Source: Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Spanish soldier and chronicler, *The True History of the Conquest of New Spain*, describing events in 1519.
"The chief of Cempoala complained bitterly of Montezuma and his tax-gatherers, saying that they took all their property, and if their wives and daughters were beautiful, they took them... He related how the Mexica [Aztecs] had conquered them and forced them to pay tribute, and how they had to give their sons for sacrifice... Hernán Cortés comforted them, saying that the great King of Spain, his master, had sent him to punish evil-doers and stop these sacrifices, and that he would protect them. The chief was so glad of this promise that he swore they would do whatever we commanded them, and would join their forces with ours against Montezuma."
The interactions described in the excerpt best support which of the following arguments regarding the Spanish conquest of the Americas?
- Spanish colonizers successfully overthrew dominant indigenous empires by exploiting political divisions and rivalries among diverse Native American societies.Cevap
- BThe Spanish overcame indigenous resistance primarily because Native American populations operated under a single political structure.
- CSpanish conquistadors secured native alliances by granting ownership of encomienda estates directly to indigenous laborers.
- DThe Cempoalans collaborated with the Spanish in order to gain access to newly introduced European crops such as maize and tobacco.