Bernal Diaz, Conquest of New Spain

After picking a book that interests you from the list, reading the textbook chapter relevant
to its period will help you think about the essay you need to write. Since this is a short paper of
only 4-6 pages, you need to be very concise in covering the three components I expect in the
essay. First, you need to give a very brief summary of the book you are reading. More
importantly, you need to set the book in its historical context. Explain what the author was trying
to do by writing this and how it fits in with events and ideas of the time. Finally, you need to
show how the book reflects a larger theme of the course. For the last two, you will need to
provide passages or examples from the book to support your arguments. You will need to cite
three other scholarly sources in addition to the primary source you are using. You may use the
internet to help you find sources and may use a credible internet source, but Wikipedia,
encyclopedias, and dictionaries do not count as sources for this paper.
As an example here is a very brief treatment of De Las Casas’ Defense of the Indians, a
record of a debate with another Catholic priest named Sepulveda. De Las Casas argued for more
humane treatment of the Indians and a policy adjustment by the Spanish crown. He wrote after half a century of brutality at the hands of conquistadores and based on his eyewitness accounts while
living in the New World. He argued for considering Indians as human beings and represented
part of a liberal movement towards more humane treatment and respect of peoples.