The Broken Spears: The Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs

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“The Broken Spears” is a captivating book that provides a graphical account of Mexico’s destruction by the Spanish. The book offers an expressive and human perspective of the military confrontation events between the Spanish and Aztecs (Leon-Portilla 1992). Miguel Leon-Portilla wrote the literary text, which provides insights into the primary reasons behind the defeat of the Nahua. It is worth clarifying that the Nahua are the native people of Mexico who the Spaniards attacked. The main factors that contributed to the natives’ defeat include the natives’ ineffective leadership, superstitions, and artillery disadvantages that contributed to the Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs.

The Spanish conquest can be traced back to November 8, 1519, when the Spaniards approached the Aztec capital. Like all literary texts about the invasion and defeat of Aztecs by the Spaniards, Miguel León-Portilla’s book provides an account of actual events during and after the 1550s. This period is characterized by devastating epidemics and hardships that decimate the native population and scaled up contact between the Mexicans and Spaniards.

The author carefully selects events in this book and combines them to give the reader a more detailed and clear picture of the Aztecs’ downfall. León-Portilla provides a vivid account of the historical events from an oppressive and human perspective, which helps the targeted audience fully understand and empathize with the fear and violence the Spaniards unleashed on the natives. These happenings provide insights into the historical context of this document.

The purpose of the source is to provide a different perspective – the conquered point of view. The author utilizes first-hand accounts of native Aztecs, such as Sahagun’s native informants, to capture the natives’ viewpoints of events, such as the main temple’s massacre (Leon-Portilla 68). By drawing on the indigenous narratives, Portilla’s literary text achieves its primary purpose of giving voice to the vanquished. Moreover, Portilla’s narrations inspire interest, encourage a thought-provoking debate, and promote understanding by exploring the marked political, cultural, and demographic trends and transformations that take place during this period. The author manages to tap into a rarely explored area – the nature of native perspectives during the post-colonial period. This book recognizes and revaluates the natives’ accounts, which contributes hugely to the establishment of the Nahua people’s collective identity and culture. Understanding the native Mexicans’ statements and point of view on the Spanish invasion provides the reader with an excellent opportunity to gain a nuanced insight into some of the pressing concerns about the contemporary diverse, multicultural society. Leon-Portilla achieves this by unmasking the hidden historical insights into the Mexican war.

This source is exciting and insightful because it is the first-ever attempt to provide a first-hand account of how the Spaniards invaded Mexico and conquered Tenochtitlan from the defeated’s point of view. Many literary texts focus on exploring and presenting the perspective of the conquerors. In contrast, Leon-Portilla (1992) captures the ‘other side of the war by incorporating the native chroniclers. Thincorporatingenced by Aztecs’ initial heedless and mindless astonishment by the unmatched mighty of their raiders.

The target audience of “The Broken Spears” includes students, researchers, practitioners, and other professionals who are enthusiastic about the colonial period’s history, mainly the Americas’ Spanish colonization. Besides that, the book is intended for scholars and practitioners interested in learning about ancient cultures. The author draws on eyewitness accounts of the Aztecs to provide a clear description of the Aztec and Spanish cultures.

The book exhibits various tones, including historical, informative, and violent. This revolutionary literary text illuminates the shortcomings of the Mexicans that contributed to their defeat. Those shortcomings are evidenced by the Sahagun’s native informants’ account of the massacre (Leon-Portilla 71). The Spaniards ambushed their unsuspecting hosts during the celebrations. The Aztecs were not oblivious of their visitors’ true intentions and were caught by surprise and overwhelmed by the Spanish army. The book includes relevant information about the Aztecs’ misguided leadership, cultural beliefs, superstitions, and artillery advancement that define the two warring factions. One particular passage that caught my eye is as follows: “When they entered the hall of treasures, it was as if they had arrived in Paradise. They searched everything and coveted everything; they were slaves to their greed” (Leon-Portilla 68). The author incorporates old, scholarly literature and eyewitness accounts, making the source palatable and easy to read and understand. The visual demonstrations of the brutal events, such as the savage seizure of King Montezuma’s treasures and the vicious massacre in the main temple, reflect the violent tone.

