Maya And Spaniards In Yucatan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Maya And Spaniards In Yucatan - Essay Example Through the accounts furnished by the Spanish chronicles and other texts of historical importance that the Historians have predominantly tried to judge the invasion of an acclaimed and great civilization in pre-Columbian America. There is no denying the fact these historical accounts ensuing from the Spanish adventurers, churchmen, and booty hunters were somewhat biased in their approach towards the Mexican history (Henderson 45). These historical accounts present only the Spanish side of the story, without caring much about the Mayan perspective regarding the Spanish invaders (Henderson 45). Many times the historians never cared to bother that perhaps the conquered Mexicans may have set their own versions of the Spanish invasion of America. So a great part of the Mayan side of the story is known through the works compiled by Mexicans in their native language, which managed to survive the ravages of the Spanish Invasion. Though it is a fact that both the Spanish and Mexican accounts tell the same story, yet, these two sets of historical text tend to differ immensely in what they decide to convey and how they try to convey it. Though the modern historians of the European origins tend to outline varied cultural, moral and religious motivations that supported the Spanish invasion of the Native American civilizations, still even a cursory perusal of the Spanish invaders brings to fore the fact that the Spanish invasion was predominantly ruled and guided by economic and pecuniary motives (Patch 22). Many accounts of the Spanish encounters with the Mayan diplomatic missions strongly unravel the fact that the Spaniards tried to evaluate the gifts extended by the Mayans in a profit to loss context, without delving specifically on the artistic and cultural relevance of those gifts.