Survival of the fittest? - A comparison of cultural contact in New England and Middle America

Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. European settlement of New England in the 16th and 17th centuries
2.1 European incentive and its effects
2.2 Major English settlements and their interaction with the Indians
2.3 Trade and disease in 17th century New England
2.4 Cultural observations in English - Indian contact

3. Cultural contact in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire
3.1 Spanish exploration and conquest of Mexico
3.2 Various characteristics of Aztec culture
3.3 Communication and symbolism in Spanish - Aztec interaction

Epilogue

Bibliographical note

1. Introduction

The encounter between the Old and the New Worlds had many faces. This work focuses on the settling of New England by Dutch and French traders and English colonists; and the exploration and conquest of the Aztec empire by Spanish explorers.

At first sight, these two enterprises might appear to be fundamentally different, incorporating on the one hand the colonization effort of a people whose territory seemed to have become too small, and, on the other hand, the greedy extinction of a native population by so-called Conquistadors in search of unmatched wealth.

However, what both have in common is not related to their appearance, but to the way they were brought about. In the following, the extent and form of cultural contact between the respective peoples is to be described, as well as the influence it had on the success of the respective enterprise. The first part will deal with European involvement in 16th and 17th century New England, more specifically with the effects and implications of European settlement, trade, and diseases and cultural contact in general. The second part provides a short overview of the downfall of the Aztec empire as well as an analysis of Aztec culture and Spanish - Aztec interaction.

2.1 European incentive and its effects

Even after Columbus’s famous 1492 voyage, the ”New World” was not instantly overrun by adventurous Europeans ready to start a new life. In the late 15th and early 16th century, European initiative was restricted to occasional expeditions by explorers from England, France and Portugal, who, under the impact of Spain’s successes in Middle and South America, felt the need to live up to their competitors. There were also fishing crews from Europe’s Atlantic coast traveling all the way to Newfoundland’s fishing grounds. It was on occasions such as these that initial contacts were made between Europeans and native Americans. However, these small-scale contacts - of amicable as well as hostile nature - remained sporadic and were not cause for change in the cultures involved.

Not until the late 16th century did any serious change occur: it was then that French traders established a specialized fur trade with Algonquian hunters in what is today eastern Canada. It was the first lasting trade relation to exceed occasional exchange of goods, establishing a working system of seasonal trade. This event marked the beginning of more intense European - Indian contact; a relationship whose impact the natives felt most in three ways: First, the ever-growing trade relations put the natives in dependency on an economic system that was not their own and whose imponderabilities they could not control.

Second and even worse in its effect, European diseases imported by the traders resulted in devastating epidemics among the native population.

Third and over time probably most important was the settling of New England by initially mainly English farmers. Since the Indians were living horticulturally self-subsistent and were thus proving the fertility of the land, they soon drew attention of English explorers with regard to the establishment of colonies. Whereas the French and Dutch established trading outposts in the St. Lawrence river valley region, the English soon began forming colonies inhabitating men, women and children bound in family ties.

2.2 Major English settlements and their interaction with the Indians

The French and Dutch were almost exclusively out for profit, whereas the English focused on a colonizing effort and had initially no prior interest in trade, which demanded interaction with the native population. What was more important, though, was their need for land to undertake intensive agriculture.

It is no coincidence that the English were best suited for this enterprise: English capitalism was deeply rooted in the countryside, with agricultural production in more densely populated areas where people bought or leased land in order to raise cattle or crops for commercial purposes.

The resulting economic and demographic growth threatened many small farmers, rendering them incompetitive and striking them with poverty. Some were lured into indentured servitude to try and flee their poverty, others who still had the means to remain independent found the lands of New England very attractive to resettle. Such English migrants to North America came particularly from Kent and East Anglia. They were urban tradesmen and artisans who wanted to escape England’s unstable market building self-subsistent farms. During the first few English attempts to build permanent settlements, contact with the Indians was short-lived; with the colonizing crews abruptly stopping the ritual exchange of gifts and not welcoming the Indians in their fortifications. There are also reports of early English enterprises taking captives among the natives either as sources of information or to serve as interpreters. Some of the initial colonizing efforts were marred by outbreaks of violence after English restraint aroused Indian suspicions; as with Bartholomew Gosnold’s 1602 mission to Martha’s Vineyard and George Waymouth’s 1605 Kennebec colony, which was suspended after 11 settlers were killed by the Abenaki.

