Restall through Conrad and Demerast

What up?  This is Conrad and Demarest in response to Mathew Restalls’ Book Seven myths of the Spanish. While our books may be looking at different sides of the conquest of Central America we would like to put in our two cents about your take on the subject of Spanish conquest. We are firm believers in the way in which religion can influence the world but you seem to take a tone that makes religion a guise to conquer new lands. On only page 9 of your book, You rather callously assert that Vasco Fernandez made a “pitch” to Pope Innocent VII. Cunning linguistics seem to subvert the whole notion that Vasco could have actually been sincere in not only wanting to bring great wealth to the Spanish empire through exploration but to glorify the state religion of Catholicism. We firmly believe that the brutal and tactical methods used by conquistadors, should be viewed as Machiavellian attempts to conquer not only a people but an entire ideological culture. You also appear to use the word justify quite frequently. Pgs. 14, 18, 19. The narrative formed by your use of justification leads one to believe that they needed a clumsy and half baked excuse in order to perform such a conquest and used religion as just that. Finally on page 113 you talk about the Franciscans who concerns you say were “more religious than political.” You say this as if the converse is true about the motivations of the conquistadors. Is it so difficult to believe that both the religious ideology and the personal goals of conquistadors could work in tandem? We suggest more serious forays into the religious beliefs of the Conquistadors before we dismiss outright that they could have any noble albeit misguided objectives.