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:

https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/the-history-of-the-americas/the-conquest-of-mexico/letters-from-hernan-cortesLinks to an external site.

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://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/the-history-of-the-americas/the-conquest-of-mexico/letters-from-hernan-cortes

https://leftychan.net/edu/src/1618614609100-0.pdf