Conquistador Hernando Cortes Pizarro

We Spaniards know a sickness of the heart that only gold can cure...Hernan Cortes

His name has come down in history as the heroic explorer of Mexico, the Spanish soldier who brought down the Mighty Azteca Empire.  He is said to have conquered over 5 million Aztec subjects with just 1,000 Spanish men.  His name was Hernando Cortes Pizarro and he was neither hero nor conqueror of the Aztecs.   This over simplification of history is much more complicated.  Our primary sources come from the numerous letters penned by the invading Conquistador himself as well as letters from soldiers under his command.  Secondary sources are those who wrote decades after the conquest interviewing Azteca and Spanish participates.  Finally we have modern day historians who were brave enough to reexamine the facts from a different perspective.

Cortes was born in 1485 in Medellin, Castile.  He was born into a hidalgo family that was not considered wealthy.  He was the only son of Martín Cortes de Monroy and Catalina Pizarro Altamarino and his childhood seemed to be plagued by sickness.  His parents sent him to the University of Salamanca to study law.  Evidently he wasn’t very patient to sit and learn since he came home without a law degree.  According to Cortes’ friend and biographer, Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Cortes proved to be “a source of trouble to his parents as well as to himself, for he was restless, haughty, mischievous, and give to quarreling, for which reason he decided to seek his fortune.”

His choices were either to join forces in Naples or join an expedition to the “New World” to earn fame and fortune.  He booked passage with a distant relative, Nicolas de Ovando y Caceres who was being sent to the Americas to take up position as the new governor of Hispaniola.  Cortes never made the voyage due to his adulterous affair with a local married woman.  He injured his leg when caught by the outraged husband as he was leaping over the garden wall to escape.

http://www.aztec-history.com/hernan-cortez-biography.html

https://suite.io/tony-dunnell/3d1x2j7

In 1504 Cortes finally boarded an expedition headed by Alonso Quintero.

Side note:  Alonso Quintero was such a greedy ambitious individual that he left Spain earlier to reach Hispaniola before his superiors in order to gain the upper hand in personal profits, but fate sent a storm which forced him back to Spain.  Although he was forgiven of his mutinous act he tried once again at sea to deceive his commanders but karma intervened once again and he arrived months after the main fleet.  This amoral act of selfish greed will be repeated by Cortes time and time again.

http://us.wow.com/wiki/Hern%C3%A1n_Cort%C3%A9s?s_chn=92&v_t=na&s_it=article.link

Upon arriving he applied for his citizenship and was immediately given land to farm.  His distant relative Nicolas Ovando granted him an enconmienda which gave him local indigenous natives as personal slaves.  They were forced to work his land.  Cortes also received a position in the town of Azua de Compostela as a notary.  In 1506 Cortes took part in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba to which he received more lands and more Indian slaves from the expedition leaders.

Cortes continued to rise in power and prestige.   However, Cortes was made out to be an encomendero.  Farming was not his beloved occupation.  Warfare boiled in his blood and he excelled in invasion expeditions. In 1511 he joined the expedition of Diego Velazquez de Cuellar to complete the conquest of Cuba under the orders of Diego Columbus brother of Christopher Columbus. 

Before Diego Velazquez even set out from Hispaniola to conquer the island of Caobana, he was preceded by Cacique Hatuey.  He had fled Hispaniola with four hundred warriors in canoes to warn the inhabitants of Cuba about the impeding invasion from the Spaniards.

Without prior knowledge such atrocities told by Cacique Hatuey was not believed by the people of Cuba and few joined him to resist.  Cacique was forced to resort to guerrilla tactics and was able to confine them to their fort at Baracoa.

Diego Velazquez had learned from past experience that when the indigenous inhabitants lost their cacique they would become disorganized and scatter.  Velazquez taught this to Cortes and they concentrated all their efforts on capturing the war leader.  When the Spanish eventually captured Cacique Hatuey he was tied to a stake and burned on February 2, 1512.  The warrior and leader Hatuey sacrificed his life defending his right and the rights of his people to live and be free.  http://cubahistory.org/en/spanish-settlement/rebellion-of-hatuey.html

After the invasion of Cuba was complete, Velazquez was appointed its first governor.  New colonizers arrived quickly and began settling the land.  These new settlers, however, did not want to be under the personal authority of Diego Columbus.  In response to their demands Velazquez ordered a general cabildo ( a local government council) which under Spanish law duly authorized them to deal directly with Spain.

