to Asia, the Castilian monarchs had Columbus arrested. He would Chapter 2 make more Atlantic crossings, but he had become marginalized to Many victories, great the Castilian experiment in the Caribbean. That experiment reflected the lessons of the long conquest of conquests the Canary Islands. The financiers who backed Columbus came together as investors in the Canaries. The policies of nurturing Matthew Restall and Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, The and converting the native populations and exempting them Conquistadors: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University from enslavement took shape in the archipelago. The ideas of Press, 2012). introducing new crops, especially sugar, and importing labor to grow and process them, arose there. The establishment of the Canaries as a distinct “kingdom” within the Crown of Castile and “It is because of wealth that we have witnessed, and will continue the wider Spanish monarchy presaged the way Spaniards would to see many victories, great conquests and discoveries of great conceive and organize the New World. empires that have been hidden from us,” wrote the veteran conquests great Many victories, conquistador and colonial administrator Bernardo de Vargas By 1500 the original settlements made by Columbus on Hispaniola Machuca. “This is seen each day, under commanders who, with were abandoned and a permanent Spanish capital established royal powers, have thus occupied themselves, with desire to show at Santo Domingo. Over the next twenty years, Spaniards used themselves serving their king and embarking on campaigns of the stepping-stone method to explore, raid, and partially settle great risk, labor, and expense, spending their personal wealth with the islands of the Caribbean. After Hispaniola the other larger no one else’s help.” islands—Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica—became bases for further small expeditions. Had the goal been to displace the indigenous Included in his book. The Indian Militia and Description of population, extract mineral wealth, and return to Spain, the the Indies, first published in 1599, such comments promoted Caribbean years would have been deemed successful. But the goal the legendary narrative of self-sufficient yet supremely loyal was to forge a permanent and lucrative new kingdom of peaceful, conquistadors, whose sacrifices led inevitably to triumph. Vargas hard-working, tribute-paying, Christian converts. By that token, Machuca’s arguments were propaganda, part of his defense of the the Caribbean experiment was a disaster. conquistador. He knew only too well that the previous century had seen an abundance of disloyalty, graft, and failure beginning with The native Arawak or Taino peoples practiced agriculture, built the unfortunate Caribbean experiment. permanent towns, and had complex social structures; but they also lived from hunting, fishing, and gathering, and their settlements The rastilians had not been seeking a new world any more than were not in any sense cities. The Tainos were not used to rigorous the Portuguese had. Columbus’s contract with the Castilian Crown labor systems, enforced by strict political and religious regimes, was for the sea route to Asia; the Genoese insisted he had found it, of the kinds long established in Iberia and soon to be found by but his claims could not resist critical scrutiny for long. When the Spaniards among the Aztecs and Inca. Spanish slaving raids and Portuguese finally rounded Africa and pioneered the real sea route violence among the islanders produced further resistance, flight. 24 25 The Conquistadors Voyages of coast of 1517 the on 1518 landed and and explored a low-profit violent, into descended Caribbean As the empowered the chosen leader, Hernando Cortes, to explore, not explore, to Cortes, Hernando leader, chosen the empowered island’s the of one commissioned he when Therefore of adelantado. title the Cuba. The to point mainland closest the peninsula, Yucatan the mainland. Mexican the onto Cuba led from chain first The of conquest. chains of forging great two decline and likevrisediseases Old would World to succumb population native the and employed, be would methods same the native labor and tribute) to lead a third expedition in 1519, in expedition he a third lead to tribute) and labor native of Diego Cuba, Velazquez, governor was held who the sponsor the led to discoveries there Tbeir coastlines. circum-Caribbean explore the to increasingly began Spaniards disappointment, chains Two conquistador. survive to the enough strong societies us” from hidden have been that “great empires civilizations, the lay sprawling there Caribbean, the to contrast In catastrophically. There, mainland. the to Spaniards took invasion and exploration why into the policy investigations and criminal Crown initiated the perhaps to fell percent island’sby 90 the population that right was (in Vargas Machuca’s words), and millions of sedentary families—(in Vargas of millions Machuca’ssedentary and words), of momentum the any fruit, self-reflection bore imperial such But long before disappointments. such were conquests Caribbean while began, Lasas soul-searching such Casas, Led the by priests century. sixteenth of decade the of second middle the the by around estimates, by people, contemporary 15,000 around disease, he of epidemic impact the of) (or ignorant was ignored friar of Dominican Hispaniola’s in ten the Tainos. nine Although “egregious wickedness”the colonists killed of that the claimed deLas Casas Bartolome activities by Spaniards. counterproductive and mortality—which in turn fostered greater frustration and and frustration greater fostered in turn mortality—which and encomenderos (conquistador-settlers with rights to to rights with (conquistador-settlers 26 the king in Spain down to the lesser captains risking their lives at their risking captains lesser the to down Spain in king the was not supposed to be direct, but paradoxically part of of what part paradoxically but direct, to be supposed not was from running of a system patronage, was thus chain The invade. his patronage and seeking direct royal support, Velazquez royal support, direct seeking tried and patronage his source. royal closer its to themselves pull and chain that grasp to of rank lesser by Spaniards attempts continual were the strong chain the made court to from link jungle the of Americas; the in the or jungles sea Velazquez and his war against the Aztecs.the against Velazquezhis war and would sixbe It actions. legality his Cortes to years before would (via a sail quick Cozumel Yucatecalong the and coast), mainland Mexican on the landed had men Once his fiveCuba. hundred sailing from expedition the in vain, stop to minute, last the at bypassing that, do to just attempt Cortes would that Suspecting the capital city capital of was—they what the discover—anwere soon to of Mexicoinvaders Spanish moved first slowlyThe toward a of veneer lent council whose a votes of town support creating a only),cityact (a He founded ritual king. the allegiance to direct of formally declared eleven and most ships his grounded Cortes impressive regional empire. They were few in number and and They were few empire. regional number in impressive Spain, revolt for against in his receive person in royal approval, And they were at the mercy of potential enemies who might have who might enemies mercy of the at potential they were And weather, unimaginable almost the acclimatize to to chance little clubs favored by obsidian-studded the with compared battle in impact effectivewere a remarkable swords had which weapons, steel (though encumbrance was an armor their ill equipped: wiped them out, had they so they wished. had out, them wiped They also had or munitions. supplies of their renewing means no had they and terrain; city-studded mountainous, in the usefulness were of few horses and and limited firearms their armies); native environments, landscapes, foods, and diseases they encountered. encountered. diseases they foods, and landscapes, environments, among peoples whose cultures predisposed them receiveto them predisposed cultures peoples whose among first, they were circumstances: Three saved So them? what 27 strangers hospitably, and even with awe; second, they profited a welcoming speech to Cortes that the latter claimed to interpret from the antagonisms between indigenous communities whose (in a letter to the king) as a speech of surrender. Intrigued by these hatred of each other far outweighed any suspicions they might foreigners who had disrupted a corner of his empire, Moctezuma have felt toward the newcomers; third, it is arguable that most sought to display his majesty through hospitality. But the natives—while appreciating the newcomers as potential allies Spaniards, outnumbered and fearful, soon resorted to treachery and esteeming them for the magic or sanctity their strangeness and terror; in what was effectively a coup d'etat, Cortes seized and suggested—underestimated the threat they represented. imprisoned Moctezuma and ordered that anyone who so much as Indigenous polities contended for Spanish friendship, offering raised a hand against the Spanish and their allies be publicly cut gifts of food and women, and engaging in restrained forms of trial to pieces and fed to the dogs. These were stock tactics developed by combat to test their prowess and evaluate them as allies. Most by conquistadors in the course of their decades of Caribbean slave notably the Tlaxcalans—the Aztecs' principal rivals and foes— raiding, tactics that proved even more effective against mainland tested the conquistadors in battle and then appropriated them as imperial peoples who depended on their divinely sanctioned allies, using them to assist in the massacre of hated neighbors in kings. The use of terror was not only a workable strategy, it was the city of Cholula. also a psychological necessity for the tiny, beleaguered band of conquistadors, surrounded by unfamiliar perils and cut off from all conquests great Many victories, Cortes thus found common ground with local lords. The Spaniards hope of help from home. wanted to move on to the Valley of Mexico to confront the Aztec emperor with as many native allies as possible. Native rulers were Over the next eight months the Spanish and Tlaxcalan invaders, eager to see the Spaniards leave their communities and were partially contained within the center of the city, survived, willing to hedge their bets on the possibility of the collapse of the precariously and increasingly restively. Cortes continued to use Aztec Empire. Some, like the Totonacs, were subject to the Aztec displays of defiance and bravado to good effect. He ordered that Empire and quick to rebel against it. Others, like the Tlaxcalans, images of the Virgin Mary be placed atop Aztec temples to assert the had resisted Aztec expansion and were eventually persuaded to power of the invaders’ god. He also took a contingent of Spaniards take a chance on destroying their old enemies. The initiative in and native allies back to the Gulf Coast to confront a company forging the alliance that eventually overthrew Aztec hegemony of Velazquez supporters that had sailed from Cuba to challenge did not—could not—come from Cortes, who knew nothing of Cortes; they were defeated, and most joined Cortes, who returned indigenous politics and could not speak any indigenous language. to Tenochtitlan to find that the stalemate had shifted in favor of the He relied on the native woman who acted as his interpreter, called Aztecs. Led by Pedro de Alvarado, the Spaniards were under siege. dona Marina by Spaniards and Malinche by Nahuas. In native accounts of the conquest, she occupies a central role, at the very The desperate Spaniards exhibited Moctezuma to the people. The least a guiding and often a commanding one. gesture failed. The monarch died, murdered by the Spaniards or perhaps, as they later claimed, stoned to death by the mob. On A combined force, in which Tlaxcalans and their own allies the night of June 30,1520, the invaders attempted to flee the accompanied Spaniards, advanced toward Tenochtitlan. In city undetected. But Aztec warriors were waiting, and they killed November 1519 they entered the city as guests of Moctezuma. about half the Spaniards and thousands of Tlaxcalan and other Conversing through Cortes’s interpreter, the emperor delivered native allies. Cortes and his bedraggled Spanish forces eventually 28 29 The Conquistadors Aztec warriors, survivors of the war who joined other Nahua Nahua other survivors of who war Aztec the joined warriors, own focus on their misleading conquistadors’ of the because for any need violence—a fact the elites, without existing with Moctezuma’s confirming and them with of basis accommodation a elites, seeking incumbent reassure to tried he Aztec world, but piles block pillaged, gold by not but and block, revealing was taken Mexico City began to rise, reconstructed with a fresh look in a a a look new,in fresh with Mexico City rise,reconstructed to began even used chain—and that used Spaniards The region. the in of a conquest chain employed themselves AztecsThe prowess. had perhaps suppressed, or ignored has tradition historiographical of Kingdom New Spain. the renamed they Mesoamerica—which in own empire of their structure of the part elemental an into it convert and framework of use make to that sought immediately diplomatic and lists, tribute routes, of trade framework its days old over.areas, were the outlying In that realized people however, empire, the around and In of role paramount. in the heir of end the the proclaim to enough feel strong not did Cortes then, Even siege warfare. and of of victims starvation, bodies, sickness, city canoes. The in contingents Aztec warrior remaining pound helped and lake policed the cannon, with Texcoco armed and of Lakeshores the on Boats, water. built and by land attack then empire of of Mexica. empire the old of ashes the the from spring empire Spanish-Mexican a new so did of rubble Tenochtitlan, style,the from Spanish-inspired as 1520s, of the In Spain. just New frontiers allies—tothe expand understanding an came to Spaniards the communities, most In Spaniards place.in remained families ruling between relations Byof end 1521, But the was destroyed. old Aztec the Empire of disputes. arbitrators as the demand in much politics, they were in traditional uninvolved since, as strangers power, Spaniards' effect conflicts. the The and was increase to rivalries old cowed formerly by Aztecs the resumed communities starvation, Aztecs and the disease faced off mainland, the from city twin its of and fell.Tlatelolco Cut a Tenochtitlan year before than it more be would but assistance, Tlaxcalan with regrouped 30 Vasco Nunez de Balboa—the first sighting of Balboa—the Vascoof Pacific de sighting first the Nunez Ocean by the isthmus discovered was by slavean African owner,isthmus his and the to the appointed bishop Spanish first received the Panama later Pacific down the side there from of Panama—and Isthmus the to officiallywere of of king subjects Spain. long the This would be the and material process. The highly contested and a protracted be to Pacific across west U.S.the and would be to what Southwest, the quickly most into Spaniards led of chain conquest violence. The 1540s. a in colonythe small there eventually founded son his ocean to its south (which Spaniards called the South Sea).South called the (which Among Spaniards its south to ocean Old World. the from invaders same year, Pacific of the Americas. That the side of mainland 1508,in five and began of side isthmus years the Atlantic the on of a colonysmall settlement and conquest of The America. South Hispaniola from extended another MexicoAmerica, Central to namesake. a of “New story colonial Mesoamerica, Spain” so Iberian its unlike who groups native other of and Aztec former millions subjects of minds and of hearts winning the would the be challenging Equally centuries. take would conquest the fringes the at and easy, been not had center of Mesoamerican the conquest political of colonies founding But would prove the Philippines. the renamed is what today into after,north of soon Mesoamerica—and, corners a 1524, show legacy little to with leaving but two of years later in Guatemala highland de Pedro invaded Alvarado Meanwhile, Yucatecthe twice conquer failing to Maya; Yucatan peninsula, the 1530s into who also de by the Montejo, Francisco in companies led Pacific side (named Panama) and began to explore the coast and explore to coast and began the and PacificPanama) side (named on the a settlement established Spaniards decade, next the During Cuba to to Hispaniola from ran of conquest sequence If one or more less was conquered way).on Honduras the Cuauhtemoc, captive Aztec last by the emperor, the executing ovra hands of his into power displacement confirm the to opportunity the (taking Honduras to expedition an himself led Cortfe

