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Summary Of Matthew Restall's Seven Myths Of The Spanish Conquest

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Matthew Restall’s book Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest takes a look at the history of the conquest of the New World, while at the same time, attempting to decipher through certain myths that have gained historical ground over time. He looks at what parts of these myths have some truth to them and what parts of them seem purely fabricated. While going through these myths, Restall starts from the beginning from the reader’s point of view. He does this in order to give the reader ideas of what the myths are, and where they come from. Restall then pushes aside what countless historians used to think to be true for hundreds or years, and shares a new, deeper look at some of the myths. The first myth that Restall discuses is “The Myth of Exceptional …show more content…

Cortes has been elevated in history with the use of the probanza de merito (The proof of merit), this was a written account of of all of the great deeds that a conqueror has achieved and the rewards that he deserves in exchange for these. Cortes, or any such Conquistador looking for a reward, would only write down the great things that he was able to accomplish and would never write of the negative and undesirable things that took place. Restall talks about the seldom recognized probanza written by Bernal Diaz about the Conquest of Mexico. At this time, these probanza’s were basically used as history books. Someone like Diaz wrote down all of Cortes’ merits and services while leaving out the negative, and with the probanza, the legend of Cortes was born. One such legend of Cortes was that he decided in 1519 in the Gulf of Mexico, he decided to torch his ships. Restall goes on to state that this was indeed not the case however. This shows that how even small myths can erupt from larger myths. While talking about these exceptional men, Restall picks at certain things that used to be thought of as historically accurate and strikes them down as pure fiction. He strives to show that these men were nothing more than simple explorers who ended up choosing the right time to sail. They will forever be linked to their Conquests, but Restall does a good job at distinguishing exactly what is truth, and what is

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