Mexico American Conquest

Before the 15th century, the Indians in the Americas were not connected with the world and would remain that way until Columbus's exploration. In the beginning of 15th century, the Aztecs were the dominant group in Mesoamerica leaded by Montezuma, the last leader, before the Spanish conquest. In 1519, Hernan Cortez led the Spanish mission to explore and conquer the New World. This paper will compare three primary sources about this event. First, an informing letter sent from Cortez to King Charles V, the king of Spain. Second, the Broken Spears which is an Indian recollection about the conquest of Mexico. Lastly, Bernal Diaz’s (one of Cortez’s men) account was written by him to share his experience with Aztec

The Conquest of Mexico and the conversion of the peoples of New Spain can and should be included among the histories of the world, not only because it was well done but because it was very great. . . . Long live, then, the name and memory of him [Cortés] who conquered so vast a land, converted such a multitude of men, cast down so many men, cast down so many men, cast down so many idols, and put an end to so much sacrifice and the eating of human flesh! —Francisco López de Gómara (1552)

     In 1519 Hernán Cortés led a couple hundred other Spaniards inland to the impressive Empire of the Mexica ruled by the Great Montezuma. Many historians today tell how quickly and almost effortlessly these Spaniards conquered the Empire. They paint an image of ignorant, helpless Indians practically giving up their land out of fear of this group because certainly the Spaniards must be gods since they have powerful weapons and strange animals. We know neither Cortés nor any of his men were gods, of course, but what was it that allowed Cortés to prevail over the inhabitants of the land?

In the 16th century Spaniards Herman Cortes and Christopher Columbus set out on endeavoring journeys in search of new worlds. Christopher Columbus encountered, in the Caribbean islands, a group of extremely simplistic Native Americans. Herman Cortes however encountered a much more advanced Native American group in Meso America; we formally know this area to be Mexico. In my essay I will be comparing and contrasting several aspects between both of these Native American Civilizations including sophistication, technology, housing, weapons, religion and their reaction to the Spaniards. Letters written by Columbus and Cortes will be used to make these comparisons.

In the first half of the sixteenth century, The Spaniards launched a Camping Lead by Hernando Cortes to conquer Mexico. The Spanish campaign started in February 1519, and was declared victorious in August 1521. Nevertheless, a whole empire was demolished in only two and a half years. It was true that the Spaniards were greatly outnumbered by the Aztecs. However, with the Spanish military superiority, diseases unintentional brought from Europe and with the right alliances Captain Herndon Cortes managed to succeed in taking the Aztec Empire

The first element that gave Spaniards an advantage was brought by their own people. Pizarro’s men were not the first to have come to the Americas. These previous Europeans had brought deadly infectious diseases, such as influenza, measles, and typhus, with them that spread from tribe to tribe and killed 95% of the Native American population faster than the conquistadors. Smallpox had been the specific infection that caused the death an Inca emperor, his court, and his heir. Because of this, a civil war for the control of the leaderless Incas caused separation between Atahuallpa and his allies which proves how disease transmitted to peoples lacking immunity by invaders with immunity decreased populations and aided the Spanish conquistadors take over.

The Mexican Cession refers to America’s expansion due West to the Pacific River that would lead to the Mexican-American War, and Mexico would ultimately cede land to the growing United States. Reasons for the expansion can be related to America’s mentality of manifest destiny. People believed that even God himself had blessed the country for expansion and this only added fuel to what soon would lead to advancing uncharted territory. Conditions throughout were strong, but America had an expedition and a mission to uphold that would make the United States a world power for decades to come.

Since of the history is only written by the winners and contains bias, the views of “other side” are barely recaptured. As this suggest, the credibility of some historical events taken from one perspective can be questioned. Therefore, the majority of the histories can be considered as incomplete in the view of the fact that only unilateral views from the winning side were being shown. As a matter of fact, the conquest of Mexico has always been one of the historical events that lots of historians like to talk about. Along with the book Victors and Vanquished, Stuart B. Schwartz has carefully provided readers with the perspectives from both Spanish and the Nahua on the fall of Aztec and allowed us to interrogate the real history behind.

