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Seven Myths Of The Spanish Conquest Sparknotes

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Matthew Restall, the author of “Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest,” outlines some of the myths associated with the Spanish conquest and how they have developed over time. One obvious theme that Restall incorporated throughout the entire book was of course myths during the Spanish Conquest, as the book title states. One thing that Restall does, that goes along with the theme of myths, is he picked seven distinct myths to specifically write about. Not only that but the myths Restall chose to write about were heavily elaborated and explained in the individual chapters. His outlined myths are as follows: the myth of exceptional men (chapter 1), the myth of the King’s Army (chapter 2), the myth of the white conquistador (chapter 3), the myth of …show more content…

One particular graphic Restall uses in chapter two is titled “Veracruz N2” in which is described as depicting, “the arrival of Cortez in Veracruz and the reception by Moctezuma’s ambassadors.” Restall uses this pictures to show how the Spanish armada was depicted in the seventeenth century. He then explains how this painting fits the myth of “the Kings army” and explains some of the inaccuracies of the painting itself. In this regard, he mentions that “Conquistadors were soldiers and nothing lese when Ilarione da Bergamo heard of the Conquest from Spaniards in Mexico in the 1760s…” Transitioning from this point, Restall explains how the myth of the Spanish Conquistadors are slowly viewed more and more as “the King’s …show more content…

Restall uses several pictures in this chapter as points of reference. One in particular that he used is titled “With a Little luck, they may revere us as gods.” He uses this comic image to emphasize part of his argument about the native desolation myth in regards to how “the Europeans perceived the native reaction to the Conquest.” He points out that this “only works because it is still such common currency in popular histories and textbooks.” However, he uses this image to argue against such common misconceptions and mentions that there “was no apotheosis no ‘belief that Spaniards are gods,’ and no resulting native

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