The slave trade increased the power and complexity of many African states.

The Atlantic slave trade was Africa's first experience of slavery

Africans demonstrated enormous solidarity with other Africans in their attempts to avoid enslavement. 

Africans were quite passive in their response to the prospect of being enslaved.

to the King of Spain, who had asked for an accurate account of the conquest of Mexico

to his wife, to show his bravery and reassure her that he was safe

to Diego Velázquez, Governor of Cuba, who had sent him to Mexico

to the King of Spain, to justify Cortés's own actions and to try to undermine Velázquez. 

Such histories incorrectly assume that the

Spanish and the Mexicans were fatally divided by mutual incomprehension and

emphasise ‘unassuageable otherness’ above cross-cultural dialogue

It focusses too heavily on the superiority of

the Conquistadors over the Mexican peoples, and ignores the role played by

introduced European diseases

This history is fundamentally sound, but fails

when it attempts to extrapolate wider political and moral lessons from the

conquest of Mexico

It relies on flawed understandings of the

original source material because it fails to critically read sources like

Cortes’ letters to King Charles and the Florentine Codex

To show that their warriors had fought bravely.

To show that Moctezoma was no longer revered by the Mexicans.

To try to make sense of the Spaniards' actions

They wanted to emphasise the horror of the event.

a ‘biological exchange’ that

included the transfer of indigenous plants, animals, metals, ideas, religion and

diseases between the New World and the Old.

a ‘biological exchange’ that included the

transfer of horses, pigs, cattle, turkeys, goats and sheep to the New World,

while the Old World received coffee, sugar, tomatoes, llamas, alpacas and wild

pigs

a ‘biological exchange’ that

included the transfer of indigenous plants, animals and diseases between the

New World and the Old.

a ‘biological exchange’ that refers to the

traffic of slaves between Africa, the Old World and the New.