Passage
As the most powerful political force in Mexico at the time of the sixteenth-century Spanish conquest, the
Aztecs were the subject of much study. Thanks to both Spanish authors and to surviving Aztec
manuscripts, much is known about Aztec religious beliefs, including death and burial rites. Aztecs believed
that the way a person died partly determined his or her afterlife: for example, it was believed that the souls
of warriors who fell in battle followed the sun to its zenith in the sky, then onward to a celestial paradise.
Question
Why does the author mention "Spanish authors" (sentence 2)?
To show that Spanish religious beliefs differed from those of the Aztecs
To provide some background on an important literary movement
To compare them with the writers of Aztec manuscripts
To explain where some of our knowledge about the Aztecs comes from