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Throughout Chapter 3, Taylor highlights the increasingly powerful, as well as brutal Spanish presence in the New World. We see that Spain’s expansion through the Americas was largely due to an intense demand in slave labor. I was definitely taken aback by how ruthless the Spaniards acted towards the natives they had conquered. I found the requerimiento to be completely ridiculous, as if reading a decree that justifies death and punishment to Native Americans in an alien language makes any sense at all. I do believe Spain lives up to its reputation as the “Black Legend,” because the way in which it claimed New World territory was just crueler than that of other European powers at the time. As @JANEWTON explained in his post, the English were not angels either, but at least they drew a line as to how the Indians should be dealt with.
Taylor really puts into perspective the sheer size and complexity that some societies had already achieved in the New World, especially with the Aztecs and their kingdom of Tenochtitlan. “The population of about 200,000 dwarfed the largest city in Spain, Seville, which had only 70,000 inhabitants” (Taylor, p.53). Through the eyes of some Spaniards in Central America, they did not show contempt, but instead marveled at the complexity and magnificence of these native civilizations. Both Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and soldier Bernal Diaz del Castillo appeared genuinely in awe when introduced to the kingdom of Tenochtitlan. Unfortunately, it was clear that greed, rather than admiration, had won the conquistadors over, as they plundered and burned the beautiful city down to the ground.
I found a major theme in chapters 3 and 5 to be the continuous growth and decay of powerful nations. Throughout the 1500s, Spain had created the largest empire of its time, conquering vast territories throughout the Americas and Caribbean. Yet, the immense amount of gold and silver Spain had garnered from its lands in the New World were the very things that led to their downfall. “The infusion expanded the money supply faster than the growth of goods and services, contributing to a dramatic inflation of prices that spilled over into the rest of Europe” (Taylor, p. 63). By uniting together, the Five Nations Iroquois became the most formidable Native American nation at the time. However, their constant feuds with rival native peoples, coupled with disease from Europeans, led to a dramatic decrease in their populations. To cope with this decrease, the Five Nations needed more captives than ever before to repopulate, which only led to more wars and bloodshed. “The internal violence threatened to destroy the Five Nations” (Taylor, p. 103).