The Puritanist movement was very popular among small producers, so that many experienced the economic crisis in England with a sense of sin. Additionally, a lot of people felt in disaccord with the Church of England and sought its reform. In this climate the separatist movement gained momentum: their goal was to sever all ties with the Church of England and its ”polluted forms of worship”(Salisbury 171). Separatists, in contrast to ordinary Puritans, did not think the church could be a subject of reform, they felt the need to build a whole new society based on their religious ideals.

The persecution of Puritans was additional cause for critique of England’s political and moral status and created a feeling of unity among them. Combined with Puritanism’s divine justification of seeking economic independence, the utopia of a colony as religious and economic safe haven developed.

In 1620, the Mayflower expedition arrived on the shores of New England, setting up Plymouth colony, a would-be utopia for English Puritan separatists. The expedition included 30 of them, who entered into a partnership agreement with English adventurers, along with 70 others who joined them to settle in North America. The party included investors seeking fish and furs and the profit that went with them; planter families seeking new homes and wealth; but also idealists who were on a quest for religious, political and cultural self- determination. Since the leaders of the expeditions were Puritan separatists trying to establish a whole new society, the colony had officially no intent of maintaining any relationship with the Indians. But when the first harsh winter on the new continent left half of the settlers dead, and the rest was badly prepared for the upcoming spring, a change of attitude seemed necessary in order to survive. Still, the first contact resulted of Indian initiative.

Until March 1621, the Pokanoket, a native band in the region, had kept their distance but then decided that an alliance with Plymouth colony would improve their situation towards the powerful Narragansett. Samoset, an Abenaki, and Squanto, a captive, were among the Pokanoket as the only ones experienced in trading with Europeans. With their help, the Pokanoket and Plymouth colony signed a treaty of mutually assured assistance in case of attack by a third party. It included further reciprocal regulations such as disarmament during meetings, but also unilateral ”anti - Indian” clauses: natives suspected of assaulting English settlers were to be turned over for punishment, whereas no Englishmen were to stand in trial before the natives for any crime committed. The settlers violated this agreement on a regular basis, especially the disarmament clause. To them, it was evident that with this treaty Massasoit, the Pokanoket sachem

”’acknowledged himself content to become the Subject of our Souveraign lord the King aforesaid, His Heirs and Successors; and gave unto them all the Lands adjacent, to them and their Heirs forever’.” (Nathaniel Morton, New Englands Memoriall (1669), ed. Howard J. Hall (New York, 1937), 24. In: Salisbury 115)

This interpretation shows that the English were not interested in a partnership among equals, but rather intent on establishing political control over the natives in a treaty. To the Pokanoket, this treaty had not the same degree of significance, since they were used to maintaining political relationships through the ritual exchange of gifts and speeches.

However, for the next three years, Plymouth colony was helplessly dependent on the Pokanoket’s corn supplies. Sometimes even pressuring the natives for corn, it became clear that the Puritans regarded the relationship as one between political units, i.e. between the respective leaders, not between two peoples. For fear of their political, cultural and psychic unity being disturbed or undermined through contact with the Indians, the Puritans added social segregation to political subordination. Thus, contact between the two was restricted to trade relations.

Contact of a similar kind was set up with the Abenaki. Having developed into specialized hunters because of the French fur trade, the Abenaki were soon in need of an outside source for food supply to get them through the winter. In the 1620s, Plymouth colony adapted well enough to their new environment that they were able to grow corn themselves, and, as soon as surpluses were created, they engaged in a furs-for-corn trade with the Abenaki.

Massachusetts Bay colony was another result of the Puritan movement, but settlers here differed in their attitude towards the Indians. They not only bought land from the natives, they also thought that, if they kept up their Puritan principles of deity, decency and hard work, over time, they could convert the Indians, since they would assimilate to the settlers’ good behavior. Consequently, Pawtucket and Massachusett bands welcomed the settlers as protectors from the Micmacs.

