Conquest Of America

Throughout his text The Conquest of America, Todorov, a french sociologist, implements multiple theories written by Walter Ong and Jack Goody in regard to the contrasting effects living in an oral versus a literate society plays on its members. More specifically, Ong and Goody claim that the way one communicates, greatly affects their thought processes as well as their physical brain. To explore this, Todorov uses Cortes’ and Montezuma’s communication techniques throughout their battle to highlight the significant diversity between language and the signs it may send. Todorov’s The Conquest of America is a perfect illustration of Ong and Goody’s claim because it provides a historical case study that points to the differences between literate
What made their lives so different? Todorov argues that unlike Montezuma and his people, Cortes was well-versed in the cultural world. Living in Europe, he was situated geographically close to multiple cultures and languages; but perhaps he was most familiar was the Moors, whom he fought in 1571. At an early age, Cortes was able to recognize the Other, and used this to his advantage while battling against Montezuma. This is specifically shown when Cortes fired the bomb because Cortes was aware that the Other, in this case the Aztecs, had never heard or even seen gunpowder. Additionally, Cortes grew up in a literate culture that could compare different languages and histories in books, something Montezuma never had access to. Because he grew up in a literate society, Cortes was very informed about the world and was thus able to recognize cultural diversity. Due to this and his far superior information bank, Cortes managed to manipulate and wield Montezuma and his people. Thus, Cortes had huge advantages that helped him to defeat Montezuma and grasp power over the Aztec Empire. In sum, Todorov claimed that because of proximate cultural and underlying linguistic factors, such as his awareness of diversity and access to historical and informational texts, Cortes was able to manipulate and defeat
Initially, Montezuma sends the Spaniards gold to persuade them to leave. However, the Spaniards only use this new and well-stocked resource to become stronger and more dominant. Later, Montezuma tries to scare the Spaniards away with a deadly message. According to Bernal Diaz, the Aztecs “ate their flesh with a sauce of peppers and tomatoes” (12). This is a classic Aztec strategy, and in the past it has worked with other native people. But here, it only enraged and motivated the Spaniards to keep fighting as they realized they only had two options: win or die. But Montezuma was unable to recognize that his old strategies do not work in this situation because he failed to understand that Cortes is a new type of threat. In an oral society, much like that of Montezuma’s, one is educated to become a conventional, unreflective, and externalized thinker. This explains why Montezuma doesn’t understand that his old strategies will not work here; his thinking is fixed in the past and he is not trained to think for the future. And even more significantly, Montezuma is well educated in ritual speaking, or speech that is regulated, formulaic, and memorized. In an oral society, one can only remember what is the most necessary for the survival of their community, and thus, details about what a horse is or isn’t actually called is not that important.