4. Neither Paid Nor Forced
Chapter 2
It’s a myth that literacy
was an advantage for
the Spaniards.
The conquistadors had
wealth and other
connections.
In reality they
professionals when
came to trade.
5. Under the Lordship of the
King
Chapter 4
The belief that all of the
Americas was under
Spanish control within
a few years after the
initial contact.
In other areas of Latin
America, Spanish
control was never
complete and
rebellions were
continuous.
6. Continued Chapter 4
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.
7. The Lost Worlds of the
Malinche
The beliefs that 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
others' intentions.
8. Continued Chapter 5
He claims that 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.
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.
9. The Indians are Coming to
an End
The belief that the
indigenous peoples of the
Americas resigned to their
fate, included themselves
in the new European order
and ceased to exist as
ethnicities
He also argues that 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 is displayed with the
case for most of the allied
forces that helped Cortés
defeat the Aztecs.
10. Apes and Men
Chapter 7
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.
This 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
11. Continued
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.
He 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
