Conquered by Criminals : Week of 10.4
Over the course of this class I have been surprised numerous times about the information that I was never taught. One thing that always seems to blow my mind is that many of the explorers and conquistadors that discovered out half of the world were in fact criminals. Not criminals in the sense that they had escaped prison, but in the way that they had done something to warrant forgiveness. The fact that Cortes and Pizzaro fit beneath this category is not surprising.
Hernando Cortes was a criminal wanted for treason since he didn't follow the orders of his higher up and traveled all the way to inland Mexico. In his letters he tries to prove his worth and prove to his king that he went to Mexico for the betterment of Spain. Pizzaro also was a criminal. He also ignored the orders of higher nobles and incited a civil war. These are facts that we never learned in a high school history class, was it because it ruined to hero epic of the discovery of the Americas?
Thank you, Illy, for the post. I like the title, which is very creative. You're right that both Cortes and Pizarro were criminals but Cortes's action were so for slightly different reasons. Cortes was given permission to explore and trade but not conquer - this is what made him a fugitive from Velazquez and the law. Diego Almagro was jealous of Pizarro's wealth acquired at Cajamarca and that led to the crisis between the two that followed.
ReplyDeleteThis concept seemed even crazier to me when I realized that we are only taught the good about the European figures during the conquests, while simultaneously not taught much about the indigenous groups (and the information that we learn often portrays them in a negative light). Highschool taught in a positive bias for white figures, and a negative bias for everyone else. I think that you are right with the idea, that we are not taught this because it ruined the hero epic.
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