【简译】对西班牙征服美洲的不断变化的解读

The fall in 1519 of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexica or Aztec Empire, as it was later called, laid the foundation for the Spanish colonial empire on the North American mainland. It was the first time that Europeans had subjugated a highly organized state outside the world they had hitherto known. In the process, they created the basis for the first global colonial empires.

          1519年，墨西加人的首都特诺奇蒂特兰（后来被称为阿兹特克帝国）的陷落，为西班牙在北美大陆的殖民帝国奠定了基础。这是欧洲人第一次征服一个高度组织化的国家，而这个国家是在他们此前所熟知的世界之外的。在此过程中，他们为第一批全球殖民帝国奠定了基础。

阿兹特克人的衰亡

In the course of the 15th century, the Aztecs had created an empire of conquest demanding tribute from subjugated city-states. These tributes were pressing, and the spirit of discontent was widespread, especially in the recently invaded territories at the margins of the empire. When in 1519 a group of Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés arrived from Cuba, the situation changed. Indigenous communities such as the Totonacs and the Tlaxcaltecans decided to support the foreigners who wanted to reach the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

          15世纪，阿兹特克人通过征服建立了一个帝国，向其统治下的城邦征收贡品。税收沉重，不满情绪普遍存在，尤其是在最近被入侵的帝国边缘地区。1519年，当埃尔南·科尔特斯 (Hernán Cortes) 率领的一群西班牙征服者从古巴抵达时，情况发生了变化。托托纳克人和特拉斯卡拉人等几个土著社区决定支持想要到达阿兹特克首府特诺奇蒂特兰的外国人。

When the allies after much fighting reached there, their leader Cortés was festively welcomed by the Aztec emperor Montezuma II who decided to let the troops enter the city. The long visit turned violent when in May 1520 Pedro de Alvarado, one of Cortés' officers massacred Aztec elites during the Toxcatl festival. What followed was the nocturnal evacuation of the allies who had been besieged in their camp within the city by the Aztecs in the so-called 'Noche triste' on June 30. After their retreat, the decimated allies regrouped in Tlaxcala and started a massive campaign against Tenochtitlan which resulted in the fall of the city in August 1521.

           经过长时间的战斗，当盟军到达特诺奇蒂特兰时，阿兹特克皇帝蒙特祖玛二世向他们的领导人埃尔南·科尔特斯表示欢迎，并决定允许他的士兵进入这座城市。1520年5月，科尔特斯的一名军官佩德罗·阿尔瓦拉多 (Pedro Alvarado) 在 Toxcatl 节期间屠杀了阿兹特克精英，使这次漫长的访问变得十分激烈。随后，盟军在夜间撤离，其位于城内的营地在 6 月 30 日所谓的“悲伤之夜”期间被围困。撤退后，遭到重创的盟军在特拉斯卡拉重新集结，并开始对特诺奇蒂特兰进行大规模作战，特诺奇蒂特兰最终于1521年8月陷落。  

文艺复兴时期欧洲的观点

The victory led Spanish chroniclers and historians to regard their country as the legitimate successor to the Roman Empire, which they claimed Spain would even surpass. This resulted in the fundamental assumption of the superiority of Christian Europeans and the inferiority of other ethnic groups, which was characterized as a quasi-natural order of things.

           这次胜利使西班牙的编年史家和历史学家认为他们的国家是罗马帝国的合法继承者，他们声称西班牙将超越罗马帝国。这导致了欧洲基督教徒的优越性与其他种族群体的劣等性的基本假设，这被描述为事物的准自然秩序。

These aspects remained in the foreground in European historiography for centuries, though the original triumphalist attitude would reverse course in the 20th century. The events of that era were celebrated hundreds of times over in popular stories, novels, poems, songs, and operas, and scrutinized in scholarly papers. The academic literature alone fills libraries. The conquest of Tenochtitlan between 1519 and 1521 was certainly an unprecedented event. The urban center was probably one of the largest cities in the world and the capital of a sprawling and, for Europeans, totally alien empire. On the other hand, it was a devastating blow for the losers, the Mexica, who had been expanding their rule in Mesoamerica for decades.

