Human history is filled with the names of bold explorers who ventured into the great unknown, only to come out basked in glory as some of the great heroes of their day. Among the grandest are Marco Polo, who provided little known information about the Far East to Europeans, and Hernan Cortes, the great Spanish conquistador who is given credit for the defeat of the Mexica Empire. These two famous explorers are also ideal case studies to analyze the influence of expectations, interests, and of reality on the accounts of the places and people that these men encountered during their voyages.
Exploration is an activity that is held in high esteem because of the mental challenge that comes with willingly surrendering the safety of certainty to venture into unknown land. This act is seen as reflecting the utmost courage. Although this may be true, it is important to realize that more often than not, explorers had certain expectations regarding the places they were traveling to. This fact was strongly reflected in the nature of their accounts. In Marco Polo’s case, his father and uncle had observed “many things worth of admiration… in the progress of their journey,” which took place several years before Marco Polo set off from Venice . Marco Polo surely heard about the great things they had come across. He came in knowing that, despite the risks of such long travel, the things that he would see would be unlike anything that he had ever met before. Perhaps, this was Polo’s motivation. It is never explicitly stated, but it may be that Polo was driven by curiosity. He merely wanted to learn more about the great culture he had heard about.
Cortes’ attitude and that of his men present a stark contrast to Polo’s account, whi...
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The accounts of great explorers like Marco Polo and of the various Spanish conquistadores are important not only because they introduced things that the Western World had been unaware of for centuries, but because they show many of their preconceived ideas. Polo’s admiration is overwhelmingly present in his writing, which shows that what he had found clearly exceeded his expectations. On the other hand, the Spanish abhorrence of the Aztec culture shows that they had many preconceived ideas, which were too powerful to be overcome by the reality they found, which was far more amazing than they could have ever imagined.
Works Cited
Polo, Marco, and Rustichello da Pisa. The Travels of Marco Polo. 1926.
Schwartz, Stuart B. Victors and Vanquished: Spanish and Nahua Views of the Conquest of Mexico. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000.
He brings out the idea that past Historians saw the action of a few men, as heroic act. In other to convey his point of view, Restall brings up examples of theses exceptional man. The first person he mentions is Christopher Columbus. According to him Columbus was not exceptional or unique, he was just at the right place at the right time. As Restall puts it, the most exceptional thing about Columbus’ geographical vision was that it was wrong.” (p.27). Restall explains that Columbus based his ideas on patterns visualized by previous Portuguese Geographer. Columbus initially set out to find a shorter route to India when he stumbled upon a new land. He also brings up Cortes, who is known for the probonza de merito, which is a system that would give rewards to conquistadores for their great accomplishments. With this example, Restall shows that by that the conquistadores had encouragement to omit the negatives and enhance the positive aspects of their daily lives. With this entire different example, Restall show that exaggeration concealed the conquistadores failures making them to be
In this section his initial thoughts show through. “But losers matter, especially in the history of early America.” Many different regions of early America are examined in their years of early conquest when native populations started their descent. The biggest theme throughout the section is the effect that conquistadors and explorers had on the native population in their search for gold and glory. The information that is given is not typical of what is learned of early America, but tries to really focus on the most important figures of the time and there voyages. For example, when talking about the Plains nations and there explorers, Coronado and De Soto a tattooed woman woman is brought up who had been captured by both explorers at different times and different places, but little is known about her. “Of the tattooed woman who witnessed the two greatest expeditions of conquest in North America, and became captive to both, nothing more is known.” This point captures the main idea of the theme and what many know of this time. Horwitz aims to point out the important facts, not just the well known
“The Conquest of New Spain” is the first hand account of Bernal Diaz (translated by J.M. Cohen) who writes about his personal accounts of the conquest of Mexico by himself and other conquistadors beginning in 1517. Unlike other authors who wrote about their first hand accounts, Diaz offers a more positive outlook of the conquest and the conquistadors motives as they moved through mainland Mexico. The beginning chapters go into detail about the expeditions of some Spanish conquistadors such as Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, Juan de Grijalva and Hernando Cotes. This book, though, focuses mainly on Diaz’s travels with Hernando Cortes. Bernal Diaz’s uses the idea of the “Just War Theory” as his argument for why the conquests were justifiable
Díaz del Castillo, Bernal. "The True History of the Conquest of New Spain." In Sources of Making of the West, by Katarine J. Lualdi, 269-273. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009.
