Who were the real Conquistadores ?

On the first day of class, Professor Bristol explained that the native people that lived throughout the Americas, like the Spanish, built their empires through conquest. These societies were equally as structured and complex as any European society. However, the Spanish had a different mentality, “Spaniards lumped different native groups as Indians” (50). Restall, examples that the natives had different customs and traditions that clearly distinguished each individual group. I believe this played a significant role in the conquest of Latin America. Although the Spanish saw all native people as pertaining to on group, they relied on the political and social conflicts among native groups in order to divide and conquer. The Spanish took advantage of this and recruited enemies of their opponents in order to defeat them. A perfect example of this is the Incan civil war. Pizarro took advantage of this opportunity and together with his allies was able to conquer much of the Incan empire (48).

            From the reading I was surprised to learn that the Spanish were able to use enslaved Natives and Africans to further their conquest. Restall says, “Native slaves from Nicaragua participated in the Conquest of Peru, for example. They fought and provided other services alongside other natives and Africans (51).” There is a significant distance between Nicaragua and Peru. Nicaraguans and Africans were foreigners in Peru. The Incas had a vastly different society and culture than Nicaraguans and Africans. I can only imagine what the native Nicaraguans experienced when they helped conquer Peru. On the flip side, it is possible that the Peruvian natives might have seen the Spaniards, the enslaved Nicaraguan natives and Africans as one group. Just as the Spaniards classified all indigenous people into one category, the Incas could have classified their conquerors into one group as well. It does not matter if racially their conquerors were different; ultimately they were there for the same reason.

            Before reading the Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, I did not know that freed and enslaved native people/Africans played such an important role in the conquest of Latin America. I personally believed that the conquest of Latin America was purely Spain’s military power superiority and access to more advance military technology. After reading this, my definition of a Conquistador has changed to include not only Spaniards, but also native people and African.