dimension of the myth in the colonial conquest

The aztec and baulé peoples

Abstract

In the colonial conquests, religious beliefs played important roles. Sometimes, religious expansion was the reason evoked. Some examples are the islamic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula and Spain’s evangelizing mission in the New World. If this role of religious beliefs in favor of colonial conquests is well known, it is not the case with the place of the religious myths of the conquered peoples in their defeat against the conquering nations. This paper analyzes this dimension of the conquests through two myths: the myth of Quetzalcóatl among the aztecs in Mexico and the myth of the blôlô or afterlife among the baulé in the Ivory Coast. The aim is to propose from the vision of the aztecs and baulé, a reading of defeat based on the belief in these myths. In other words, it is a question of showing how easily these beliefs made the conquest of the respective peoples possible.