Spanish 10th essay Ponce De Leon Don Juan Ponce de Leon "To bad he had to kick the bucket!" Don Juan Ponce de Leon was a Spanish conqueror and explorer. He was born around 1460 in San Tervas de Campos, Spain. Ponce de Leon lived in an age of great discovery and excitement. Ponce de Leon is well known, claiming and naming what is now Florida, the discovery of Puerto Rico, and his never-ending search for the old time classic, the Fountain of Youth! On November 19, 1493 Ponce de Leon was one of the first Europeans to see the small island of Borinquen, the Indian name for Puerto Rico.
7. MacLachlan, Colin M. and Jamie E. Rodriguez O. The Forging of the Cosmic Race: A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
One of the principle themes in the Aztec downfall was the immense greed of the Europeans. The principle goal of every major faction in Europe was to gain power and wealth it didn’t matter from what source. Everyone from popes and kings to the lowly soldier envisioned rivers of gold and fame. Ever since they had boats Europeans have been looking for lucrative trade routes and other ways to turn a profit. The ruling monarchs of these countries contributed a great deal to this. They saw vast profits from these ventures through taxes and the customary “ Royal Fifth” which was a fifth of all profits would go straight to the King and/or Queen. Also royalty or other nobility within the country personally funded a large majority of explorations. Trading and exploration companies just helped push the trend further and made the exploitation of newly discovered lands big business. While greed was defiantly a starting point for Cortez’s expedition, it was his greed while in Central Mexico that changed the tide of history. Cortez’s first encounters with the natives in Central...
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Two conflicts during this time are seen as significant towards this battle between the interests of the Natives in the Americas. One of which was between two men: Bartolomé Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. Las Casas defends t...
For the purpose of better understanding, I start by providing some background information about each of the two men. Marco Polo was an Italian citizen born into a wealthy Venetian merchant family. His most significant travel experience came in 1271, when he set out with his father Nicolo and his uncle Maffeo on a journey to the court of the Mongol Emperor of China, Kubilai Khan. Polo returned only twenty four years later to his homeland of Venice. On the other hand, Ibn Battuta was a jurist from Morocco who left his native city- Tangier, in 1325, for a journey to the East that would cover a total of seventy-five thousand miles and keep him twenty nine years away from home. In this essay, I will be dealing primarily with the aforementioned ex...
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. However, even after centuries later, little is truly known of the mysterious voyage and findings of the new world.1 By examining “Letter from Columbus to Luis Santangel”, one can further contextualize the events of Columbus' exploration of the New World. The letter uncovers Columbus' subtle hints of his true intentions and exposes his exaggerated tone that catered to his lavish demands with Spain. Likewise, The Columbian Voyage Map read in accordance with the letter helps the reader track Columbus' first, second, third, and fourth voyage to the New World carefully and conveniently. Thus, the letter and map's rarity and description render invaluable insight into Columbus' intentionality of the New World and its indigenous inhabitants.
Cortes’ arrival in Veracruz defined a new stage of development in the conquest of indigenous peoples living in Mexico, but more importantly, as a pathway to attack and destroy the Aztec empire in the interior regions. The conquistador mentality had become a powerful statement of the military might of the Spanish Empire during the early 1500s, which galvanized Cortes and his military to successfully begin negotiations with the Aztecs to make alliances against local enemies in the area. Cortes’ arrival in Veracruz provided a window of opportunity to begin negotiating and communicating with Aztec representatives. When first landing in Veracruz, Cortes was able to settle the coastal city of Veracruz, which became the port of entry into Mexico.
Cristóbal Colón landed on an unknown island in the Caribbean on October 10, 1492. He planted banners in the beach claiming the land for the Spanish throne. Colón’s perceptions and interactions with the indigenous people, the Taino, sparked the events that lead to the colonization of the Americas. Colón’s perceptions of the Taino were misinterpreted by him. His misconceptions about the Taino were built from a compilation of his own expectations, readings of other explorers, and strong religious influence in Western Europe. The Taino also misunderstood the Spanish as well. Their false beliefs about the Spanish were driven by their religious beliefs as well as their mythology. Through misunderstandings backed by the religions, physical appearances, and the histories of both the Taino and the Spanish, the Taino believed that the Spanish were god-like figures that fell from the sky, while the Taino were perceived by the Spanish as simplistic, uncultured natives, that would be easily converted to Christianity and used as servants (Wilson, Hispanola p. 48-49).1 To better comprehend these events one must look at the preceeding events in both the lives of the Taino and The Spanish.
Sensenig, Pearl L. "Marco Polo: An Inspiration to Christopher Columbus and The Age of Discovery". Sensen01.cwk@millersv.edu