Why was it believed that the Aztecs greeted Cortés as a deity?
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Why was it believed that the Aztecs greeted Cortés as a deity?
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Re: Why was it believed that the Aztecs greeted Cortés as a deity?
#2Because it makes the Conquistadors' conquests of the New World seem more appetising? Because it downplays the indiscriminate conquering of the Americas?
Spain commemorates the day Columbus discovered America as its national day, as it ushered in a golden age for Spain, which is true enough. But with the atrocities inflicted by Spain (along with the other European powers) on the natives in the New World, it may have become harder to feel that such a moment should be celebrated.
And tales that the Aztecs simply handed their lands to the Spanish, rather than the Spanish conquering it, may help people feel a little less weary about the celebration.
But I am merely speculation. Plenty of retelling of history tends to decorate it as best possible (or omit the bad parts) for our side. In much the same fashion, I'd imagine Austrian history classes simply stops in 1866.
Re: Why was it believed that the Aztecs greeted Cortés as a deity?
#3Because it makes the Conquistadors' conquests of the New World seem more appetising? Because it downplays the indiscriminate conquering of the Americas? Spain commemorates the day Columbus discovered America as its national day, as it ushered in a golden age for Spain, which is true enough. But with the atrocities inflicted by Spain (along with the other European powers) on the natives in the New World, it may have b…
Might is right, sorry buddy.
Re: Why was it believed that the Aztecs greeted Cortés as a deity?
#4Because it makes the Conquistadors' conquests of the New World seem more appetising? Because it downplays the indiscriminate conquering of the Americas? Spain commemorates the day Columbus discovered America as its national day, as it ushered in a golden age for Spain, which is true enough. But with the atrocities inflicted by Spain (along with the other European powers) on the natives in the New World, it may have b…
> I'd imagine Austrian history classes simply stops in 1866
Nope, it goes all the way through WW1, Austro-Fascism to fascism and WW2 but didn't reach the present IIRC. The Austrian Empire lost a lot (most?) of the wars it was involved in, but that didn't keep it from being taught, albeit in a, as you wrote, decorated fashion
Re: Why was it believed that the Aztecs greeted Cortés as a deity?
#5That was a pretty good read. There may be lessons there for today - the power of shared stories on social media and advertisement. Flood a communication channel with a message that reinforces your political objectives and they become seemingly almost inevitable.
Re: Why was it believed that the Aztecs greeted Cortés as a deity?
#6Because it makes the Conquistadors' conquests of the New World seem more appetising? Because it downplays the indiscriminate conquering of the Americas? Spain commemorates the day Columbus discovered America as its national day, as it ushered in a golden age for Spain, which is true enough. But with the atrocities inflicted by Spain (along with the other European powers) on the natives in the New World, it may have b…
Spaniard here. I don't think I've ever read or heard a sugarcoated version of the conquest. In fact it's usually the opposite.
October 12 is indeed the day Columbus set foot on the New World and also our national holiday, but I fail to see how it's different from other holidays such as Thanksgiving.
Re: Why was it believed that the Aztecs greeted Cortés as a deity?
#7Malcolm Gladwell also talked about it in the book "Talking to Strangers." It revolved around a breakdown on communication between the two and assumptions that they each had for the other.
Re: Why was it believed that the Aztecs greeted Cortés as a deity?
#8Because it makes the Conquistadors' conquests of the New World seem more appetising? Because it downplays the indiscriminate conquering of the Americas? Spain commemorates the day Columbus discovered America as its national day, as it ushered in a golden age for Spain, which is true enough. But with the atrocities inflicted by Spain (along with the other European powers) on the natives in the New World, it may have b…
> But I am merely speculation.
A question mark in a submission title doesn't mean they're actually asking uninformed HN readers to speculate.
It generally means that the author, who presumably has some subject matter expertise, intends to explore and possibly answer the question.
Why would you bother speculating instead of just reading the article and learning something?
Re: Why was it believed that the Aztecs greeted Cortés as a deity?
#9My understanding, after reading the memoir of Bernal diaz Del Castillo[0] (who was an eye witness of the conquest of Mexico), is that it was Montezuma II who purposefully spread rumors saying that the conquistador were returning gods so that people would stop fighting them and start trading with them.
It was not superstitious belief from ignorant savages, it was a political move.
[0]: which I highly recommend, they are available on project Gutenberg for free: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32474/32474-h/32474-h.htm
Re: Why was it believed that the Aztecs greeted Cortés as a deity?
#10Because it makes the Conquistadors' conquests of the New World seem more appetising? Because it downplays the indiscriminate conquering of the Americas? Spain commemorates the day Columbus discovered America as its national day, as it ushered in a golden age for Spain, which is true enough. But with the atrocities inflicted by Spain (along with the other European powers) on the natives in the New World, it may have b…
Modern scholars put pre-Colombian American population somewhere north of 50M people[0]. This number has been hard to measure as most of these people were presumably wiped out by European and African germs well before settlers arrived to most areas and no/few pre Colombian written records exist. Imagine demoralizing and disorienting effect of losing up to 90%[0] of communities population to mysterious disease. I’ve sometimes wondered if the lack of this wonder weapon is reason behind why Vikings and others that reached American continent before Columbus did, never established permanent lasting and expanding colonies.
Imagine if it would have worked the other way around - indigenous Americans carrying a germ that would have traveled back to a Europe making great plague look like a child’s play.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_history_of_indige...