Spanish Conquest Of The Aztec Empire Summary

The Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire in the early sixteenth century has been recounted by two primary documents. The True History of the Conquest of New Spain and The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico both share some similarities and differences pertaining to the author's perspective on what truly happened such as the way the Spaniards were welcomed, outlook on culture, and interpretation of the war. This paper will compare both accounts of the encounters between the Spanish and the Aztecs from different points of view. Although the events in both sources took place during a similar time period, the differences vary in the author's tone of voice, the purpose, and the circumstances from where it was told. Based on the collected findings, The True History …show more content…
One of the similarities between the two sources is the welcoming and show of hospitality were recounted similarly. According to The Broken Spears account, "many gifts were presented to the Captain and his commanders, those who had come to make war. He showered gifts upon them and hung flowers around their necks […] Then he hung the gold necklaces around their necks and gave them presents of every sort as gifts of welcome." Moreover, Díaz retells the same story of how "the Montezuma himself placed a very rich necklace made of golden crabs, a marvelous piece of work round the neck of our Captain Cortez." The following quotations are significant as they demonstrate how the Aztecs treated the Spaniards as guests of honor. However, the tone of voice from each point of view differs here. In the Broken Spears, the tone of voice used to describe the gifts and jewelry tends to be overly exaggerated and partial from providing too much detail. In contrast, Díaz remained speaking in a more