The True History of the Conquest of New Spain (Content Paper) Bernal Díaz del Castillo a Spanish conqueror and chronicler in the Indies, travelled with Cortés expedition party. Bernal Díaz del Castillo was interested in getting his version of the expedition out to the world. Even though it was years before he was able to accomplish this he believed it was important to explain the “rank and file” of the expeditioners and the Aztecs. The excerpt describes the expeditions walk into the great city of Mexico or as it was known at the time, Tenochtitlan.…
Christopher Columbus is a Portuguese explorer and navigator. In 1492, Christopher Columbus first sailed to find a western route to Asia. He landed on an island near cuba, which he named San Salvador. America should not celebrate COLUMBUS DAY.…
She was the most powerful women Europe. In the summer of 1492, he was financed by Spain to find a route to Asia. He thought he could sail west to get to Asia. His voyages led lasting contact between Europe and the Americas. Christopher Columbus also started the Columbian exchange, also known as the grand exchange.…
In the narrative of western history there is no shortage of Westerners oppressing people from different cultures. There is also no shortage of white, powerful men oppressing people within their own culture. Throughout colonial western European history, society compelled individuals to fulfill their assigned role that language stereotyped them as. If they did not, Westerns would destroy them so that there was no evidence they didn’t match the stereotype. When Colonizers encounter those they call savage and those “savages” don’t actually fit that definition, instead of revising the narrative to accommodate the reality, westerners destroyed as many natives and as much of native culture as they could.…
After the fall of Tenochtitlan, improper conversions, as mentioned above, were a common occurrence in early colonial New Spain. The reason for this being that the Spaniards believed that the natives were incapable of understanding the religion of Catholicism, so they instead tried to force it on them or just baptize them even when the religion’s practices and beliefs were not explained as well as they should have been. Other times, the natives were punished for their past practices of their religious traditions or for the continuation of carrying out these practices after the arrival of the Spaniards. A prime example of another person whom also supported my belief is the late Bishop of Chiapa Bartolome de Las Casas. In his book, originally…
Ponce de Leon was a Spanish explorer and the first explorer to set foot in North America. De Leon was one of the many people to influence Florida, as we know it today. De Leon is a highly recognized for being Florida’s first resident and governor. Ponce de Leon was a Spanish Explorer who was born in 1460. He sailed to Florida from Puerto Rico in 1513.…
After reading Christopher Columbus’s words in a letter that was directly sent to Queen Elizabeth herself, I can truly tell how prideful he actually was. Thus pondering to myself is this man truly fit to be celebrated as much as he really is. Yes I am aware that he landed on the coast of the new world, but the land that he founded was San Salvador which is nowhere near the States. In his letter to the Queen, he tells her about his findings on the new land that he founded and other golds and riches that came on the land and especially wrote about the Indians that inhabited. In this letter you can definitely tell that he is flabbergasted and showed off in most of what he found and I will show you this in three main ways.…
Christopher Columbus has always been a controversial topic. Some individuals believe he was a hero and founded the Great America at no one’s expense. On the other hand, some individuals believe that Christopher Columbus was a deleterious, inconsiderate, and clueless explorer. Was Columbus a thief and a murderer and should he have his own holiday, is the topic of theologian Dr. Tink Tinker and BBC producer Mark Freeland’s article, “Thief, Slave Trader, Murderer: Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Population Decline” (Tinker and Freeland, 2008, Pg.25). After deliberation and a close look at sources Tinker and Freeland argue that Columbus was a thief and murderer who should not be honored.…
Columbus Day is a holiday on October 12th in America that celebrates the explorer from Spain, Christopher Columbus. He was born in Genoa Italy, and always wanted to explore. He left Spain in 1492 at the age of 19 to sail around the word and hopefully land in Asia (Klein). Schools teach that Columbus was a very heroic person, and that he discovered America. However, Columbus Day should not be celebrated because Christopher Columbus did not actually discover the Americas, he did terrible things to the natives, and many people don't consider him a hero.…
The Renaissance is a period in history that is known for changing art, architecture, and the view of many things. The Renaissance was a time of rebirth that took place from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth century. One of the well known leaders of the time was Queen Isabella I of Castile. Isabella I was a powerful leader because of her contributions to exploration, her self-confidence, and her ability to unify Spain.…
Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa near a North Italian port in 1451. His birth name was Christoforo Colombo (Reid 6). When Christopher Columbus was nineteen, his mother died (Baker 35). Christopher Columbus was a weaver with his father, and then he became a sailor of the Mediterranean (“Christopher Columbus”).…
Christopher Columbus, Bartolomè de Las Casas, and Bernal Dìaz del Castillo shared a commonality that they were all Spanish explorers in search of the New World. Upon exploring parts of the New World each explorer encountered the natives of this land. Christopher Columbus’s encounter with the natives was from afar because the natives were very skeptical of the ships and the people aboard. The natives observed Columbus and his crew from canoes. Columbus states “that the men he saw in the canoes all seemed to be older, white, well kept, and armed with bows, arrows and wooden shields.”…
Since the beginning of times, curiosity has been a trait portrayed by both ancient and modern peoples. One barrier that didn't allow the early men and women of ancient society to exhaust their curiosity was an efficient and effective means of transportation. During the early fifteenth century, improved means of transportation such as ships, and new innovations such as the astrolabe, allowed for a new era known as the Age of Exploration. With this new technology of the fifteenth century, European nations began to colonize quickly with intentions of becoming a global empire. One European nation that began to take advantage of the technological advancement was Spain.…
“The ‘Wretched Indians’: What We Don’t Learn in History Books” The Spanish Conquest as we know it has been largely painted as a valiant and remarkable achievement deemed justifiable through widely-accepted perceptions of European superiority. Indeed, when taught about these expeditions, rarely are we given sources that encourage us to picture the Indigenous peoples fighting on the same side as the Spaniards; After all, the textbooks say they were the ‘bad guys’ to beat, right? Matthew Restall’s Seven Myths of The Spanish Conquest reveals the subjective perceptions of the Spanish Conquest in an attempt to help modify the erroneous aspects of the Indigenous peoples’ narrative. In addition, as noted by Restall, even William H. Prescott, a historian…
In the chapter ‘Forget Columbus’ of the book ‘The Inconvenient Indian’, the author Thomas King writes about his point of view on the forgotten history of the Native Americans. He conveys about the tales made up about the natives and americans engraved in the history to mainly appeal to the white audience. The author starts the chapter by telling how insignificant was the discovery of the land of natives made by Columbus. According to him the only reason why he was given credit and recognized because his story as Columbus sailing the oceans, travelling across with interesting adventures and going through hardships with a letter to the Emperor of Indies by the King and Queen of Spain captured the imagination of the audience and met the expectations…