“I take your point about the use by conquistadors of Muslim methods of
war and conquest, bur forget the implication that the
“Native Americans” were innocents.”
I agree in regards to the Conquistadors liberating some Native
Americans from the likes of the Aztecs!
I don’t know if you saw the series “Conquistadors” with historian
Michael Wood (on PBS, ick!).
As usual, Wood does a good job of treking along the same paths/voyages
of the historical subject.
But I’ve got to admit I had a strange feeling when he re-told the
story (in the same chamber at the top of one of the Aztec pyramids)
about how Montezuma passionately tried to convince Cortes and Co.
that grabbing the heart of innocents to appease The Sun God was the
path to The Good Life.
(Sort of like Gordon Geckko explaining that Greed Is Good, Greed Works!).
And Wood told how this freaked out Cortes and Co.
As I first saw this series as a re-broadcast after 9-11...I’ve got
to admit I had more empathy with the shocked Cortes and Co. than
I might have had in the past.
It really was no different than some Islamic Jihadist trying to
convice us that rape, murder and pillaging was a pleasing thing to
his deity.
Conquistdors (with host Michael Wood)
http://www.pbs.org/conquistadors/
I have to add that this is a good (IIRC) four part series.
Anyone watching it MUST watch the final episode that nicely wraps up
how the Conquistadors “went that away” after their epic conquests.
AND the story of how a Catholic priest managed to bring some of the
abuses of the Native Americans to a close (even it was a bit too
little and too late).
De Las Casas. He got to the king of Spain —took part in a famous debate with another priest who was arguing from Aristotle’s that the indians were natural slaves. The king came down on his side and basically started reigning in the conquistadors. By and large, I think, Spanish imperial policy was more protective of the rights of the natives than either the English or the Portuguese. Basically the natives were brought under royal protection. The motive was both humanitarian and political. The king wanted to establish imperial government and so it was necessary to place the freebooters under his authority so he could gain control over the resources of the region. Don’t know if they showed this, but De Las Casas was one tough dude. When he was an old man he was treking across hundreds of miles of jungles on foot. You or I—certainly not I in my best years— could not have done this.