For this week, you were assigned three readings from the course reader: Christopher Columbus (p. 66), The Broken Spears (p. 68), and Arana Xajilá (p. 74).
THINGS TO CONSIDER FOR SECTION:
For Columbus, what was the relationship between science/exploration and his faith?
The Broken Spears is a translation from a native-language (Nahuatl) document. What types of information does this source prioritize? What problems might the translation cause?
What impact did the disease brought by the Spanish have on native peoples? What changes in their society resulted?
ACTIVITY - due by 11:59 pm on Wednesday (if you chose to do this week's)
Pick a quote (1-2 sentences) from any one of the readings. Give us the quote, tell us what you found interesting, surprising, confusing, etc about it, and then tell us one question that it raised for you. Please put your response in the comments section, and remember it only needs to be about 5-6 sentences total.
See you guys on Thursday!
-Kirsten
THINGS TO CONSIDER FOR SECTION:
For Columbus, what was the relationship between science/exploration and his faith?
The Broken Spears is a translation from a native-language (Nahuatl) document. What types of information does this source prioritize? What problems might the translation cause?
What impact did the disease brought by the Spanish have on native peoples? What changes in their society resulted?
ACTIVITY - due by 11:59 pm on Wednesday (if you chose to do this week's)
Pick a quote (1-2 sentences) from any one of the readings. Give us the quote, tell us what you found interesting, surprising, confusing, etc about it, and then tell us one question that it raised for you. Please put your response in the comments section, and remember it only needs to be about 5-6 sentences total.
See you guys on Thursday!
-Kirsten
Jeremy N, 10:20
ReplyDelete"Tell Moctezuma that we are his friends. There is nothing to fear. We have wanted to see him for a long time, and now we have seen his face and heard his words." I found this interesting because Cortés seems to be interested in the relationship between the Aztecs but he actually only cares about the conquest. Was greed the only motivation for the Spaniards in their exhibition?
Colleen H, 11:30
ReplyDeleteMy quote is from "The Broken Spears", "They gathered all the gold into a great mound and set fire to everything else, regardless of its value." I found this quote interesting because it really shows how greedy the Spaniards were when they were in the Americas. Cortés and his men had no respect for the possessions of the Aztecs. The items his men burned could have held religious importance or been of great value to the Aztec people. Also, it makes me think about how more artifacts we would have from the Aztecs if they didn't burn their things. Why didn't Cortés men find those other artifacts important or valuable?
Claire S, 10:20
ReplyDelete"When Moctezuma was imprisoned, they [the chiefs and princes who served him] all went into hiding. They ran away to hide and treacherously abandoned him!" It is interesting that despite the impressive size of the thriving Aztec Empire, Moctezuma's servants did not come to his assistance. The completely abandoned him. The Spanish released all of the other lords but decided to imprison Moctezuma. There is no mention of any of his servants coming to his aid. Did the Aztec culture not demand much respect for the emperor? Or was Moctezuma disliked by his people?
Caroline H, 12:40
ReplyDelete"We have come to your house in Mexico as friends. There is nothing to fear."
I thought this was interesting because as you keep reading you can see that the Spanish was not their friend(s) and quickly took control of the Aztec Empire after Moctezuma agreed to let them in. So, I don't really understand why he let them! I wonder what his tactics of thinking were.
Marcus M, 10:20
ReplyDeleteMy quote is from the prologue of "The Broken Spears". It says "In the passage just before this, Emperor Moctezuma decides--against the will of many of his advisers--to welcome him as such." I found this interesting because the Spaniards went on to come in and conquer Mexico, so maybe Moctezuma should have took the advice of his advisers and denied their entry. If he had done that though, how would the Spaniards have reacted then?
The Broken Spears is a revealing story implicating the way we should use to think about winners and losers. "The vest was painted with dismembered human parts: skulls, ears, hearts, intestines, torsos, breasts, hands and feet"(The Broken Spears, P73). This part interests me because when we think about conquering a country, or say colonizing it in history, invaders would always make the people there be spiritually docile and concede to them, not to their arbitrary but to their ability of bringing new life to people. However, what Cortés did was burying angry and revenge in Aztec people's mind by building a "humiliating" statue, which not only slaughtered Aztec people physically but also spiritually. How could the leader of invaders like Cortés be equally irrational as his soldiers while considering the fact that treating people better and obtain their loyalty will be a more efficient way of conquering or colonizing than raven its fortune(spiritual conquest)?
