Ally quickly and perhaps you preserve more lives, as the Tlaxcala (another group in the region that were historical enemies of the Mexica) may have done?
In hindsight, that seems like a pretty robust strategy to me? I understand that you mention possible zero-sum dynamics, but I don’t think this negates the relatively straightforward case for it.
The Spanish did not come in with genocidal intentions and were a pretty legalistic culture anyway. I also guess that they were not interested in total dominiation, they wanted trade and probably the recognition of Spain’s king as the official ruler.
I think this makes it seem more obvious than it was. I think that they wanted quite a lot of domination, for example, they wanted to plunder the Aztec empires’ storied hoard of gold, And then they wanted to take over and force people to mine and labor for them more than they wanted to trade with a functioning empire.. I also don’t think it was easy for the Aztecs to understand what the Spanish wanted, or how legalistic their culture was, especially given that, like I noted, Cortes was acting basically as a unilateral renegade.
In hindsight, that seems like a pretty robust strategy to me? I understand that you mention possible zero-sum dynamics, but I don’t think this negates the relatively straightforward case for it.
The Spanish did not come in with genocidal intentions and were a pretty legalistic culture anyway. I also guess that they were not interested in total dominiation, they wanted trade and probably the recognition of Spain’s king as the official ruler.
I think this makes it seem more obvious than it was. I think that they wanted quite a lot of domination, for example, they wanted to plunder the Aztec empires’ storied hoard of gold, And then they wanted to take over and force people to mine and labor for them more than they wanted to trade with a functioning empire.. I also don’t think it was easy for the Aztecs to understand what the Spanish wanted, or how legalistic their culture was, especially given that, like I noted, Cortes was acting basically as a unilateral renegade.