Landa is an incredibly disturbing and complex figure.
He acted according to that medieval logic where priests sincerely believed that "destroying the physical body" (or culture in this case) was a necessary price to pay to "save the eternal soul."
We saw that same cruelty in the Caribbean, for example, when the Taíno chief Hatuey was burned alive by the Spanish in Cuba.
Landa's actions were also tragic; for example, when he burned dozens of Mayan codices during an auto-da-fé, he erased centuries of history, science, and literature that would have given us a clearer and purer understanding of their culture. He was also very biased and prone to exaggeration to justify his violence to the Spanish king.
At the same time, the geopolitics of the conquest were complex. It wasn't simply a matter of "Europeans versus Mayans." The Mayan world was deeply divided into rival city-states that practiced warfare and elite slavery among themselves. Due to these brutal pre-existing rivalries, important Mayan groups allied themselves with the Spanish forces. They used the Spanish to crush their local enemies, unaware that they were opening the door to their own colonization.
History is rarely black and white.
Landa is an incredibly disturbing and complex figure.
He acted according to that medieval logic where priests sincerely believed that "destroying the physical body" (or culture in this case) was a necessary price to pay to "save the eternal soul."
We saw that same cruelty in the Caribbean, for example, when the Taíno chief Hatuey was burned alive by the Spanish in Cuba.
Landa's actions were also tragic; for example, when he burned dozens of Mayan codices during an auto-da-fé, he erased centuries of history, science, and literature that would have given us a clearer and purer understanding of their culture. He was also very biased and prone to exaggeration to justify his violence to the Spanish king.
At the same time, the geopolitics of the conquest were complex. It wasn't simply a matter of "Europeans versus Mayans." The Mayan world was deeply divided into rival city-states that practiced warfare and elite slavery among themselves. Due to these brutal pre-existing rivalries, important Mayan groups allied themselves with the Spanish forces. They used the Spanish to crush their local enemies, unaware that they were opening the door to their own colonization.
History is rarely black and white.