 In 1513 Cuban Governor Velazquez authorized the importation of African slaves to augment production on the farms due to the infectious diseases taking heavy toll on the local population.

http://www.afrocubaweb.com/history/History.htm

For Cortes participation in the slaughter of Cuba he was made clerk to the treasurer.  With this grant came more land and more native slaves.  The other Spanish landowners looked to Cortes to force their demands upon the governor to assign even more Indians to their growing farms.  Cortes courted Catalina Xuarez, the sister in law of Governor Velazquez but rumors of him having an affair with one her sisters at the same time put a strain on the relationship between himself and the Cuban Governor.  He finally married Catalina securing the alliance of a powerful family.

Expeditions to Yucatán by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba in 1517 and Juan de Grijalva in 1518 had returned to Cuba with small amounts of gold, and tales of a more distant land where gold was said to be abundant.   Cuban Governor Velasquez granted Cortes a charter to explore and trade in the new lands.  He was forbidden to colonize but Cortes tricked his father in law to insert a clause about emergency measures that might have to be taken without prior authorization in the true interest of the realm.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Mexicoweb/factfile/Unique-facts-Mexico7.htm

Cortes then applied all of his funds, mortgaged his estates and borrowed from merchants and friends to outfit his ships. Velasquez may have contributed to the effort, but the government of Spain offered no financial support

William Prescott – Mexico and the Life of the Conqueror – Volume I, Book 2, Chapter 2, circa 1843

To Be Continued….

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Papal Bulls

"Racism has historically been a banner to justify the enterprises of expansion, conquest, colonization and domination and has walked hand in hand with intolerance, injustice and violence."- Rigoberta Mench Tum, Guatemalan Indigenous Leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate from "The Problem of Racism on the Threshold of the 21st Century"

United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance 2001

In the arsenal of claiming legitimacy for invasion, the monarchs of the Iberian Peninsula held another secret weapon other than the Requerimento.  This time it came from a higher source.  It came from their highest spiritual leader of their faith; the Pope.  The documents were called Papal Bulls and it was yet another armor of self justification.  A Papal Bull is a historical document issued by the Catholic Popes to define a spiritual issue or grant special privileges.  There have been many Papal Bulls issued throughout the course of Catholic Church history but there are 3 which are specific in the formulation of human ignorance that leads one to believe they have the right to invade and subdue the world.

List of Papal Bulls

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_papal_bulls

The reigning Monarchs of Europe, the nobles of the land and those seeking personal fortunes used both the law and the bible to justify their illicit actions against native peoples.  These two components combined; the law and spiritual authority, gave rise to a twisted fanatical concept called legalism.  However, the bible never promoted the abuse of the scripture to justify a means.

Momen  tecakkvte  toyatskat,  mv  opunvkv-hervn  cem  erkenakvkin,  mv  eenakuecatskvte, ofv  svpaklatskan  cen  kerkuecvkvyet  os. …mv  Cesvs  Klist  pun  naorketv  elvtet omat, Hoccat vevkvyen Momet  herihohcen, Hoccat  vevkvyen,  nettv  svtutcenan  akvwvpkvtet  omat. 1Kvlenrvlke 15: 1,3,4

“I declare unto you the gospel ... that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day.”1 Corinthians 15: 1,3,4 "

The gospel or good news was to be spread by sharing the words of love not through condemnation or conquest.  Love your neighbor as yourself were the powerful instructions Jesus commanded his followers to obey.  The Bible records Jesus’ relationship with the spiritual authorities of his time, the Pharisees.  Jesus condemned their hypocritical behavior of twisting the spiritual laws to their political gain by pretending to do what is right but neglecting showing mercy and compassion to others which is the summation of the law. (Mathew 23).  Jesus called them religious and despised their legalistic attitudes.

On June 18, 1452 Pope Nicholas V issued “Dum Diversas” or Until Different.  It granted King Afonso V of Portugal to conquer the Saracens and pagans and reduce them to perpetual servitude. 

"We grant you [Kings of Spain and Portugal] by these present documents, with our Apostolic Authority, full and free permission to invade, search out, capture, and subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be, as well as their kingdoms, duchies, counties, principalities, and other property ... and to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dum_diversas

Two years later in 1454 Pope Nicholas V wrote “Romanus Pontifex” or The Roman Bishop to King Afons V of Portugal granted him exclusive rights to all the lands discovered by his countrymen.