Meanwhile, consequences of the Englishmen’s arrival were also felt in relationships among the various native bands. The Narragansett, who were not struck by the epidemic in the late 1610s (see 2.3), became the most influential band around Narragansett Bay; also because of associations with three other bands in the region. As a consequence, relations among natives were not between equals anymore. The ritualized exchange of goods, which used to signal respect and equality, was now used by more powerful bands to make disadvantaged bands pay tribute to them, either in order to establish further trade relations or to ensure protection against enemies; even hunting rights were sold in that manner.

2.3 Trade and disease in 17th century New England

New England trade relations in the late 16th century were mostly friendly encounters. There are reports of kidnapped natives, but those seem to be exceptions compared to the overall situation. Generally, Indians greeted the visitors cordially and were eager to engage in trade relations, since they benefited from utilitarian items such as knives, hooks and other metal goods, which were also used as weapons. These were to become increasingly important as various native bands competed with each other for their stake in the fur trade, which evolved into a matter of survival.

European trade of course affected all native bands, but to some, it meant a more fundamental change in their way of living than to others: the Micmac, for example, profited from French arms and tool supply in exchange for their beaver pelts and, over time, completely gave up manufacture of their own tools. A couple of generations later they even suspended subsistence-farming, their typical way of living for centuries before the Europeans came.

Devoting themselves completely to hunting, they became utterly dependent on the French fur trade.

With time, self-subsistent bands, who originally only engaged in a ritual exchange of goods meant to symbolize friendship between peoples, transformed into groups of specialized production who engaged in trade relations with Europeans and other bands for commercial purposes: Abenaki hunters traded European goods, which they had received in exchange for their furs, for southern farmers’ corn. Thus, colonial influence was gaining significance in an ever-growing web of trading activities.

Native bands became so entangled in these trade relations that they played a role in many cases of warfare. In a violent dispute between the Micmac and the Abenaki in 1606, the former stood their ground because of the superior French weapons they used. Mohawks started violent raids against the Montagnais and other bands along the St. Lawrence valley in order to gain access to European traders. The French - Micmac alliance successfully defended themselves against the Mohawk aggressors, who then turned southward towards Dutch traders on the Hudson river.

Though not one of their primary objectives, the French also undertook missionary activities, as mentioned by Neal Salisbury in Port Royal around 1610. It was another means for the French to exert political control over their Indian allies and trading partners and it meant better funding by the French crown, once successes in spreading Christian belief and loyalty to the French king could be reported.

Christian baptism meant quite a shift in native religious culture and was often accompanied by a transformation of their burial customs: once Jesuit missionaries had baptized a native group, they banned all sacrifices, dances and death - songs for the dead. For the Indians, baptism was a way to seal their bond with the French, to ensure a relationship between equals, even though it meant altering their habits.

The impact of the diseases the European traders brought to New England reached catastrophic dimensions in the 1600s. Between 1616 and 1618 the first smallpox epidemic struck the native population. Neal Salisbury provides a comparison of reports by various contemporary English writers, such as Samuel de Champlain, John Smith and Thomas Morton and Thomas Dermer two decades later (on the second smallpox epidemic), which illustrates how the population decreased along the coastline. Villages of hundreds and thousands were reduced to two or three families, due to a ”virgin soil epidemic” (Salisbury 102), meaning the introduction of a foreign disease into a population that is not prepared and thus defenseless. Historians have proposed population declines of up to 90 percent because of the epidemic.

It not only weakened Native resistance to English colonizing efforts - simply by numerically reducing the Indians - but also had an important effect on Indian politics: bands that were numerically reduced were more vulnerable to raids by other bands who were not struck by the epidemic. The Pawtucket, Massachusett and Pokanoket were now weaker than the Micmac and Narragansett, who widened their sphere of influence after the epidemic. Bands were forced to leave their home territory and resettle elsewhere, whole villages vanished or were abandoned. Their being rendered totally helpless and their ritual medicine not having any effect made some natives also lose their supernatural bonds. Moreover, ritual medicine even contributed to further spreading the disease since it included family and friends staying in the sick person’s wigwam. Thus, along with the epidemic came a plight in spiritual terms.

The wampum revolution further strengthened the Narragansett’s position. Wampum were hand-crafted strings made of wampum shells, which were considered sacred, precious objects worn only by religious and political leaders.

