Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire

During its height in 1519, the Aztec Empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf coast and from central Mexico to present-day Guatemala. The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan became a mighty metropolis with its advanced technological innovations. New technologies such as Chinampas or “floating gardens” for growing crops, aqueducts carrying fresh water, transportation canal systems, great causeways, large temples and buildings, and a coordinated administration allowed Tenochtitlan to flourish…

become. For centuries the conquest of Mexico and the fall of the Aztec empire has been a single story told through only European accounts. In The Broken Spears Miguel León-Portilla provides an account of the first arrival of European colonizers through a collection of codices authored by indigenous people. Although the validity of these accounts is often debatable, they offer another side to the story and show the similarities and differences between the Aztec and Spanish accounts due to their…

European Invasion of the Aztec Empire After Columbus discovered the New World, Europeans began to flood into the new region where they encountered many native people mistakenly referring to them as people of India hence the term Indians. These native civilizations, though seeming cut off from the rest of the world flourished with large cities and advanced technology that is still revival in today’s modern science, especially in the field of Astrology. One of the societies the Europeans…

civilizations, which led to a daunting and wholesome empire in just a short two hundred years. The Azteca are to thank for many of the world’s inventions that include grand temples, palaces, and more specifically, the aqueduct. However, upon the arrival of the Spanish invaders, the Azteca were unable to fathom some of their advanced technology and warfare tactics that eventually led to their conquest. Many different elements enabled the Spanish to defeat the Azteca, nevertheless, they can be…

factor of food, with westernised versions being featured almost everywhere from restaurants such as MadMex to fast food outlets such as Taco Bell. Mexican cuisine is a complex cuisine and also portrays the history of Mexico from the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire to African slavery in New Spain, these two events majorly influenced the food the people of Mexico eat today and also ate in the past, thus creating a cuisine that is both unique and…

This is true in many aspects of life, including in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire in 1519. What does the way the Spanish brutally took over the Aztec empire and left their remaining culture at little to nothing show about progress? It shows that progress comes at a price. That price, in my opinion, is too great to risk the loss of an entire culture. Spanish conquerors did what they set out to do. They conquered the entire Aztec empire and left them broken, and shattered into small…

The Aztec Empire was once a powerful force in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica that fell from power during the early 16th century when the Spanish arrived and began conquering the so called New world. This conquest was hastened by their advanced technology and by the introduction of foreign disease’s that the Natives did not have resistance too. What many people don’t consider though is the possibility that the Aztec’s themselves also contributed to their downfall with their own beliefs regarding human…

The Mexican codex map was made 50 years after the Spanish conquered the Aztecs in 1521. The map illustrates two Mexican towns of Tlaxcala, the traces of the Mexican native society and the influence of the Spanish conquests in these regions. The church of Saint Barbara Tamasolco and Saint Anna situated on the left and right of the map represents each of these towns. The writings on the map resulted from the combination of the local language of the natives and one taken from Spain. Also, many of…

The Aztec and Inca empires grew rapidly during the fifteenth century and were far superior than the other Indigenous groups in their land. While these two empires expanded differently they both prove to be the most power empires to have existed in Mesoamerica. The Mexica, who were the Aztecs, and Incas became powerful through their military successes, and reformed religious ideologies. While both of these empires proved to be successful in growing their empires where they both experienced power…

shared similar duties. Sundiata, by D.T. Niane, describes the journey of King Sundiata Keita’s road to become ruler of the Mali Empire. The Conquest of New Spain, by Bernal Diaz, recounts the downfall of the Aztec Empire. In the Aztec, Spanish, and Mali Empires women were portrayed as domesticated, were used as a means of creating alliances, and were idols in certain empires. These similarities were common among ancient civilizations during those times. Throughout history women were belittled…