31 Many victories, great conquests great victories, Many The Conquistadors Atahualpa intended, rather like Moctezuma in Mexico, to draft Mexico,in draft like to Moctezuma rather intended, Atahualpa crisis a 1532. in was succession in world, Inca the Tawantinsuyu, also a and license to weapons, state-of-the-art and armor, horses, army a of small with several for Spanish, men Castilian in years partner their and his Pizarro, brothers, before failure humiliating and of a it decade took reconnaissance coastal but to found, be One brothers. Pizarro were the isthmus on early the settlers the wonder, the Spanish were not mistaken for gods. Andeans and and for gods. Andeans mistaken not were Spanish the wonder, cause for swords were steel and firearms, horses, their Though service.his into foreigners well-armed and bearded strangely the apprehensive, Far from over victory a his brother. recent with was flush city of sacred Atahualpa Cajamarca, the in emperor the When control. for battled had Huascar, and sons, his Atahualpa Charles V.invade from a chieftain just than more was There empire. an with identified and Peru into be transformed would later but chieftain mythical “Pini”—the of was a really destination, name that of a rumored 1522in search in Panama from Francisco, south sailed of them, foreign men to be examined and turned away, accommodated, or or away,accommodated, turned and examined be to men foreign slavesAfrican as their and Spaniards alikesaw the Mesoamericans meet to Andes northern the into climbed 168his men and Pizarro Capac, of two Huayna Inca of five the the death In since the years steeped translators Quechua acquired had Pizarro meantime In the (see fig.Empire Inca 4). the into at last Diego de marched Almagro, less murder him. Humiliated, Atahualpa was held hostage hostage held was Atahualpa Humiliated, him. murder less much ransom, and kidnap to seek would they that suspect to reason no had Atahualpa vidthlodging, and food foreigners meeting, a diplomatic at attack a surprise 1532,in November In king. of the seizure the of hostages—preferably taking allowed. as circumstances used, for nearly a year as his subjects scrambled to gather up gold up gather to scrambled subjects as his a year nearly for a violent into turn treacherously then would that encounter a diplomatic initiate to was however, custom, Conquistador Pizarro and his men captured Atahualpa. Having supplied the the supplied Having Atahualpa. captured men his and Pizarro 32 Abused by the Spaniards, who repeatedly demanded not only not demanded repeatedly who Spaniards, by the Abused since before emperor legitimate the been had Manco Yupanqui, to retreat down the Urubamba River, past Pachacuti’sRiver, palace past Urubamba the down retreat to Forced succeeded. Cuzco 1536. almost in He from invaders also the but Manco silver from of gold and payments large of perspective Manco From the appeared. had Spaniards the in the wet lowlands, at a site called Vilcabamba. There he and a and he There called site a Vilcabamba. at lowlands, wet the in state Inca a rump established Manco Picchu, Machu at complex rude of expelvidves, his to the beautiful most attempted Manco rule. legitimate to return its rather but Empire of Inca conquest the the mark not did deaths their usurpers; mere been had Huascar and loyal those Atahualpa to him, and Cusi ruler, Titu Inca subsequent by and son his conquest of the account in the ruler; eyes, legitimate was Manco in the Andean But only by grace Spaniards. of to the Atahualpa’s throne the an heir regime, of Pizarro the as a Manco puppet portrayed later Capac. Inca, Manco Spaniards incumbent an remained there 1534.in empire’s the But Quito, captured were two capitals, then peoples who resented of indigenous of work a confederation the uncompromised by immersion in native politics. First Cuzco, politics.First native in by immersion uncompromised 1530s. the As Mexico,in fighting wasthrough the continued Empire of Inca conquest the Spanish of stage the military first The come. was to yet Tawantinsuyu of conquest military true the yet And complete. was treachery “Peru”became word thus The dreams. wildest their beyond rich were followers his and Pizarro Suddenly staggering. was being, divine asa regarded Andeans most whom leader, their Inca supremacy and who accepted the Spaniards as arbitrators as arbitrators Spaniards the accepted who and supremacy Inca the however, ransom, the Despite mines. silver rich immensely discovery of the with reinforced be soon would that association an Europeans, among wealth great with synonymous instantly free offered to of metals hoard the and Aztecs, the than silver and gold more far possessed Inca The him. free silver to and Inca Atahualpa was executed in 1533 on Pizarro’s orders. The The Pizarro’s 1533 on orders. in executed was Atahualpa Inca 33 ;.> 'il J»i« J.S?, .. 'i'.' The Conquistadors between the followers of the Diegothose of between and Pizarro de Almagro, Spanish stake, at territory and so wealth Meanwhile, with much the Cusi, maintained Titu son his including of series successors, the jungles of coastal Ecuador and arrived in Quito too late share too to Quito late in arrived and of the Ecuador coastal jungles command Despite of conquest Guatemala. from his putative fresh for Peru as well, contenders as such Pedro de were other Alvarado, Francisco Pizarro’s After several attempted original partner. Crown, of control for Peru. were disagreements There violent eventually the and another, one battling began conquistadors 1572. “empire” until Inca As the Spanish invasion of native lands pushed farther and and farther pushed of invasion native lands Spanish As the Caribbean from the south heading conquistadors still other met he Cali, beyond is now in north Colombia,what continue where would Benalcazar south. from the march a in highland there him beat had de Benalcazar, of Sebastian one Pizarro’s plunder. in the captains, expedition, of Alvarado lost a his well-equipped and way large in by ally’s his former in turn murdered son in 1541 (see fig. 4). There as executed a Almagro rebel, had Pizarro only compromises, to be V intervened in hopes of establishing order and collecting in collecting taxes and order of in establishing hopes V intervened of Charles representatives centers, old imperial the from farther the enslavement of native peoples in the Americas. Las Casas’s Americas. in of the peoples native enslavement the banned a was law that Another encomenderos). given to tribute was one limiting new proclamations the Among metals. precious called of Spanish El Dorado. coast search in the a chieftain mythical lasted until 1548. In the end, the Crown prevailed but not before not but Crown prevailed the end, 1548. the In until lasted access to conquistador while unhappy conquistadors continued to rebel against Crown against rebel to continued conquistadors unhappy while New Lawsso-called enforced. the were that ensure do could to friar was the little day, there the won but had court at arguments as a rebel. The laws were soon whittled down by compromises, down by compromises, as laws a rebel. The soon whittled were executed and was captured Pizarro’s Francisco brothers, younger of another Pizarro, Gonzalo a and viceroy was in battle killed civil and a revolt that war sparked outrage conquistador Peru, In authority until the 1570s. the until authority encomiendas 36 (the grants of native labor and and of labor native grants (the ideologies of divine kingship that might have underpinned empires have underpinned might of ideologies that divine kingship of Maya of conquest the the nature bloody,Was the long-drawn city-states tried in vain to dominate their neighbors, developing developing neighbors, their in dominate vain to tried city-states Maya for millennia, clear that, is now It abundantly deciphered. were hieroglyphs was before the that of but Maya empires, say.to isIt hard once spoke Archaeologists of resistance? dogged Maya or tradition the spirit conquistador Spanish to a tribute more Indian Militia Indian of frontispiece Vargason the Machuca’s inscription The Americas. rallying cry to keep up the conquistador spirit. conquistador cry the rallying up to keep call a arms, to a continued than conquests past to less reference a more” (see and fig.more 8and 5)—was chap. in more and More were still conquistadors fighting in numerous comers of of the comers numerous in fighting still conquistadors were pushing back of the conquest frontier. Yet frontier. of conquest back by the century’s pushing there end continual the funding wealth, and power now radiated kingdoms native Where colonial centers. as unchallenged consolidated were empires had dominated in the previous century, Spanish-native Spanish-native century, previous in the dominated had empires mostly starvation. died, from had 1,500 Spaniards of the thirds During the second half century, Mexico Peru of half and sixteenth second the the During directly 1550sled from campaign disastrous is example An the Peru but found nothing even close to it; within a two-a even close few it;within months, to nothing found but Peru expedition the underlay river’s a that was symbol of name wishful thinking the been had regions that settle and conquer to attempts later were Seville by don Pedro de Mendoza down the Rio The de Seville the Plata. down la de Mendoza Pedro by don exist. not did that realms native rich or lands for promised quests were they misguided vain another—or or reason for one ignored de Quesada of Jimenez isthe obvious exception most that the Islands. But by and large the expeditions that bypassed the chain chain the bypassed that expeditions But the large by and Islands. Canary directly the Colombia, came from which into campaign of two schema chains; the the fit into neatly all expeditions Not more and more and more” and and more more and score, the more ent augm sword and “Compass (plata of1599—“Compass and sword augment the score. the augment sword of1599—“Compass and means silver). Mendoza had hoped for another another for hoped silver).had Mendoza means 37

