Conquest of New Spain (-Bernal Diaz)
The intentions of the Spanish were to both acquire wealth in the form of gold, as well as convert the Aztec people to the Christian faith during their conquest of Mexico. However, the Spaniards became engulfed in their own greed, and in the end gold became their main obsession. Being the highly religious people that the Spaniards were, converting the Indians into Christians in order to 'save their souls' was important to them, thinking the Indians' polytheistic religion was inferior to their own. After victory in the wars that usually ensued while trying to forcefully convert the natives, the Spaniards became accustomed to receiving many gifts as peace offerings from the Caciques of the tribes. This was a major factor in lighting a fire under the Spaniards' ever-increasing greed for more gold. Based on these facts and events, along with others that I will discuss, the lust for gold was clearly of more importance to the Conquistadors than was the converting of the Indians to Christianity. To begin, the only reason Diego Velazquez originally sends Cortes' expedition to New Spain is because previous trips, such as the one by Francisco Hernandez, had returned a great deal of gold to him. This message of a land full of riches
From this point on, the Spaniards cared little anymore about convincing the Aztecs to fully commit to Christianity, and focused almost completely on defeating the Mexicans in battle and acquiring as much gold as possible for the return to Cuba and Spain. Everyone including the already wealthy citizens who held high positions in the community, to the poorest peasant who could barely support himself wanted very badly to, in some way, be a part of the expedition of Cortes. An example is when they are speaking with the Cempoalans and Diaz exclaims ". Only after all this had taken place did Cortes inform them of his desire to make Christians out of them. In the end, the Spaniards, including the King, were concerned much less with the number of Christian converts they had amassed, and much more with the amount of gold and riches they had accumulated. A Spanish soldier's helmet was even filled with gold for Cortes at one time, reassuring him that Mexico did in fact have what he was looking for. After they finally did take the upper hand, all but wiping out the Aztec population, they still felt the need to torture Montezuma's successor, Guatemoc, in an attempt to gain even more gold that they believed he still possessed. So, as the story is ended only on the note of how much wealth, or the lack thereof, each conquistador came away with, it is hard to understand anyone who argues that the conversion of the Indians to Christianity was more important to the Spaniards than was the acquisition of gold. that if they did not themselves remove their idols at once we would ourselves send them rolling down the steps" (p.
Common topics in this essay:
Cuba Spain,
Eventually Mexicans,
Indians Christians,
Cempoalans Diaz,
Cortes Spaniards,
Francisco Hernandez,
Bernal Diaz,
Afterwards Caciques,
Mexico City,
,
greed gold,
christian faith,
converting indians,
return home,
indians christianity,
cortes spaniards,
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Acceptance Essays
