Christopher Columbus and Hernan Cortes

Christopher Columbus and Hernan Cortes are two Spanish explorers that sailed the oceans in the effort to find new ideas and new land. However most of all they were curious. When they explored the New World they encountered Native Americans from Mexico and the Caribbeans. These people were way different then they were used to. They most likely thought that these people were not their equal and probably did not respect them at all. Christopher Columbus wrote very explicitly and very detailed in his Journal. Cortes wrote the same kind of way in his letter to Charles V. In their writings they talked about the Natives but the focused on different things. Columbus focused on how the people looked, trade, and religion. Cortes mainly focused on architecture. He seemed fascinated by their buildings. However plenty interesting things came from these writings.

The Native Americans greeted the newly arrived Spanish in a very friendly fashion. They were not warlike at all. Columbus and his crew first presented them with gifts like strings of beads and red caps. This was most likely a way Columbus and his crew show that they come in peace. After giving them gifts the Native Americans were pleased, they became attached to them and brought "parrots, balls of cotton thread, javelins, and many other things which they exchanged for articles we gave them, such as glass beads, and hawk's bells; which trade was carried on with the utmost good will" (Columbus, Journal).The items Columbus and his crew had were so desired that the natives would actually find anything they could on their island and try to barter with it. Columbus complements their body structure and their face but despises other details about their look. In his Journal he says "But they seemed on the whole to me, to be a very poor people. They all go completely naked, even the women, though I saw but one girl" (Columbus, Journal). He didn't like what they put on their bodies either. "Some paint themselves with black, which makes them appear like those of the Canaries, neither black nor white; others with white, others with red, and others with such colors as they can find. Some paint the face, and some the whole body; others only the eyes, and others the nose" (Columbus, Journal). However on one island Carribean Columbus says the inhabitants of the island Fernandina seemed more civilized than the other. "These people are similar to those of the islands just mentioned, and have the same language and customs; with the exception that they appear somewhat more civilized, showing themselves more subtle in their dealings with us, bartering their cotton and other articles with more profit than the others had experienced" (Columbus, Journal). There is no evidence of animosity however I'm sure there was some when Columbus decided to hold some natives captive.

In terms of architecture Columbus and Cortes complemented their housing. Columbus wrote "Those who went for water informed me that they had entered their houses and found them very clean and neat, with beds and coverings of cotton nets"(Columbus, Journal). He said that their houses were made in the shape of tents and that no villages contained more than 15 of them.Cortes wrote that in Mexico, "magnificent houses; which may be accounted for from the fact, that all the nobility of the country, who are the vassals of Moctezuma, have houses in the city, in which they reside a certain part of the year; and besides, there are numerous wealthy citizens who also possess fine houses" (Cortes, Letter). The inhabitants of Mexico who Cortes explored seemed more sophisticated than the ones Columbus encountered. They made civil decisions. He wrote, "There is a building in the great square that is used as an audience house, where ten or twelve persons, who are magistrates, sit and decide all controversies that arise in the market, and order delinquents to be punished" (Cortes, Letter).They had market squares where things where goods were bought and sold. In the letter Hernan Cortes wrote to Charles V he compares the cities he sees in Mexico to the ones in his country. Mexican architecture far surpasses the Caribbean architecture. "There is one square twice as large as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where are daily assembled more than sixty thousand souls, engaged in buying and selling; and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the world affords, embracing the necessaries of life, as for instance articles of food, as well as jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails, and feathers" (Cortes, Letter). The Mexicans used spears as weapons which were no match for the firearms and longbows of the Spaniards. In the Caribbean's Columbus wrote, "They have none, nor are acquainted with them, for I showed them swords which they grasped by the blades, and cut themselves through ignorance. They have no iron, their javelins being without it, and nothing more than sticks, though some have fish-bones or other things at the ends" (Columbus, Journal). This showed that their technology was not very advanced.

Religion was a big deal. Spaniards seemed obsessed with wanting to convert everybody to Christianity. Columbus saw no evidence of religion. So he did want to go as far as to convert them Christians. He thought they could be more easily converted with gentle means more than with force. "I thought then, and still believe, that these were from the continent. It appears to me, that the people are ingenious, and would be good servants and I am of opinion that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion" (Columbus, Journal). However later in Columbus's journal he writes, "Presently we discovered two or three villages, and the people all came down to the shore, calling out to us, and giving thanks to God" (Columbus, Journal). They thought Columbus and his men were sent from heaven. Cortes wrote that the Mexican inhabitants had temples and that they thought there was a God. He wrote "they must learn there was but one God, the universal lord of all, who had created the heavens and earth, and all things else, and had made them and us; that He was without beginning and immortal, and they were bound to adore and believe Him, and no other creature or thing" (Columbus, Journal). They believed in God but probably were not specifically Christian as they wanted natives to be.