Week of September 30
This week I found going through Cortez's, Columbus’s, and Diaz’s different writings very interesting. Columbus’s letter was the first one we read about and his motives were more like a sales pitch. He wrote the letter to convince people to journey to the new world. To do this he talks a lot about the geography, the people, and the economic potentials. The second document that we read was Cortez’s letter. In his letter he talks a lot about how the society of the natives is a lot like Spain’s but isn’t as sophisticated because they don’t believe in god. From there he also talks about how he plans to convert the indiginous to Christianity. He talks about this as a hope to be vindicated from his actions of going against the king.The final document was Diaz’s memoirs. This document talks about the conquest sort of as a whole. He talks about the number of ships they had, Cortez’s role, details of men involved and so much more. His reasoning for writing this was to give information to the people. But there are also the intentions to respond to Lopez de Gomaras' account of the conquest.
I found this interesting because all the documents were about the conquest and when you compare them together they all say something different. The reasoning behind this is because of their intentions for what they wrote. This brings to the light that while a document may be a primary source it’s not always an accurate representation of what happened.
Thank you, Jayden, for your post. I think that you captured the main ideas expressed in our class discussions but you left me wanting to learn more about your critical-thinking process. What can you add to what has been said? Did anything in the readings appeal to you? Can you give some details? Perhaps quote a passage you found intriguing or illuminating and analyze it? An interesting connection between the materials you have read for both parts of the class? I want to see more. Give us more.
ReplyDelete