ReplyDeleteLucas C, 10:20
ReplyDelete"When they entered the hall of treasures, it was as if they had arrived in Paradise. They searched everywhere and coveted everything; they were slaves to their own greed." This quote from "The Broken Spears" is important because it gives an excellent description of the Spaniard mindset at the time. Though it was translated from Nahuatl dialect, the passage depicts the uncaring actions of the conquistadors in a foreign land. The treasures probably had great sentimental value to the natives, while the Spaniards respected only the monetary value of these possessions.
Sean T; 12:40
ReplyDelete"All the young warriors were eager for the fiesta to begin. They had sworn to dance and sing with all their hearts, so that the Spaniards would marvel at the beauty of their rituals". To put it bluntly, this quote (from "The Broken Spears") sprang out to me for how prideful it was. Amidst a text saying how disadvantaged the Aztecs were by the Spanish, they still wished to hold pride in their beliefs and rituals. It was in this religious pride that they handed the reins of their empire to Cortes, and with this pride that they still celebrated. Perhaps this speaks to cultural strength or to faith itself. Either way, the incredible faith they held in their own rituals speaks strongly about their culture, and how strong their tie was to it.
"The Broken Spears" is a very revealing story implicating the way we should use to evaluate the winner and the loser. "The vest was painted with dismembered human parts: skulls, ears, hearts, intestines, torsos, breasts, hands and feet" (The Broken Spears, P73). This quote interests me by pushing me into the muse of the difference between invading a country and conquering it. The reason is that conquering means the invaders would have to bring people being colonized a new life or new rules that better suffice people than the old rulers in order to obtain their loyalty. However, by purely and materially plundering Aztec and building such a humiliating statue, Cortés was burying angry and revenge in Aztec people's mind and slaughtering them both physically and spiritually. What he did was purely invading: bringing fear and nightmare to Aztec people and only living for treasures. He might seem to be a winner considering how many treasures he ravened, but a big loser considering acquiring people's fealty in order to harvest long-term colonization. My question is: How could the ruler or the king like Cortés of such an Empire be equally irrational as his soldiers when facing treasures and fail to consider the significance of reining Aztec people's spiritual loyalty rather than just show arbitrary power to fear the people and tear their hope down?
ReplyDelete"No, it is not a dream. I am not walking in my sleep. I am seeing you in my dreams. I have seen you at last!" This quote from the broken spears is interesting to me because it suggest that the natives felt the spanish were the coming of their lord. Because of this, the natives treated the spanish with much respect.
ReplyDeleteMy quote was from Broken Spears, "Tell Moctezuma that we are his friends. There is nothing to fear. We have wanted to see him for a long time, and now we have seen his face and heard his words." I thought this was interesting because the Spanish were just lying to the Aztecs just to gain there trust. Once they had there trust they turned on them, took over, and stole all of their riches. A question that I wondered was if the Spanish feared that they would be punished by there God's for doing a thing like this to the Aztecs.
ReplyDeleteTran Nguyen; 11:30
ReplyDeleteMy quote is from "The Broken Spears": "We have come to your house in Mexico as friends. There is nothing to fear." I thought this quote stand out for me while I was reading this section because when Cortes asked to be Moctezuma's friend and that he shouldn't have any fear, he later on just used Moctezuma in a way so he can focus on the conquest after the king believed Cortes. Cortez ended up taking control of the Aztec Empire. My question is: Why is power makes man, at that time, so eager to have it? Why do they decide to come up with anything to get power even if it is not a good way to go?
Tong L，12：40
ReplyDelete1."And when night fell, the panic spread through the city and their fears would not let them sleep“ (P70).
2."They delivered supplies to the Spaniards with trembling hands, then turned and hurried away "(P72)
The two quotes are all from The Broken Spears. I found it interesting that the author put so many efforts to describe the confusion that the Spaniards brought to the citizens. In the first quote, citizens' fear to the Spaniards and anxiety about their lives lead them to miserable lives. The second quote especially shows the relationship between the citizens and the Spaniards. People are clearly frightened but they had no choice but to obey the Spaniards, and if they had another choice they would never come near to the Spaniards again. Both these descriptions are indirect proofs of how dreadful and greedy the Spaniards are.
"The Spaniards immediately stripped the feather from the gold shields and ensingns. They gathered all the gold into a great mound and set fire to everything else, regardless of value." This quote caught my attention because it showed how much the Spaniards focused on the monetary value of things and nothing of their importance or meaning. The Spaniards only wanted the best of the best and wouldn't accept anything less. By burning what they didn't want, they made sure that no one else could gather the leftover treasures that they didn't find suitable to keep. This raised the question of why they take only the gold and a few other treasures? If it didn't meet their standards, what else in Mexico didn't meet their expectations?