Many victories, great conquests great victories, Many The Conquistadors refused to be subdued by their neighbors, let alone alone by outsiders. let neighbors, by their subdued to be refused Inca. Yet as such wars Aztec in as and the impressive losers the In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they similarly resisted resisted similarly they centuries, seventeenth and sixteenth In the pockets of of Maya area. pockets the only in warfare—and of only years after punishing hut country Maya in Colonies established were invaders. Nahua and Spanish Although Spaniards had suffered bruising encounters with Maya with encounters suffered bruising had Spaniards Although warriors along the 1510s, along Yucatecon the the in the coast assault warriors the two massive invasions of the Guatemalan highlands, led first led by highlands, Guatemalan of massive two invasions the saw half-decade That 1524-29. in earnest in Maya first began Jorge. The Alvarados seemed to have two major advantages. have to major two seemed Alvarados The Jorge. Pedro de Alvarado (see fig. 6 in chap. 3) and then by his brother by (see de his brother Pedro Alvarado then fig.3) and 6 chap. in those of the Kaqchikel and K’iche’ and Kaqchikel of could be those the enmity Maya; their by rival two kingdoms, dominated were highlands the First, exploited, setting one against the other and using both pick to both using and other the against one setting exploited, This was the predictable Spanish strategy, but it collapsed under under collapsed it strategy, but Spanish predictable This was the them. surrounded that city-states and off kingdoms smaller the The second advantage was the size of the invading force-not the the sizeforce-not was of invading the advantage the second The Maya intransigence. and of weight Pedro’sthe heavy-handedness Spaniards per se, who numbered a few hundred, but their allies. their but a few hundred, se, per numbered who Spaniards larger, comprising up to ten thousand Aztecs and other central central other Aztecs and thousand to ten up comprising larger, Jorge’s allied Mbctecs, Mesoamericans. force evenwas other and Aztecs, Zapotecs, sixTlaxcalans, some thousand brought Pedro Mexican warriors. The impact of of a such force devastating, was impact The Mexican warriors. and the highlands were virtually destroyed in order for them to be for them order in destroyed were virtually highlands the and conquered. In the end, it was the indigenous conquistadors who conquistadors indigenous it was the end, the In conquered. made a colony in the highlands possible. The survivors stayed as stayed survivors possible. The a colony highlands in made the settlers, contributing to the creation of of colonial Guatemala. creation the to contributing settlers, Meanwhile, a similar tale unfolded to the north, in in Yucatan. There north, to the unfolded tale a similar Meanwhile, Spaniards led by Francisco de Montejo failed to encounter either either encounter to failed led de Montejo by Francisco Spaniards an empire to topple or a source of great wealth. As in Guatemala, As of a wealth. or in Guatemala, source great to topple empire an a handful of kingdoms with a history of a for of ripe a conflict seemed history of with kingdoms a handful using the Spanish invaders as the Spaniards did at manipulating at did Spaniards as the invaders Spanish the using as as adept proved But Maya rulers strategy. divide-and-conquer 38 with good reason, that Spanish colonial rule was a disaster colonial rule in Spanish was a disaster that good reason, with the only of kingdom, abandoning Itza invasion Spanish the the Spaniards six months after the kingdom’s after the Concluding, six conquest. months Spaniards Ah of Itz^. the conqueror of governor soon-to-be Yucatan and was and baptized Christianity to converted Ah Chan throne. the Chan remained loyal to this strategy of appeasement through through of loyal strategy appeasement this to remained Chan de Ursua, the don Martin new his godfather, after Chan, Martin of capital colony the the in Merida, to Yucatan,sent asbeen had nominal recognition of colonial control might saveof might colonial on recognition seat control his nominal a that king The hoped submission. of and peace ambassador an played by 1695 Itza In of king. a Ah nephew Chan, the Ah Chan One factor in the destruction of the Itza kingdom role was the of kingdom Itza the destruction in the factor One Maya from Yucatan. and Maya,of Itza actually grew in the the that such kingdom, largest 1697 by an invasion force of Spaniards, free-colored militiamen, 1697 militiamen, free-colored force invasion by of an Spaniards, in expensive its bloody destruction and century, until seventeenth The of so-called despohlado. the kingdoms independent into dramatically shifted of peninsula base the southwest the at border migration of thousands of Maya out of the drought-ridden colony of drought-ridden Maya of out of the thousands migration a Maya with “rebellion,” l660s officials as Spanish in the called the coast, was abandoned in the l630s for for coloniala century. The l630s in the was coast, abandoned of town Spanish The it also contracted. times at but expanded, Bacalar, located in the middle of the Maya area near the Caribbean Caribbean the of near Maya middle area the the in Bacalar, located periodically Maya.all the border The conquer to authorities maps marked the miles between the coloniestwo as the miles between the marked maps of Spanish Maya most excluded area. the century sixteenth late (“uninhabited”), but that fiction masked the failure of of failure the colonial masked fiction that but (“uninhabited”), Still, the Spanish colonies of Yucatan and Guatemala in the colonies of Spanish Guatemala Still,Yucatan and the violence. and disease to succumbed had of Maya populations majority the the after and Mexican of warriors, central allied of thousands importation the north. As in the Guatemalan highlands, victory victory came only after highlands, Guatemalan As the in north. a colony secure to two decades and in invasions the three nephew) 1527, in son, and Beginning (father, Montejos them. it took the 39 despohlado

Many victories, great conquests great victories, Many , The Conquistadors the region, he became a leader of the Itza resistance, ruling an ruling resistance, Itza of a leader the region, became he the independent kingdom of Itza, Choi, and Mopan Maya in the Maya forests in the of Choi,Mopan Itza, and kingdom independent of what is now northern Guatemala and Belize until at least 1757.Belize at least and until Guatemala of is northern now what The Maya area was not the only part of of where Americas only the part the not was Maya area The tragic conclusions of campaigns like Rio Mendoza’s of de la campaigns conclusions the down tragic swift, or the Inca, of of Aztecsinvasions and the the narrative dramatic the either activities lacked conquistador Spanish Plata. In the Choco region of of Choco their region today’sand the In Citara Plata. Colombia, the neighbors endured decimation by disease, harrowing warfare, by harrowing disease, decimation endured neighbors tenacity, the onslaught of conquistador and colonists or indigenous indigenous or colonists and of conquistador onslaught tenacity, the greater exhibits say to phenomenon it is which Maya area, hard As the by missionaries. with relocation forced and enslavement, in conflict for centuries. The “conquest” The or “pacification” violent conflict centuries. in for trapped seemed natives and Spaniards Both submit. to refusal how they married and buried their dead. In the 1680s natives 1680s natives the In dead. their buried and married how they change or work, to moved, to put be People simply refused period. of colonial the centuries of three for of most Chocothe lasted the African slaves, and drove out the rest. The empire fought back, fought empire The rest. the slaves,out drove African and called “rebels ” Spaniards whom their and 126killed Spaniards and eventually some natives were converted. Spanish culture had had culture Spanish converted. were natives some eventually and legal system to defend themselves. defend legal system to Spanish use the to learned and animals, farm goods and material new ways, as other in adopted local people impact a long-term New Mexico had a similar history: a colony, incorporated into the into colony,a history: New Mexicosimilar a incorporated had monarchy with dazzling ambition and heartbreaking hardship hardship heartbreaking and ambition dazzling with monarchy to be systematically and bloodily forced back into allegiance and and allegiance into bloodily forced back and systematically be to 1680, in only insurrection native a in 1598,in ferocious vanished thinly resettled by missionaries and frontiersmen. The cost of cost of The that frontiersmen. and by missionaries resettled thinly The indigenous people with the most persistent and astonishing astonishing and persistent most the with people indigenous The recouped. never be could one was that conquest second Araucanians (a term derived from the Arauca River) rugged is Arauca the the from derived (a term Araucanians all to foreign (and conquistadors the to of resistance record invaders) are the Mapuche. The homeland of the Mapuche or of Mapuche the homeland The Mapuche. are the invaders) 40 Argentina and of the North American West same in era.the American of North the and Argentina divide-at attempts stymied they and swords; steel and knives, horses, quickly guns, they adopted advantages: conquistador tried two well- also able appropriate were to Mapuche But the virtues. aboveprowess was prized for a military other life and of warfare, on resist to went the for a Inca century, and the resisted they had were such a people; Mapuche The conquer. to hardest the often were encroachment of imperial resisting a tradition who had those of subjects Aztec the Empire—were other Mlxtecs, and Nahuas, as by empires—such the native conquered recently peoples that found conquistadors of foot Spanish America. South the at rainforests temperate dense gently rolling hills, and coastline, process similar to that used against native peoples of peoples of native of against plains the used that to similar process neighbors. indigenous with confederations by forging long-term strategies and-conquer boys were reared success cultural; was Their partly centuries. four for another nation-state Chilean the and Spanish colonial new colony. the relatively into easilyBy drawn same token, the modern weapons, forced deportation, and threats of of genocide—athreats and deportation, forced weapons, modern using them subdue partially to forces manage armed Chilean 1880s the did until Not Mapuche. the conquered never Spain

41 Many victories, great conquests great victories, Many Stone-Age inhabitants of the Canary Islands, Spain’s first overseas Chapter 4 colony. The Canary Islanders gradually succumbed to invaders over a period of nearly a century, culminating in the subjugation of the last independent island. La Palma, in 1496. Even at that By a miracle of God slow pace, the conquest of the islands, according to the chronicler of its closing stages, strained Spain’s resources. Yet on the far side Matthew Restall and Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, The of the Atlantic, at a greater distance, facing greater numbers of Conquistadors: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2012). foes, in more adverse circumstances, Spanish conquerors achieved startling results with astonishing speed.