The defeat of the Native Mexicans (or Aztecs) can be believed to have verified the Spanish that they had political and social superiority over all Indigenous Americans. However, the idea of superiority is subjective and the views of both parties involved about the colonisation of New Mexico will be noted. Although the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan were conquered by Hernando Cortes and his Spanish army there is a great amount of evidence to support the idea that it was not a simple feat. In the case of Cortes’ conquest we are offered the opinion that the Spanish were justified in colonizing and dominating Mexico. In saying that, the views of the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan and other surrounding Aztec societies should be taken into consideration when assessing the validity of the previous statement.

The Conquest of Mexico began with rumors in Spain about an island in the new world that where streets were built on water and filled castles with filled with gold. The city at the root of the rumors was Tenochtitlan, ruled by Moctezuma II. Cortés begins his journey to conquer Mexica in February 1519. The first major Battle was the Cholula Massacre, where Cortés along with translator Dona Marina and the Tlaxcalans he had persuaded to join him defeated the Cholulans; As Cortés sets his sights on the city surrounded by water, Tenochtitlan, word of his arrival had reached Moctezuma, who prepared for the arrival of what he believed was the sovereign God of Tenochtitlan; Moctezuma realized far too late the grave mistake he made in welcoming Cortés

Miguel Leon-Portilla author of Broken Spears- The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, tells the story of the Spanish conquest over the Aztecs from the Aztec point of view. It is more familiar in history that the Spanish led by Hernan Cortez defeated the Aztecs with a powerful army and established an easy victory all while having intentions to gain power and greed. However, Leon-Portilla focuses on the Aztec Empire and their story. Leon-Portilla does a great job giving readers the real occurrences and events from Aztec members. This paper argues that history must be told from all sides. It is more common to hear about the Spanish conquest

As the Aztecs were only affiliated with other cultures similar to their own, they were not in contact with many diseases. Thus when Cortes arrived to Mexico wanting to convert the Aztecs he brought foreign diseases into their empire killing the Aztecs. Even though this was a fairly poor reason, it reduced the Aztec population by a considerable amount. Due to the Spanish growing resistance to the diseases mainly polio and small pox, it posed no direct threat to Cortes’ men. Thus dispirited the Aztecs as this unknown plague killed their own and spared the Spaniards, portraying that the Spaniards were invincible. However, the downside to the diseases is that it also killed and weakened Cortes’ own Indian allies’ to equal extent as the Aztecs,

     After the initial conquest of Mexico and South America it was time to develop the

When Cortes and his men arrived in Tenochtitlan, they were well received. The Moctezuma could have ordered their death as soon as they arrived but instead the provided them with servants to meet their every need. The believed that the arrival of the Spanish, especially Cortes and his men was an omen. The god Quetzalcoatl was supposed to return to destroy the Aztecs and that’s why Moctezuma sent gifts to the spanish when they arrived in Veracruz. They felt the need to show respect. Other leaders encouraged Moctezuma to kill outside yet they refused to.

Due to the native’s total isolation from the rest of the civilized world, they had been prevented from developing immunities against many devastating diseases. These diseases were carried into the country unaware by the conquistadors from Europe and Africa. For example, smallpox reached Espanola by 1518 and was carried to New Spain in 1520. It then moved through Central America and entered Peru by 1527. Wherever the disease passed, it left a detrimental death toll in its wake. There are many accounts of villages that lost half or more of their population, some even lost as high as 90% of their population. Many more disease continued to slowly decimate the natives, such as measles typhus, influenza, yellow fever, malaria diphtheria and the bubonic plague. Within the next 100 year of disease, the native’s population became less than 10% what it was in the