This changed after a Dutch trader kidnapped a Pequot sachem in 1622 and, after demanding a ransom, was given a large amount of wampum. This incident indicated to the New England traders how much the Indians valued wampum and, consequently, it developed into one of the most important trading goods.

As with furs on the interior, wampum had a likewise effect on native bands on the coastline: in that region, shells were abundant, so that during winter, bands like the Narragansett were specializing on the production of wampum,

”... modifying their seasonal cycle to engage in specialized production for a market whose needs were determined by non-natives and non-native values. The suddenly escalated pressure for wampum, and the fact that it was a natural ressource unevenly distributed among native bands, undermined the traditional structure of inter-group reciprocity.” (Salisbury 149)

A circular wampum trade evolved, beginning with the Pequot and Narragansett producers who traded it to the Dutch. From there it went on to Plymouth colony, who traded it to the Abenaki in the north. Thus, wampum spread throughout New England and, under European influence, developed from a sacred object deemed with spiritual powers into a good of mass consumption.

In 1633 another devastating smallpox epidemic struck the native population, and it was Massachusetts Bay colony who profited greatly from the Indians’ demise, accumulating great land gains. Facing virtually no resistance to its expansion, the colony grew from a population of 4,000 in 1634 to 11,000 by 1638 (Salisbury 216). As with the epidemic of 1616-1618, scattered bands were subordinated and forced into tribute paying, but this time it was the growing colonies, both Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, who thus received land grants and protection payments.

But when the colonists strove into Connecticut valley, they met resistance by the Pequot. Over a series of quarrels and hostilities the Pequot War erupted in 1636. This was the first major violent encounter between settlers and natives, and after the Mystic River village massacre (1637), where hundreds of men, women and children were slaughtered, the Pequot nation was rendered non-existent. Puritan writers quickly stated their case, finding comparisons to the Old Testament: the colonists drove the barbarian Pequot from their land just as the Israelites drove the Canaanites from the Promised Land. This, of course, was an important message to the settlers, who now considered themselves to be the chosen people whose efforts were backed by godly justification.

2.4 Cultural observations in English - Indian contact

Apart from the separatists who were shying away from extensive contact with the Indians, there were more than enough explorers and settlers away from the big colonies providing England with detailed descriptions of the new world. The great number of reports on Indian appearance and life-styles prove that not only were the English eager to acquaint themselves with knowledge of their neighbors but also that their was an interest in England to be fed. Historian Karen O. Kupperman observes that in the encounter between Indians and English, the most important fact shaping the settlers’ image of the native is status. Easily transferred from English society where people’s dress indicated their social background, the colonists used status in dealing with the Indians, seeing them as lowly laborers who were easily made subject to exploitation.

It was not primarily character traits, but ”determiners and maintainers of status” (Kupperman 35) such as dress, hair styles, tattoos and jewelry that were reported in observations. When describing them as naked, writers referred to what little clothing Indians wore (they were not literally without clothes), but also conveyed an image of unprotectedness or defenselessness. This created the belief that natives were easy to overcome and that New England could easily be settled. Furthermore, trade with Indians in English cloth seemed profitable. Writers moreover observed that the Indians categorized and set themselves apart from each other through their clothing. Thus, indicating their status was interpreted as an important sign of civility.

The image of the savage, brute Indian was created by Englishmen who never set foot on American soil, such as people in the companies sponsoring the colonization efforts. On the other hand, eyewitness writers were very enthusiastically describing Indian culture and society, and hardly ever came to the conclusion that they were brutes or savages. Almost all of them were convinced that Indians lived in a civil society, since all requirements were met:

they had a sophisticated language, were living in organized villages and towns and their government was determined by a hereditary hierarchy.

There are reports dealing with Indian personality and, interestingly enough, there is widespread agreement among the writers on native character traits.

”They were a cheerful people, sharing what they possessed with each other, and they were especially loving parents. They regarded churlishness as one of the greatest crimes. They were often said to be trustworthy. Above all, they were dignified and courteous; their chief men were grave and wise Agreement on the praiseworthy traits of the Indians was virtually universal, the same ones appearing in most writers and throughout the period.” (Kupperman 120/121)

Of course they also speak of negative qualities, the most prominent of which would be treachery, thievery and sexual promiscuity. The men were often called lazy, since they restricted themselves to hunting and all the other important work in the village was left to the women.