Later empires, of course, achieved even more spectacular successes than Spain’s in the New World. The British and French empires of the nineteenth century were bigger and more widespread. The conquest baffled the conquistadors. But they were the result of technological advances unavailable to Spaniards in sixteenth-century America puzzled over how they conquistadors in the Americas. Rifled guns, steel cannon, steam came to be in control of so many people over so vast an area.

transport, longitude-finding devices, telegraphy, quinine pills, By of a Codmiracle “When in ancient or modern times have such huge enterprises o and tropical-weight clothing: all were developments of the late so few succeeded against so many?” asked Francisco de Jerez, the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when the Spanish conquistador of Peru who was the first to publish an account of empire was near or beyond its peak. Spain’s great world empire of the Spanish invasion of the Inca Empire. His question was partly land and sea was strictly unparalleled as well as unprecedented. boastful rhetoric, partly an expression of befuddled amazement. The other European empires of the time were seaborne, seaboard It was a genuinely surprising outcome, for Spam is, in strictly affairs, while those of the great Asian imperialists—the Ottomans, geographical terms, a poor and marginal part of Europe-and at the Mughals in India, the Safavids in Persia, the Ming and Qing in the time Europe was, by global standards, the home continent of a China, the Russians in Siberia, the Uzbeks in central Asia, and the backward and relatively unproductive civilization. Thai in the southeast—were land-based empires with little or no seaward dimension. The Spaniards’ empire covered both kinds of The most spectacular conquests were the most surprising. environment: traversing broad oceans, administering vast terrains. The states we call the Aztec and Inca empires were the fastest growing in the world in the early years of the sixteenth century. The problem of Spain’s ascent is broader than just one hemisphere. No empire of the time (with the possible exception of China) Spain was also remarkably successful in war in Europe, Africa, and could match the Aztecs and Inca for environmental diversity or Asia in the same period, conquering Granada, southern Navarre, density of population. Yet Spain appeared to swallow them up. Portugal, Melilla, Tangier, and much of Italy and the Philippines in Cortes seemed perfectly justified in asserting that “Spaniards dare the hundred years from 1480, while establishing naval ascendancy face the greatest peril, consider fighting their glory, and have the in the Atlantic and Pacific and most of the Mediterranean. Not habit of winning.” The rapidity of the process seems even more until the l630s did Spain’s almost uniform record of victory by remarkable alongside the only precedent: the conquest of the few. land and sea begin to slip into reverse. Internal peace and an

71 70 i The Conquistadors those for Spanish expansion in the New, where small bands of of New, bands small the in where expansion for Spanish those to kingdoms—help European Western other most rent dissension Crown—while the to aristocracy the bound of serviceethos that little or no help from the professional armies and navies that Spain navies that and armies professional the from no help or little with frontiers the extended companies conquistador independent for reasons But the achievement. long-sustained for the account deployed to such impressive effect Europe. impressive in such to deployed from are largely Old different World in the preponderance Spanish forests denser, deserts broader, rains heavier, and diseases more more diseases heavier,and rains broader, deserts denser, forests faced Americas in the operated who Spaniards experience. “New that World” really European was to new Furthermore, The conquerors were thousands of miles from home, and typically and of home, miles from thousands were conquerors The what with newcomers the horrified they areas many In lands. of they people of thousands any Hundreds knew.they deadly than higher, of mountains environments intractable or repellent seemed to the Spaniards to be cannibalism and human sacrifice. human and cannibalism be to Spaniards to the seemed hostile these defended and savages populated fearsome considered with each other. each with the enterprises, private were conquests the because indeed, fellow eountrymen; of their from hope help without operated conquerors were often in competition and sometimes in conflict in sometimes and competition in often were conquerors looked back on the conquests of the Aztec and Inca empires empires Inca of Aztec and the conquests the on back looked success? their explain themselves Spaniards How did odds? all these So against succeed, could they how Atahualpa, explained that “we of by a lord God,miracle that took this explained Atahualpa, Gaspar of world. end the for the prepare to perhaps and peoples of native conversion the the procure to ordained providentially as triumph accounts—especially surviving Spanish priests—saw in ways.two of speaking, Some writers broadly them, explained who colonists Peru, and Spain New sixteenth-century In de Marquina, writing from Cajamarca in 1533 of the capture of of 1533in capture of Cajamarca the from writing Marquina, de strength Interior 72 Conquistadors—like all seekers of Conquistadors—like all Spanish under of seekers the preferment clearly, was, This theory of explanation. a self-interested he won by strength of of spirit.” by won he strength Quesada: de As for Jimenez would have ended up losing the empire, so great and so rich, that so and rich, that so great empire, losing up the have ended would possessed only exterior strength, lacking interior strength, he strength, lacking interior strength, only exterior possessed phenomenon of superior morale “interior wonstrength.” Pizarro “interior morale of superior phenomenon Peru owing “to the persistence of interior strength.” If strength.” If of Cortes “had owing interior “toPeru persistence the de Vargas in his lengthy Machuca, Bernardo morale. or prowess 1599 treatise on how conquistadors should allegedfight, called should the conquistadors on how 1599 treatise usually superiority, superior of form Spanish supposed some to same people. This further explanation ascribed the conquest conquest the ascribed explanation This further people. same by could espoused be some of contradictory, the though which, to us. Lord,... but to your name be glory name given)—wasto your but another, us. Lord,... to themselves—non greater role to God and the humbler role to the conquistadors conquistadors role the to humbler the role God and to greater the assigned which explanation, providential this Alongside great empires such as those of Inca. and of the Aztecs as those such empires great World. barbarians pagan New of a Spanish result,in As the the to eyes there was something miraculous about over military about triumphs miraculous something was there eyes as his agents to bring the true faith and the benefits of of civilization and benefits true the faith bring the to agents as his Spain’s (St. MaryJames), Virgin Santiago and The patron saint. conquest was providential; God had ordained it, using Spaniards it, using ordained God had providential; was conquest signified by miraculous attendants: battlefield-apparitions of of the battlefield-apparitions attendants: by miraculous signified as a of terms, miracle, divine kind in explicable them made rewardsdazzling their and forces.” conquests of the difheulties The over God and gave miraculously did, but his us the victory him we because our forces wouldn’t be enough to take him nor do take what to to him our forces wouldn’t enough be because deaths of of of many deaths his from soldiers hunger. such a manner that he never lost heart amid such adversities and adversities and such amid never he lost heart that a manner such in forceend, of at strength the fed labors, this spirit innumerable he broke through so much forest undergrowth and suffered and undergrowth soforest much through he broke strength exterior with for although fortitude, Interior his hands? in wealthy and kingdom a such distinguished placed was it that What nobis, Domine, tuo sed Gloria nomini sit 73 (Not (Not

