How Did Hernan Cortes Conquer The Mexica Empire

Grace Chrisopoulos Section 029 4/21/2024 Title In the early 16th century, Hernan Cortes set out to conquer the Mexica empire. During this conquest, Cortes and his army encountered the native Mexican army. The Mexican warriors saw Cortes’ army on their horses and reacted in a way that caused Cortes to believe they saw the horses as gods. Their vastly different spiritual and worldly views created misinterpretations of the other group’s actions. Therefore, rather than believing the horses the Spanish warriors brought were gods, the Mexica more likely regarded horses as respectable warriors with immense strength and size incomparable to that of any humans. Mexica’s reaction to the horses was most likely due to their beliefs, which are rooted in animism.
Within the imperfect world, humans are placed above animals in the hierarchy, putting humans in a position of power over animals. Divided world cosmologies hold a belief in a created world that God had set in place for his followers. In this historical context, conquests were meant to bring gold, glory and power, and to spread Christianity. Carol Delaney wrote, “A letter written in February 1502, but perhaps never sent, to Pope Alexander VI stated, "This enterprise was undertaken with the purpose of expending what was invested in aiding the holy temple and the holy Church," (Letter 1502 [Rusconi 1997:17]” Christopher Columbus began his conquest with the intention of using this money and power to spread Christianity and eventually conquering Jerusalem. By conquering Jerusalem, they hoped to convert the religious center of Judaism to Catholicism. These intentions were very likely the same as Hernan Cortes’ when he began his conquest. Seeing as religion played such an important role in the conquest, it would have a noticeable impact on the interactions between them and the