Spanish Influence On The Aztecs

The Spanish, despite giving the Aztecs permission to hold the celebration, were “seized with an urge to kill the celebrants” and ensued with the trapping and massacre of the Aztec celebrants (The Broken Spears, The Spaniards Attack the Celebrants). The Spanish hunted down and slaughtered every celebrant, even though the Aztecs were not a threat to them and posed no harm. The diametric responses to the inequality between the Aztecs and the Spaniards is clear: the Aztecs are submissive and respectful towards the Spanish, and often resort to hiding out of fear. In contrast, the Spanish are needlessly aggressive, avaricious, and intimidating; they demand gold, destroy the meaningful treasures of the Aztecs, seize Motecuhzoma’s treasures, and violently

While Devries does help the Algonquins, as he protests against the plan to massacre the tribe, and aids in the escape of some Algonquins who had fled to the Dutch for safety, his ingrained white superiority complex is still very much present. Though he is not violent or aggressive towards the Algonquin tribe, his chosen language is very revealing of his internal racist beliefs. He does not refer to the Native Americans as human beings, but rather as “savages” or “poor little creatures” (A Dutch Massacre of Algonquins). These phrases, and many others, were very commonly used by conquerors to describe their conquests, as the dehumanization of the subjects of their exploitation helped conquerors to alleviate any inklings of guilt for their treatment of fellow human beings. This dehumanization is also referenced in Willem Bosman’s A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea. Although Bosman does acknowledge the humanity of the enslaved, he, similarly to Devries, compares the slaves to animals, stating that, “Markets of men are here kept in the same manner as those of beasts with us,” (Slave

However, these many achievements were accomplished through the exploitation and enslavement of indigenous peoples. Additionally, many of the improvements only affected an exclusive, elite upper class. For these reasons, the Age of Discovery was not only a time of advancement, but also a time of serious socioeconomic inequalities that had lasting effects on the state of the world as a