Signs and Cortés

Overall, I do not believe that it was possible for any of the Spanish conquerers to trick the natives into being captured, through signs or any other means. As Rachel mentions, the culture that Cortés encountered was a culture that happened to rely and believe completely in signs of every nature, something which would not have been completely possible for Cortés to understand at that time. The truth is that no one knows what truly happened before the Spaniards arrived in the Americas because little is left from that time period and the journals and letters of Spaniards are not enough to use as definite evidence. On pg. 74 of Todorov, it mentions the omens that seem to always precede the arrival of the Spaniards and shortly after this is dismissed as something that was probably made up after-the-fact, in order to not question their knowledge of the future and the possibility that they didn't predict something correctly. How do we know that this is actually false? Perhaps this is an idea that is brought up by someone like Cortés in order to make his argument of deceiving by signs more valid. Perhaps he himself is confused by how easily he conquered the Aztecs...I think these ideas must be considered.

The fact that the Aztec culture relies almost completely on signs is not something individual to that culture; the Incas, the Mayas, and Native Americans are also cultures that incorporate symbols, signs, and interpretations into every moment of life. The fact that these people come from a culture that relies on signs and Cortés comes from a culture that had no knowledge of this is as different as Columbus landing and meeting natives in America and not being able to understand their differences.

Perhaps it is not so much that Cortés CONQUERED the Aztecs, but rather because of their beliefs, they gave in without knowing it. I believe that this is more likely than Cortés's knowledge and stealth in understanding the culture. The Aztecs could be waiting to predict a day when something specific will happen, believe that the Spaniards are gods, and this changes their actions incredibly. Whether the Aztecs would have attacked if they did not have an intense culture of signs and religious beliefs which are incredibly different from those of the Spaniards.

I would like to disagree with Liz about the Vietnam comparison. I think that if you compare something like a conquest to the Americas to Vietnam, it will be expanded to things like Japanese warfare during WWII, suicide bombers, or torture tactics because these are all parts of other cultures that are not necessarily understood by the United States (or whoever is against). Vietnam was already in a war and the United States joined, and no, they could not understand the tacticts, but I do not think that this can be compared with a Spanish conquest that goes for the sole purpose of bringing back gold and benefiting... in the end, they did massacre the Aztecs and destroy the kingdom. Therefore, I think there is a big difference between Vietnam and Cortés.