ENGLISH 01.02 A Pivotal Encounter Document # and General Description of Tenochtitlan

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ENGLISH 01.02 A Pivotal Encounter Document # and Name: 1- General Description of Tenochtitlan Step 1: Note what you already know about the subject of the document. Use this chart to fill in informat... ion about the excerpt. H A P P Historical Context Audience Purpose Point of View (POV) This document was written by Cortes as a way to record everything saw while in or around the city of Tenochtitlan The audience of this document was most likely the Spanish king and other members of the high classes of society that have money and might be interested in investing in him and his expedition. The purpose of this document was to interest the Spanish king in the possibility of conquering the city of Tenochtitlan This document is from the Spanish conquistador Cortes as he explored Tenochtitlan Step 2: Closely read and take notes on the document. You may wish to copy the excerpt into this file so that you may use the computer to highlight, underline, or otherwise point out specific lines of text. You could also print out the excerpt for manual notation and then scan it or upload an image of it. Remember to read carefully and look for details and clues related to HAP-P and the historical question. Include in your notes or the chart above at least one connection to what you know from the assigned reading. • “This great city of Temixtitlan [Mexico] is situated in this salt lake, and from the main land to the denser parts of it, by whichever route one chooses to enter, the distance is two leagues. There are four avenues or entrances to the city, all of which are formed by artificial cause ways, two spears' length in width. The city is as large as Seville or Cordova; its streets, I speak of the principal ones, are very wide and straight; some of these, and all the inferior ones, are half land and half water, and are navigated by canoes. All the streets at intervals have openings, through which the water flows, crossing from one street to another; and at these openings, some of which are very wide, there are also very wide bridges, composed of large pieces of timber, of great strength and well put together; on many of these bridges ten horses can go abreast. Foreseeing that if the inhabitants of the city should prove treacherous, they would possess great advantages from the manner in which the city is constructed, since by removing the bridges at the entrances, and abandoning the place, they could leave us to perish by famine without our being able to reach the main land, as soon as I had entered it, I made great haste to build four brigatines, which were soon finished, and were large enough to take ashore three hundred men and the horses, whenever it should become necessary.(I find it very interesting that Cortes said “...whenever it should become necessary” instead of IF it should ever become necessary. This shows that he is already planning on attacking and conquering the city and is beginning to make preparations for the assault.) [Show More]

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