THE SEVEN MYTHS OF THE

SPANISH CONQUEST
A HISTORIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH TO HISTORY
WHAT IS HISTORIOGRAPHY?

• WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS?

• IT IS THE BODY OF WORK ON A GIVEN SUBJECT IN HISTORY
• IT INCLUDES INFORMED OPINIONS BASED ON PRIMARY SOURCES THAT
EVENTUALLY CREATE HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
• HISTORIANS CAN CHALLENGE TRADITIONALLY ACCEPTED NARRATIVES
(STORIES) OF HISTORY
• THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT MATTHEW RESTALL DOES IN HIS BOOK THE SEVEN
MYTHS OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST
THE SEVEN MYTHS OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST

• RESTALL SUGGESTS THERE ARE SEVEN MYTHS OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST

OF THE AMERICAS THAT HAVE BEEN WIDELY ACCEPTED AS TRUE
• RESTALL QUESTIONS THESE MYTHS USING NATIVE LANGUAGE TEXTS
WRITTEN BY NATIVES FROM THE INDIGENOUS POINT OF VIEW
CHAPTER 1: THE MYTH OF EXCEPTIONAL MEN

• THIS IS THE IDEA THAT THE SPANISH CONQUEST WAS ENABLED CERTAIN
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUALS SUCH AS: COLUMBUS, CORTEZ AND PIZARRO
• TRADITIONAL NARRATIVE: THESE MEN USED THEIR PERSONAL COURAGE
AND INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES TO CONQUER THE LATIN AMERICAN NATIVES
• RESTALL NARRATIVE: INSTEAD, THE TECHNIQUES OF CONQUEST AND
COLONIZATION USED BY THE EARLY SPANISH EXPLORERS HAD BEEN
DEVELOPED THROUGHOUT AT LEAST A CENTURY OF COLONIAL EXPANSION
BY SPAIN AND PORTUGAL AND WERE IN FACT MOSTLY STANDARD
PROCEDURE
CHAPTER 2: THE MYTH OF THE KING’S ARMY
• TRADITIONAL NARRATIVE: THE SPANISH CONQUEST WAS UNDERTAKEN AT
THE COMMAND OF THE KING OF SPAIN AND THE CONQUISTADORS WERE
SPANISH SOLDIERS
• RESTALL NARRATIVE: THE CONQUISTADORS DID NOT NECESSARILY SEE
THEMSELVES AS SPANISH BUT RATHER IDENTIFIED AS ANDALUSIANS,
CASTILIANS, ARAGONESE, BASQUE, PORTUGUESE, GALICIAN, AND EVEN
GENOESE, FLEMISH, GREEK AND PARDO (HALF-BLACK). NOR WERE THEY
ACTING UNDER THE COMMAND OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR WHO WAS
ALSO THE KING OF THE SPANISH REALMS. AND THEY WERE NOT SOLDIERS
IN A FORMAL MILITARY SENSE OF THE WORD BUT RATHER A GROUP OF
FEUDAL LORDS WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE FOOTMEN, SERVANTS, PAGES AND
MERCENARIES.
CHAPTER 3: THE MYTH OF THE WHITE
CONQUISTADORS

• TRADITIONAL NARRATIVE: THE SPANISH CONQUEST WAS ACHIEVED BY A

SMALL NUMBER OF WHITE SPANIARDS. CORTEZ AND LESS THAN 200 MEN
DEFEATED THE AZTECS.
• RESTALL NARRATIVE: RESTALL CLAIMS THAT MUCH OF THE ACTUAL
MILITARY OPERATIONS WAS UNDERTAKEN BY THE INDIGENOUS ALLIES OF
THE CONQUISTADORS, OUTNUMBERING THE ACTUAL SPANISH FORCES BY
MANY HUNDREDS TO ONE. HE ALSO SHOWS THAT THERE WERE SEVERAL
CONQUISTADORS OF AFRICAN AND MOORISH DESCENT — DISPELLING THE
IDEA OF THE CONQUEST AS A VICTORY OF THE "WHITE EUROPEANS" OVER
THE "RED INDIANS".
CHAPTER 4: THE MYTH OF COMPLETION

• TRADITIONAL NARRATIVE: ALL OF THE AMERICAS WERE UNDER SPANISH CONTROL

WITHIN A FEW YEARS OF INITIAL CONTACT.
• RESTALL NARRATIVE: RESTALL CLAIMS THAT CONTRARY TO THIS BELIEF POCKETS OF
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES LIVING WITHOUT HAVING BEEN CONQUERED SUBSISTED FOR
SEVERAL CENTURIES AFTER THE CONQUEST - AND ARGUABLY TO THIS DAY. FOR
EXAMPLE, TAYASAL, THE LAST INDEPENDENT CITY OF THE MAYA, DID NOT FALL UNDER
SPANISH SWAY UNTIL 1697. IN OTHER AREAS OF LATIN AMERICA, SPANISH CONTROL WAS
NEVER COMPLETE AND REBELLIONS WERE CONTINUOUS. HE SHOWS THAT THE
COLONIZATION OF THE AMERICAS DID NOT HAPPEN AS ONE FELL SWOOP, BUT RATHER AS
A HISTORICAL PROCESS STARTING CENTURIES BEFORE THE MAGIC YEARS OF 1492 AND
1521 AND ENDING SEVERAL CENTURIES AFTER.
CHAPTER 5: THE MYTH OF (MIS)COMMUNICATION

