Date of Award
4-29-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
History
First Advisor
Manuella Meyer
Abstract
In August 1521, Hernan Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan, declared it conquered, and announced the creation of the new colonial territory New Spain. Over the course of the subsequent sixteenth century Spain would rapidly expand its influence across the American continents.
Spanish colonialism in the Americas is historically distinct for a rapid process of globalization which linked previously isolated European and indigenous societies. Analysis of chronicles documenting the Conquest of Mexico written in the later half of the 1500’s reveal that colonialism corresponded to new ways of thinking informed by, but also distinct from, Aztec and Spanish world views. In particular, history in New Spain distinguished itself from colonizer and colonized conceptions of interpreting the past through combining both societies’ historical legacies into a product distinct from the sum of its parts. The character of Moctezuma is an excellent frame around which to organize this historiographical analysis.
Recommended Citation
Tabor, Charlie, "Moctezuma and the Emergence of Sixteenth-Century New Spain’s Historical Dialogue." (2022). Honors Theses. 1652.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses/1652