With the Indians being the most important source of information on geography and natural resources, some settlers tried to learn the Algonquian tongue, an enterprise which, however, was generally considered too hard to undertake.

The Indians’ perception of the English was one of them being ”’Demy-Gods’”(Kupperman 111). They attributed a semi-magical status to them, for they were not harmed by the diseases that raged among themselves. The Indians also reasoned that the English must be especially loved of God, a notion that was strengthened by the scientific equipment which the settlers carried, such as magnifying glasses, spring clocks etc. As well reported by writers was that Indians interpreted the epidemic as a manifestation of the powerful English god, a belief that was partly encouraged by settlers who tried to take advantage of the situation. In the same way that the English left the Indians in awe, the reported magical capabilities of Indian priests and medicine men were a matter of concern for the colonists. Apart from curing sick or injured people and predicting the future, the so-called ”powahs” (Kupperman 116) also performed magical tricks. The impact they had on the English becomes apparent upon comparing reports on Indian medicine, which hardly ever mentioned the use of herbal medicine, but rather the ”magical charms and incantations” (Kupperman 117) performed by the powahs. Some writers concluded that these powahs were worshipping Satan or at least conjuring him to make use of his powers, which is why they are also referred to as ”witches”(Kupperman 116).

”The Indians were exploited, not because they were seen as so alien or inferior that they did not fit into any English categories, but because they fitted only too well into the mass of people at the bottom of society whose role it was to serve others.” (Kupperman 140)

3.1 Spanish exploration and conquest of Mexico

Hernán Cortés’s expedition to Mexico is the third of its kind. Before him, Hernandez de Córdoba and Juan de Grijalva already set foot on Mexican soil. What originally was common to all three of them was their primary objective in coming to Middle America: the three of them set out to accumulate as much as gold as possible, without staying longer than necessary. The native population, be it Aztecs or Mayas, was initially of no interest. In the first encounters, Spaniards did not bother to establish relationships or leave the Aztecs with a favorable impression; which becomes apparent in the report of a chronicler of de Grijalva’s expedition:

”Many Indians were running along the shore with two banners which they raised and lowered, signaling us to approach; but the captain did not wish to The Indians sent one of the canoes ahead, to find out what we wanted. The interpreter told them we were looking for gold The captain told them we did not want anything but gold.”(Juan Díaz ”Itinerario...” In J. García Icazbalceta, Colecci ó n de documentos para la historia de Mexico, vol.1. Mexico, 1858, pp. 281-308, English translation: P. de Fuentes, The Conquistadors. New York: Orion, 1963. In: Todorov 98)

This one-dimensional course of action changed only when Cortés stepped onto the scene. As Todorov puts it, he is the first of the conquistadors ”to have a political and even a historical consciousness of his actions”(Todorov 99). Initially, Cortés departed with the same solitary incentive that his predecessors had, but when he arrived in Mexico, his goal turned into a far more ambitious enterprise. Apart from finding gold, he decided to subjugate the Aztec empire of Montezuma in the name of God. Here, the unusual attention he therein paid to the importance of interaction with the Aztecs is at the center of interest.

Cortés’s expedition, consisting of several hundred men, landed on the Mexican coast in 1519. On his progress toward the interior, he attempted to win over to his cause various parts of the native population, most notably the Tlaxcaltecs, who would become his best allies. Cortés’s sponsor, the Cuban governor, suspended his support and sent a raiding party in order to stop Cortés and make him return. Meanwhile, the latter was cordially received in Tenoxtitlán (today’s Mexico City) and took Montezuma prisoner. After having learned of the raiding party’s arrival, he left the city to fight them, accompanied by some of his forces. On his return, heavy warfare between Spaniards and Aztecs had broken out, caused by the slaughter of a number of Aztecs at the hands of the Spaniards. In the course of the ensuing battle, Montezuma died and the Spanish forces fled from the city, suffering heavy losses. With the help of the Tlaxcaltecs, Cortés reorganized his army and besieged the city for several months. When Tenoxtitlán finally fell for good, the conquest had lasted for about two years.

How was Cortés’s army of just about several hundred men able to subjugate a empire of several hundred thousand people in such a short amount of time?