          尽管最初的必胜主义态度在 20 世纪发生了逆转，但这些问题在欧洲史学中几个世纪以来一直是人们关注的焦点。那个时代的事件在通俗故事、小说、诗歌、歌曲和歌剧中被颂扬了数百次，并在学术论文中得到了仔细研究。仅仅是学术文献就充满了图书馆。1519年至1521年期间对特诺奇蒂特兰的征服无疑是史无前例的事件。这个城市中心可能是世界上最大的城市之一，而且是一个庞大的、对欧洲人来说完全陌生的帝国的首都。另一方面，这对失败者墨西加人来说是一个毁灭性的打击，此前他们已经在中美洲扩张了几十年的统治。  

For Renaissance Europeans, who prized first-hand testimony and personal experience and no longer exclusively relied on classical authorities, information from the New World had garnered great interest since 1492. The sensation of the Columbus voyage had already faded by 1519, by which point the Genoese had been dead for over a decade. But in Mexico, new discoveries emerged – things that had never been heard of before in Europe. Even the Bible was unaware of these lands.

          对于文艺复兴时期的欧洲人来说，他们珍视第一手资料和个人经验，不再完全依赖古典权威，自1492年以来，来自新世界的信息引起了极大的兴趣。哥伦布航海的轰动效应到1519年已经消退， 他（出生地：意大利热那亚）已经消亡十多年了。但在墨西哥，新的发现出现了（那些在欧洲从未听说过的东西）。甚至连《圣经》都不知道这些土地的存在。

At first, the news mainly spread through Hernán Cortés' letters. The leader of the Spanish conquistadors described with wonder all the things that were new and strange to him. His depictions of the rituals, art, cuisine, and jewelry of the Mexica captured the public imagination. Significantly, he put the social hierarchy of Mexican society on par with that of the Spanish by alluding to important Mexica as senores, vasallos, and senorios. The Latin translation of his reports even uses the capitalized term "Don" for the ruler of the Mexica, Moctezuma II Xocoyotzin (aka Montezuma). 

          起初，这一消息主要通过埃尔南·科尔特斯的信件传播。这位西班牙征服者的领袖惊奇地描述了所有对他来说新奇的事物。他对墨西加仪式、艺术、美食和珠宝的描述激发了公众的想象力。值得注意的是，他在提到墨西加领主、封臣和庄园主时，将墨西哥的社会等级制度与西班牙的社会等级制度放在一起。他的报告的拉丁文译本甚至用大写的“Don”一词用于指墨西加统治者蒙特祖玛二世·霍科约钦（Moctezuma II Xocoyotzin），也称为蒙特祖玛（Montezuma）。

Cortés' emphasis on the discipline and remarkable social order in Mexican society starkly contrasts with the earlier experiences of Christopher Columbus. His first report of 1519 gave the impression that negotiations with a foreign ruler were carried out on an equal footing, just as the Catholic monarchs of Spain had expected when they sent Columbus on his journey in 1492. But Columbus had failed to discover any states or powerful kings in the Caribbean. What Cortés described was much closer to the original vision, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, therefore instructed him to treat the new subjects as well as he would vassals in Europe.

           科尔特斯强调墨西哥社会的纪律和令人敬佩的社会秩序，这与克里斯托弗·哥伦布早期的经历形成鲜明对比。他1519年的第一份报告给人的印象是，与外国统治者的谈判是在平等的基础上进行的，就像西班牙的天主教君主在1492年派遣哥伦布出征时所期望的那样。但哥伦布未能在加勒比地区发现任何国家或强大的国王。科尔特斯描述的情况更接近最初的设想，因此神圣罗马帝国皇帝查理五世指示他像对待欧洲的诸侯一样善待这些新臣民。

对中美洲的影响

For the people of Mesoamerica, the impact of the encounter was no less novel or surprising. The sight of the Spaniards opened up a new world for them, too. Everything was strange to them, from their light skin, occasionally fair hair, and body hair to their clothes and hats, tools, and food and drink. They were particularly struck by the design of their ships and their animals, as horses and dogs were unheard of in Mesoamerica. They were also curious about the armaments, flags, and Christian symbolism, especially the ever-present cross. They depicted these novelties in their historical records in the form of glyphs, a pictorial language that was the counterpart of the written language of the Spanish.