• TRADITIONAL NARRATIVE: THE SPANIARDS AND NATIVES HAD PERFECT COMMUNICATION AND
THAT EACH GROUP UNDERSTOOD THE OTHER'S WORDS AND INTENTIONS UNHINDERED, OR
ALTERNATIVELY THAT MANY OF THE CRUCIAL EVENTS OF THE CONQUEST WERE A RESULT OF
THE TWO GROUPS MISUNDERSTANDING EACH OTHER'S INTENTIONS.
• RESTALL NARRATIVE: RESTALL CLAIMS HOW COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE GROUPS WERE IN
FACT VERY DIFFICULT AT FIRST, AND THAT THE RENDERING OF PASSAGES OF SPEECH MADE BY
ONE GROUP TO THE OTHER IN POST-CONQUEST SOURCES CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD AS HAVING
BEEN RECORDED "VERBATIM" EVEN THOUGH IT IS UNDERSTOOD AND INTERPRETED THAT WAY.
BUT HE ALSO SHOWS THAT THE NATIVES CANNOT BE SAID TO HAVE CRUCIALLY
MISUNDERSTOOD OR MISINTERPRETED THE SPANIARDS' INTENTIONS, BUT RATHER THAT THEY
HAD A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF HOW THE SPANISH WORKED AT A VERY EARLY STAGE IN THE
CONQUEST.
CHAPTER 6: THE MYTH OF NATIVE DESOLATION

• TRADITIONAL NARRATIVE: THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE AMERICAS

RESIGNED TO THEIR FATE, INCLUDED THEMSELVES IN THE NEW EUROPEAN
ORDER AND CEASED TO EXIST AS ETHNICITIES.
• RESTALL NARRATIVE: MANY OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES NEVER FELT
"CONQUERED" BUT RATHER THAT THEY HAD FORMED A PARTNERSHIP WITH
A NEW POWER TO BOTH OF THEIR ADVANTAGE - THIS FOR EXAMPLE WAS
THE CASE FOR MOST OF THE ALLIED FORCES THAT HELPED CORTÉS DEFEAT
THE AZTECS.
CHAPTER 7: THE MYTH OF SUPERIORITY

• TRADITIONAL NARRATIVE: THE BELIEF THAT THE SUCCESS OF THE SPANISH

CONQUEST WAS DUE TO EITHER THE SUPPOSED TECHNOLOGICAL
SUPERIORITY OF THE SPANIARDS OR A KIND OF INHERENT CULTURAL
SUPERIORITY — AND THAT SPANISH VICTORY WAS THEREFORE INEVITABLE.
CHAPTER 7: THE MYTH OF SUPERIORITY
• RESTALL NARRATIVE: RESTALL CLAIMS THAT SUCH TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGES
AS HANDGUNS, CANNONS, STEEL ARMOR, HORSES AND DOGS WEREN'T OF GREAT
CONSEQUENCE IN THE ACTUAL FIGHTING SINCE THEY WERE ALL IN SHORT SUPPLY,
AND THAT THE AZTECS WERE NOT DAUNTED BY THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR
LONG. HE ALSO REFUTES THE NOTION THAT THE INDIANS' LACK OF ALPHABETIC
WRITING CONSTITUTED A MAJOR DRAWBACK. NOR WERE THE INDIANS CHILDLIKE,
NAIVE OR COWARDLY IN COMPARISON WITH THE SPANISH SUCH AS MANY EARLY
SPANISH SOURCES HAVE PAINTED THEM. RESTALL ARGUES THAT THE FACTORS
BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF THE CONQUISTADORS WERE MOSTLY THE DEVASTATING
EFFECT OF EUROPEAN DISEASES FOR WHICH THE INDIANS HAD NO RESISTANCE,
THE DISUNITY BETWEEN INDIGENOUS GROUPS SOME OF WHICH ALLIED WITH THE
SPANIARDS EARLY, THE TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE OF THE STEEL SWORD,
NATIVE BATTLE PRACTICES THAT WERE NOT UPHELD BY THE SPANIARDS — SUCH
AS KILLING NON-COMBATANTS AND CIVILIANS, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY THE FACT
THAT THE INDIANS WERE FIGHTING ON THEIR OWN GROUND WITH THEIR FAMILIES
AND FIELDS TO CARE FOR, WHICH MADE THEM QUICKER TO COMPROMISE.
SO WHAT? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU

• YOUR PAPER TOPIC WILL HAVE BOTH A TRADITIONALLY ACCEPTED

HISTORIOGRAPHY AND CHALLENGES TO THAT HISTORIOGRAPHY
• YOUR JOB WILL BE TO EXPLAIN BOTH AND POSSIBLY MAYBE EVEN BE A
CHALLENGE TO ESTABLISHED HISTORIOGRAPHY YOURSELF
• HOW IS THIS RELATED TO YOUR HISTORICAL QUESTION?