World History
The Spanish conquests in the Americas seem like impossibilities. The Spanish in Mexico and South
and Central America, it is believed were out numbered by more a thousand to one. Their adversaries
were people well skilled in war and killing, with strong well organized societies. So how did the
Spanish manage to be victorious in the face of such odds?
One of the fundamental differences between the Spanish Conquistadors and the Mexican was language.
The Spanish were able to control the conversations however because they had trained a woman called
la Malince, to be an interpreter. This gave the Spaniards the ability to have open conversations, while
the Mexican could not. The Spanish knew what the Mexica were saying all of the time, while the
Mexica only knew what the Spaniards wanted them to know. An example of this would be during
negotiations with Montezuma’s emissaries, Cortez could issue orders to his troops in the middle of
negotiations to do things like fire cannon, and tactically this gave the Spaniards an advantage
Another difference between the two cultures was religion, even though both parties had a religion
based on human sacrifice, the Mexica actively sacrificed people in a ceremony of blood, while the
Spanish religion was based upon a single sacrifice. The Spanish were monotheists while the Mexica
were polytheists. However while the Mexica believed in active human sacrifice and bloodletting, the
Spanish had no problem spilling the blood of thousands of Mexica and Amerindians. The Aztecs
thought that the Spaniards might be the reincarnation of one of their gods, as they had a legend of this
god returning. Therefore they were initially reluctant to immediately attack the Spanish. The fear that
this was their god returning was reinforced by the Mexica priests, soothsayers, magicians’ messengers
and spies. Further, they believed that the appearance of a meteor in the sky and some other happenings
were omens of the Mexica’s world coming to an end. (Book 12, Chapter 7)
The first ambassadors sent to meet the Spaniards brought gifts that they associated with their gods such
as feathered capes, jade masks and turquoise jewelry along with a gold disc in the center of a feathered
shield. The things that the Spaniards valued were different from the Mexica. The initial gifts offered as
a bribe to the Spanish by Montezuma, the Aztec ruler of the Mexica, contained things like bird feathers
and cocoa, and jade. These are things the Mexica thought were gifts fit for the gods, while what the
Spaniards valued was gold, silver and emeralds
It is also known that the Mexica came to war following a path similar to Europeans in that they first
sent ambassadors to try and negotiate, which is what happened with Cortez. Even though the Mexica
understood intimidation of opponents, the Spanish understood it better. When Cortez met Montezuma’s
first ambassadors, he ordered a cannon fired, the sound of which made the ambassadors faint. When the
