Historiography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Historiography - Essay Example Trying to connect atrocities and brutal, ferocious events such as conquests and annihilation of peoples with the theory is a bit problematic, though. When thinking of men like Hernan Cortes, the Spanish conquistador that has invaded America and eventually slaughtered the Native Americans extremely viciously, or like Hitler, which ascended to power in Germany in 1933 and was responsible for the most horrible murders of over 6,000,000 people, theres a difficulty in attributing the word "great" to them. Lets take the case of Cortes, for example. He had arrived in North America and at first befriended the Native Americans, accepting their gifts, enjoying their hospitality and planning some kind of cooperation with them. However, as time went on, major differences started to be evident between the Spanish army that mingled with the Native Americans. For example, the Spanish had a hard time understanding the religious customs and traditions the latter had. They saw some of their rituals as barbaric and primitive, since they involved human sacrifice and body mutilation. In time, tensions grew between the two groups until they reached a boiling point. From that point on, what happened was debatably inevitable. But was it really? Cortes was singlehandedly responsible for the brutal killing of many Indians, and what had previously started as an amicable friendship turned into a most gruesome bloodbath. Cortes refused to back down and was relentless in his quest to vanquish the Native Amer icans. His motive was to eradicate the natives and become a governor for this newly discovered land, gain in respect, status and wealth, and use the local resources to establish a thriving Spanish colony in this new land. In other words, he was driven by greed, a hunger for power and self-motivation. Lets take another example, one from recent time. Hitler has ascended to power through democratic