index (pp. 509-527) is helpful for locating persons and themes.
Part I examines the first encounter between the conquistador Hernán Cortés and the Aztec
ruler Montezuma (Motecuhzoma / Moctezuma), situating them in their historical context and
paying attention to the later reconstructions of this event (as part of the overall representation
and imagination the “New World”) as well as to the political (and religious) needs of the
conquistadors to justify their invasion. Key text is the discourse of Montezuma at that
occasion as reported by Cortés (nearly a year after the event). Given the hectic and
suspenseful character of the moment and the limitations in translation capacity and
intercultural understanding, it is unlikely that this text is a trustworthy factual account. The
circumstances of the redaction suggest, rather, that it was a tendentious fabrication (lie),
meant to justify the conquistadors’ acts and to strengthen Cortés’ position in the eyes of the
Spanish king.
Restall clarifies how Montezuma’s discourse has been taken to imply a surrender to the
Spanish Crown and how this interpretation was then made plausible by supposing that the
Aztec ruler was under the spell of a prophesy about the “second coming” of the Plumed
Serpent (Quetzalcoatl), seen as a divine ruler in the East. The Spanish sources and later
studies have portrayed Montezuma as naive, passive and cowardly, as well as treacherous and
untrustworthy. Restall points to various internal contradictions in this story (e.g. why did the
Spaniards need to take Montezuma prisoner if he had already surrendered?) and explores the
different meanings and motivations that protagonists may have attributed to particular actions
(the Spanish interpreted their arrival in the Aztec capital as a triumphal entry, which logically
entailed the surrender of the adversary). He also shows how after conquest and
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Christianization various members of the indigenous nobility propagated the idea of
Montezuma’s surrender in order to promote their own position as legitimate vassals of the
Spanish Crown. Restall argues convincingly how this colonial version of the encounter is a
key part of the traditional mythistory of the conquest of Mexico and clearly shows the
structure of European literary compositions (three-act drama, five-stage narrative): it
celebrates the triumph of good over bad, of the “civilization” and “true religion” of the
Spanish invaders over the “barbarism” and “idolatry” of the Indigenous peoples.
Part II starts with analyzing how the colonizers consistently represented the Aztecs as
barbarians that performed human sacrifices and cannibalism. Restall demonstrates the need
for a thorough historical critique of these allegations: most if not all reports of such acts were
written long after the supposed facts, based on hearsay, and heavily influenced by Spanish
prejudice and propaganda, aiming at the justification of the conquest and colonial rule. I agree
completely that with the term “human sacrifices” the Spaniards tendentiously misrepresented
an indigenous legal (socially sanctioned) practice of executing enemies and criminals. Likely
there was in ancient Mexico – as in many cultures – a ritual and religious dimension to the
death penalty, as life (the heart) had to be returned to the Gods that had given it, but the
Spanish sources – by qualifying these actions exclusively as “sacrifices” and by enormously
inflating the numbers of victims – evoked horror scenes of irrational, inhuman and cruel
devil-worship, which could not be tolerated by good Christians.
In re-examining the character of Montezuma, Restall calls our attention to the interesting fact
that this ruler was also a dedicated collector, owner of, for example, a large zoo and a library.
Instead of seeing him as an intimidated, irresolute person, Restall concludes that he must have
been an intelligent strategist, who may have planned to trick and capture the Spaniards as a
cat playing with a mouse.
We might even go further and question if the Spaniards were right in interpreting
Montezuma’s intentions as fundamentally hostile. Evidently, the conquistadors saw the
indigenous ruler from the very beginning of their invasion as the enemy, whose realm they
planned to usurp. This may have led them to postulate a similar treacherous attitude on his
part. We should, however, also consider the possibility that Montezuma – feeling safe and
powerful in his capital, surrounded by his nobles and his military might – saw the small group
of strangers as ambassadors from afar, seeking his help, and felt benevolently inclined
towards them as interesting potential allies.