“since we had formerly by other letters of ours granted among other things free and ample faculty to the aforesaid King Alfonso – to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate to himself and his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, principalities, dominions, possessions, and goods, and to convert them to his and their use and profit – by having secured the said faculty, the said King Alfonso, or by his authority, the aforesaid infant, justly and lawfully has acquired and possessed, and doth possess, these islands, lands, harbors, and seas, and they do of right belong and pertain to the said King Alfonso and his successors, nor without special license from King Alfonso and his successors themselves has any other even of the faithful of Christ been entitled hitherto, nor is he by any means now entitled lawfully to meddle therewith.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanus_Pontifex

Although the bull's primary purpose was to forbid other Christian nations from infringing the King of Portugal's rights of trade and colonization in these regions it set the stage of invasion and conquest of all unknown lands for the profit of the Catholic Monarch. 

In the year 1493 on May 4^th, Pope Alexander VI issued “Inter Caetera” or Among other Works which granted to Spain (the Crowns of Castile and Aragon) all lands to the "west and south" of a pole-to-pole line 100 leagues west and south of any of the islands of the Azores or the Cape Verde islands.
The purpose of the papal bull along with The Treaty of Tordesillas was to divide the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and Spain and was set at the meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands of the west coast of Africa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_caetera

Consequently “the Dum Diversas, the Romanus Pontifex and the Inter Caeera came to serve as a justification for the Discovery Doctrine and the Age of Imperialism.  They were also early influences on the development of the slave trade of the 15^th and 16^th centuries, even though the papal bull Sublimus Dei of 1537 forbade the enslavement of non-Christians.  The executive brief for Sublimus Dei was withdrawn by the Pope after protests by the Spanish Monarchy.  Pope Paul III publicly sanctioned slavery in Rome in 1545…”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanus_Pontifex

The Papal Bulls have never been revoked.  However, the Catholic Church through Pope John Paul II has apologized for individual roles within the Catholic community for abuses in the past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_apologies_made_by_Pope_John_Paul_II#cite_note-BBC_News_1-3
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/08/14/world/pope-apologizes-to-africans-for-slavery.html
http://www.whitebison.org/boarding-school-apology/history-of-apology.php

Historians and academics agree that the colonization of the New World saw extreme expressions of racism - massacres, forced-march relocations, the "Indian wars", death by starvation and disease. Today, such practices would be called ethnic cleansing and genocide. What seems even more appalling for contemporary minds is that the subjugation of the native peoples of the New World was legally sanctioned. "Laws" of "discovery", "conquest" and "terra nullius" made up the "doctrines of dispossession", according to Erica Irene Daes, chairperson/rapporteur of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, in a study on indigenous peoples and their relationship to land.

These "doctrines of discovery" provided the basis for both the "law of nations" and subsequent international law. Thus, they allowed Christian nations to claim "unoccupied lands" (terra nullius), or lands belonging to "heathens" or "pagans". In many parts of the world, these concepts later gave rise to the situation of many Native peoples in the today - dependent nations or wards of the State, whose ownership of their land could be revoked - or "extinguished" -- at any time by the Government.

Indigenous leaders today contend that it is essentially discriminatory that native title does not confer the same privileges as ordinary title. According to Mick Dodson, an Australian Aboriginal lawyer, the concept of extinguishment "treats indigenous rights and interests in land as inferior to all other titles". According to indigenous law and custom, indigenous interests can only hold native title, and, according to the law put into place since then by the European immigrants, native title can be extinguished.   http://www.un.org/WCAR/e-kit/indigenous.htm

Summation of United Nations World Conferences on Racism 2001 and 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Conference_against_Racism

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La Ecomienda

"They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they kept only one; they promised to take our land, and they did.” --Chief Red Cloud

http://vimeo.com/7305719

Lecture 18: The Encomienda

 

Ecomienda comes from the Spanish verb, “encomendar”, to entrust.  Its history began during the time of the Reconquista or the 781 year period of reconquest by Christian Iberian kingdoms over the Muslim kingdoms.  During this time frame Adelantados, a Spanish nobility title, were given the right to collect tribute from Muslims or others who lived in the area they had conquered and resettled.

When Christopher Columbus was recalled back to Spain by the crown to answer charges of fraud and corruption, he was stripped of all titles including governor of Hispaniola.  King Ferdinad and Queen Isabella appointed Fray Nicolas de Ovanda as the new royal governor and he establishes the first formalized encomienda system in Hispaniola. 

