AS+Aztec+Describe+the+Spanish+Conquest+of+Mexico


 * Audience:** This account of history was from an Aztec tribe member. He was a bystander in an encounter between Montezuma and Cortes.


 * Place and Time:** This information was told to the Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagun by an Aztec indian in 1529 in Mexico, but the event that is described happened in 1519.


 * Prior Knowledge:** I know that when the Spanish conquistadors first came to the capital city of the Aztec empire they were greeted as if they were gods, and the Aztecs legitimately thought they were gods. I also know that the Spanish ended up killing almost all of the Aztecs.


 * Audience:** This source was created for the Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagun, because he learned all about the history of the Aztec's civilization, and the discover of them by the Spanish drastically altered the course their civilization would take. The Spanish would want to know this to gain background information on how the Aztecs lived and what their culture consisted of. Since an Aztec was telling the story, there is probably some bias toward the Aztec side. Although what they went through was a tragedy, it might not be the complete story.


 * Reason:** I think that this information was passed onto Sahagun to keep the culture/history of the Aztec alive. I think it was also told to show how brutal the Spanish were to the Aztecs. They killed and killed trying to wipe out the culture.


 * The Main Idea:** This source is a reminder to a couple things; it shows how the Spanish were first welcomed and treated as gods, and then it shows how the Spanish turned on the Aztecs and brutally murdered thousands and thousands of people.


 * Significance:** This piece of history is important because it tells the story of the Aztecs, from when the Spanish entered the great city of Tenochtitlan, from the start of the Aztec massacre.

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 * Compare and Contrasting**

These two pieces, "Hernan Cortes Conquers Mexico (Passage One)" and "Aztec Chroniclers Describe the Spanish Conquest of Mexico (Passage Two)", are very closely related, but are yet from two completely different points of view. In passage one, it talks about Hernan Cortes being welcomed into Tenochtitlan and treated like royalty. It did not bring up the subject of the mass murders that took place in the city. In the second passage, the story is told from on Aztec's point of view. It does mention the arrival of Spainiards, but it tells of the killings that came afterward.