Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest (review)

Matthew Restall has written a serious and important book, but one that is also delightful as it addresses issues about the Spanish conquest that have long intrigued scholars. Each of the book's seven chapters addresses a specific myth of the conquest, namely, the myth of exceptional men, of the king's army, of the white conquistador, of completion, of (mis)communication, of native desolation, and of superiority. The individual chapters contrast false and accurate versions of the conquest and discuss how and why the myths developed.

Columbus, Cortés, and Pizarro have been viewed as the three most exceptional men of the conquests. Their actions have been portrayed as unique, but such can only be maintained by ignoring the periods that precede their ventures. In minor conquests in northern Africa and the nearby islands and in the Caribbean Islands, Spaniards had developed a set of expectations and standard procedures in combat against native populations, gaining indigenous allies being one of their most common tactics. When Cortés and Pizarro did the same to great success, writers ignored their predecessors and attributed all successive use of the tactic to their examples.

The men who joined the expeditions were not soldiers. Few had any previous military experience in the Old World. The members signed on for shares of any possible gains. Many were young merchants, notaries, artisans, and urban workers. They also always included some blacks, commonly thoroughly acculturated, and members of other European societies. (Greeks were assumed to be skilledartillerymen.) Neither did the expeditions constitute armies, as they had no ranks, training, salaries, or formal discipline.

Spanish expeditions benefited greatly from native allies. The many peoples who joined with the Spaniards did so primarily for their own political reasons, especially to become as autonomous as possible through their support. Often these allies far outnumbered the members of the Spanish expeditions they accompanied. They provided food, rescued beleaguered Spaniards, served as spies, and cleaned up the battlefield once an engagement had ended. Their action in combat and decisiveness in campaigns are, I feel, somewhat overrated. Indian allies were typically present at battles, but more as support personnel than warriors. After all, they fought in a manner similar to the Aztecs and Incas, and the Spanish held their weapons and tactics in low regard.

By the end of the sixteenth century, most areas of Spanish America occupied by Spaniards were still only tentatively held by them, and vast regions, especially of northern Mexico and the interior of South America, remained largely unoccupied by Europeans. Nonetheless, Spanish writers of the time persistently portrayed the Americas as fully conquered. They considered the conquest as complete and the Spanish victory as inevitable.

Virtually every Spanish expedition sought a native translator to help them communicate with the peoples they encountered. The most storied example is Doña Marina or La Malinche, Cortés's translator, advisor, and later his mistress. Some leaders went so far as to kidnap natives and take them back into Spanish-held territory for training in Spanish. But, overall, accurate translation between the two sides did not prevail, and their engagements were more typified by miscommunication and cultural misunderstanding.

Restall devotes a chapter to the myth that he terms "native desolation." This embraces such concepts as the Indians believing the Spaniards were gods and the natives becoming increasingly culturally passive due to depopulation and an overwhelming sense of defeat. In fact, the early writings about the conquests by both Indians and Spaniards do not refer to the invaders as "gods." Even the Spanish leaders commonly depicted themselves as envoys of a powerful leader across the ocean. And as Restall states: "To be sure native peoples in sixteenth-century Spanish America faced epidemics of lethal disease and onerous colonial demands. But they did not sink into depression and inactivity because of the Conquest. Instead they tenaciously sought ways to continue local ways of life and improve the quality...