In Chapter 3, Taylor demystifies the \u201cBlack Legend\u201d of Spanish cruelty by highlighting both the atrocities and developments of Spanish conquest\u2014a lucrative venture for bullish entrepreneurs and an onerous governance for the Spanish crown. Continuing his comparative perspective, Taylor examines the Spanish conquest through lens of the Native peoples as well as the Spanish. I, however, found his description of the Spanish motives especially interesting. He notes that while Spanish colonization was \u201ca private enterprise . . . in the pursuit of profit,\u201d it also served to extend the control of the Spanish crown and Catholic church by means of the requerimento <\/i>(57). Though driven by seemingly disparate interests, the Spanish conquerers\u2014in the Taylor\u2019s presentation, at least\u2014used their separate interests as motives and justifications for the atrocities of their conquests, particularly at Tenochtitl\u00e1n. Describing Cortes\u2019 visit to the enchanting city\u2014I say \u201cenchanting\u201d because of Bernal Diaz\u2019s description of it\u2014Taylor writes that the Spanish explorers were \u201cinflamed [with] desire to conquer, plunder\u201d (53). Yet, they abhorred the gruesome rituals and idolatry of the Aztecs. So they employed their religious duty \u2018to give light to those . . . in darkness\u2019 as justification to eclipse the Aztec culture and society with their own customs (58). Perhaps no event described in Chapter 3 better reflects the Spanish cultural conquest than the construction of the cathedral in Mexico City. Tenochtitl\u00e1n\u2019s ruins became the cornerstones of a Christian temple, born on the backs of its own people.<\/p>\n

I find it interesting that among the list of Spanish motives for conquest Taylor excludes racial prejudice. Granted, Taylor states in Chapter 5 that Europeans perceived the Native peoples as \u201csocially and culturally inferior\u201d rather than racially unequal (107). But I find it hard to believe that the confrontation of two foreign, ethnically homogenous groups would not provoke racial prejudice, although admittedly my this assertion is influenced by modern instances of racism.<\/p>\n

Regardless, I think there is a better explanation for Taylor\u2019s exclusion of racism in his list of Spanish motives. In her post last week, Caitlin noted Taylor\u2019s argument for colonial social-hierarchy as the origin of racism in America. Racial oppression, she stated, was \u201ccreated through the colonial process,\u201d not pre-meditated. With this view in mind, Taylor\u2019s description makes sense. As the Native peoples were assimilated\u2014or coerced, depending on your view\u2014into the Spanish colonies, they were exploited and worked on haciendas <\/i>as sharecroppers. And as Taylor\u2019s argument would suggest, a racial hierarchy (castas<\/i>) evolved from the social hierarchy, with Natives and African slaves at the bottom and whiter peoples towards the top. So, whether an omission for the sake of his argument or a fine example of racism evolving out of classism, the absence of racial qualifications for the Spanish conquest seems best explained by Taylor\u2019s previous argument. I think Caitlin would agree, but I look forward to hearing her response.<\/p>\n

On a different note, we spent much of class last Thursday discussing common words and phrases used when describing the history of the American Native peoples. Many words\u2014like \u201cvillage,\u201d as opposed to \u201ccity\u201d\u2014we concluded, fail to accurately convey the complexity and sophistication of Native civilization and culture. In fact, some words reflect cultural ignorance more than just historical inaccuracy. I think this recent blog is especially relevant to that conversation:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/codeswitch\/2013\/09\/02\/217295339\/the-history-behind-the-phrase-dont-be-an-indian-giver<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Chapter 3, Taylor demystifies the \u201cBlack Legend\u201d of Spanish cruelty by highlighting both the atrocities and developments of Spanish conquest\u2014a lucrative venture for bullish entrepreneurs and an onerous governance for the Spanish crown. Continuing his comparative perspective, Taylor examines the Spanish conquest through lens of the Native peoples as well as the Spanish. I, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “American Colonies, Chapter 3: \u201cConquest and Race in New Spain\u201d”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[84,123,245],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-conquest","tag-ethno-history","tag-race"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-fall2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}