          对于中美洲的人们来说，这次邂逅的影响也同样新颖或令人惊讶。西班牙人的出现也为他们打开了新世界的大门。对他们来说，一切都显得很奇怪，从他们白色的皮肤，有时是金色的头发，到他们的衣服、帽子、工具、饮料和食物。他们尤其对他们的船只设计和动物感到震惊，因为马和狗在中美洲是闻所未闻的。他们还对武器装备、旗帜和基督教象征意义感到好奇，特别是无处不在的十字架。他们在历史记录中以石刻的形式描绘了这些新事物，这是一种图形语言，与西班牙人的书面语言相对应。

The parties met each other with astonishment, but at eye level, even if both sides felt superior to the other. Indeed, until the end of the 18th century, the global dominance of the Europeans was hardly a given. At this time, around 80% of the world's gross national product was still being generated in Asia; Europeans had extensive colonial possessions only in America, and elsewhere they had established only trading stations. Furthermore, in the early modern period, imperial expansion was not exceptional. In this era, the Ottoman, Chinese, Russian, and Songhay empires in West Africa greatly expanded their dominions, as did the Inca and Mexica empires until the arrival of the Europeans. But these were land empires, whereas the Europeans were opening up utterly new horizons far away from home, across the ocean. The new insights and the knowledge they brought back with them figured prominently in the Renaissance conceptions of the world, which were imbued with humanistic ideals.

          双方愕然相见，但却处于同一水平线上，虽然都感觉自己高人一等。事实上，直到18世纪末，欧洲人的全球统治地位还很难说是既成事实。此时，世界上约80%的国民生产总值仍在亚洲产生；欧洲人只在美洲拥有广泛的殖民地，在其他地方他们只建立了贸易站。此外，近代早期的帝国扩张也不例外。在这个时代，奥斯曼帝国、大清国、俄罗斯帝国和西非的桑海帝国都进行了巨大的疆域扩张，印加帝国和墨西哥帝国也是如此，直到欧洲人的到来。这些帝国覆盖了广阔的土地，而欧洲人却在远离家园、跨越海洋的地方开辟了全新的视野。他们带回的新的欣赏和知识在充满人文主义理想的文艺复兴世界观中占有重要地位。

小     结

The contact between cultures did not take place in a spirit of harmony but under the banner of warlike conquest. In self-portraits, the conquistadors stressed the fact that, like the heroes of the medieval chivalric novels that were very popular at the time, they had defeated a large empire with just a negligible force. This is the myth that has been passed down from generation to generation in modern schoolbooks and went virtually unquestioned for centuries. Recent scholarship, however, drawing more and more on indigenous sources has begun to provide a more complicated portrait of the conquest.

          文化之间的接触并不是在和谐的精神下进行的，而是在战争征服的旗帜下进行的。征服者们在自画像中强调，就像当时非常流行的中世纪骑士小说中的英雄一样，他们仅用微不足道的力量就打败了一个庞大的帝国。这是现代教科书中代代相传的神话，几个世纪以来几乎没有受到质疑。然而，最近的学术研究，越来越多地借鉴本土资料，已经开始提供关于征服的更复杂的描述。

In March 2019, the newly elected President of Mexico, Andres Manuel López Obrador, attracted global interest for letters sent to the Spanish king and the pope. In them, he entreated the recipients to apologize to the indigenous peoples of Mexico for the atrocities committed during the conquest of Mexico 500 years earlier. The letters' contents spread like wildfire across social media and sparked outrage in Spain. The crown swiftly rebuffed him, pointing out that the events of that time could not be judged by today's standards. It also maintained that the Spanish and Mexican people had always known how to "interpret our common past without anger and with a constructive attitude." Although the controversy over the conquest is many centuries old, it is still very much alive, and not just in the Spanish-speaking world.

          2019年3月，墨西哥新当选总统安德烈斯·曼努埃尔·洛佩斯·奥夫拉多尔因其写给西班牙国王和教皇的信件而引起了全球的关注。在信中，他要求收信人为500年前征服墨西哥时犯下的暴行向墨西哥原住民道歉。这些信的内容像野火一样在社交媒体上传播，在西班牙引发了愤怒。王室迅速回绝了他，指出当时的事件不能用今天的标准来评判。他还坚称，西班牙和墨西哥人民一直知道如何“不带愤怒并以建设性态度解释我们共同的过去”。尽管关于征服的争议已经存在了好几个世纪，但它仍然非常活跃，而且不仅仅是在西班牙语世界。

原文网址：https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2250/the-changing-interpretation-of-the-spanish-conques/