Historical Rabbit Holes - Thoughts on the Conquistadors and Aztecs
I am not picking sides; I'm just writing a book.
I was reading a post on the Arts and Letters Daily Substack newsletter titled The New History Wars, and More .
The post described an essay by James H. Sweet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and also President of the American Historical Association. Sweet wrote about Elmina Castle in Ghana and how he thinks its history has been changed to make it seem like it played a major role in bringing slaves to the United States.
Sweet came under criticism for this, although I don’t think he was downplaying the horror of slavery. I’ll let you read the essay, so you can make up your own mind about Sweet’s words.
Again, I am not taking sides here, and this story has nothing to do with my research for my book Calusa Gold. My reason for mentioning this is because it got me thinking about what the Spanish Conquistadors did in Mexico and Florida. There is no dispute that the Spaniards played a huge part in destroying both cultures.
They conquered the Aztecs and brought devastating diseases to both groups; there is no argument about that; however, this did get me thinking about context. When the Conquistadors came to North America, I wonder what the average soldier was thinking. Had they been told they could get rich? Were they motivated to spread Christianity? I can’t imagine they were in favor of the widespread human sacrifices they saw taking place in Tenochtitlan and other Aztec cities. Maybe they thought they were completely in the right because of the sacrifices. Then again, the Aztecs had the right to live their own way without foreign interference, right?
It also seems reasonable that our modern opinions of historical events will change as we learn more.
The rabbit holes I am finding are making my research more and more interesting, which I hope will add to my novel. Hopefully by showing the Aztecs and Conquistadors as flawed will help people get more out of reading Calusa Gold.
I really hope you will join me in discussing these topics, and please consider sharing my posts, so more people can join us. Thanks.