The Spanish crown granted a citizen of the colony a specific amount of local inhabitants to perform manual labor.  These grantees were usually individuals who had participated in a successful conquest. To make it more effectively the Spanish allowed the indigenous leaders to remain in power as long as they mobilized their communities to provide the required tribute of labor. The labor ranged from farming, working in gold and silver mines to personal servants..  The conquerors who received these grants of labor were to in turn be responsible for their chargers.  The encomenderos were to teach the natives the Spanish language, instruct them in the Catholic faith and protect them from their traditional enemies. The encomienda did not include a land grant because in theory the land belonged to the Spanish crown but in practice the encomenderos gained control of the local land and failed to fulfill their obligations.

In reality the encominda was no different than slavery.  A major reform called the New Laws in 1542 restricted the endomenderos for holding onto their charges for two generations.  However many by passed this stipulation because Spanish authorities simple could not enforce it.  When the crown attempted to implement the policy in Peru in 1535, the Spanish citizens revolted and killed the viceroy.  In Mexico the viceroy wisely decided not to carry out the New Laws citing the potential for rebellion. He said “I obey crown authority but do not comply with this order.

In all of this it is incredible that the native population was theoretical not viewed as slaves but as “free vassals of the crown.”  Even though Queen Isabella of Castile had forbidden Indian slavery many natives were forced to death by their hard labor and subjected to extreme punishment if resisted.

The encomienda was strongly based on the encomendado’s tribal identity.  Mixed race or mesitizo individuals, for example could not by law by subjected to the encomienda.  This moved many to deliberately seek to dilute their tribal identity and that of their descendants as a way to escape from the service, by seeking intermarriage with people from different ethnicities, especially Spaniards or Creoles.  In this way the encomienda somewhat weakened Amerindians’ tribal identification and ethnicity, which in turn diminished the pool of available encomedados.

The encomienda system slowly gave way to a new system called “repartimiento.”  This system did not grant land only the allotment of native workers.  This time the natives were allotted to the crown who were managed by a local crown appointed official.  He would assign them to work for settlers for set period of time usually of several weeks.  It was an attempt to stop the abuse of forced labor.  

The encomienda system did eventually come to a legal end in 1720, when the crown made a new attempt at eradicating the institution. The encomenderos were then required to pay remaining encomienda laborers for their work.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encomienda

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El Requerimiento

"Real Eyes…Realize…Real Lies” Machine Head / Tupac

WARNING:  The truth is cruel but it is necessary to confront lies told about the past.  What I am about to share was never taught in history books regarding the infamous so called discovery of the inhabitant Americas.  The love of money is the root of all evil and the lust to covet the wealth of others birthed a declaration of tyranny.   This audacious declaration was called “The Requerimiento.” As I read out loud this heinous document rivers of anger and fury flooded my soul.  The words are antagonistic, aggressive, hostile, revolting, obnoxious, disgusting and criminal.  I was appalled at the malevolence mindset of16^th Century.  This man made ill fated illogical reasoning was forged from the evil of the darkest bowels of immorality and iniquity.

"The “Requerimiento”* can be translated to requirement or demand.  It was required to be read by the invading Conquistador before the invading armies entered into a New World village, town or city.  It was read in Spanish with the expectation of a response.  Imagine the perplexed looks on the faces of the native inhabitants when this document was real out loud.   To their native ears it was gibberish.  Even if there was no language barrier, there would have been an impediment of understanding concerning the foreign ideology and unfamiliar concepts expressed in the document.  They had their own spiritual perspective of the world around them and self government and it did not include a distant Catholic King.

It was written in 1513 by Juan Lopez de Palacios Rubios, a lawyer.  Its diabolical purpose was to provide legal sanction to subjugate native peoples, plunder their lands and steal their wealth.  Its legal precedent was set during the centuries of struggle by the Catholic forces in Spain to recapture their homeland from generations of Muslim overlords commonly called “Reconquista” or the Reconquest.  Church leaders would write letters of encouragement to the victorious Catholic leaders to convert the local defeated Muslim populations, confiscate their land and wealth as payment for the war and to edify the church.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconquista

It was also a brilliant document because it provided psychological support in the midst of a moral crisis.  We are spiritual beings laced with emotions encased in a physical body controlled by the mind.  We are interconnected spirit beings and if something assaults one part of our essence and it is not appropriately corrected negative consequences will transfer to our physical or mental beings.  This document provided the Spanish Conquistador with a way to deal with their emotions as they engaged in systematic hostility, plunder, rape, and murder of the native peoples.  By reading this document out loud beforehand it justified their conquest and “cleansed” their guilty consciousness.  In Catholic man made termology it meant absolution from their upcoming sins.  Below is the English translation of “The Requerimiento.”