By a miracle of God of miracle a By The Conquistadors monarchy in the early modem period—had to petition the the petition to period—had early modem in the monarchy earlier). Many surviving conquistador narratives of the conquest of conquest the narratives Many surviving conquistador earlier). Crown for privileges,pay services specifyingand (as we their saw part he played at the siege of Cuzco, during the conquest of of siege at of the played conquest he the Cuzco,the part during the Sanchez Badajoz relating de drew up, Hernan memorandum A is achievements. case the point petitioners’ in the exaggerated of of which kind, course this documents in originated or consisted handedly by breaking down the gate, killing all the defenders at at defenders gate, killing all down the the by breaking handedly the distortions of memory, allied with the agendas of the narrators, of narrators, agendas of the memory, allied the with distortions the simply defied This credibility. But ramparts. on the defenders the a of hail killing rocks, and a rope under level,up ground shimmying 1536. in single- a Inca, tower By captured he account, own his were men of exceptional daring and strength (a (a big “if”), strength and their of daring men exceptional were Even of genre. if conquistadors culture the we the allow the to that central were they literature; the in claims commonplace such made The idea that the Spaniards enjoyed superior morale is more is more morale superior enjoyed Spaniards the that idea The in disparities of for up the have made valor can hardly endowment that of native peoples cowed by their own doom-fraught oracles, cowed own doom-fraught of peoples by native their that endured. they of toll they faced or the hardships the numbers attractive. An image early colonial writers invented to support it— support to invented early colonial An image writers attractive. perhaps other Native Americans too, were victims of their own of too, were victims their Native Americans other perhaps Aztecs,the and that generations subsequent convince to helped were gods—has enemies their conviction that in or the undoing, of of influence omens their the under resistance abandoning “the greater self-confidence of the civilization that produced the produced civilization of self-confidence that the “the greater that asserted his youth in Elliott, J.H. world, Atlantic modern earlyof the historian present-day great Even the morale. corroded The supposed basis for the assumption is mythical. It is It simply is mythical. assumption for the basis supposed The conquistadors.” and superiority possible by military made were conquests Spanish traceable to native sources. Other cases of the occurrence of of cases occurrence of Other the sources. native to traceable the could have mistaken Aztecs Inca the or that nonsensical myths of returning gods or “godssea” the advent of or from of the myths returning a is evidence for such no view There divine for beings. Spaniards 74 been completed in 1507, only a decade before the conquistadors 1507,in conquistadors completed only the decade a before been magically not competence, informed rationally war—suggests Fear comes through the dry-mouthed accounts of of of accounts witnesses dry-mouthed the comes Fear through abounds. evidence of morale shaky Spanish hand, other the On off.years many it was still of have world, acknowledge they would that to end the So imminent to believe disposed were if arrived. in natives the the last ceremony had any case,fire-kindling In the minds. inhibited for in organizing in building, world—in agriculture, natural the But every in end. supposedly society, would world the which such as memories. if of past they were genuine the reconstructions these Pharsalia, rites outlive the beliefs embody. outlive they the rites Aztec success in with dealing without cosmos and the nourished fire sacred that the rekindled Every fifty-two by superstition. subversion years to they prone Aztecsthe iswere particularly evidence no that there Furthermore, scions For young of the Nahua of Jerusalem. and fates Rome the 1540s. in the All tell appeared of first of story omens the the where in early colonial taught classicalof curriculum, allthe were part Aztecs’ Allallegeddeception. the a are city pure of Tenochtitlan drawn from the literature they studied. Their teachers treated treated teachers Their studied. they literature the from drawn its fall images with they lamented Naturally Jerusalem. their and Rome college,was their the in Tenochtitlan educated nobility College Franciscan CruzMexicoof de Tlatelolco,in Santa the three works with no indigenous pedigree: Plutarch’s pedigree: indigenous no with works three omens were drawn, sometimes with slight modifications, from from modifications, slight with sometimes drawn, were omens was always—within native traditions— Spaniards the toward hosts visiting and heroes to honor in Mesoamerica, tend, did latter Likewise, the omens that supposedly preceded the fall of the preceded supposedly the that Likewise,omens the guests. for human appropriate and commensurate of divine The of behavior native forms address. with dignitaries the though imperialists, highland inland, not peoples, island coastal of and “from horizon” among occur the beings beyond and the the and History of of theHistory Jews 75 by Josephus. These These texts by Josephus. Lives,

Lucan’s By a miracle of Cod of miracle a By T I spasmodically. When the conquistador Diaz penned Bernal conquistador the spasmodically. When I I massacres and terror-tactics to which the Spaniards resorted Spaniards the which to terror-tactics and massacres I !f resisted ferociously, even when the fight seemed hopeless by hopeless ferociously,fight seemed resisted the even when !f

The Conquistadors human sacrifices. The same emotion probably prompted the the prompted probably emotion sacrifices. same The human the most famous description of Tenochtitlan, likening it an it to likening of Tenochtitlan, description famous most the There is no reason to think the natives were more afraid of of afraid the more natives were the think to is no reason There place. terrible and dark, gaunt, grim, invoked a was he horrendous, castle sorcery, diabolic the was and mind in had he enchantment of of chivalry, romance kind the a popular in castle enchanted native resistance is a strong indicator of robust morale. Though Though morale. of robust indicator is a strong resistance native of tenacity The of natives. were the Spaniards the than Spaniards most literature on the subject represents the conquests of of Mexico conquests the represents subject the on literature most and Peru as quick and easy, the reverse is true. Tenochtitlan easy, Tenochtitlan isand reverse as Peru quick true. the and Yet historians have tended to take the Spanish-generated stories stories Spanish-generated the take to have tended Yet historians valleys, they where mountain in the resistance fell,continued heartlands their Inca, when The calculations. any normal maintained an independent kingdom until 1572. until kingdom independent an maintained the historical literature represents the Spaniards as advantaged as advantaged Spaniards the represents literature historical the of their superiority at face value and even to add to them. Most of Most them. to even add face at to and value superiority of their Take technology first. As detailed in the previous chapter, chapter, previous Take in the first. Astechnology detailed resistance. metabolic and sophistication, also in technology, political but prowess, and only morale in not powder and shot can be replaced. Even crossbows need supplies Even need crossbows can replaced. be shot and powder good are only as as Guns long advantage. an really conferred these steel,” “guns and whether had it is doubtful but Spaniards of bolts. Heavy armor is an encumbrance in rarefied atmospheres atmospheres rarefied in isencumbrance of an Heavy bolts. armor full armor were mostly created after the events, reflecting the battle the reflecting events, the after created mostly were full armor in of Images conquistadors Mesoamericans. other Aztecs the and of armor cotton quilted for the heavy jerkins and leather cuirasses steel discarded rapidly Spaniards the climates—indeed, hot and Americas for ten thousand years before Spaniards reintroduced Spaniards years before thousand for ten Americas (see figs.soldiers 2-8). of European of generations dress later Horses, Spain’s other supposed secret weapon, extinct in the in the extinct weapon, secret Spain’s Horses, supposed other 76 Neither Cortes in Mexico nor Pizarro and his brothers in Peru in his brothers and MexicoCortes Pizarro in nor Neither ever understood the political institutions of Cortes enemies. of their institutions political the ever understood of ineptitude. spite political in conquistadors’ success occurred Spanish contrary, On the mind. impartial is an infest unlikely to obviously application. of limited suitable extemporize they were able And to direction. opposite the Belief that Spaniards were more adept politically than the natives the politically than adept more were Spaniards Belief that across a of lake, wasTenochtitlan Aztec the stronghold approach to had Mexico asassailants central such places, some where in critical though advantage, But this lake warfare. river for and craft in match could seafarers indigenous no place—an achievement New first World to in the the got them ships Their nautical. Spaniards’ disposal was at the really technology significant The readily enough. themselves horses ride to learned of pits dig to hidden and tails, by down their them or pull horses sharpened stakes to impale horses and their Nativesalso riders. their and horses impale to stakes sharpened Furthermore, of in general. horses limitation the illustrate serve to native warriors soon learned to avoid open battles, to hamstring to hamstring avoid battles, to open soon learned warriors native if they were successful.ensued But such moments that slaughter field—and open of an onto the of enemy warriors efforts lure to are full of of descriptions battles accounts conquest Spanish and effect gold.” in plains, on open devastating to could used be Horses in Alvarado wrote a a to hindrance; help being from went horses them commodity, as valued and without a rare became horseshoes campaigns, earlier In the refrains. forests” common thick were and many marshes of fight on account the not could horsemen of road” “the and the roughness owing lead the to up the keep to 190 pesos a dozen and so we are trading them and paying paying for them and them so 190 and we dozen a are pesos trading us among “are now horseshoes worth that 1524 Guatemala from of fighting kind the street and terrain mountainous in use little But they were of native imaginations. seem have captured to they complaints that in Guatemala at times “the horses were not able “the were not at times horses Guatemala in that complaints de Pedro Andes. Alvarado’s the and decisiveof most in Mesomerica symbol, as a and status loved much by were Spaniards them,

77 By a miracle of Cod of miracle a By The Conquistadors before that, and in the Iberian peninsula before that. The results results The that. before peninsula Iberian in the and that, before he which monarchy, a centralized with dealing was he thought their ruler once he was in Spanish hands. Pizarro, failing to grasp failing grasp to Pizarro, hands. Spanish was once he in ruler their of notice AztecsThe simply take ceased to disillusioning. were Canaries 1490s, the in since the Caribbean the in practice standard peror- Aztec em the manipulating and by capturing control could the realities of the Conquest of Mexico, tried the same strategy— of same Mexico, of the Conquest realities the tried the imitation of Cortes. It worked rather better in Peru, but by Peru, but in better rather of worked Cortes. It imitation in partially and convention, it Spanish was because partially were compelled in the early stages of the conquests to rely to on conquests early of stages in the the compelled were invaders of spokesome languages, who the Spaniards were there alliances— the negotiated own. intermediaries Native of their of any as skillresult a not side, but their to communities native successful recruiting in were Spaniards the areas, In both accident. learned Spanish quickly. Spanish learned captives—who interpreters—usually proficient linguistically where area, Maya linguistic the outside dealings, of most their For languages. relevant necessarily so, since only spoke the they become immune survive was disease—which then catch and immune to become the millions, effects, from perhaps of the thousands, hundreds the was repeated. In this respect, Europeans did did enjoy respect, advantage In an Europeans this was repeated. especially of smallpox, early in the colonial period. only The way to natives died in diseasesunimmunized to New that the and It is finally,true, people Old unfamiliar from the World that brought that might be termed a type be might of termed they that superiority: were naturally colonial pattern the centuries, the advanced, throughout penetration sufferers most indigenous did not. of As frontier European the to emphasize that havoc the necessarily did not emphasize to plague that wrought itself of explain outcome the invasions,it the and is important However, diseases to the they introduced. immune disease cannot undermine native resistance. Four considerations make caution make resistance. native Four considerations undermine match the pace of conquest. In Peru, certainly, smallpox certainly,smallpox Peru, preceded In of pace conquest. the match always not of did disease outbreaks of chronology the the First, advisableof in impact reckoning disease the conquest. on the 78 collaborators in the colonial regime and accepted or evenor crafted accepted and colonial regime in the collaborators elites native Most became them. influenced and them recorded distinguish from those of the Spanish priests and officials and priests who of Spanish those the from distinguish to voices indigenous are hard authentic early records colonial In natives themselves? the about what conquest, the in of happened what explanations convincing had followed them By force of arms of By force who historians the nor themselves conquistadors the If neither to traverse. had they lowlands in the common malaria the to were and vulnerable heartlands Inca Aztec the and of altitudes the to instance, for acclimatized, They not were hostile. who, of course, were remoter from the source of source of Disease, infection. from the of who, remoter course, were European diseases, they found American environments extremely environments American diseases, they found European against were immunized as its in favor. Spaniards Finally, though as as it was as far effectivemuch conquest all, at against worked at least as vulnerable to Spanish-borne disease as the resisters, as disease the Spanish-borne to as vulnerable least at native allies The manpower. were Spanish on than conquistadors, of the mobilized support in armies, indigenous on huge more Lakesfacedof region America Great of North Iroquois the the of smallpox. Third, and decisively, always and of almost smallpox. relied Third, conquest spread with the associated correctly they whom invaders French when century as seventeenth it 1520-21, in in was the Tenochtitlan case defenders’ in resolve.the the This was apparently tougher enfeeble resistance; sometimes, the more deadly the threat, the the threat, deadly the more the sometimes, resistance; enfeeble deadly sweepthe Second, despite world. indigenous the through armies scores of thousands strong. Disease does not necessarily Disease does not strong. scores of armies thousands of Mexico Peru able defenders of were fieldto and the disease, disease spreading moved on, unwittingly had conquistadors the starvation—the evidence of evidence of is smallpox struck first equivocal.when starvation—the siege—including probably,perhaps typhus, and under Tenochtitlan assailed circumstances afflictionsin the usual however, though In Mexico, may them. have helped therefore and Spaniards the In some places, demographic disaster did not set in until after after until set in not did disaster demographic some places, In

