Playing devil’s advocate: a Mexican historian defends the Conquistadors

Many books claim to describe junctures that changed the world but few examine ones as consequential as Conquistadores: A New History. Hailed by the Romantics as courageous explorers, the Spanish conquerors are increasingly seen as violent and rapacious exploiters. That, says Fernando Cervantes, oversimplifies the complexities of the early modern period.

Cervantes, a Mexican historian, places the conquest of the Americas in Spain’s political context. In 1492, at great cost to the royal purse, Spain recovered Andalucía from the Moors. So when a charismatic Genoese navigator proposed to sail southwest in search of a new trade route to Asia, Ferdinand and Isabella approved. Columbus’s voyage was the first step to transforming a young nation into the greatest imperial power on Earth.

Over the course of four expeditions, Columbus found Caribbean islands and some of the Central and South American mainland, laying the foundations for Spanish control. But it was up to the next generation of conquistadors to defeat the region’s great civilisations — the Mexica (Aztecs) and the Inca.

In June 1519, Hernán Cortés led an unauthorised campaign to central Mexico. Allying himself with local tribes, he observed their resentment towards Moctezuma, the Mexica emperor. Moctezuma’s envoys bestowed lavish gifts on the conquistadors, but instead of placating them, the treasures strengthened their resolve to reach the imperial capital, Tenochtitlan (today’s Mexico City). Although neither Cortés nor Moctezuma fully trusted each other, the Spaniards and their indigenous allies arrived in Tenochtitlan accompanied by Moctezuma’s ambassadors. There the conquistadors found a cosmopolitan city larger than any in Europe.

The next stage of Spanish-Mexica interaction was characterised by misunderstanding. In November, a Spanish lieutenant on the coast was captured in a tribal battle.