The 500-year-old wounds of the Spanish conquest were ripped open afresh on Monday when Mexico's president urged Spain and the Vatican to apologise for their 'abuses' - a request Madrid said it 'firmly rejects.'
MEXICO CITY - The 500-year-old wounds of the Spanish conquest were ripped open afresh on Monday when Mexico's president urged Spain and the Vatican to apologise for their "abuses" - a request Madrid said it "firmly rejects."
He made the remarks in a video, filmed at the ruins of the indigenous city of Comalcalco and posted on Facebook and Twitter. "The arrival, 500 years ago, of Spaniards to present Mexican territory cannot be judged in the light of contemporary considerations," it said. With the help of horses, swords, guns and smallpox - all unknown in the New World at the time - Cortes led an army of fewer than 1,000 men to defeat the Aztec empire, the start of 300 years of Spanish rule over Mexico."Thousands of people were murdered during this period. One culture and civilisation imposed itself on another," he said later in a speech.
According to a government study, 98% of Mexicans have some combination of indigenous, European and African ancestry.
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