The typically mentioned reasons for the victory are quickly named:

First, Montezuma offered Cortés virtually no resistance. Until his death, the Aztec sovereign acted hesitantly, seemed undecided in his demeanour.

Also undermining Aztec resistance to the conquest were internal dissensions among the various populations in the empire. The Aztecs themselves were a people of conquerors, they subjugated other tribes, like the Tlaxcaltecs, and imposed heavy taxes on them. Under these circumstances, it was not too hard for Cortés to find allies willing to assist him in his enterprise, since they often perceived him as a lesser evil.

Then, of course, with regard to weapons, the Spaniards were head and shoulders above the Aztecs. There are reports of the Indians falling to the ground in dread just at the sight of a cannon being fired.

As with the settlers in North America, a smallpox epidemic introduced by the Spaniards decimated the Aztec army.

Apart from these rather obvious reasons, there is a more subtle one, related to Cortés’s understanding of the workings of the Aztec society and culture and how he took advantage of his knowledge.

3.2 Various characteristics of Aztec culture

The significance which gathering information held for Cortés becomes apparent in his first steps after arriving in Mexico. He immediately searched for an interpreter, and found two, Geronimo de Aguilar and La Malinche, without whose help the conquest would not have been possible. From them, Cortés learned about every aspect of native culture and about the internal dissensions which he used to his benefit.

A great part of Aztec culture lied within the interpretation of messages and various kinds of divination. The most important kind of divination consisted of omens. Every event not in accordance with the regular, ”predictable” order was interpreted as announcing another event, which was expected to be an unlucky one. Everything out of the ordinary was thus considered not to be of good nature, be it a prisoner becoming depressed, a certain dream or a mouse running through the temple. They relied on soothsaying divination in every aspect of life, so that nothing in their world occured randomly. Todorov writes that ”only what has already been Word can become Act”(Todorov 66). In fact, Aztec history was nothing else than a line-up of realizations of previous prophecies.

The Aztec society appears as an overstructured one: the individual, ”oppressed” by the community, had to subordinate to the common good, come what may. There were so many rules and regulations to obey - resulting of the omens and auguries - that a person’s life was hardly the result of a free will, but rather the realization of a preordained order. As a consequence, the Aztecs only very rarely attempted to resist their fate, or what was said to be their fate. Even the religious calendar, consisting of 13 months of 20 days each, had an effect in this respect. Each day had its own unique character, good or bad, which was ascribed to actions or persons. A person’s birthday thus had important significance towards her fate. For Cortés, this meant that once he could convince Montezuma of the conquest being part of the Aztecs fate, it was not very difficult to break his resistance.

Accordingly, instead of perceiving the Spaniards’ arrival as a coincidence, as something unique and unprecedented, the Aztecs tried to find omens and signs which predicted their arrival. This is the only way they know to handle the situation, since it somehow has to fit into their system of already existing beliefs; otherwise, it would be rendered invalid. But it is also Aztec history that works in Cortés’s favor.

To a great degree, Cortés achieved his goal by exploiting a traditional Aztec myth: the return of Quetzalcoatl.

”According to Indian accounts from before the conquest, Quetzalcoatl is a figure at once historical (a leader) and legendary (a divinity). At a given moment, he is forced to leave his kingdom and flee to the east (toward the Atlantic); he vanishes but, according to certain versions of the myth, he promises (or threatens) to return some day to reclaim his own.”(Todorov 117)

Now, to make sense of the Spaniards’ sudden appearance, Montezuma, in tradition of his culture of omens and auguries, identified Cortés as Quetzalcoatl, returning to fulfill his promise. However, he did so because Cortés did everything he could to convince Montezuma; for he knew that, to the Indians, this would legitimize his existence. Otherwise, his coming would seem unreasonable; like this, Cortés’s exploitation of the myth explains Montezuma’s hesitance and lack of resistance.

