HIST 121 WSU Primary Source Essay
Primary Source Essay 1:
The Broken Spears and Hernan Cortés’s Letters to Charles V of Spain
Due Date: January 29, 2024, in class. Assignments not turned in during the class period will be considered late.
Description:
Over the last three weeks, we have been spending time reading from the Nahuatl language accounts of the encounters between Hernan Cortés and his Spanish soldiers and the Mexica people and subsequent conquest of Tenochtitlan. In this assignment, you will compare and contrast the ways in which moments of the encounter and subsequent conquest were described by the different groups involved. The purpose of this assignment is for students to begin working with primary sources to form a scholarly argument about the past.
Directions: In three to four pages, answer the following question. How do the Nahuatl sources and the Spanish sources represent and discuss the encounter between the Mexicas and the Spanish? How do their representations compare to one another? Both the Broken Spears and Cortés letters have been broken down into vignettes. Please select between one and three of these vignettes and in a formal essay compare and contrast how they represent the encounter and or the subsequent conquest. Your essay should be formatted like a proper historical essay with an introduction, thesis statement, body paragraphs that use primary source evidence to support the thesis, and a conclusion. All sources must be cited in Chicago Manual of Style Footnotes and the paper must include a bibliography that includes all of the sources used. You are not required to bring in outside research, but you are more than welcome to use the textbook to support your argument.
Formatting:
Time New Roman, 12 pt font, double spaced. Footnotes should be single spaced. Please include page numbers on your essay, and all essays should be printed and stapled before turning them in.
* A list of Hernan Cortés letters as well as link to the letters is available on the reverse side of this page.
Link to Hernan Cortés’s Letters to Charles V of Spain:
List of Letters and Corresponding Events:
Letter 1:
Part 1: Cortés describes the Country.
Part 2: The Spaniards Describe Indigenous Religion
Letter 2:
38-39: Cortés Defends His Expedition
48-49: Cortés Receives Gold from Caciques
63-64: Moctezuma sends Gold to the Spaniards
58-59: Cortés Meets Xicotencatl, Tlaxcala Chief
64: Cortés Thrilled to Learn of Divisions and Conflicts in Mexico
64-66: Tlaxcalans Urge Cortés to Visit Cholula
68-69: Cortés Meets Cholulans
76-77: The Spaniards Investigate the Volcano Popocatepetl
85-89: Cortés on Meeting Moctezuma
91-94: Cortés Decides to Imprison Moctezuma
104-107: Cortés Forces Moctezuma to Tell Mexicas to Obey King of Spain
110-14: Cortés Describes Tenochtitlan
134-35: Cortés Decides to Fight Panfilo Narvaez
140-43: Cortés Defeats Narvaez
145: Cortés Learns of Revolt in Tenochtitlan
146-51: Cortés Returns to Tenochtitlan
151: Moctezuma Killed
158-60: Cortés on La Noche Triste or the Night of Sorrows
164-66: Spaniards Fight Their Way Back to Tlaxcala
166-67: Xicotencatl and Other Tlaxcalan Leaders Promise to Help Spaniards
Third Letter:
255-57: Cortés Constructs Brigantines as Crucial Weapons
262-66: Cortés Begins to Retake Tenochtitlan with Brigantines
270-72: Spaniards Assault Tenochtitlan
277: Cortés Wins New Indian Allies
278-81: Cortés Explains Why Tenochtitlan Must be Destroyed.
283-85: Cortés Gains More Indian Allies
287-89: Mexicas Force Retreat
294- 97: Mexicas Inflict Casualties on the Spaniards
298-99: Mexica Sacrifice Spaniards
308-10: Cortés Tries to Take Tenochtitlan
319-21: Spaniards Construct Catapult (Battering Rams)
328-30: Cortés Begs Mexicas to Surrender
331-32: Cuauhtemoc Taken Prisoner
here is the link for the book and the letters, please follow above instructions, all sources have to be primary sources. the due date is January 28th 11:59pm pullman time.
https://leftychan.net/edu/src/1618614609100-0.pdf
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