The invation of 1524, half a millennium later: A reconsideration of the “indigenous conquerors”

Abstract

After the quincentenary of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to Abya Yala in 1492, the search for less Eurocentric views of the Spanish conquest led some scholars to the “Indigenous conquistadors”: Mesoamericans who allied with the Spanish to take over the Tenochca empire, then invade Central America. This historiographical turn, which had an international character, provoked distinct reactions in different countries and a serious reckoning with the idea of the Spanish conquest itself. Its primary lesson is methodological, insisting on a full integration of Mesoamerican history into considerations of the Spanish colonial and republican periods.