The Great Voyages of Exploration and Early Colonization (^) ‹ 79
was his having killed the Indian and eaten him which was prohibited by Your Majesty, and
by me in Your Royal name. I further made the chief understand that all the people... must
abstain from this custom... I came... to teach them that they were to adore but one God
... that they must turn from their idols, and the rites they had practiced until then, for these
were lies and deceptions which the devil... had invented.... I, likewise, had come to teach
them that Your Majesty, by the will of Divine Providence, rules the universe, and that they
also must submit themselves to the imperial yoke, and do all that we who are Your Majesty’s
ministers here might order them.
Hernán Cortés, Letters to Charles V, King of Spain, 1521- Cortés saw the people of Tenochtitlán in what way?
A. As more technologically advanced than the Spanish
B. As disadvantaged by the absence of Christianity in their culture
C. As ready to convert to Christianity
D. As morally superior to Europeans - From the passage, Cortés maintained which of the following points of view?
A. He believed that God had chosen him to conquer the people of Tenochtitlán.
B. He doubted the morality of his mission in the New World.
C. He believed that the Spanish had complete authority over the people of Tenochtitlán.
D. He intended to set himself up as the God of the people of Tenochtitlán. - From the passage, which of the following best informs the conqueror’s goals?
A. Cortés intended to impose the laws of Christianity and Spain on the people
of Tenochtitlán.
B. Cortés intended to exterminate the people of Tenochtitlán.
C. Cortés’s main mission was to educate the people of Tenochtitlán.
D. Cortés thought that the people of Tenochtitlán were devil worshipers and needed
to be converted to Christianity.
Short Answer- Briefly explain TWO ways in which Spanish colonization changed life in the New
World.
Answers and Explanations- B is correct because the passage indicates that Cortés was impressed by the technical
accomplishments of the people of Tenochtitlán, despite their “barbarous” state, “so cut
off from the knowledge of God.” A is incorrect because nothing in the passage indi-
cates that Cortés saw the people of Tenochtitlán as more advanced than the Spanish.
C is incorrect because nothing in the passage indicates that Cortés saw the people of
Tenochtitlán as “ready to convert” to Christianity. D is incorrect because the passage
indicates that Cortés saw the people of Tenochtitlán as morally inferior to Europeans. - C is correct because both Cortés’s willingness to outlaw the eating of flesh and to order
the natives to turn away from idols indicate that Cortés believed that he had complete
authority over the people of Tenochtitlán. A is incorrect because there is nothing in the
passage that indicates that Cortés believed that he had been personally chosen by God.
B is incorrect because nothing in the passage indicates that Cortés doubted the moral
correctness of his mission. D is incorrect because nothing in the passage indicates that
Cortés intended to set himself up as the God of the people of Tenochtitlán.
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