Abstract

LUNA SANTIAGO, Germán. The Medieval in the Conquest: the Problem of Indigenous Vassalage. Relac. Estud. hist. soc. [online]. 2019, vol.40, n.158, pp.5-26.  Epub Dec 31, 2019. ISSN 2448-7554.  https://doi.org/10.24901/rehs.v40i158.364.

This article examines Alfonso Mendiola’s claim that chronicles of the Spanish Conquest of America are, in reality, medieval texts of an entirely rhetorical nature that, therefore, are of little use in reconstructing the events of the Conquest. Specifically, it evaluates the analytical possibilities of Mendiola’s reflections on indigenous vassalage narrated in the chronicles, in order to expound, on the one hand, the characteristics of vassalage that the chroniclers strove to reproduce through rhetorical devices and, on the other, the political context in which their efforts to demonstrate that indigenous peoples paid homage became intelligible.

Keywords : Spanish colonization; Mexico; conquest; historiography; chronicles..