The definition of the action of being “conquered” or to “Conquer”, really, as told by Merriam-Webster is to gain mastery over or win by overcoming obstacles or opposition Another, and perhaps a more relevant definition, would be to gain, acquire, or overcome by force of arms. In the case of the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica, it was by force of arms, disease, greed and other mediums that contributed to their conquering I’m sure you’ve already come to the conclusion that I would indeed label the Indigenous people of Mesoamerica conquered, Your assumption is in fact, correct, Aside from the obvious reasons of what came after the Spanish conquest, there were plenty of other details that could be, and have been in the past, easily overlooked. Let’s dive further into this conquest with those details that exploit mediums the Spanish used to conquer, convert, and conform the Indigenous.
The simple “Disney” version of the story says that the Pilgrims came on a boat, Shortly after their arrival, they had a few conversations and then an ultimate agreement with the ‘Native Americans’ or ‘Indians’t This “agreement” said that the Pilgrims can have all the land that the Indians have lived on their entire existence. Obviously, any rational adult now, could tell you, it was not a little bit more complicated than that, but a lot The simple but true answer was that, the Europeans did come on a boat, but not with greetings or glad tidings And the fact of the matter is that they came forcibly, and knowingly of the possibility that there might be people on this new land, Now, was there conversations and agreements between the Europeans? Sure, of course there was How else were the Europeans supposed to gain enough trust from the Indigenous to begin to get what they want?
But once conversations and negotiations began to fail, the Europeans decided to “up the ante” and use more force by arms to get what they wanted. Especially when the interest for precious stones and gold became the objects of desire for the Europeans. Village camp and city invasions, mass killings, and rape were very popular tools used to convince the Indigenous to comply with the Europeans demands Religion was also a huge and vital tool to the conquering of the Indigenous. Now, the common misconception when it comes to talking about religion, specifically the Catholic Church, in the conquering of the Indigenous of Mesoamerica, is that the violence that was used to get the Indigenous to renounce their faith and beliefs was entirely the Catholic Church’s fault. That the entire Church as a whole religion and wide spread belief, were in support of the huge injustice that was done in Mesoamerica.
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This is severely wrong. Though it took hundreds of years, and only two Popes addressed what had happened, the Catholic Church was not in support of what Cortez and his men had done in Mesoamerica. Not then, not now. What happened, was that Catholicism was used as a medium of persuasion and validation of the conquering of Mesoamerical Were there several corrupt Priests, Deacons, Bishops, and Cardinals that were for the violence and mistreatment of the Indigenous people? Yes, of course there were. But that doesn‘t mean that the entire Church as a whole was for it too Many priests were also brought, unaware of the true mission of Cortez and the rest of the Europeans; and once they had become aware of what was done and what they had themselves have contributed to, it had been too late.
The Spaniards had successfully conquered lands and had begun to convert the Indigenous “In the Name of Jesus Christ”. For some priests it may have been a sincere attempt to preach and teach the gospel to these people, but for others it was apparent that it wasn’ti As a result of the forces used by the Europeans, the Indigenous suffered tremendously They lost land, people, for many, hopei They were forced to conform and take claim of a new ideology after being forced to renounce their beliefs. Beliefs and worldviews that they’ve held sacred for hundreds of thousands of years This type of mass oppression can have and has had severe effects on a group of people. I deeply empathize for the Indigenous of Mesoamericai.
The tactics and means by which the Europeans conquered and “took claim” of Mesoamerica, is absolutely disgusting. I often pose myself the question of how a group of people can come to another foreign land, and do what the Europeans have done to the Mesoamericans and other indigenous peoples of the world. What type of societal conditioning could have occurred over a period of time, where the nature of man changes to greed and the hunger for superiority? The Indigenous people of Mesoamerica and the world had not fallen to those ideals, and have survived for centuries and could have continued to survive and thrive if not for the conquest of the Europeans.
