You were taught it as a child perhaps? You know, the propaganda narrative of how the South American Indians of Mexico were forcibly converted to Catholicism by Cortez and his superhuman band of 500 “Ubermen”. Men whose superior weapons consisted of a few single shot muskets and some single shot cannon. They then overwhelmed a civilisation of several million Aztecs. How do you Counteract the Cortez Conundrum?
At least that was the narrative back then. Even some children’s Disney films still reinforce this propaganda picture of history today. Indeed so do documentaries.
How do you best present this in a classroom with at least some semblance of actual historical and religious reality. How do you avoid the class controversy in the process?
Well, sometimes you just have to hit students between the eyes! Usually there is only a lesson or two to study South American history, and this is how you might do it. It certainly worked well for me on many occasions.
Class Conversation
Step 1
Teacher: Do you really think Cortez and his 500 odd conquistadors converted and conquered all those millions of Aztecs?
Just think for a moment. Muskets and cannon of that time were single shot only, and took a very long time to load.
Five hundred men also had to sleep at night. So perhaps half would have had to sleep at night whilst others were on duty. They were facing an opponent skilled and in their own jungle land, with hundreds of thousands of warriors. Also, the Conquistadors were not representatives of the Church, nor were they Saints, and they had their own private monetary and profit motives. But is this all really true? Did they manage to pull it off?
Students: You will see in their eyes serious doubts creep in, as the truth of historical and military reality dawns on them. The boys are mostly Call of Duty, Fortnite or first-person shooter experts after all. So you know they’re doing the weapon calculations, whilst the girls of course, just see the logical reality of sheer numbers straight away.
Step 2
Teacher: The fact is many Indian tribes were wholeheartedly on the side of the Spanish and Cortez against the Aztecs. He had an army of some 90,000 – 100,000 Indians supporting him for rather obvious reasons, such as mass human sacrifice, ripping out human hearts, and uhm…. well…. cannibalism. You should look this up yourself.
You will also find very few Indians initially converted to Christianity. What really converted the Indians was Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Saint Juan Diego. This was the greatest mass conversion event in history occurring over 10 years, with an estimated 9 million being baptised. You never hear about that in the mass media, do you? Anyway, you do not have to believe me. Go and study it all yourselves now.
Students: Dumbfounded looks. I can practically guarantee none of them will have heard the real Spanish Catholic side of the story. They will go hammer and tong into their Internet research trying to verify all you have just said. Believe you me!
It does not take them long to realise there are real truths out there, which they never possessed before. In fact, many teachers still sadly believe this narrative, and never do their own research.
Once you complete that little hook, just leave them a prepared study task to figure out what really happened themselves. Yes, Inquiry Learning has some place. A written essay summary of Spanish History and the Aztecs is a good start, with pictures of course.
You just have to load that musket first, before they can learn to load it themselves.
Reflection
Whilst they’re studying, you might reflect on how you were conned as a child. Its such a outrageously ridiculous historical narrative. What else have you missed?