"Burying the White Gods: New Perspective on the Conquest of Mexico" by Camila Townsend

The main argument of Townsend is that people should create high technology beyond the weaponry production. She argues that the scientific knowledge enable people to have divergent technology that is sustainable in the society. According to Townsend, the Mexicans have not been severe in developing the technology that is sustainable in the community. She says that there have been divergent technological levels which have been explained by the scientists but have not been utilized while developing the weapons. She explains that the weapons manufactured and used in the society are dangerous because of low application of technological ideas.

Furthermore, she argues that in different societies, scholars have been in the position to change the way people tell the stories and such have not been through the technological innovations. For example, through the online technology, many young people have watched phonographic films something that has negatively impacted the minds of the users. Additionally, he argues that the power imbalance has also been impacting the social well-being of the concerned parties in the society. The author further argues that scientists can provide an explanation to the historians regarding the greater advancement in the technology. The historians have only been carrying out their research without using the necessary technological knowledge. Research demonstrates that there have been marshaling evidence that life has changed from being a hunter-gatherer due to the technological advances. For example, the author explains that people have changed from being a hunter-gatherer to farming. However, she argues that there are many consequences related to such changes.

The use of the primary source is crucial in that it ties the knowledge and makes a clear analysis about the technological advancement that has taken place. It is important because it provides an opportunity to the readers to learn about the technological advancement and historical development of the weapons that are used in the society. It is however learned that many historians have not been utilizing the technological advancement especially when it comes to their research and historical analysis of what has happened in different parts of the society.

Townsend has used the primary sources to provide grounded evidence while making her arguments. He borrows the knowledge that allows her to carry out her work more effectively. For example, she explains that many scholars have analyzed the words and at the same time ignoring their context. She provides an example of Tzvatan Todorovs Conguest of America: The Question of the other. Townsend appreciate the work and uses it to explain that Indians learned the Spaniard language and thus manipulated the signs that gave them the victory. Furthermore, she argues that popular historians have accepted the idea of igneous reality. She points out Hugh Thomass monumental book that provided the reality and the inner workings of the Moctezumas court. Therefore, she agrees with how other authors have made their analysis and presentation of the information.

Fierce and Unnatural Cruelty: Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico by Inga Clendinnen

The main argument of the book is that the Conquest of Mexico still matters in the current society as it poses a great painful question. The author explains that many people ask themselves what happened until there was defeating of the Amerindian military power in only two years. The author explains that the conquest mattered the Spaniards and other Europeans as it offered their great paradigm. Accordingly, there was an organized state that provided quick opportunities to the society and ensured that the accommodating flexibility was provided by those who fought for peace and tranquility.

It is through the book that Inga reviews the claims about the nature of contrast between Indian modes and European modes especially relating to their thinking during the conquest period. The conquest provided by the author falls into two phases which are the Spanish landfalls and the European conquest. The first one provides an opportunity to learn about the cortest assumption while the second one provides an opportunity to the readers to learn about the Spaniards march inland. Such however gives an appropriate information regarding the independence of the Tlaxcala and how it happened while the conquest was taking place.

Cortes' engaged in the interpretation of the Mectozoma's behavior. It is the book that the reader is made to understand the protocols that were supposed to be followed by those in leadership and those who were being led. The author used the non-verbal messages. Some of those non-verbal messages could demonstrate the superb gestures regarding the wealth and liberty of those who were arrogant and unable to provide proper leadership in the society. This was witnessed by the miscommunication that multiplied in that area. In the tangle of control of messages, the curiosity about the Mectezomas conduct increased as there were followers of the imperial system that was eagerly known to be part of the problem within the Mectezoma.

The author has also used the book to elicit the knowledge of the historical development of the Mectezoma. It provides a great and significant opportunity to the readers to understand the historical challenges that have been passed during the development of the Mectezoma. Early, the author wrote that the region had been inhabited and such habitation gives an opportunity to learn about the significant approaches that were used by the historians of the time. Here, the reader knows the supreme authority of the city as an empire that eventually shaped the strategy. Furthermore, the reader through the book understands the nature and extent of the Mectezoma's authority within and beyond the Technochtitlan. Also, the actual captivity has been imposed greatly, something that provides an idea about the political situations in the Mectezoma. As the pragmatic responses that were given by the Indian groups reflected the dominant power relating to the disaffection of allied lords and infer that which denigrated the death in the city. Such was significant for the heroic power that dominated the city and provided quite significant and well-developed ideas about the defenders of the city because of the power that they wanted to attain. This was very important for educating people to get an understanding of the maximum effect playing an amplifying effect of the development of the city and eventual habitation by people with diverse needs and requirements.

Clendinnens argument is important because it provides information about the development of the Mectezoma and the impacts in the society. The information is quite crucial because it creates an opportunity to understand the historical developments that took place in the society. The message put forward by the author links both the historical development and the present status of the Mectezoma society. Furthermore, it is also through the book that understanding with regards to the Spanish conquest is also made possible. Thus, the historical developments have also been adjusted and brought about by the actual debate put forward by the author. The conversation is an ideal provision of intelligibility of the counter move and the move which was advanced by the Spanish state while undergoing the industrial development. Therefore, it is clear that there were various challenges which were associated with the development of the Spaniard cities. Majority of the people were not acquainted with the work that took place, and it was difficult to address such situations.

Clendinnens have used the primary sources to back-up her arguments about the conguest. For example, she argues that J.H Elliott and Anthony Pagden traced of the filaments of Cortess web provide specific information for understanding the Spanish political culture and eventual explanation of the legitimate inheritors of the Spanish territory after the conquest. Furthermore, she argues that the theory that was utilized by Sahaguns Florentine Codex is very important for reinforcing the information about the conquest. Therefore, Clendinnen agrees with the arguments that were made by those authors in their sources.

References

Camilla, Townsend (2013). Burying the White Gods: New Perspective on the Conquest of Mexico. Oxford University Press

Inga, Clendinnen (1991). Fierce and Unnatural Cruelty: Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico. University of California Press.