Research

Diving deeper into the topic of the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, I want to specifically look at indigenous population help. Whether this be through Dona Marina or other tribes helping to overthrow the Aztecs. I want to grasp a better understanding at why natives would help Europeans overthrow the Aztecs, and to what extent did their aid help the Spanish. How did the Spanish get some to cooperate with them and others to not? All things I look forward at continuing to research.

Primary Source- Documents from Victors and Vanquished

Secondary Sources- Brinkerhoff, Thomas J. “Reexamining the Lore of the “Archetypal Conquistador”: Hernán Cortés and the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire, 1519-1521.” The History Teacher 49, no. 2 (2016): 169-87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24810472.

Daniel, Douglas A. “Tactical Factors in the Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs.” Anthropological Quarterly 65, no. 4 (1992): 187-94.

“Doña Marina.” In Survivors in Mexico, edited by Schweizer Bernard, by West Rebecca, 116-28. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2003. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vm3h5.19.

Bassett, Molly H. “Meeting the Gods.” In The Fate of Earthly Things: Aztec Gods and God-Bodies, 26-44. University of Texas Press, 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/760882.5.

Martin, Scott. “Command Decisions: The Conquest of Mexico and the Friedman-Savage Utility Function.” Social Science History 34, no. 4 (2010): 499-522. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40927626.

*Exact specificity of research question subject to change the more I dive into sources on the matter.

5 thoughts on “Research

  1. dcox20

    This was honestly an idea I was thinking about doing for this research paper because I think it’s so interesting. Using Victors and Vanquished sounds like a good idea. But maybe you could find an account by Cortez that describes his relationship with Dona Maria? Unless that’s mentioned in Victors and Vanquished of course.

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  2. Matt

    One thing that you could possibly look at is the past relationships of the Aztecs and those native people that helped the Spanish. There could be a possible hatred between the two groups, or maybe the natives that teamed up with the Spanish were intimidated by the Spaniards.

    Reply
  3. Brooks Holcomb

    I like this idea a lot. I think it would be really interesting to contemplate the motivations behind native peoples aiding the Spanish and Portugese in their colonial ambitions, and how well they understood the end goals of the Europeans to totally dominate the New World. I also think it would be interesting to see how this cooperation evolved over time as colonialism and violence increased.

    Reply
  4. Luca Napora

    That sounds really interesting. I think that it could also be really cool to study how the natives felt about helping the Spanis and Portuguese after the true effects of the Europeans became clear, and whether or not the opinions of the natives changed over time.

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