Being the highly religious people that the Spaniards were, converting the Indians into Christians in order to 'save their souls' was important to them, thinking the Indians' polytheistic religion was inferior to their own. After victory in the wars that usually ensued while trying to forcefully convert the natives, the Spaniards became accustomed to receiving many gifts as peace offerings from the Caciques of the tribes. This was a major factor in lighting a fire under the Spaniards' ever-increasing greed for more gold. Based on these facts and events, along with others that I will discuss, the lust for gold was clearly of more importance to the Conquistadors than was the converting of the Indians to Christianity.

To begin, the only reason Diego Velazquez originally sends Cortes' expedition to New Spain is because previous trips, such as the one by Francisco Hernandez, had returned a great deal of gold to him. This message of a land full of riches

When the Mexico was basically conquered, and the quest for any remaining gold had been exhausted for the most part, the Spaniards planned to return home shortly. This did not come without large disagreement and jealousy among the ranks however, with many of the soldiers complaining openly that Cortes had hidden most of the treasure for himself and given the average soldier less than a hundred pesos each for their efforts. This left all the poor men who came on the journey in the hope of becoming rich just as poor as ever, if not poorer, with many large debts to pay for items and services incurred during the expedition.

Montezuma was interrogated about the location of his treasure, so in an attempt to spare his people any more harm, he gave up the entire Royal family's accumulated wealth. Although this contained many intricately crafted gold figures and jewelry, the Spaniards were merely interested in the gold's net worth, so they melted almost all of it down into stamped bars to be sent to the King. In an ensuing battle, many soldiers try to carry so much weight of treasure that they couldn't fight and drowned while crossing water, costing many of them their lives. From this point on, the Spaniards cared little anymore about convincing the Aztecs to fully commit to Christianity, and focused almost completely on defeating the Mexicans in battle and acquiring as much gold as possible for the return to Cuba and Spain.

When Cortes' group first arrived at a place called Tabasco in 1519, the Spaniards in fact made no mention whatsoever about Christianity to the natives, but only of their wishes to trade with them. The people of the land, however, only wanted the Spaniards to leave, and threatened a war if they came any nearer. This incident, like many others, ended in battle and bloodshed, with the Spaniards claiming victory.

then spread, and soon "...those settlers and soldiers who possesse

Some common words found in the essay are:
Cuba Spain, Eventually Mexicans, Indians Christians, Cempoalans Diaz, Cortes Spaniards, Francisco Hernandez, Bernal Diaz, Afterwards Caciques, Mexico City, , greed gold, christian faith, converting indians, return home, indians christianity, cortes spaniards,
Approximate Word count = 1291
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)