Restall – Blog Review
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Weird… I know that I posted my draft on Sunday… though the website was being slow and weird as usual. Sorry blog reviewers! I’ll double check next time… Here is my finished paper…
Matthew Restall. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. New York: Oxford University Press. 2003.
Over the past two decades, Matthew Restall has written numerous articles, essays, and books about the history of Latin America. As evidenced in his other work, Restall seeks to change the oft held preconceived notions of the Spanish conquest of the New World and everything that this conquest entails. While other works focus narrowly on places such as Guatemala or groups such as Africans, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest utilizes a broader approach to debunking established “myths”. Restall defines myth as something that is fictitious and taken as true, as opposed to something that is folklore. By the removal of the cultural aspect, Restall seeks to compare both sides of an event, subject, or concept as objectively as possible utilizing prior notions and primary sources from archives. Restall argues that the Spanish framed New World concepts and language into their culture, and since they were the dominating force, their theories have prevailed by virtue of their success. Afraid of creating his own truths, Restall admits that he is unavoidably influenced by the culture that he has grown up in, which is an unfortunate danger of revisionist history. Ultimately, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest is written to provide Restall’s new theories of seven particular established myths by the utilization of new or previously unavailable sources, as well as total reexamination of prior sources. Restall hopes that debunking these myths will change historical thought by allowing alternative arguments to enter the field.
Restall sets up his book with a clear introduction, and then examines each myth in the context of its own chapter. While some arguments are stronger than others, Restall effectively disputes the previous belief with new research. At the end of his book, Restall presents an epilogue that is a case study to further his take on the conquest. The epilogue was also more opinionated than the rest of the book. Chapter one examines the theory that a handful of men conquered two large empires in the context of three themes: the story of the men, the two empires that were conquered, and how the empires fell. Chapter two examines the myth of the king’s soldier and how most “soldiers” were entrepreneurs in search of opportunity. The next chapter addresses how important natives and blacks were to the conquest of the Aztec, Maya and Inca, and how they are often omitted from history. Chapter four examines the true incompleteness of the Spanish conquest, where land claims and complete subjugation in the Indio-Spaniard relationship were vital in ensuring Spanish dominance in the New World. Chapter five further delves into relationship between natives and Spaniards in debunking the myth that natives were able to understand their conqueror’s language and the context of their suppression. The sixth chapter scrutinizes the hopelessness of the indigenous people, instead hypothesizing that the natives resisted and were resilient in the dynamic conditions of the Spanish conquest. The final myth is definitely the weakest of the bunch and doesn’t have as much validity as the others. This myth is the idea of European supremacy through superior military technology and techniques, a noble cause, and being divinely blessed.
As with all revisionist history, there are often critiques of the approaches that these historians take, as well as the credibility of their arguments. In the context of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, revisionist history points of view are often seen as too politically correct or too polarizing and it can be difficult to convey these points of view effectively. Also, revisionist history is often in a state of warfare with the traditional folklore of a community, region, or nation. An example of this is the “destruction” of the character of great men of American history, such as Thomas Jefferson. Restall straddles the fence in this area, as his attack plan seems to be rooted somewhere between totally debunking each of the seven myths and providing alternative interpretations of the Spanish conquest. Another critique is why Restall chooses seven myths to write about and how he chose these particular seven. Could Restall have chosen other myths to write about? Most likely, yes, but Restall appears to have felt that these myths were adequate enough to prove his point. Next, the use of the number seven and its importance to the Spanish and indigenous peoples is really not important in context of Restall’s theories, rather a neat construct for the book. The number seven is repeated throughout the book, except for the end with the presentation of Restall’s five factors of conquest. Finally, a number of Restall’s myths also correlate to each other, and this correlation is articulated numerous times throughout the text. This may help tie together Restall’s thesis more effectively, but also proves to be redundant as well.
In regard to the concept of transatlantic history, the reader may question the relevancy of a book that describes events that solely take place in the New World. However, this book is not a completely New World notion. The three main aspects of the flow from east to west and from west to east that cannot be ignored are the dynamic roles of Africans and the indigenous natives, the location of Spanish imperial holdings, and implementation of the Iberian model for conquest. In the book, Africans and natives are not seen as innocent victims of slavery and genocide in the Atlantic islands and the New World, rather are active agents in the conquest and construction of Spanish power. The utilization of Africans and natives, such as the Tlaxcalteca, is as instrumental to imperial Spain’s military and economic capability as the vigor of the German factory workers is to the Nazi regime’s strength from 1933-1945. Africans serve a large role not only as soldiers, but often times as overseers and politicians. To an undereducated reader, the Spanish empire may also be thought of as a New World concept. At its height, however, the Spanish empire spans across both major oceans and occupies a large part of Europe, some small island chains, and parts of Africa, as well as their New World assets. The ties to Africa and these islands allow the Spanish to develop a strategy for dealing with indigenous populations, for transplanting European culture, plants, and animals, and also provide the ability for the rest of Europe to see the successes and failures of the Iberian model in their future expansion to the New World. These reasons further legitimize the claim that the transatlantic model is not purely accidental.
