Question
Read the excerpt and answer the question below.
"Into this land of meek outcasts there came some Spaniards who immediately behaved like ravening wild beasts . . . killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of before, and to such a degree that this Island of Hispaniola once so populous (having a population that I estimated to be more than three million), has now a population of barely two hundred persons.”
-Source: Bartolomé de Las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies, 1542.
Which of the following historical figures most likely would agree with de Las Casas’s account of Spanish colonization?
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
(Choice A) Francisco Pizarro
A
Francisco Pizarro
(Choice B) Christopher Columbus
B
Christopher Columbus
(Choice C) Hernan Cortés
C
Hernan Cortés
(Choice D) Moctezuma II
D
Moctezuma II
"Into this land of meek outcasts there came some Spaniards who immediately behaved like ravening wild beasts . . . killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of before, and to such a degree that this Island of Hispaniola once so populous (having a population that I estimated to be more than three million), has now a population of barely two hundred persons.”
-Source: Bartolomé de Las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies, 1542.
Which of the following historical figures most likely would agree with de Las Casas’s account of Spanish colonization?
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
(Choice A) Francisco Pizarro
A
Francisco Pizarro
(Choice B) Christopher Columbus
B
Christopher Columbus
(Choice C) Hernan Cortés
C
Hernan Cortés
(Choice D) Moctezuma II
D
Moctezuma II
Answers
GPT-4o mini
The correct answer is (Choice D) Moctezuma II.
Moctezuma II, the Aztec emperor, would likely agree with Bartolomé de Las Casas’s account of Spanish colonization, as he experienced firsthand the violence and destruction brought by Spanish conquistadors, particularly Hernán Cortés and his men. Las Casas criticizes the brutality of the Spanish toward indigenous peoples, which aligns with the experiences of Moctezuma II and the suffering of his people due to colonization.
In contrast, Francisco Pizarro (A) and Hernan Cortés (C) were key figures responsible for the conquests of the Inca and Aztec empires respectively and would not agree with a critical view of their actions. Christopher Columbus (B) similarly sought to justify his explorations and actions rather than acknowledge the brutality they inflicted on indigenous populations.
Moctezuma II, the Aztec emperor, would likely agree with Bartolomé de Las Casas’s account of Spanish colonization, as he experienced firsthand the violence and destruction brought by Spanish conquistadors, particularly Hernán Cortés and his men. Las Casas criticizes the brutality of the Spanish toward indigenous peoples, which aligns with the experiences of Moctezuma II and the suffering of his people due to colonization.
In contrast, Francisco Pizarro (A) and Hernan Cortés (C) were key figures responsible for the conquests of the Inca and Aztec empires respectively and would not agree with a critical view of their actions. Christopher Columbus (B) similarly sought to justify his explorations and actions rather than acknowledge the brutality they inflicted on indigenous populations.