Cortes and Castillo essays

Cortes and Castillo essays It was during the early portion of the 1500's that the Spanish infiltrated Mexico. It was a time of great change and great conquest for many, although it was also a time of great despair and struggle for others. In examining this particular period of time we discuss two individual writers, one who experienced the conquest and one who wrote later of the time. The works discussed are Second Letter to Charles V" and "Letters from Mexico," by Hernan Cortes, and "The Conquest of New Spain" by Bernal Diaz del Castillo. In addition to comparing and contrasting the works, and authors, we also discuss therein any discrepancies that are evident in relationship to the two authors. First, however, we should truly address the situation being discussed. Many firmly believe in the notion of conquest, as it relates to Mexico and Spain. Rashkin asks, however: "Conquest? Is that the right word?" (conquest.html). Many activists, such as those gathered on the Zcalo to celebrate Cuauthmoc's birthday and fight for the rights of indigenous people, prefer the term "invasion." And still others like "holocaust," believing it is the only term, which "adequately expresses the evil perpetrated on native Americans by European colonists," (conquest.html). Rashkin, however, also states that: "Sometimes I think it should be called the First Mexican Revolution, because without the enthusiastic participation of Totonacan, Tlaxcalan and other Indian allies, who had just cause to oppose the ruling Aztecs, Corts could never have taken over the great Mexican empire, and world history would have been different. In the end, I stay with 'conquest.' That's the term that Bernal DÃ ­az [Ca stillo], a conquistador who wrote about it many years later...And it's as good a term as any for the great cataclysmic meeting of two high civilizations that played itself out in Mexico in 1519-21" (conquest.html). Cortes was a man who actually fought under the i...