Week 2

Christopher Columbus’ work is very important in the study of Latin America. He is the first documented explorer to discover Latin America. His journal sets a detailed account of all things concerning his travel. He spends a majority of it narrating his journey in great detail, from the starts and the weather to the people he met and cultural interactions.
Although his primary intention was to find a means by which they can convert the non believers to christianity, it seems not to be the case throughout his work. He goes on into great detail discussing the lands and all their marvel, including all the riches present in the Indies. Not only does divulging into the materialistic content of these new lands take away from his initial aim, but it also shows that he had alterier motives that went beyond conversion. One of the clearest examples within the text is when wrote about the “extents of benefits to be gained from this place”(127). This was a clear indicator that conquest and expanisionism of Spanish wealth would become a primary goal if the royals were to sustain his exploration.

The First New Chronicle and Good Government was a reading that in my eyes felt more objective in terms of describing the conquest and colonization of Latin America. By giving the example of the conquest of the Indies, Guaman depicts the brutality and greed of the Spaniards in their pursuit of gold. What appeared to have been a misunderstanding after the death of Columbus’ companion and misinterpretation of his letters led to a gold chase. Every man in the Spanish kingdom who heard of the gold wanted a part of it. 

As they arrived in large numbers to Peru, they showed no regard for their leader or their customs. By using a kidnapped native who they had assimilated into their culture, they shadowed their ill intentions as merely men out to convert nonbelievers. When the slightest miscommunication happened, they jumped on the opportunity to launch a war on the people. 

To conclude, The First New Chronicle and Good Govenrment gave a more honest depection of the Spaniards arrival in the New World. It was hidden behind the facade of conversionism to shield their true intentions of expansionism. Columbus’ journals were too subjective, due to the nature in which they were written and the audience they were appealing to, and hence were not the most impartial source of information concerning the Spanish in the New World.