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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 8 page paper considers the he portrayal given of conquerors Hernan Cortes and Christopher Columbus in both Bernal Diaz’s “The Conquest of New Spain” and A Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies by Bartolome de las Casas. The writer considers what both accounts to indicate what the impression of the men is given, directly or indirectly and the similarities and differences between these two men and their attitudes. The bibliography cites 2 sources.
Page Count:
8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TS14_TEcortcm.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Hernan Cortes are recorded in different documents. If we look to two accounts, that of Bernal Diazs "The Conquest of New Spain" and "A Brief Account of the Devastation of
the Indies" by Bartolome de las Casas, each written a relatively short time after the events can be seen as depicting the event and the characters of these two men.
Diazs account looks at Hernan Cortes through the eyes of Diaz who served under Cortes. This gives a more in-depth portrayal of Hernan Cortes as a man though both his
actions and his apparent goals and motivations. In A Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies there is less detail, this is a short account that was written in
1542, and does not give any direct details of Columbus. It is though the events and the actions of the men under his command we get an indirect insight to
the motivations and goals of Columbus in his conquest of the new world. The portrayal of Cortes was written fifty years after the events it records, so although a
first hand account, it may be clouded by memory. The account is of the march from Montezumas to the defeat of Tenochtitlan. The
first impression that we get is that Cortes is a determined and logical man. He attempts this journey, and has to overcome many hardships and trials. For example he
sees immediately on landing the importance pf being able to communicate with the natives, and as a part of this he has Jeronimo de Aguilar, join the expedition as
he has learnt the Mayan language, and this would be useful in any dealings with the Mesoamericans. From this we may assert that he did have aims at communicating rather
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