Religious Reflections: Spanish and Aztec Cultural Confrontation

In order to fully comprehend the significance of events that took place during the conquest, students must first know about the context of the cultures before their initial encounter. This way, students can better recognize that the Spanish and Aztecs learned about each other by looking for parallel frameworks within each other’s societies. Then, the information they learned about each other pressured them to examine their own religions. The initial exposure of the Spaniards and Aztecs to each other’s cultures forced them to critically examine their own – particularly their religions.

Religion and war in Spanish society had been repeatedly associated with one another by the time of the conquest. The Spanish social hierarchy was well established

The worldview of the Aztecs is much broader than that of the Spanish; man-to-world communication was part of their everyday lives. (Townsend, 663) Words in their languages have double meanings – one applies to the everyday, and one applies to the universe as a whole. Townsend also points out that the Aztecs worked to overcome the language barrier, rapidly picking up Spanish while the Spaniards made no attempt to learn the native language. (Townsend, 663) Both the Aztecs and Spaniards were learning about each other during the initial conquest, but in different ways; the Spaniards relied more on observation than the Aztecs, likely because the Mesoamerican cultures had several languages. Spaniards were less inclined to learn the language because their goal was to conquer the land first, then deal with the inhabitants. The Aztecs employed the same strategy to the Spanish by trying to explain new things from Spanish culture in the context of what they already

When the Spaniards massacred the Cholultecas, the Cholultecas called on Quetzacoatl to destroy them; the Spaniards, in return, called on St. James. (Portilla, 44-5) When the Spanish defeated them, they began to question the strength of their gods. This is especially concerning because the Aztec gods were warriors – if the warrior gods the Aztecs had been worshipping for so long could fall so easily to this Saint they had never heard of, what did that mean for the Aztecs? The rituals the Aztecs had practiced in the past were based on taking captives, not lives. (Clendinnen, 86) The Spaniards did not care about keeping enemy soldiers alive for sacrifice. Since the entire Aztec religion (and thus society) is centered on human sacrifice, this was extremely strange for the Aztecs. Not only did these newcomers easily take over the Aztec’s territory, their gods did not require sacrifices. The initial encounter with the Spaniards pressured the Aztecs to reconsider their religious beliefs.

Both the Spaniards and Aztecs reinvestigated their religions as a result of their encounter and conquest. Understanding the context of both the Spanish and Aztec cultures before their encounter and conquest is important to understanding the events of the conquest. This also sheds light on how both the Spanish and Aztecs learned about each other. They attempted to reflect frameworks from their own cultures onto the new one;