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I took a college class last year called Memory of Fire: Spain and Latin America. If only I could remember everything I learned. From what I recall, Spain spent the money on wars and wild spending, eventually going bankrupt.
Books I read (and would like to read again):
- Imperial Spain 1469-1716, J H Elliott
- Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World. Greenblatt, Stephen. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1991.
- The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Leon-Portilla, Miguel. Boston: Beacon Press, 1962, 1990.
Broken Spears is the first book written from the Aztec perspective. I couldn't find my copy (must have packed it) but here's what I wrote for a comment we needed to write for class using a quote from the book.
“the Aztec warriors never forgot that their first duty was to take captives to be sacrificed. This religious conception of warfare motivated the expansion of the Aztec empire, but it also contributed to its destruction by the Spaniards." (xliii).
"A war or battle always commenced with a certain ritual: shields, arrows and cloaks of a special kind were sent to the enemy leaders as a formal declaration that they would soon be attacked." (xliv).
Were the Aztecs defeated by cultural assumptions? If they had killed every Spaniard instead of allowing some to live to be used as future sacrifices, it might have given the Aztecs time to adjust to the way the Spaniards fought. In addition, it might imply that the Aztecs did not fear retaliation from the victim’s family or community because the Aztecs had become so powerful. When they allowed Spaniards to live they weren't worrying about retaliation.
These two examples of how understanding a culture can change the way history is viewed.
Well, I guess that some of it made it to Spain, and she benefited with this, but it also caused her downfall, because Spainards became terribly bad administrators, British were more clever ...
Sometimes known as the "money makes you poor" theory. Initially Spain was accumulating possibly the greatest national wealth of any nation in the world, but they built an economy of consumption.
You see some of that in present day USA who has to send the containers back to China empty to be refilled. We make nothing that they want. Our greatest export today is the Benjamin. If nobody wants that in the future, we are in trouble.
"Without the help of Doña Marina," he writes, "we would not have understood the language of New Spain and Mexico." Rodríguez de Ocana, another conquistador, relates Cortés' assertion that after God, Marina was the main reason for his success.
The phrase, "The Curse of Malinche" or "Maldición de Malinche" was popularized by a 1970's protest song.
Predictably the song is about the tendency of the Amerindians to side with the Europeans against other native Americans and to sell their wealth for trinkets. Hoy le seguimos cambiando oro por cuentas de vidrios y damos nuestra riqueza por sus espejos con brillo.
¡oh! Maldición de Malinche Enfermedad del presente ¿Cuándo dejarás mi tierra? ¿Cuándo harás libre a mi gente?
Martín Cortés el Mestizo (Spanish pronunciation: [c. 1523 – c. 1595) was the first-born and illegitimate son of Hernán Cortés and Doña Marina, the conquistador's interpreter and concubine. He is considered to be one of the first mestizos of New Spain and is known as “El Mestizo.”
The pepole we refer to as "Aztecs" were actually forbidden by their prophets to call themselves "Azteca." They were called the "Mexica," which, by the way, is pronounced "Mechica."
The pepole we refer to as "Aztecs" were actually forbidden by their prophets to call themselves "Azteca." They were called the "Mexica," which, by the way, is pronounced "Mechica."
Most Aztecs were annihilated, I'm referring people from Technottitlan and federates.
Sometimes known as the "money makes you poor" theory. Initially Spain was accumulating possibly the greatest national wealth of any nation in the world, but they built an economy of consumption.
You see some of that in present day USA who has to send the containers back to China empty to be refilled. We make nothing that they want. Our greatest export today is the Benjamin. If nobody wants that in the future, we are in trouble.
The money was pilfered in wars made by the Austrias againts heathens. That's why you have Catholics in Germany. The rest was spent in palaces and manors.
I took a college class last year called Memory of Fire: Spain and Latin America. If only I could remember everything I learned. From what I recall, Spain spent the money on wars and wild spending, eventually going bankrupt.
Books I read (and would like to read again):
- Imperial Spain 1469-1716, J H Elliott
- Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World. Greenblatt, Stephen. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1991.
- The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Leon-Portilla, Miguel. Boston: Beacon Press, 1962, 1990.
Broken Spears is the first book written from the Aztec perspective. I couldn't find my copy (must have packed it) but here's what I wrote for a comment we needed to write for class using a quote from the book.
“the Aztec warriors never forgot that their first duty was to take captives to be sacrificed. This religious conception of warfare motivated the expansion of the Aztec empire, but it also contributed to its destruction by the Spaniards." (xliii).
"A war or battle always commenced with a certain ritual: shields, arrows and cloaks of a special kind were sent to the enemy leaders as a formal declaration that they would soon be attacked." (xliv).
Were the Aztecs defeated by cultural assumptions? If they had killed every Spaniard instead of allowing some to live to be used as future sacrifices, it might have given the Aztecs time to adjust to the way the Spaniards fought. In addition, it might imply that the Aztecs did not fear retaliation from the victim’s family or community because the Aztecs had become so powerful. When they allowed Spaniards to live they weren't worrying about retaliation.
These two examples of how understanding a culture can change the way history is viewed.
If they had killed all the Castilians, which they could not even in Otumba or Sad night, there were many more behind. Just like the wild west.
I knew a girl from Distrito Federal who told me about a school there that teaches Nahuatl. Thanks for that wikipedia site about them as i'll read it all this weekend when i surf for hours but i did study about Cortez and how he conquered the Aztecs as i'm still in awe how he pulled that off.
Also i wonder what the Mexicans think about the Toltecs and their empire who were there before the Aztecs?? I wish we had a ''History Forum'' here as i love the subject.....
Aztecs were Northamericans as popular in Mexico as Trump.
Marina pulled it out, Cortez was a doormat that wanted to save the city...Marina wanted a final solution for the Aztec problem.
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