Heroic adventurers in the 16th century, the conquistadors became actors in a gory epic, a symbol of cruelty and exploitation. Beyond the Manichaeisms and anachronisms, what was the mentality of these men, but also the commitment and the outcome of a conquest that, from certain aspects, can be seen as the origin of globalization?
This article is adapted from Figaro Histoire “The Epic of the Conquistadors”. In this issue you will find a special file about the conquest of the New World.
The Epic of Conquerors. Le Figaro story.
Fernando Cervantes is a specialist in the intellectual and religious history of modern Spain and Hispanic America. He teaches at the University of Bristol in the UK.
How was the conquest organized?
In reality, there is nothing resembling a “Conquest Organization”. What can be observed in contemporary sources is the gradual emergence of awareness among Europeans that with the discovery of the Americas they were confronted with something radically new, which required particular forms of organization, which in turn would have to be adapted to changing circumstances and needs.
It was only after Christopher Columbus reached some islands of the Bahamas in October 1492 – an event that led to fascinating discoveries in the Caribbean, including Cuba and Haiti (renamed Fernandina and Hispaniola) – that Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon began to think in terms of, what we call ‘conquest’, but which in their minds has always been understood as ‘establishment and evangelization’. On the return from this first voyage of the Genoese, very underfunded and mainly private, royal support therefore began to show itself in earnest. Hadn’t Columbus brought evidence that gold, pearls and spices had been found there, as well as genuine novelties such as pineapples, peppers, hammocks and a group of “Indians” so named on purpose by the man who believed he had reached India ?
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First impressions of what would later be called “America” were inevitably steeped in an Asian context: indeed, right up to his death in 1506, Columbus remained convinced that what he had “discovered” was in Asia and that Cuba was a peninsula of China. Thanks to royal support, European explorers and settlers could soon make contact with the Christian population of this continent, which was well known in the European imagination since the first expeditions of Franciscan and Dominican friars to Mongolia in the 13th century. These, in turn, had fueled the legends about the Christians of the East – chief among them that of the priest John – who wanted to help Crusader Europe in its quest to reclaim the Holy Land for Christianity.
In this undeniable medieval spirit, therefore, the first contacts with the newly discovered lands were conceived and organized. It was assumed that its residents had either been evangelized in the past – and therefore needed only a reminder of their true origins – or were willing to accept their integration into Christianity in order to contribute to the conversion of non-Christians, Christians and those desiring to conquer Jerusalem . From the very beginning, they were therefore considered full-fledged vassals of the Catholic monarchs and, above all, free individuals. The idea of a “conquest” arose much later: when Hernán Cortés, in a clear act of disobedience to his immediate superior, Diego Velázquez, governor of Cuba, defeated the Mexican (or Aztec) empire of central Mexico in 1521, thereby establishing the New World as the amazing novelty was seen for what it really was.
What profile did the conquistadors have?
The profile of the first explorers and settlers can only be explained in the context of the final years of the Reconquista, the movement of progressive reclamation of lands under Islamic occupation since the 8th century, culminating in the final surrender of the last Islamic enclave to Spain, the kingdom Granada, January 1492. Near Granada, the city of Santa Fe was hastily built by Isabella and Ferdinand in the days before the fall of the Islamic kingdom. There is a church…
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