How Did European Conquer The Aztecs

As stated in “History of Mexico: 2” documentary film by History Channel, the Spanish believed it was their responsibility to save the souls of the natives by converting them to Christianity. Even thought the natives were forced to convert, the natives eventually accepted Catholicism into their everyday life, creating a mixture of cultures and eventually a mixing of heritages known as “Mestizo”.

The Spanish conquistadores were sent out to convert foreigners into Catholicism, though they did no such thing. The natives welcomed the Spanish with open arms when they arrived. They also were compliant with the Spanish and were incredibly generous. The Spanish took advantage of the hospitality and that allowed them easier access to almost fully eliminate the natives. De las Casas described it as, “During these eleven years, more than two million souls have perished and, in an area of more than a hundred leagues by a hundred leagues,only two thousand survivors are to be seen, and even this number is shrinking day to day as the survivors succumb to the rigors of a life of slavery” (de las Casas 56). They took what gold the natives had even though de las Casas said “They were among the poorest people on the face of the Earth” (de las Casas

Conquest is an extremely violent thought, to subjugate and assume control of a group of people and their land with military force. It’s hard to imagine a large following, much less countries, that support imposing brute force onto strangers. Given that conquest is violent, why did Europeans conquer the Americas as they did? The Europeans followed the belief of Christianity, which forbids such massacres and hate, how could they have conquered and killed? Many, like Jared Diamond, promote the idea that it was pure geographical luck which granted Europe easier diffusion of knowledge; metal weapons and political organization which were more advanced. However, this idea becomes problematic because it assumes that no matter the inhabitants of the more fortunate land, conquest would have happened because of predetermined facts like geography. With this argument, one could say Natives would have conquered Europeans or that they would have been able to defend from their conquest if they had the same or better geographical luck. I believe that geographic luck is not enough to enable the conquest of the Americas. I want to argue that the major reasons behind the European conquest of the Americas were largely in their motivation to gain riches to boost their economy and the justification of their conquest by disguising themselves as saviors to the Native Americans.

How was Hernan Cortes able to conquer the Aztec empire? The fall of the Aztec Empire was led by an expedition by Hernan Cortes, a Spanish conquistador, in 1521. Cortes’ time was the era of Exploration. He became engrossed with the tales of Christopher Columbus and decided to join the exploration. Which led him to travel to the Americas and triumph of the Aztec empire. Such as a prophecy, weaponry, translators, disease and allies.

Spain’s goal of spreading Catholicism was undoubtable strengthened when the Pope sanctioned all Spanish efforts. Thus, slavery of Native Americans was justified, and would liberate them in the eyes of God. In effort to prevent British protestant influence, Spain declared that Non-Spanish citizens and Non-Spanish Christians were not permitted to settle in their borders.

The European conquest of the new world was most commonly attributed to the superiority of the Europeans in all the facets of their confrontation. They had the superior weaponry, and were thought to have a superior intellect. After all, they were just bringing "civilization" to the new world, right? It sounds nice when you are learning about Columbus in grade school, but the traditional story is pretty far from the truth. The truth is that the Europeans, when they discovered this was a brand new world and not the spice islands, sought to rape the land for its gold and natural resources and enslave the Amerindians (native Americans), who were regarded to

1. I. Introduction 2. A. Cortes conquers Aztecs B. Pattern of conquest, continuity and rebuilding 1. Spanish tried to utilized Native resources similarly a. Used materials from ruins to build own houses b. Used similar forced labor system c. Allowed to follow ancient customs 1.

When Christopher Columbus entered the Americas in 1942, one of his first tasks were to deal with the Indigenous people, who, compared to the Europeans, were much less advanced. Europe began waging wars of conquest to get resources for trade, and missionaries were brought in to teach the Indigenous people Christianity. Although some Europeans viewed the civilizing of the Native Americans and the new World necessary and just, many others believed that taking dominance over their culture was wrong.

Mexico was one of the main points of the conquistadors’ conquest. Mexico was home to two of the biggest Pre-Colombian civilizations, the Aztecs and the Mayans. The Mayans and Aztecs both faced the wrath of the conquistadors, as they were both conquered very easily due to the Spanish’s advanced weaponry. After conquering the natives, the Spanish would rule over that land for anout 300 years. This new ruling came with new foods, races, animals, and changes that effected the natives.

The Spanish Conquistadors were deeply religious and wanted to spread their Christian values and beliefs across the new lands they had discovered. Document 1 records a proclamation read in Spanish to the Aztecs in 1512. The Spaniards

The reason America was discovered in the first place was because Columbus was looking for a water route to Asia. Columbus was sailing to avoid the tax and unfriendliness of the Ottoman empire. When Columbus realized that he was not in Asia and instead was in an whole new world basically, he sent captured indians back the Pope to show him that the Natives could be used for labor. After this, many conquistadors flooded to America looking for wealth and profit. Some well known conquistadors we're Hernan Cortes, who took over the Aztec Empire and all of their wealth and sent it back to Europe. Francisco Pizarro was an conquistador who dominated the Incas and sent the gold and silver back to Europe. Many other Spanish people saw the wealth was brought back and thought they could get in on the loot also. Colonization boomed after wealth came back to Spain. Another example of why wealth was an motivator for colonization is the population increase in Europe. Since more people we're being born, landlords we're profiting off lending land to serfs. With all the money the landlords we're gaining, they wanted to spend that money on new, luxurious items such as cotton and sugar. Since the demand for these products we're high, more and more people flooded to America to gain the new exotic items that we're not previously available. Both religious conversion and desire for wealth had an significant impact on the lives of Native Americans and

While the Spanish conquered the New World, there were a couple of approaches used to approach the cultures already present. There were those who focused on getting rich using whatever means they could. And those who valued the natives and the land and believed they weren’t as different as was first believed.

One motive for the Europeans to take the American territory was to gain an economic strength through the use of colonization. When the Europeans first stumbled upon the Americas, they saw thousands of miles of pure, fertile land. Mentioned in Christopher Columbus’s letter to Luis de Sant Angel, the many sea ports along the East Coast of Northern America made it easy to infiltrate. Along with the discovery of items such as corn and tobacco, which were easily tradable and could grow on either continent. When the Europeans came to the New World, they did one of two things; used the land and forced trade, or destroyed it.

At first, I was so excited about traveling to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. This city is located on a tiny island in the center of Lake Texcoco. When the other soldiers and I arrived there, we met the Aztec people and learned a great deal about them. I learned what the life of an Aztec child was like. The Aztec people believed that their children belonged to the gods from the day they were born. The boys were taught to be warriors and the girls were taught how to do housework. Boys who were rich attended school. It was also interesting to learn that the Aztecs have two calendars. One calendar was for religious rituals; it had 260 days. The other was a seasonal calendar with 365 days. They also had a writing

that this continent existed, the race to inhabit land had begun. Spain sent several conquistadors to start building a large Spanish empire. The Americas were conquered because the Spanish explorers that arrived in the New World killed several Native Indians because they saw them as a threat. Instead of sharing the land, the spanish destroyed Native empires and created their own.