ReplyDeleteMy quote is from “The Broken Spears”. It says “They gathered all the gold into a great mound and set fire to everything else, regardless of its value. Then they melted down the gold into ingots”. I picked this quote because it gave me a word-painting to describe what have happened at that time. It vivid described a greedy and cruel image of the Spanish soldiers. For this group of people at that time, the only thing they chased in this world was wealth. So they did not care about other people’s feeling, neither did they show any respect to Aztec’s culture. If something was less valuable or too heavy for them to carry, they ruined it. They just acted like a robber. I am wondering if there were any art work survived from it.
ReplyDeleteShiqi Wu
ReplyDeleteI found that what the king Moctezuma said to Cortes gave me a deep impression in “The Broken Spears”. “'I was in agony for five days, for ten days, with my eyes fixed on the Region of the Mystery. And now you have come out of the clouds and mists to sit on your throne again.'” According to Moctezuma’s attitude towards Cortes, the king had never seen an outsider before. That was why he considered Cortes as God. It was interesting when the king was expressing his feelings. But I was also a little confused that why the king was not vigilant at all. After all, Cortes was a stranger and it was incautious to judge Cortes’s identification.
Why Moctezuma did not ask for others’ opinions about Cortes?
The quote that I found interesting was from the Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (1519).
ReplyDelete“They searched everywhere and coveted everything: they were slaves to their own greed.” I found this quote interesting, first because it was a perfect metaphor for a description of Cortes and his men. It’s ironic that, according to the text book, the Spaniards main goal was to spread Christianity and second to that was to increase Spain’s presence in world trade. If their goal was to spread Christianity, a religion that encourages giving to those who are less fortunate and condemns greed, weren’t their actions contradictory to that cause? Do you think that the goal of spreading Christianity was simply a way to rally people together under a similar religion, and create power by doing so?
Broken Spears: "The Spaniards fired one of their cannons and this caused great confusion in the city. The people scattered in every direction; the fled without rhyme or reason; they ran off as if they were being pursued." This quote caught my attention because it shows how the Spaniards immediately wanted to put fear in the people to get respect. It showed the Aztecs the power that the Spaniards had. By firing off their cannons, the Aztecs wouldn't have known what it was (considering they did not have powder weapons) and they would have immediately went into panic like they say in the translation. I think it's a little surprising that they would do that in the first place. The question that it raises for me is that, what if the Spanish would not have fired off the cannons to throw the city into chaos? Would the Aztecs still respect the Spanish even if they weren't afraid of them?
ReplyDeleteShriya R, 10:20
ReplyDelete"They shied away as if the Spaniards were wild beasts, as if the hour were midnight on the blackest night of the year." This quote explains how the Mexicans acted when the Spaniards took over. I think this is an interesting way to explain the fear of the Mexicans. The Spaniards are explained as viscous animals and the day is described as dark and depressing. My question is: If the Mexicans let the Spaniards order them to get the Spaniards food and water, what other things were the Mexicans forced to do?
"Tell Moctezuma that we are his friends. There is nothing to fear. We have wanted to see him for a long time, and now we have seen his face and heard his words. Tell him that we love him well and that our hearts are contended."
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting about this quote is that it is a complete lie in comparison to what Cortes and his men really do. He pretty much set up Moctezuma in the worst way because he knew that Moctezuma clearly thought he was a divine leader by calling him lord, saying it was his throne and his land and this part confused me; why was he saying this to Cortes, if he was from Spain? Why did Moctezuma think that Cortes was some sort of prophet of an ancient god? The story flips randomly from this peaceful setting of Cortes and Moctezuma agreeing with each other, to Moctezuma being imprisoned and the Aztecs hiding... it left me wondering what happened to Moctezuma that made him get imprisoned? I thought it was interesting how even though the Aztecs ruler, Moctezuma, was imprisoned by the Spaniards, the Aztecs still brought Cortes and his men everything they wanted and obeyed him because they were still unsure of what was going on. It is sad that all the Spaniards really wanted was access to their gold stores and Moctezuma's personal treasures. If it wasn't for the help of Cortes's lover and translator, I wonder if the Aztecs would have abandoned following orders and attacked sooner? Another question is, why did they randomly start talking about the fiesta of Huitzilopochtli? Overall I enjoyed this story the most because I feel it had the most depth of the three.