79 By a miracle of God of miracle a By its myths. Mid to late sixteenth-century laments, for instance, privileges just as Spaniards did. Their petitions sometimes convey over the fall of the Mexican city of Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco have priorities very different from those of the Spanish conquistadors. often been taken for genuin^Aztec threnodies, but they seem At times, they lay claim to a version of the conquest that is patently suspiciously like poems in European and Islamic traditions that untrue, yet which nonetheless reveals something of indigenous would have been familiar to Spaniards of the time. Historians who perspectives. For example, a half-century after the Spanish took at face value the stories about the supposed portents that invasion of Guatemala, the Tz;’utijil Maya rulers of Atitlan wrote to predisposed the Aztecs to feilure, or about the natives’ supposed King Philip II that: identification of Spaniards ^ divine, were evidently victims of their ovm credulity and of the tendency of early colonial- When don Pedro de Alvarado and the other Spanish conquistadors period natives to reflect the culture, traditions, and beliefs of the came to these parts, when they invaded all these lands, no town conquerors. Reminiscences of these kinds, filtered through the surrendered in peace but only by force of arms; and having arrived values of classical humanism and recasting the preconquest states at our town of Santiago de Atitlan, they received don Pedro and the as similar to those of ancient Greeks and Romans, multiplied in others in the spirit of good friendship and certainly without any of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. them taking up arms.

Some Maya noblemen in colonial Yucatan, recalling the era of A dozen Spanish sources undermine in detail the Tk’utijil claim of ByCod mirade a the conquest, identified so completely with the Spaniards as to have welcomed Alvarado with open arms. The evidenee is to call themselves “noble conquistadors.” Rather than lament strong that, to the contrary, the Tk’utijils put up brief but brave the invasion, they evinced pride in the role they claimed in the resistance to a massive invasion force of Spaniards, Nahuas, introduction of Christianity to their benighted brethren. In and Kaqchikel; as their one-time enemies and neighbors, the Peru, an Inca leader, who ruled the independent native state in Kaqchikel, commented, “the Tz’utijils then died because of the the forests of Vilcabamba, subscribed to the providential view Castilians.” So why deny that noble fact? The answer lies in of the conquest, writing about it as if it were an act of divine the nature of the 1571 Tz’utijil letter to the king; the document chastisement of his predecessors. Meanwhile, in Spain, an Inca is a petition requesting a reduction in tribute to local Spanish prince who became a respected man of letters, praised Inca officials, and the claim to an original, unblemished loyalty is imperialism as equivalent to Rome’s. In the 1560s and 1570s, the clearly designed to serve that purpose. Yet we cannot assume that viceroy of Peru made leaders of indigenous communities listen and Tz’utijil rulers deliberately lied; it is possible that loeal tradition assent to long historical lectures presenting a Spanish account of had erased the memory of that initial resistanee to the invaders. In the conquest as a liberation from Inca tyranny. As various as these other words, one indigenous explanation for the conquest was that versions of the past were, they all derived as much from Spanish as it never happened: the Spaniards arrived, they were welcomed, from native traditions. Christianity was adopted, life went on.

Nevertheless, a few sources can be said to embody native views, At the same time, the Ik’utijil summary of the brutal invasion wars uncorrupted (though never entirely uninfluenced) by Spanish of the 1520s is revealing in another way. For all accounts of the agendas. In the aftermath of the conquest, indigenous leaders Guatemalan story—be they Nahua, Maya, or Spanish—support and communities had to petition the Crown for rewards and the notion that nobody surrendered except “by force of arms” (as

80 81 I

The Conquistadors Alvarado’s invasion comments, “weAlvarado’s by again be to killed the comments, began invasion Tz’utijils region). case the else everywhere in was the the assert fought them; the wars wore us down. As the Kaqchikel account of account Kaqchikel wore down. Asus wars the the them; fought we came; invaders explanation: indigenous lies another Therein Not that such laments eclipse the crucial role played role played crucial by eclipse native the such laments that Not by death.” absorbed they were again and for a long time, They people. war by waged again the opposed were they Castilians; leaders of Huejotzinco and Tlaxcala disputed Aztec hegemony in Aztec hegemony Tlaxcala disputed and of Huejotzinco leaders themselves”—even“the Castilians”—in so than more the of war the description Kaqchikel of the midst the In identity). of indigenous is,highly nature localized the (that micropatriotism Maya. Likewise, in Mexico, micropatriotism was paramount. The was paramount. Maya. Likewise, Mexico,in micropatriotism K’iche’ of the kingdoms Tz’utijilneighboring of and the destruction of still “distinguished Kaqchikel they boast how the them, against A set of Tlaxcalan submissions now known as the as the now known A of set submissions Tlaxcalan of work as indigenous some the view of conquest unpersuasive the not and coherent a present tovras both it. Sources from during Spaniards the allied with and conquest Mexico the central before communities fighting others. In their own eyes, the Tlaxcalans and own eyes, and Tlaxcalans the their In others. fighting communities This native view is as self-interested as the conquistadors’ conquistadors’ the as self-interested as is view native This Sullivan’s and (like Gilbert rear of Duke Plaza Toro,the up who discreetly bring Spaniards while fighting, the actual all the doing vanguard, the in show soldiers of Tlaxcalan battles representations (see fig.form 7). pictorial in of A conquest succession vivid of Mexico. conquerors real were the Huejotzincans help to explain the relatively low casualties—at least, low fatal fatal low least, casualties—at low relatively the explain to help “he “ledit less exciting”). because found behind” from more plausible. If natives did most of the fighting, it would would it fighting, of the most did natives If plausible. slightly more is, perhaps, it But heroism. own of their accounts Tlaxcala account for the relatively small numbers captured for sacrifice sacrifice for captured numbers small relatively the for to account helps it Likewise, suffer. to tended Spaniards casualties—the (for in the Mesoamerican tradition of warfare, especially in especially of warfare, tradition Mesoamerican the in (for are of particular interest because they chronicle the the chronicle they because interest of are particular 82 Lienzo Lienzo de

with a wider world did regional ethnic identities emerge, let alone emerge, let identities ethnic regional did world a wider with centuries after the time of the Spanish invasions, native native identities invasions, of Spanish time the the after centuries interactions of and colonial presence centuries Only after identity. common a share or Andeans Mesoamericans did nor time; the a hemispheric native identity. Before, during, and for for several and Before, identity. native during, a hemispheric peoples at of indigenous alien was a concept to Native American way. civil have seen it not that would war.The very Yet participants peoples—a of sort Native indigenous American among conflict de Tlaxcala theme is absent from native accounts, and in the in the and accounts, native from is absent theme thus and fall of the after Tenochtitlan months nine by Cortes She a child bore empire. pay to the they had levels of the tribute From a present-day perspective, it is tempting to read the the read to it is perspective, tempting a present-day From invaders. of the leader or leader real as joint the her to similarly have treated seem of genius entire the presiding as role the enjoys a further Marina eventually came be to viewed eventually derisively But that as mistress. his of resentful Aztec and to the subject hegemony of peoples one the obviously she must to have belonged but is unknown, provenance will. exact her events to Her manipulate and own purposes her able forge to alliances for privileged position, a in was uniquely everybody everything said, she who understood present person on their enslavement from liberated had conquistadors the whom ancillary place. Other communities who allied with the Spaniards Spaniards allied the who with communities Other place. ancillary an Cortes assumes while in battle, operations directing conquest, the tally of casualties, and the object of battle was to feed the the feed to was of battle object the and of casualties, tally the march to Mexico.to Since, occasions, on allmarch only she was these the She was a Marina. called dona Spaniards the whom interpreter, Moreover, theLien^o Moreover, theLien^o of sacrifice). altars native speaker of Nahuatl—the lingua franca of Mexico— of central franca lingua of speaker Nahuatl—the native role is played by central of Cortes’s the alliances, negotiation native allscenes of In the native help. recruited of Spaniards way the the central Mexico, the tally of captives was more important than than important more was captives of tally the Mexico, central and similar sources as descriptions of internecine of internecine as descriptions sources similar and de Tlaxcala 83 presents a convincing account a convincing account presents Lienzo, dona dona Lienzo

