{"id":6655,"date":"2020-01-21T18:56:42","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T22:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=6655"},"modified":"2022-03-24T15:45:27","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T19:45:27","slug":"cortes-and-montezuma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cortes-and-montezuma\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortes and Montezuma\u2014The Meeting that Killed 20 Million Aztecs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What happened when Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s sailed from Spain to Mexico and met Montezuma? Why was Cort\u00e9s able to conquer Montezuma and the Aztecs so easily? How did the meeting of Cort\u00e9s and Montezuma mark a turning point in the way we think about other people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll cover how Cort\u00e9s and Montezuma met, and look at how this meeting between two people of completely different backgrounds, mindsets, and assumptions is indicative of misreadings of strangers that are common today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Cort\u00e9s and Montezuma: The First Real Strangers<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Throughout human history, the vast majority of human interactions occurred between neighbors, relatives, or people that had at least some things in common, such as worshipping the same God. But when Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s sailed from Spain to Mexico in 1519, he began an entirely new kind of encounter in human history. This is an example of one of the first times in human history that two people with entirely different assumptions, histories, and cultural backgrounds were thrown into contact. <\/strong>Upon meeting the Aztec ruler Montezuma II and discovering the capital, Tenochtitl\u00e1n, Cort\u00e9s and his men were in awe. They had never seen a city as grand or a culture as drastically different from their own.
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The two leaders, Cort\u00e9s and Montezuma, knew absolutely nothing about each other\u2019s language, civilization, or cultural nuances. They had to go through a long and complicated chain of translation to communicate with each other. The result? Montezuma\u2019s capture and murder at the hand of Cort\u00e9s, followed by the death of nearly 20 million Aztecs. But why?<\/em> 
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One answer to this question lies in the difference between the way Cort\u00e9s and Montezuma communicated, based on their cultural tradition. Montezuma\u2019s native language, Nahuatl, was a reverential mode of speech. When Montezuma spoke, he chose to portray false humility. That was how he communicated his nobility and power. But to Cort\u00e9s, Montezuma\u2019s humble words sounded like surrender. 
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In today\u2019s world, people often find themselves in encounters like that between Cort\u00e9s and Montezuma\u2014interactions with complete strangers. This book is about why they often go wrong, and why we are so bad at understanding the strangers we come across. By looking at some stories from world history and recent news, you\u2019ll begin to understand the strategies people use to translate the words and intentions of strangers. You\u2019ll begin to see where those strategies came from. And, you\u2019ll begin to notice the patterns by which those strategies fail.<\/strong> 
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Two Puzzles<\/strong> of Cort\u00e9s and Montezuma<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are two major puzzles about interacting with strangers, like the interaction of <\/strong>Cort\u00e9s and Montezuma, that this book will attempt to answer. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Why can\u2019t we identify when a stranger is lying to our face?<\/li>
  2. Why does meeting a stranger face-to-face sometimes make it harder to make sense of that person than it would be without meeting them at all? <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Three Answers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The problem at the heart of the two puzzles is that people assume that they can make sense of others based on relatively simple strategies. But when it comes to strangers, nothing is as simple as it seems, as we’ve seen with Cort\u00e9s and Montezuma. 
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    There are three major strategies that people use to make sense of strangers:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. People default to truth<\/a>.<\/li>
    2. People assume transparency.<\/li>
    3. People neglect coupled behaviors<\/a>. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      These three strategies ultimately fail because they operate under the assumption that simple clues are enough evidence of a stranger\u2019s internal thoughts or intentions. The meeting of Cort\u00e9s and Montezuma shows why they often result in failed interactions with strangers. 
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      Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      In our modern, seemingly borderless world, we have no choice but to interact with strangers, which started, effectively, with Cort\u00e9s and Montezuma. Yet we, as a society, are incompetent at making sense of the strangers we come across. So what should we do?  <\/em>
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      If our society is to avoid failed interactions between strangers, we must learn to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n