ANTH265 Lecture 2: Spanish Conquest
13 Nov 2016
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For those efforts, and for their role in beginning the inquisition, the pope proclaimed them athletes of christ . A very small number of spanish soldiers defeated aztec forces that were many times larger: the spanish were aided by thousands of indian allies, particularly the tlaxcala"s. Tlaxcala"s made a bad mistake grouping with the spanish as it ended poorly for them when they began to rule. The aztecs thought cortes was quetzalcoatl: the idea based on aztec beliefs that quetzalcoatl traveled away to the east and said he would return someday (the spanish traveled from the east). His feathers are also sometimes interpreted as a beard: cortes, with his beard, arrives from the east; therefore, he must be. Quetzalcoatl: the problem is there are no indications of this aztec mistake in 16th century. The first mention of this mistake does not appear until the mid-1800"s.