By a miracle of Cod of miracle a By Ttie G>nquistadors hemisphere and fought each other for resources. What we call What the for resources. other each fought and hemisphere have any can felt were Americas highly in localized. one the No the incumbent elites; and a detestation of the hegemonic peoples of hegemonic the a detestation and elites; incumbent the hostility. of mutual history long in their episode another afterwards—just generations for the occupied Rivalunity. communities of sense transcendent At this altitude and in this environment, it was impossible it to was impossible environment, in this and altitude At this valley. central of the midst the in feet high seven thousand than Lake Texcoco, around shores or in more islands on were located of of most which group allied city-states, a precariously inhabited wewar. people callThe Aztecsthe intercommunal enflamed that cases many in and started it when least, was for them—at conquest was an essential form of aristocratic exercise as of well as form a aristocratic sacred essential an was battle and clothing for their Aztecs the needed which grow cotton, Mexicowere two levels among central there of In disunity division: headdresses. In a lake-bound city like Tenochtitlan, they could city they like a Tenochtitlan, In lake-bound headdresses. for exotictheir or rites; feathers religious for their incense or tipple; ritual heady, cacao or theobromine-intense for their cult; which game, ball for the as rubber life such of ritual leaders, the for the elite goods needed the produce region could the Nor armor. variously that the hearts of between twenty thousand and eighty and thousand of twenty between hearts the variously that claim Early colonial sources considerable. were demands These states. tributary on burden the increased victims human-sacrifice city eagle’s as an their eyrie, represented elite of The Tenochtitlan a to life of available.So cities self-condemned predation. were these life—in terrain sustain to the everyone depended on which maize and beans staple of food—ineven form grow enough the not the thousand living human victims were ripped out to hallow hallow to the out ripped were victims living human thousand for cities. Demands other vexing and most in Tenochtitlan culminating Aztec culture-area, the crisscrossed of tribute network of bones its victims. elaborate and An by blood the surrounded clearly recalled for generations as one of as of one bloody fearsomely excess. clearly for recalled generations event was the but is exaggeration, surely an even thousand twenty 1487;in it consecrated was when of Tenochtitlan temple main It would be impertinent to suppose that the many communities many the that suppose to impertinent be would It 84 to the invaders’ to the cause Mexico),(as central in or whose well-built was slightly was There in different, no waysare illuminating. that Guatemala, Maya among in highland south, to the situation The indefinitely. them repel able to have been might they affair. But it it also incomplete made geographically bloody, and single empire, whose resentful provincial could single empire, whose leaders resentful be won over invaders, the against united elite Maya dynastic the had possible; of Conquest Yucatan a the protracted, made disunity native Thus peninsula’s the still only controlled decades—Spaniards long two for a scene,Maya in broke fluid made which political rulers This “provinces.” simply as independent them to referred traditionally centuries, but Spain would never control the whole peninsula. whole peninsula. the control never would Spain but centuries, moveover would slowly the south border and The east northwest. fighting was over, major By 1547—afterin the time them. the made as quickly as Spaniards they the with and each other with alliances have invasion—historians Spanish of time the the at kingdoms Maya of The very Yucatan into divided were loosely defined resentments. remembered long and hatreds before the occurred wars of their incidents vividly remembered Prophet). were the Xiu, Pech, and Cocom—had disputed hegemony in the hegemony Cocom—had Pech, Xiu, disputed and the were tradition and known as the as the known and tradition a colonial era in precolonial the in prophecy, written and history Spaniards, they made their choices on the basis of long nourished of choices basis on the long nourished their made they Spaniards, or the oppose support elected to they When arrived. Spaniards and bloody, destructive, traumatic, most The centuries. for region proclaimed native conquistadors, and from the books of of books the mingled from and conquistadors, native proclaimed for posterity, of made self-the narratives, and petitions the from of law consequences. of the instance an was unforeseen a redistribution Presumably, they wanted brought. Spaniards the Aztecs oppose of the envisaged to a kind reward the united that In Yucatan, the predominance of strongly of emerges elite disunity predominance Yucatan, In the a in outcome way the of For favorable them, themselves. to tribute Contending noble lineages—of which the most notable lineages—of noble notable most the which Contending Books of Books of Chilam Balam 85 (or (or Jaguar

By a miracle of Cod of miracle a By infrastructure could be taken over by the Spaniards (as in the In Peru, in an Inca world riven by internal rivalries, native sources Andes). Nor was there a scattering of small kingdoms, more or less reveal a similar accumulation of resentment on the part of subject equal in power, forcing the Spaniards to make military forays and communities. The Inca practiced what we might call ecological local alliances over and over (as in Yucatan). Instead, there were two imperialism. In the Andean region, the precipitate landscape, larger kingdoms in the highlands, surrounded by smaller polities which streaks between tropical forest and sea, crams a stunning extending north into the lowlands and south to the Pacific coast. diversity of environments into relatively small areas. On two sides The two larger kingdoms were those of the K’iche’ (Quiche) and of a mountain, or in adjacent valleys, contrasting patterns of rain Kaqchiquel (Cakchiquel) Maya. The K’iche’ had once dominated and sun prevail. As one ascends tbe slopes, humidity, temperature the Kaqchiquel, but the latter had rebelled fifty years before the and prevalent biota change within a short space. Marine and Spaniards arrived. Since the revolt the two had maintained a rivalry lowland products are available from relatively close at hand. so intense that even in the face of a brutal Spanish-led assault on Therefore, almost all large Andean states, for centuries before the their homelands they failed to establish a working alliance. Inca ascent, had exploited this diversity, combining the products of different zones to enhance the richness of life. One might assume that empires would fall less easily than small kingdoms, and thus the larger the polity the more trouble it gave The Inca did nothing new in this respect—except that they did the Spaniards. Counterintuitively, the opposite was the case.

it on a vastly bigger scale than any of their predecessors. Their By of a miracle God Because if the complex nature of native disunity, the large empire armies ranged over thousands of miles and some thirty degrees of of the Aztecs fell after a two-year war, the dominant kingdoms of latitude, adding north-south diversity to the upslope-downslope, highland Guatemala came under Spanish control after five years east-west kinds of diversity familiar in earlier periods. As well of bloodshed, and the dozen small polities of northern Yucatan as shunting produce across their empire, they shifted whole were “pacified” after twenty years of invasions. The dating of these populations to labor in environments where expanded production wars—1519-21,1524-29, and 1527-47, respectively—reveals was required. When, for instance, the Inca conquered the rival, a further dimension to the comparison. Spanish success after coastal state of Chimor in the late fifteenth century, they razed 1521 was based not only on the fact that the Aztec capital of the main city virtually to the ground and deported the entire Tenochtitlan had been utterly destroyed and its royal family killed population. In the years before the Spaniards arrived, the ruler or captured. It was also based on the rapid way in which Spaniards, Hua3ma Capac was said to have transferred many thousands Aztecs, and the elite of other Nahua cily-states in central Mexico of laborers from all over the empire to work the fields of adapted the old empire to the new; combined Spanish-Nahua Cochabamba, planting coca to grace or madden tbe rituals of the forces “reconquered” the Aztec empire as the kingdom of New Inca elite. He supposedly impressed scores of thousands more to Spain. The success of this technique was such that by the late build his summer palace. Terror tactics were as much the purpose 1520s, Spanish-Nahua forces had breached the old imperial as ecological efficiency. Huayna Capac reputedly put twenty boundaries of the Aztecs and invaded Maya lands. Campaigns into thousand enemy warriors to death by drowning in Lake Yahyar- Guatemala and Yucatan led by the Alvarados and Montejos would Cocha when he conquered the Canari. surely have failed completely were it not for the thousands of Nahuas and other Mesoamerican warriors that comprised the bulk There were therefore constituencies ready and eager to contest of the invasion companies. Inca hegemony. But resentments of subtler kinds were also at 86 87 The Conquistadors work. For instance, one of the most revealing sources, compiled compiled sources, revealing most of one the For instance, work. the Inca. Shortly before the Spaniards arrived, however, the Inca Inca however, arrived, the Spaniards the Shortly before Inca. the with alliance an to in part local thanks supremacy, attained had Inca former the built—to Spaniards the capital Lima—the from valley, which Huarochiri of the people a Checa, of the records traditions centuries, seventeenth early or very sixteenth late the in warriors. The same was still true of the soldiery that conquered conquered soldiery of that was same still the true The warriors. the Checa the joined insult, this from revulsion In Spaniards. the to life, unintelligible political of signified forms by rituals Andean perform by to refusing of agreement the terms the broken had as “savages,” as rivals or despised feared they whom neighbors, and always their conflict almost in defined. with They were narrowly of Checas’ were of the Cuzco. priorities boundaries The stronghold road on the times colonial early in position a strategic occupied Why, for instance, did Tlaxcalan supremacy not succeed that of of that succeed not supremacy Tlaxcalan did Why,instance, for problems. further raises it picture, of this merits the Whatever hegemonies. new erected and supremacies existing displaced time to time history, a in familiar episodes renewed processes: unsurprising century. of sixteenth years last New Mexico in the the for Spain and Guatemala into led Spaniards the allies.armies The native friends. former their overthrew that alliance Such the were Checas’ shrine. the at dance principal annual an the Aztecs? Why did the Inca realm not simply break up into up break simply not realm Inca the did Why Aztecs? the contenders? indigenous of any the than rather witnessed, they changes the from New World—benefit in the rule to came they Inca, and Aztecs of the overthrow in the allies of the potent from which peoples, of of wars indigenous the characteristic of beneficiaries surprise as the Spaniards is see to the conquest we call in what the happened what So one way of understanding 1520slargely of formed in were the Nahuatl-speaking Honduras on also relied ruled Spain of territory extensions the Subsequent and who were interlopers and outsiders throughout the lands lands the throughout outsiders and interlopers were who and least the numerically were Spaniards—who the why did First, 88 Americas has dominated historians’ thinking about the subject. the about thinking historians’ dominated has Americas there so were few of there them. that conflicts,of however,these isfeature generally unremarked: initial an after Spaniards the with broke inhabitants the when of valleythe north of of Michoacan, Mexico, reduction brutal the Tlaxcalans, the against of Spaniards’ strength trial the wars: three in trauma-sickened to terror resorting men, by desperate an unprovoked in attendants unarmed virtually thousand three Pizarro when Cajamarca, city at of the Cholula, of or incident the the confirming barbarities, and for cruelties fellow countrymen of dwell form they on warriors’ claims the battles merit, to take novelist War—asThomEis the once said—makes Hardy “rattling in the hegemony of European establishment of story the terrible much in and worlds Inca and Aztec of the penumbra the within accommodation, and provoked merciless revenge. The remarkable revenge. merciless remarkable The provoked and accommodation, and for bloody struggle Tenochtitlan; the alliance; to their prior of of of story MexicoConquest outline the the traces conventional fears relieve to their isolation, expedients desperate episodes, eye-catching were But these attack. by—in effect—slaughtering emperor of many Inca his the captured of inhabitants peaceful thousand three least at on inflicted Cortes of massacre mind leap images the to Peru, instance, for Mexico and of of conquests of weviolence. the think When horrible impression their denounced Spain lobby in of a strong critics of imperialism conflict. conquest, of After intense the a picture communicate and ispeace reading.” poor good history, but Because so sources many Traditionally,bloody and the claim for a moment. this Consider all. at conquest no was there places, most In is misnamed. largely conquest we call the what importance: of a cardinal fact overlooks interpretation indigenist or native-centric this Moreover, rejected? was rule Spanish where Americas, of the rest of the a number of native-led states? Why were there so few places, there Why were states? of native-led a number Explaining it away Explaining or encouragerpour les autres. 89

