The Story of the Conquistadors

Page 2 of 6

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Colombian exchange
• 3. The Aztecs
• 4. Conquistador regret
• 5. New identities
• 6. Find out more
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Colombian exchange

The long-term effects of the Conquest are no less fascinating. The 'Columbian Exchange' as modern historians call it, brought the potato, the pineapple, the turkey, dahlias, sunflowers, magnolias, maize, chillies and chocolate across the Atlantic. On the other hand, tens of millions died in the pandemics of the 16th century, victims of smallpox, measles and the other diseases brought by Europeans (and don't forget that the African slave trade was begun by the Europeans, to replace the work force they had decimated).

Then, after the defeat and extermination of the native societies, came the arrival of the European settler class and the appropriation of the native lands and natural resources. From this process has emerged the modern US empire. The effects on the economies of the world were no less marked as it shifted the centre of gravity of civilisation to the countries of the Atlantic seaboard and their offshoots in the New World. However, the story is also one of history's greatest adventures. The opening up of the continent involved unparalleled journeys of exploration with almost unbelievable bravery, endurance, cruelty and greed.

For instance, Almagro's 6,000km expedition to explore the wastes of Chile, or de Soto's fateful three-year march through a dozen US states - a tale only now being untangled by US historians. Then there are the extraordinary explorations across the Andes, deep into Venezuela and Colombia in the 1530s, journeys which gave birth to the alluring legend of El Dorado. It was the dream of El Dorado that fired Gonzalo Pizarro's 18-month expedition across the Ecuadorian Andes: 'the worst journey ever in the Indies', it was said. However, it led by accident to the discovery and descent of the Amazon. When all is said and done, it is no exaggeration to say that these are some of the greatest land explorations in history.

'It was a meeting of civilisations which previously had no idea of each other's existence.'

Moreover, this is a story of the reshaping of mental landscapes. The discovery of the New World after all was a 'Close Encounter of the Third Kind'. It was a meeting of civilisations which previously had no idea of each other's existence. One fascinating aspect of this encounter is how they responded to each other; how each categorised the other and read the signs. It has often been claimed, for example, that the Aztecs were fatally disabled in their encounter with the 'Other' because the conceptual tools of their civilisation did not enable them properly to categorise the aliens who had landed.

As a matter of fact, there is evidence that some of the Aztec leadership correctly assessed the Spaniards as foreign invaders. (We would surely categorise them as international terrorists today.) To an extent, this idea is confirmed by the Aztec version of events as collected by the Franciscan Bernadino de Sahagun as part of his monumental 'History of New Spain'. This is perhaps one of the greatest of all works of historiography, and a work that rebuts the still commonly held view that this story can only be told from the Spanish side.

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Published: 2002-08-01