Sunday, September 15, 2013
The Aztec Empire ( Religion and Empire by Conrad and Demarest)
In the first two chapters of Religion and Empire, Conrad and Demarest are giving a history of the rise and fall of the Aztec Empire. They do not talk about the black legend. They instead focus on the Aztecs and how they became a large empire that conquered many other cultures and eventually fell themselves. There were many factors that played into the expansion and finally the fall of the Aztecs. The major factors were the religious and economic factors. The major theme of the chapter on the Aztec empire is religion and how it played into the economic and political lives of the Aztec people. The Aztecs created their own god who demanded human sacrifices and this started their conquering ways. In order to get victims the Aztecs started wars with neighboring people. They used the god as a way to justify their wars and expand the empire. This was also a way to increase their economic status as well. They would take tributes from the people they conquered. Something I found interesting was the the fact the Aztec leaders changed their recorded history to justify the carnage they were about to inflict on the people they attacked. The Aztecs used this way of war for many years until the they started have problems. Other societies started to resist their attacks. They often had to reconquer many places because they would leave the old leadership in tact. The growing empire had many problems at home as well. Lack of food and people to grow the food was a problem. The Aztecs also started running out of prisoners of war to use in their sacrifices, so they started using their own slaves. Basically the Aztec Empire was brought down not only by the Spanish but by their own beliefs. The chapter ends where the Spanish have just arrived so they really don't talk about the black legend.
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If the "Black Legend" dealt only with the cruelty of the Spaniards, then I would agree that Conrad and Demarest have little to say on that score. However, the other component of the "Black Legend" is the victimization of the Aztecs, the despoilation of a pristine and innocent environment. In this light, any history of the Aztecs prior to the introduction of the Spaniards indirectly addresses the "Black Legend."
ReplyDeleteOf course, whatever the lifestyle and political abilities of the Aztecs prior to the coming of the Spaniards, there is no justification for whatever elements of the “Black Legend” cruelty of the Spaniards did occur. Conrad and Demarest could describe a bloodthirsty genocidal Aztec empire that survived on slave labor similar to the Nazi regime in Germany and that would still have no bearing on whether the Spanish treatment of the natives was justified or not.
However, my perspective of the Aztecs prior to the Spanish landings WAS completely altered by Conrad and Demarest’s depiction. In fact, I was startled by the similarities between the Spaniards in the New World and the rise of the Mexica. The Mexica were a small, scrappy tribe who through savvy alliances and shrewd conquest overcame the previous empires (22). They sought to legitimize their conquest through a princely line (the Requirement referenced the Spanish Crown’s “right” to rule) (25). The Mexica’s religion compelled their conquest, though perhaps in a more honest way than the Spaniards use of conversion and the Papal Bull (38). Last but not least, the “history” of both the Mexica and armed entrepreneurs was heavily altered before reaching the common man (32). The Mexica of Conrad and Demarest are not so different from the Spaniards who defeated them.
Indeed, perhaps the “quick” capitulation of Moctezuma II was not due to believing the Spaniards were gods or some form of native superstition or failure of communication. Perhaps he was simply a shrewd politician who realized the weakness of his state and acted accordingly, more aware of what a Spanish alliance with the Tlaxcala meant to the future of the Aztecs than Cortés did.