The By a miracle of Cod of miracle a By The Conquistadors The contest with the Tlaxcalans was a kind of test of Spaniards’ of a the of was kind test Tlaxcalans the with contest The two groups out of many hundreds in the region. None of of the None region. the in of many hundreds out groups two the on action hostile a genuinely not allies, as potential fitness what became Spain’s New World empire, no passage of of arms was Spain’s passage no World empire, became what New parts of In some Spaniards. the with accommodations peaceful only were of Michoacan peoples the and But Aztecs the enough. real was episodes two other the natives’in part. The violence unarmed priests or ambassadors. The Spanish empire, though by though empire, Spanish The or ambassadors. priests unarmed to came they lypically, submission, into coerced to be had others takes the dearth of conquests and the plethora of of relatively little- plethora and the of conquests dearth the takes of “conquest” anexplanation find that have we very to the least, in that acknowledged be But it must are effects obvious. malign its and it, endured who peoples of the a for affliction most terrible history, was human in or brutal ill-intentioned most the means no by negotiated was monarchy Spanish the to adherence necessary: writings on empires restores long-excluded realism to our picture to realism long-excluded restores empires on writings most of its territory its establishment remarkably At was peaceful. territory establishment of its its most of how empires work. It is extremely rare for one community to rare It extremely community work.is for empires one of how historical recent in the trends conspicuous most of One the account. into accommodations and negotiations contested they belonged. In modern times, the great empires erected by erected empires great the times, In modern belonged. they rule rarely, colonial under if peoples Native victims. unwilling on conquests enduring effect to impossible it was coercion, of armories and communieation of resources efficient staggeringly eollaborators. and quislings indigenous without another subjugate own histories inside the frameworks of the empires to which to empires of the frameworks the inside histories own their shaping on but went initiative, and ever,all power forfeited with states modern equipped which Before industrialization, their armies and police forces from native ranks. We should ranks.not native from We forces should police and armies their recruited they lypically, elites, indigenous to power devolving “indirect called British rule”—leaving the what all practiced or conquerors German extent some to and French, Dutch British, expect an early-modern empire like Spain’slike empire any different. an be early-modern to expect native intermediaries, because of the vastness of territories of the of the vastness because intermediaries, native on reliant more even have been must it if anything, Indeed, 90

just as other cultures value exotic individuals. The anthropologist The individuals. exotic value cultures as other just gifts, invested with mystery by virtue of mystery from afar.by with of coming virtue invested The gifts, but gods’ to gods to not due of reverence kind the with places familiar instances. these of is a with piece traditions American role of missionaries in advancing the frontiers of frontiers of empire becomes the advancing in role of missionaries in They received for many gods. were mistaken to be claims Spaniards’ the Conceivably,key is understanding the to this stranger many Native of in toward bias the prevalence The for wisdom. reputations enhanced with and travelers returned from afarearned veneration pilgrims West, form of lesser or acquire People sanctity some horizon. divine the literally hallow goods in proportion to the distance they travel,they distance to the in proportion goods literally hallow respectability in the same way. In the documented history of history of the way. same documented In in the the respectability strangers, this is intelligible, because we value exotic commodities, exotic we value because is intelligible, this strangers, to of deference active tradition no have who Westerners, modern of strangers as kings. elevation in the originate all monarchies that Mary Helms has gathered innumerable instances of that of societies instances innumerable gathered has Mary Helms and in terms of the proximity of provenance to of proximity supposed of their the in terms and recent times, when it has been meticulously documented. Even for documented. meticulously it has been when times, recent in Pacific, tendency this and have evinced the that Asia southeast stranger, privilege the even and of development stages at some to a and stranger had predisposition the valued traditionally is, that they stranger-effect; the all exhibited Spaniards the to However that may be, there are plenty of societies, especially in especially may areof be, there that societies, plenty However allthat societies contend anthropologists Some honor. accord him remarkably unrestively.Cultures exploitation, hospitable own in their rule,cooperating and paying tribute Spanish endure to continued cases most and in Spaniards the to authority confided who peoples of the motives the fathom to of how problem the That leaves reflections. these bears out evidence The it, the sustained of paucity resources that it, the comprised that made control elusive. control made “tyranny that of distance,” difficulty and of communications the alwaysit suffered,from which the manpower of Spanish shortage 91

By a miracle of God of miracle a By The Conquistadors help explain conquests by people beyond the Spanish frontier in frontier Spanish the by people beyond conquests explain help early in colonial the were of period, kinds were maintained deference, ritual services,typically authority, acquires tribute, follow. occurs, consequences of stranger kind cohabitation) The (or some less formal stranger-marriage When Spaniards. the with Does this model of empowerment by virtue of the stranger-effect of stranger-effect by the virtue of model empowerment Does this of in some stranger-effect. a places, consequence the was others in violently acquired though imperium, Spanish native women. status by alliances of high- automatically with virtue almost their acquired of forms by Spaniards economic exploitation, which characteristic even The of a society and place of host in power the honor same have the done should in Americas the dynasties indigenous so many that surprising is It not realms. their outside from partners is why royal even Europe families in have typically marriage sought without confers prestige stranger the whereas independence, one’s compromise to tends political insider an to marriage because encumbering his or her spouse with embarrassing affiliations. That embarrassing spouse with his or her encumbering especially of elites, for partner, members precisely as marriage choice also of the urge stranger considerations But practical strangers. to sexual practice hospitality societies many routinely Exoticism is,and sexually some to tastes, structures. attractive; power traditional to, the of, as or additional part entrenched more societies and host their valuable to more became Spaniards of every power. and arbitration, With wealth distribution the and over kingship, land, disputes native roles in settling found priests sovereignly. defining isingredient—of often is the a function—and every in of of power The arbiter dispute. kind an ideal makes by links to Unencumbered sort. of practical entirely an godsend by its remoteness. sacred is made whose very provenance In many places in Mesoamerica and the Andes, lay Spaniards and and Andes, lay the and Spaniards places many Mesoamerica In in is societies a most of in authority, which kind judicial arbitration or any rival existing stranger centers, power factions, lineages, the any case,In is a socialsome contejrts,in political stranger and the isit easy a holy defer to man to connection: in this intelligible 92 f all-encompassing explanation. How, in the words of How, of words did in the Jerez, explanation. all-encompassing f i of of by episodes violent conquest the understanding our to : of extension for the accounts It wars. indigenous of internecine ! were they locals. because stranger-effect The run long the in and [ strangers, were they because term short in the Americas the I I as alliances, the make and just collaborators recruit to natives ' j \ of their efforts if the natives had not fed them. Invaders all overInvaders fed them. not efforts if natives of had the their i welcome natives offered them, acquiring rights of of rights settlement, acquiring offered natives them, welcome i colonists Dutch and Portuguese, French, English, Spaniards. ^ America? The most alwayssuggestive cases almost most are The of left out America? the literature: the maroon kingdoms frequently established by established frequently kingdoms maroon the literature: the There is an intriguing irony here—that Spaniards survived in Spaniards irony here—that is an intriguing There divisions the among existing rivalries and exploited Americas the English enduring first ne’er-do-wellsthe established the who and in Massachusetts settlers pilgrim The negotiation. peaceful Pennsylvania English by and Manhattan Dutch in for example, by footholds exploiting They gained the precedents. Spanish on over of also,were power natives capable a empowering fortiori, elevated slaves processes to that peoples. The over indigenous also own of but their communities in slaves,runaway sometimes however, is too big and various a phenomenon to yield a single,to a however, isphenomenon various and too big beneficiaries were so the often why explain Spaniards to helps sexual in native women politics, alliances with as Spaniards adept early daysin the colony death to in would have starved Virginia enterprises their modeled Usually, nationalities of invaders those stranger-effect. the to subject places in times at also operated “such huge enterprises of of so sofew “suchmany’’? against succeed enterprises huge For a of episodes, violent outcome intelligible. those The allies becomes of indigenous recruitment the in which context the enhancing contributes It accommodation. and by power negotiation Spanish relationships. exploitable, good, at or least reinforced sometimes colonists were as other no Americas. in Although the did Spaniards explanations we have anatomized in the preceding pages is preceding in the we anatomized have explanations of traditional while none allow the and that, basics to return must as close as one to we come—wecan understanding—or complete

93 By a miracle of Cod of miracle a By The Conquistadors At stake were the lives of their families, the future status of of their status future lives the families, of At the were stake their anyway—and perished invaders the when of conquest the history descendents, the welfare of whole communities. Natives were Natives of welfare the whole communities. descendents, lives. their than more defending were contrast, in Native leaders, patron. of a betrayed retribution the perhaps ignominy,and debt, assured back turning social prestige; and of wealth great risked invaders Spanish invasion. of Spanish the circumstances veryfor the not it were have perished they would when moments Spaniards all to available not were these mastiffs; or dogs war the was other any than often more invaders saved and native more warriors killed that weapon The survival. at chance fighting collaboration the and famous), most is the Marina (of dona whom interpreters of native acquisition the leaders, own their by offset indigenous largely was imbalance numerical This such societies sedentary among outnumbered greatly were ohn eodteror kn.Pesn nhl h rms i promise the held on ovra Pressing skins. their beyond nothing in the moments remained there steel blade, the allies, and native disease, of epidemic Spaniards to benefit the Despite horses. prized greatly although Spaniards circumstances, particular under only useful were and and horses, guns, were importance Of secondary sword. steel a conquistadors gavethe it But success. Spanish alone of explaining capable advantage, a decisive not was weaponry Spanish colony building. and campaigns conquest in elites of indigenous under warriors of native numbers of large recruitment Spanish the possible made This disunity. native fostered identities American of Native nature localized highly The micropatriotism. Andeans. the and Maya, the Nahua, other and Aztecs the as another. of to Americas the part one conditions—from environmental and context cultural the with of an have a as of place part own, its many on them satisfactory First, even allowing for the impact of disease, the conquistadors conquistadors the of disease, impact the for allowing even First, of may shift—along which balance the of explanations, armory 94 centuries of colonial rule. of Spanish centuries in three result would compromises such possibly that have known with accommodation and seek to compromise motivated thus an accommodation was reached. Indigenous leaders could not not could leaders Indigenous reached. was accommodation an able—tosuch willing—and often until invader keep fighting an

95 By a miracle of God of miracle a By