Like many other scholars, Restall considers the idea that Montezuma was expecting the return
of Quetzalcoatl a colonial fabrication. But there is a pre-colonial indication for it: an Aztec
stone casket, known as the “Hackmack box”, shows reliefs of Montezuma performing a
bloodletting ritual in front of Lord 1 Reed (Ce Acatl), i.e. the Quetzalcoatl personage who had
migrated to the East. On the lid of this casket, a descending feathered serpent next to the year
1 Reed seems to signal a special manifestation or “return” of this divine power in that year of
the Aztec calendar, which happened to correspond to A.D. 1519. Thus the “Hackmack
box” seems to document Montezuma’s devotion and respect toward Quetzalcoatl, specifically
in relation to the year of Cortés’s arrival. Probably Montezuma did not see Cortés as a divine
and invincible person, but he may have thought that the Spaniards, being accountable to a far-
away lord, descendant of an ancient Mesoamerican dynasty, would abide by the culturally
engrained codes of honor and diplomacy – a tragic miscalculation.
In Part III, Restall approaches the personality of Cortés from a new angle, by focusing on his
life before the conquest, when he was living on Hispaniola and Cuba as a rather bleak
character, an ordinary administrator. The reason that the governor Velázquez chose him to
lead the expedition, Restall argues convincingly, may well have been precisely Cortés’ lack of
leadership qualities, which suggested that he would not become a competitor. From here
Restall goes on to deconstruct the later glorification of Cortés as brilliant strategist, valiant
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hero and military genius.
The second chapter of this part is dedicated to the contextual analysis and reconstruction of
the captivity and death of Montezuma. Ordering and reviewing critically the different
versions, Restall argues that most likely the so-called captivity in which Cortés had
Montezuma arrested and guarded by his soldiers, was actually not more than adding some
conquistadors to the entourage of the Aztec ruler. Montezuma's death took place later, when
open war between the Aztecs and Spaniards had broken out. At that moment Montezuma was
indeed in the hands of the Spaniards. I find it plausible that when the Spaniards brought him
out in the open to show the people that they had the ruler in their power, the infuriated
warriors threw stones and arrows at him – or rather at the Spaniards (to manifest their
decision not to let themselves be impressed or manipulated). This incident has been used by
Spanish historiography to suggest that Montezuma died of wounds incurred at that occasion,
something very lamented by Cortés. The more plausible version, however, is that the
Spaniards assassinated the native ruler, considering that he was no longer of use to them but
had become a burden.
We should take into account that the Spaniards followed practices that had been exercised
already in the conquest of the Canary Islands. Cortés and the other captains must have known
how at an early stage of the invasion of Gran Canaria (1482) Spanish conquistadors had taken
the local ruler, Tenesor Semidan, prisoner, and sent him to Spain, where he was baptized and
brainwashed, so that he became a vassal of the Spanish reyes católicos and an ally in the
further process of conquest. Cortés may have had the same plan with Montezuma, but this
was frustrated because of the fierce Aztec opposition.
The final part (IV) of Restall’s book revises a number of interpretations and literary
elaborations of the Cortés legend and contrasts these with indigenous perspectives, which can
be reconstructed from a few indications in the sources. The second chapter of this part starts
with Cortés’ abusive relationships with women and from there moves on to denounce the
general genocidal effect of colonization: “Holocaustic levels of slaughter and enslavement of
non-European peoples marked the early modern genesis of our modern world. Cortés’s was
just the beginning.” (p. 298). Again, we may add here that the terror tactics of brutal killing,
mutilation and massacres of the native people and the utter destruction of the native culture,
had been exercised in the preceding conquests of the Canary Islands and the Caribbean, and
as such, were calculated and planned from the beginning.
In the Epilogue Restall brings the different threads of his reasoning together in a number of
profound reflections and ends with a beautiful example of how his careful deconstruction and
reconstruction of history leads to a new understanding of landscape, cultural memory and
matters of identity.
This is a breathtaking book, which not only offers new insights into the dramatic beginning of
colonialism and its culture of violence, but also serves as methodological orientation for a
historical critique of the colonial sources. As such, it is a timely antidote against the
Eurocentric mythistory of the conquest with its hagiography of Cortés and other
conquistadors. For centuries, the – biased and distorted – reports of conquerors and
missionaries have been accepted as historical truth. The sanguinary representations of Aztec
religion (to a large extent invented by the Spaniards in order to justify their own brutal deeds)
are widespread and influential until today. The colonial propaganda, combined with the large-
scale destruction of pre-colonial writings and with the ongoing discrimination and
marginalization of indigenous peoples in present-day society, continues to impede a true
understanding of the indigenous world.
Restall’s work will stimulate students, researchers and the general public to re-examine the
sources critically and to distrust the stereotypical narratives of history that actually aim at
legitimizing and perpetuating structures of power, exploitation and social injustice.
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