Kristen Hastwell
"During this year (1530-1531)(heavy tribute was imposed); they paid gold and silver before the face of Tunatiuh, and there were demanded as tribute five hundred men and five hundred women to the gold washings; all the people were busy seeking gold.." (Arana Xajila, Plague in Central America). It is interesting to have an idea of what people did in times of hardship. Great sacrifices are given to try to ward off the disease. The Aztecs would offer gold and silver and sacrifice their own people in order to have things back to normal. When one to look on the other side of the world during the Black Death, similar things were done to try to please a Christian God.
ReplyDelete“And the king said: ‘Yes, I am Moctezuma.’ Then he stood up to welcome Cortes; he came forward, bowed his head low and addressed him in these words: ‘Our lord, you are weary. The journey has tired you, but now you have arrived on the earth. You have come to your city, Mexico. You have come here to sit on your throne, to sit under its canopy,’” (Pomeranz 69).
ReplyDeletePomeranz, Kenneth, James Buchanan. Given, Laura Jane Mitchell,
and Robert L. Tignor. Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A Companion Reader. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2011. Print.
I found it very interest that King Moctezuma was so easy to believe that this stranger, Cortes, was an ancient god who according to a prophecy would return to rule the land. The companion reader mentions that Moctezuma decided to believe Cortes was this returning ancient god, despite the disagreement of a group of advisers. I found it funny how welcoming and respectful King Moctezuma was toward Cortes, considering with in no time at all Cortes and the Spaniards would be taking over his land. I am a little confused with regards to how Cortes responded to Moctezuma’s welcome. Did Cortes make the realization that Moctezuma thought he was this returning god and choose to take advantage of that, or was Cortes just planning to use deceit from the get go by telling Moctezuma they were their friends in order to make it easier to take over? I was also confused with regards to King Moctezuma’s thoughts throughout this conquest. Did he ever realize that the Spainards, led by Cortes, were taking over Mexico, or did he believe this entire time that he was simply making sacrifices to this “ancient god?”
"Then the Spaniards fired one of their cannons, and this caused great confusion in the city. The people scattered in every direction; they fled without rhyme or reason; they ran off as if they were being pursued." I think this quote is interesting because it shows how foreign all the new technology and weapons were to the people. The people truly did not know what they were encountering. They did not realize that these weapons would ultimately be their downfall. In addition, even though they did not know what was happening, they fled because they knew it was something they should be afraid of. The way the passage was worded was very powerful as well. The words "confusion" and "pursued" make it very relatable. This leads me to question, "Did these people know even then that the Spaniards would eventually wipe them out?"
ReplyDeleteTricia D.; 10:20
ReplyDelete"Moctezuma ordered that it be sent to them. The chiefs who received this order were angry with the king and no longer revered or respected him. But they furnished the Spaniards with all the provisions they needed - food, beverages and water, and fodder for horses." I find this quote interesting because it tells of the frustration that the leaders of the Aztec Empire felt towards their emperor, and thus points to the inner divisions within the empire that played a large part in its eventual demise. I have to question why the chiefs went through with Moctezuma's orders though. At this point, he was imprisoned and quickly losing control of his land. If the chiefs did not agree with Moctezuma's decisions, why did they choose to follow along with them? It seems that at this point, the chiefs were actually in a position to disobey Moctezuma and follow their own plan regarding the Spaniards. Why did they not act as they saw fit? The reading says that they no longer had respect for Moctezuma, so was it out of fear?
From the Columbus reading: "I find that [the earth] is not round as they describe it, but that it is the shape of a pear which is everywhere very round except where the stalk is, for there it is very prominent, or that it is like a very round ball, and on one part of it is placed something like a woman's nipple, and this part where the protuberence is found, is the highest and nearest to the sky and it is beneath the equinoctial and in this ocean sea at the end of the East."
ReplyDeleteThis gives us a very different version of how Columbus saw the world than the popular notion that Columbus sought to prove that the world was round (according to the book this was not a novel concept) and was seeking a new trade route to India. As Columbus goes on to describe his ideas about geography, it is clear that he was not only motivated by money and curiosity but also by religious ideals beyond the standard Manifest Destiny. He was actually seeking out the "nipple" because he believed it to be some kind of paradise or heaven on Earth. Very interesting!
Emily Quah
ReplyDelete"Our fathers, Brother Pedro, and Brother Juan were the first who taught us the word of God. Until that time the word and the commandments of God were unknown to usl we had lived in darkness, for no one had spoken to us of the doctrine of God." (Xajilá)
This quote is interesting because during the plague, the Cakchiquels suffered, died and lost their loved ones. Making the matter worse, Tunatiuh mistreated the people. When the doctrine of God were introduced to them, I cannot imagine how relieved they were. It is as if they were able to start over a new and better life.