The Conquest of Mexico The Views of the Chroniclers

1974 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-171
Author(s):  
Paul E. Greene
Keyword(s):  
New Spain ◽  
World View ◽  
Bernal Diaz Del Castillo ◽  
Hernan Cortes ◽  
Favorable Light ◽  
Conquest Of Mexico ◽  
Francisco Lopez De Gomara

The historian often confronts contradictory sources. The inconsistencies are frequently synthesized into an account satisfying the historian's world view. Sometimes the points of agreement and disagreement are systematically examined. The chronicles of the conquest of New Spain provide the opportunity to engage in this latter process of collation. The sources under consideration in this essay are the chronicles of Francisco López de Gómara, Hernán Cortés, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Francisco de Aguilar, and Andrés de Tapia. The first three men write for specific objectives; the latter two do not.Cortés addressed his letters to the king of Spain seeking to legitimize his precarious position vis-à-vis the governor of Cuba, from whom he was seeking autonomy. For this reason, the captain's actions appear in the most favorable light.

The Conquistadores and the Classics

1953 ◽  
Vol 22 (65) ◽  
pp. 88-89
Author(s):  
A. Macc. Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
New Spain ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Bernal Diaz Del Castillo ◽  
Classical World ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Hernan Cortes ◽  
History Books

The men of the Renaissance looked to classical antiquity for models not only of literary elegance but also of conduct to imitate and outrival. Even Hernán Cortés and his companions were heartened in their struggles by the examples of the classical world, as is clear from the account of one of them, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who was not a literary man and wrote his True History of the Events of the Conquest of New Spain in protest against the conventional distortions of the professional historians.When Cortés proposed to his followers the burning of their boats, which would prevent anyone from slinking back to Cuba and secure the additional strength of the sailors but at the same time meant throwing off the authority of the Governor of Cuba, he first emphasized that his company must look for aid to God alone and then ‘drew many comparisons with the heroic deeds of the Romans’. They replied in the words of Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon,1 that the die was cast (ch. 59). The comparison with antiquity was later used against Cortés by seven fainthearts who complained that not even the Romans or Alexander of Macedon or any other famous captains whom the world had known had ventured to advance with so small an army against such vast populations. Cortés admitted this, but retorted that with God's help the history books would say far more about them than about their predecessors (ch. 69). His fondness for comparisons with the Romans was parodied when he overcame the forces of Narvaéez sent after him by the Governor, for a negro jester cried out that the Romans had never done such a feat (ch. 122).

scholarly journals Modernidad de la Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España de Bernal Díaz del Castillo. Refutación y afirmación

2018 ◽  
Vol 80 (159) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Juan García Única
Keyword(s):  
Carlos Fuentes ◽  
Bernal Diaz Del Castillo ◽  
Hernan Cortes ◽  
Francisco Lopez De Gomara

En este trabajo analizamos la modernidad de la Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España de Bernal Díaz del Castillo. Modernidad que no debe ser entendida en tanto reivindicación del autor como uno de los primeros novelistas de la literatura hispánica, según una conocida tesis de Carlos Fuentes, sino en tanto resultado de un peculiar modo de enunciación que privilegia la mirada literal sobre la mirada alegórica de la crónica. Para ello nos valemos del estudio comparativo de la Historia verdadera y la Historia de la conquista de México, del cronista contemporáneo de Díaz del Castillo, y capellán de Hernán Cortés, Francisco López de Gómara.

The Sultan Hernán Cortés

2020 ◽  
Vol 152 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-84
Author(s):  
Nicole T. Hughes
Keyword(s):  
New Spain ◽  
Religious Drama ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Hernan Cortes

In 1541, the Franciscan friar Motolinía sent to Spain an account of the Tlaxcalan people performing the religious drama The Conquest of Jerusalem in Tlaxcala, New Spain. Previous scholars have read his festival account to reflect only local political interests. I argue that it is a palimpsest, containing both the Tlaxcalans’ ambitious diplomatic strategy, expressed in their performance, and Motolinía’s efforts to steer Castile’s policies in the Americas and the greater Mediterranean.

The First Three Voyages to Yucatan and New Spain, According to the Residencia of Hernan Cortes.

1950 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
George P. Hammond ◽  
Robert S. Chamberlain ◽  
J. Riis Owre
Keyword(s):  
New Spain ◽  
Hernan Cortes

Franciscans on the Silver Frontier of Old Mexico

1947 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-310
Author(s):  
Philip Wayne Powell
Keyword(s):  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
Hernan Cortes ◽  
Conquest Of Mexico

To the English-speaking world the conquest of Mexico was the achievement of Hernán Cortés, thanks largely to the entertaining account by William Hickling Prescott. The brilliance of the Cortesian exploits, plus Prescott’s popularity, have combined to cause this historical distortion by overshadowing the fact that there were many conquests of Mexico, just as there were, and are, “many Mexicos.” Hernán Cortés merely began the subjugation of Mexico by his victory over the Nahua Confederacy. Some later conquests were more difficult, more expensive in lives and mgney, and far more time-consuming than that of Cortés, but they lack their Prescotts.

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