Miguel’s major assumption is that Aztecs are ignorant, weak, and superstitious. Indeed, the Aztecs have some archaic values and traditions which partly contributed to their defeat. Their culture is deeply rooted in several practices, such as worshiping idols, building statues, and performing rituals. One fascinating belief is that the Spanish were ‘gods’ due to their physical appearance. That belief is evident in King Montecuhzoma’s welcoming of conquistador Herman Cortes with celebrations and presents. The king tells the Spanish leader, “Our, lord, you are weary. The journey has tired you, but now you have arrived on the earth” (Leon-Portilla 68). Such misconstrued ideas about the intruders expose the natives and lead to their ultimate defeat.

The perception that Spaniards are gods based on how they appeared physically contributed hugely to the Aztecs’ downfall. The unthinking natives welcome and accept their intruders with celebrations and offerings, which gives the Spaniards total control of their empire. The height of the Aztecs’ ignorance is when the natives offer a human sacrifice to celebrate the arrival of the ‘gods.’ The Spaniards perceive these uncalled-for acts as disgusting making them hate the Mexicans. With such ideas in mind, the Mexicans do not recognize the threat Spaniards pose.

Empathy is one of the most prominent values evident in the author’s stories. Leon-Portilla gives a graphical and textual representation of the ambiguous contrast and the ultimate conflict between the Spanish and Aztec cultures. For instance, while the natives were deeply engaged in worshiping ideas and ‘celebrating’ the arrivals of the Spanish gods, their guests were planning to ambush them. The author presents such cultural differences throughout this book, detailing how the Aztec’s uncivilized traditions fuel the disagreement with their Spanish counterparts. Leon-Portilla attributes the natives’ ultimate defeat to their ignorance, which evokes emotions such as empathy, remorse, and pity.

There seems to be no bias in Leon-Portilla’s assumptions considering the Aztec culture’s eyewitness accounts. A great deal of the fast-hand narrations provided by the Nahua informants supports, in general, the authors’ assertions. For instance, Sahagun’s native informants’ accounts describe how the Spaniards starts to take advantage of the Mexicans’ weaknesses, further depicting a clear picture of how the invaders were more advanced with unmatched military power compared to their native counterparts. Some truth that emerges prominently from the stories is that Montecuhzoma is a cored and weak leader due to his concern over personal welfare rather than the life and safety of the people he is leading.

The fascinating stories about Cortes attract a lot of attention. Leon-Portilla desists from judging the Spanish army commander in moral terms. The content historical context within which these happenings took place is critical to take into account. The reader may be easily distracted by the terror and injustices perceived through the lens of modern sensibilities and hence find such events shocking. There is a high risk of misjudging happenings or those involved, heightening the risk of missing the true purpose and significance of this informative text.

Overall, this book provides an account of how the Spaniards conquered the Aztecs. I almost thought that the Spanish general was an outstanding leader and master of conquest with an unmatched army and trounced Mexicans. However, after reading the eyewitness and graphical representation of what transpired during the war, I have realized that many factors disadvantaged the Aztecs, including lack of superior weapons, support from local allies, ravaging non-indigenous illnesses, and inaccurate interpretations of the Spaniards’ intentions. This book helps my topic’s historical study because it provides first-hand accounts of the Americas’ Spanish invasion and colonization. It also illuminates the sharp contrast and conflict between the Spanish and Aztec cultures. An in-depth exploration of these issues helps me gain nuanced insights into the research topic. Therefore, I strongly recommend this book to students and scholars interested in developing an in-depth understanding and appreciation of the history of Aztecs and the conquest of Mexicans by Spain.

Bibliography

Leon-Portilla, Miguel, eds. 1992. The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Boston: Beacon Press.

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The Broken Spears: The Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs

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