Another important fact is the Aztecs’ conception of time. Not only the days form cycles, creating the religious year (260 days) and the astronomical year (365 days), the years themselves form cycles, too, indicating that the Aztec calendar was based on the concept that time repeats itself in cycles of roughly 20 years. There were differences within one cycle, but the cycles themselves were thought to be identical. Consequently, the Aztecs expected that knowledge of history enabled them to foretell the future, for time repeated itself, and past and future thus became the same thing. Therefore, an unprecedented event like the Spaniards’ arrival could not fit into the Aztecs’ conception of time, since they had never heard of anything similar before; or, put plain and simple, they could not understand it, because it had never happened before. Unable to find a reasonable explanation, they were left in confusion. Todorov puts it this way:

”From this collision between a ritual world and a unique event results Montezuma’s incapacity to produce appropriate and effective messages. Masters in the art of ritual discourse, the Indians are inadequate in a situation requiring improvisation, and this is precisely the situation of the conquest.”(Todorov 87)

3.3 Communication and symbolism in Spanish - Aztec interaction

What Todorov calls the art of ritual discourse is one of two different sorts of communication.

He writes that the Aztecs chiefly engaged in the communication between man and the world, whereas the Spaniards regarded communication, as usual, as an interhuman affair. For the Aztecs, language itself remained chiefly part of man’s exchange with the social group, the natural world and the religious universe. Since man is important as an object of discourse rather than its recipient - which would be their gods - it is not surprising that they failed in interhuman communication during the encounter with the Spaniards. Trying to convince Cortés to leave, Montezuma gave him more and more gold, not realizing that there was no better way to achieve the exact opposite of what he wanted.

Their neglect of interhuman communication also strengthened their belief in the Spaniards being gods, for, otherwise, they would not have found them to be very godlike. Of course, Cortés himself was not unaware of the Aztecs’ weakness in this respect; as, for him, ”...speech is more a means of manipulating the Other than it is a faithful reflection of the world,...” (Todorov 118)

In his actions, Cortés relied on the power of symbolism to convey an image of invulnerability to the Aztecs. Once he realized what effect his cannons had on the terrified Indians, he used them not in order to destroy them, but to avoid further combat by quickly forcing them into subjugation. During the first battles, he made sure to destroy the Aztecs’ religious idols, exemplifying the universalist nature of Christianity.

In contrast to Aztec religion, which knew various divinities, or rather personifications of the Aztec god’s manifestations and relations with the natural world, Christian religion knows just the one and only God there is. It does not leave room for other gods, and since ”intransigence has always defeated tolerance” (Todorov 106), this matter also contributed to Cortés’s victory.

On the other hand, he did not hesitate to punish soldiers who stole from the Indians, making a favorable impression. The ambivalent image created by both negative as well as positive experiences further added to Montezuma’s confusion.

In the end, ”the encounter of Montezuma with Cortés, of the Indians with the Spaniards, is first of all a human encounter; and we cannot be surprised that the specialists in human communication should triumph in it.” (Todorov 97)

Epilogue

With the arrival of European explorers - be it Conquistadors or Puritans - in the Americas, the fate of the respective native population was sealed. In the encounter between two peoples, it seems, it was only a matter of time until the stronger or well-developed one replaced the other. Only the way in which this result was induced and the amount of time it took varied; two factors which were heavily influenced by the forms of cultural contact undertaken in the two preceding encounters.

Native Americans in New England found themselves almost ”accidently” entangled in trade relationships, which over the decades drastically changed their political landscape and, combined with the impact of ravaging epidemics, caused their decline. The settlers’ approach towards their culture, however, was out of genuine interest in a foreign people, which had to give way to the ever-growing demand of a more civilized people. Yet, the Spanish conquest of Mexico showed a different kind of cultural contact: here, knowledge of a people’s cultural habits was gathered in order to take advantage of its deficiencies, accelerating its demise. Without his detailed knowledge, Cortés could not have accomplished the conquest in such a short amount of time.

The difference between the two is thus a difference in motives, but their effect is nevertheless the same.

Of further interest might be an in-depth comparison of the perceptions of the European explorers, since the reference to god-like appearances emerged in both connections.

Bibliographical note

Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. Settling with the Indians - The meeting of English and Indian cultures in America, 1580 - 1640. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1980.

Michels - Schwarz, Eva und Uwe Schwarz (Hrsg.). Die Ankunft der wei ß en G ö tter: Dokumente und fr ü he Berichte der gro ß en Eroberer von Nordamerika bis Peru. Stuttgart; Wien: Edition Erdmann, 1992.

Salisbury, Neal. Manitou and Providence - Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500 - 1643. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Todorov, Tzvetan. The Conquest of America - The Question of the Other. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1984.