[lit-ideas] Re: On surviving plagues and travelling to Yucatan
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 01:21:23 +0200
It is true that the Astecs were decimated by plague, but the notion that
several hundred Spaniards conquered the Astecs on their own is a myth.
Cortés’s overall plan was to trap and besiege the Aztecs within their
capital. Cortés intended to do that primarily by increasing his power and
mobility on the lake, previously one of his main weaknesses. He ordered the
construction of thirteen small war ships (brigantines) by his master
shipbuilder, Martín López, and sent to Vera Cruz for the ships he had
previously scuttled and any other supplies that had arrived. Cortés
continued to receive a steady stream of supplies from Vera Cruz, some of it
intended for Narvaez.
Cortés first decided to have ships built in Tlaxcala, while moving his base
to Tetzcoco. With his main headquarters in Tetzcoco, he could stop his
forces from being spread too thin around the lake, and there he could
contact them where they needed. Nevertheless, this plan was not
satisfactory, so he moved the shipbuilders and other supplies towards
Tetzcoco at the start of February 1521.
Cortés had 86 horsemen, 118 arbalesters<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbalest>
and arquebusiers <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arquebus>, plus 700 Spanish
foot soldiers. He stationed 25 soldiers plus artillerymen on every ship,
since each was equipped with one cannon. He put his remaining land forces
into three separate groups. Under the guidance of Alvarado was 30 horsemen,
18 arbalesters and arquebusiers, 150 Spanish foot soldiers and *25,000
Tlaxcalans*, to be ordered to Tlacopan. Cristobal de
Olid<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristobal_de_Olid> had
20 arbalesters and arquebusiers, 175 foot soldiers, and *20,000 native
allies*, who would be sent to Coyohuacan. Gonzalo de
Sandoval<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzalo_de_Sandoval> was
in command of 24 horsemen, 14 arquebusiers, 13 arbalesters, 150 foot
soldiers, and *30,000 natives*, who would be sent to Ixtlapalapan. The
three major causeways that connected Tenochtitlan to the mainland were by
each of the cities. Cortés forces went for their positions on May
22.[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Tenochtitlan#cite_note-Hassig-1>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Tenochtitlan
On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 1:11 AM, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Lawrence,
>
> I have commented on that already, so you might want to look at my comments.
>
> O.K.
>
>
> On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 1:03 AM, Lawrence Helm <
> lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Cochran and Harpending write on page 162, “In Mexico, where Hernán
>> Cortés and his troops had made the Aztec emperor their puppet, the Aztecs
>> rose against them, killing Moctezuma II and two-thirds of the Spanish force
>> in the famous “Noche Triste.” The Aztecs probably would have utterly
>> destroyed the invaders, were it not for the smallpox epidemic under way at
>> the same time. The leader of the Aztec defense died in the epidemic, and
>> Cortés and his men conquered the Aztec Empire. * The 10,000 Year
>> Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution*. Basic Books.
>> Kindle Edition.
>>
>> How were these Aztecs contaminated? Bernal Diaz Del Castillo in his*
>> The Conquest of New Spain* wrote of how 110 of them (Cortez wasn’t with
>> them at this point) sailed away from Cuba in 1517 and up the coast of
>> the mainland, discovering Yucatan. They needed to go ashore for water
>> from time to time, and those activities did not always go well. Here is
>> the first foray to get water:
>>
>> As these Indians approached us in their canoes, we made signs of peace
>> and friendship, beckoning at the same time to them with our hands and
>> cloaks to come up to us that we might speak with them; for at that time
>> there was nobody amongst us who understood the language of Yucatan or
>> Mexico. They now came along side of us without evincing the least fear, and
>> more than thirty of them climbed on board of our principal ship. We gave
>> them bacon and cassave bread to eat, and presented each with a necklace of
>> green glass beads. After they had for some time minutely examined the ship,
>> the chief, who was a cazique, gave us to understand, by signs, that he
>> wished to get down again into his canoe and return home, but that he would
>> come the next day with many more canoes in order to take us on shore. Del
>> Castillo, Bernal Diaz (2013-11-03).* The Conquest of New Spain* (Kindle
>> Locations 400-405). Bybliotech. Kindle Edition.
>>
>> The Indians ask where they came from and when they admit to coming from
>> where the sun rises the Indians decided to kill them. “The cazique had
>> no sooner given the signal, than out rushed with terrible fury great
>> numbers of armed warriors, greeting us with such a shower of arrows, that
>> fifteen of our men were immediately wounded. These Indians were clad in a
>> kind of cuirass made of cotton, and armed with lances, shields, bows, and
>> slings; with each a tuft of feathers stuck on his head. As soon as they had
>> let fly their arrows, they rushed forward and attacked us man to man,
>> setting furiously to with their lances, which they held in both hands.
>> When, however, they began to feel the sharp edge of our swords, and saw
>> what destruction our crossbows and matchlocks made among them, they
>> speedily began to give way. Fifteen of their number lay dead on the field.
>> [Del Castillo, Bernal Diaz (2013-11-03). The Conquest of New Spain
>> (Kindle Locations 422-427). Bybliotech. Kindle Edition.]
>>
>> Bernal Diaz and his fellows didn’t learn their lesson and later on
>> needing more water answered the same question in the same way, that they
>> came from the direction in which the sun rises, and met with the same
>> result. Eventually so many of them were injured that they couldn’t man
>> all their boats. They burned one, and headed back toward Havanah, but they
>> needed water and no longer had enough sound men to fight off the Indians
>> long enough to get it. But eventually most of them got back to Havana.
>>
>> But I noticed an interesting anecdote way back at the beginning of Bernal
>> Diaz’s narrative: “In the year 1514 I departed from Castile in the
>> suite of Pedro Arias de Avila, who had just then been appointed governor of
>> Terra Firma. At sea we had sometimes bad and sometimes good weather, until
>> we arrived at Nombre Dios, where the plague was raging: of this we lost
>> many of our men, and most of us got terrible sores on our legs, and were
>> otherwise ill.” [Del Castillo, Bernal Diaz (2013-11-03). The Conquest
>> of New Spain (Kindle Locations 347-349). Bybliotech. Kindle Edition.]
>>
>> What was this plague and what caused the sores that Bernal Diaz and most
>> of the others had on their legs? He writes initially of 1514 and it wasn’t
>> until 1517 that they had several battles with the Amerindians on the coast
>> of Yucatan, but that Diaz and the others were carriers of more than one
>> disease doesn’t seem a stretch.
>>
>> Cochran and Harpending write, “The European advantage in disease
>> resistance was particularly important because those early attempts at
>> conquest and colonization were marginal. Shipping men and equipment across
>> the Atlantic Ocean presented huge logistical difficulties. European
>> military expeditions to the New World were tiny and poorly supplied. The
>> successes of the conquistadors are reminiscent of ridiculous action movies
>> in which one man defeats a small army—and that’s a lot harder to do with an
>> arquebus than an Uzi. Early colonization efforts often teetered on the edge
>> of disaster, as when half the Pilgrims died in their first winter, or when
>> most of the settlers in Jamestown starved to death in the winter of 1609.
>> Epidemic disease didn’t just grease the skids for the initial conquests: It
>> reduced Amerindian populations and made later revolts far weaker than they
>> would have been otherwise. If they had not died of disease, the Amerindians
>> would have had time to copy and use many European military innovations in
>> the second or third round of fighting. [pp. 164-165. Basic Books.
>> Kindle Edition.]
>>
>> Lawrence
>>
>>
>
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