"On behalf of the King, Don Fernando, and of Doña Juana I, his daughter, Queen of Castille and León, subduers of the barbarous nations, we their servants notify and make known to you, as best we can, that the Lord our God, Living and Eternal, created the Heaven and the Earth, and one man and one woman, of whom you and we, all the men of the world at the time, were and are descendants, and all those who came after and before us. But, on account of the multitude which has sprung from this man and woman in the five thousand years since the world was created, it was necessary that some men should go one way and some another, and that they should be divided into many kingdoms and provinces, for in one alone they could not be sustained.

Of all these nations God our Lord gave charge to one man, called St. Peter, that he should be Lord and Superior of all the men in the world, that all should obey him, and that he should be the head of the whole Human Race, wherever men should live, and under whatever law, sect, or belief they should be; and he gave him the world for his kingdom and jurisdiction.

And he commanded him to place his seat in Rome, as the spot most fitting to rule the world from; but also he permitted him to have his seat in any other part of the world, and to judge and govern all Christians, Moors, Jews, Gentiles, and all other Sects. This man was called Pope, as if to say, Admirable Great Father and Governor of men. The men who lived in that time obeyed that St. Peter, and took him for Lord, King, and Superior of the universe; so also they have regarded the others who after him have been elected to the pontificate, and so has it been continued even till now, and will continue till the end of the world.

One of these Pontiffs, who succeeded that St. Peter as Lord of the world, in the dignity and seat which I have before mentioned, made donation of these isles and Tierra-firme to the aforesaid King and Queen and to their successors, our lords, with all that there are in these territories, as is contained in certain writings which passed upon the subject as aforesaid, which you can see if you wish.

So their Highnesses are kings and lords of these islands and land of Tierra-firme by virtue of this donation: and some islands, and indeed almost all those to whom this has been notified, have received and served their Highnesses, as lords and kings, in the way that subjects ought to do, with good will, without any resistance, immediately, without delay, when they were informed of the aforesaid facts. And also they received and obeyed the priests whom their Highnesses sent to preach to them and to teach them our Holy Faith; and all these, of their own free will, without any reward or condition, have become Christians, and are so, and their Highnesses have joyfully and benignantly received them, and also have commanded them to be treated as their subjects and vassals; and you too are held and obliged to do the same. Wherefore, as best we can, we ask and require you that you consider what we have said to you, and that you take the time that shall be necessary to understand and deliberate upon it, and that you acknowledge the Church as the Ruler and Superior of the whole world, and the high priest called Pope, and in his name the King and Queen Doña Juana our lords, in his place, as superiors and lords and kings of these islands and this Tierra-firme by virtue of the said donation, and that you consent and give place that these religious fathers should declare and preach to you the aforesaid.

If you do so, you will do well, and that which you are obliged to do to their Highnesses, and we in their name shall receive you in all love and charity, and shall leave you, your wives, and your children, and your lands, free without servitude, that you may do with them and with yourselves freely that which you like and think best, and they shall not compel you to turn Christians, unless you yourselves, when informed of the truth, should wish to be converted to our Holy Catholic Faith, as almost all the inhabitants of the rest of the islands have done. And, besides this, their Highnesses award you many privileges and exemptions and will grant you many benefits.

But, if you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their Highnesses; we shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him; and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their Highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us. And that we have said this to you and made this Requisition, we request the notary here present to give us his testimony in writing, and we ask the rest who are present that they should be witnesses of this Requisition."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requerimiento

*As a Believer in Jesus Christ, I, 100% reject this document.  It does NOT reflect the Holy character of God, the true words of Jesus Christ or the transformation power of the Holy Spirit.  These gluttonous ideas were NOT inspired by God.  These immoral acts were created independent from God by misguided men who out of their own sinful lust desired money, fame and power.  (James 1:13-15).

Jesus’ commandment to the church was and is and will always be; “Love One Another.” Anything short of that is disobedience.  (Luke 6:46)

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