Bernal Diaz Del Castillo

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The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, Volume 1

The Conquest of New Spain is the first-person narrative of Bernal D�az del Castillo (1492-1581), the 16th-century military adventurer, conquistador, and colonist settler, who served in three Mexican expeditions; those of Francisco Hern�ndez de C�rdoba (1517) to the Yucat�n peninsula; the expedition of Juan de Grijalva (1518), and the expedition of Hern�n Cort�s (1517) in the Valley of Mexico; the history relates his participation in the fall of Emperor Moctezuma II, and the subsequent defeat of the Aztec empire. In the colonial history of Latin America, The Conquest of New Spain is a vivid, military account that establishes Bernal D�az del Castillo "among chroniclers what Daniel Defoe is among novelists". Late in life, when D�az del Castillo was eighty-four years old, and residing in his encomienda estates in Guatemala, he wrote The True History of the Conquest of New Spain to defend the story of the common-soldier conquistador within the histories about the Spanish conquest of Mexico. He presents his narrative as an alternative to the critical writings of Fr. Bartolom� de Las Casas, whose Indian-native histories emphasized the cruelty of the conquest; and the histories of the hagiographic biographers of Hern�n Cort�s - specifically that of Francisco L�pez de G�mara, whom he believed minimized the role of the 700 enlisted soldiers who were instrumental to conquering the Aztec empire. That said historians and hagiographers speak the truth "neither in the beginning, nor the middle, nor the end", is why D�az del Castillo strongly defended the actions of the conquistadors, whilst emphasising their humanity and honesty in his eyewitness narrative, which he summarised as: "We went there to serve God, and also to get rich". The history is occasionally uncharitable about Captain Cort�s, because, like other professional soldiers who participated in the Conquest of New Spain, D�az del Castillo found himself among the ruins of Tenochtitl�n only slightly wealthier than when he arrived to Mexico; a financial state common to many soldiers, who accused Cort�s of taking more loot than his agreed fifth of the Aztec treasury. Certainly, the land and gold compensation paid to many of the conquistadores proved a poor return for their investment of months of soldiering and fighting across Mexico and the Anahuac Valley. Another interpretation of The Conquest of New Spain proposes that the author was one of several family relatives of Diego Vel�zquez de Cu�llar, the governor of Cuba, and mortal enemy of Cort�s; many of whom later plotted against the conquistador Captain. Although the narrative thrust diminishes the Cort�s-D�az del Castillo relationship, contrary to the factual record, his complex relationship with Cort�s, and the sub-ordinate captains, suggests that, although he represented the faction of Governor Vel�zquez de Cu�llar in the expedition, Bernal D�az del Castillo fully honoured his personal and military loyalty to Hern�n Cort�s.

Bernal Diaz Del Castillo

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