Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire

depression. With Rome, we saw how increasingly futile wars and conquests drained the resources of the empire, until angry mobs were stampeding the streets and the barbarians ransacked the city. In a more recent nation, the Soviet Union, the whole world watched in shock as it collapsed, the rot in it’s political system finally breaking down the supposed unity and cohesion of the nation. The Aztecs lost powerful allies in the fight against the Spanish due to their harsh sacrificial system, and it…

North and South America were unknown to Europeans in the year 1491, yet in 1550 Spain, an empire less than a hundred years old, was in control of majority of the two continents (Walbert, 2007). The theme of conquest is prominent in the making of the Hispanic world. Much of its history is focussed on the conquest of other lands, as shown by the financing of Columbus’ first and later voyages by the Catholic monarchs. However, it is also shown in Columbus’ letter to the Monarchs in 1493 that…

What internal forces led to the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of the Americas? What internal factors led to the English conquest of the Americas? The first inhabitants found in the Americas by the Europeans, were the Tainos. When the Spanish had realized that the population ranged in millions of the Tainos, they quickly subdued them and turned them into a captive labor force. The Spanish had been conquering the Americas for three decades, almost exterminating the native Caribbean people.…

The downfall of the Aztec Empire in the 1500s was brought about by a very bloody and ruthless conquest orchestrated by Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés. Central America was devastated by the aggression of the European invaders who were ransacking every town for their valuables and subjugating the populace. Much of what is known about the events that unfolded comes from primary sources written by the Spanish participants or the stories written by the native Nahua people a generation or…

rule over the Aztecs their rule expanded across the continent. During this expansion they also began building over the Aztec empire creating the brand new city Mexico City by building directly over the ruins of the Aztecs old empire. Even during the expansion of new spain their production was slowed by resistance from the indigenous people and resistance from the land. But even with these obstacles the spaniards “New Spain” was still the richest and most popular of all the spanish colonies.…

second cousin to Francisco Pizarro, who conquered the Incan empire in modern-day Peru. In 1506, for his participation in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba, Cortez was granted a large estate as well as some native slaves. Cortez first served as a soldier in an expedition of Cuba led by Diego Velázquez in 1511, but he ignored those orders and traveled to Mexico with about 500 men and 11 ships in 1519. He explored for Spain and found the Aztecs. He wanted to…

The Aztecs is a book in which it illustrates the history of the Aztecs and timeline of events in which lead to the fall of its once powerful empire. The book gives the basic background of the Aztecs culture, civilization, and the evolution of the empire while giving the history of the different emperors that reigned. As stated in this excerpt from the book, “The Aztecs rulers were not abject supplicants, fearing a punitive deity, but active agents performing an essential role in the change of…

Mexica. (Owensby Empire 24). The Spaniards did not find an empty continent, they found an advanced and organized civilization. At the root of this civilization was the altepetl: a decentralized, cellular, coercive labor system. Each “cell” had a king, a market and a temple. Altepetl’s were organized into smaller calpollis, which had their own king, market and temple. Tribute from coercive labor flowed from calpolli, to altepetl, to the Tlatoani (king).…

misinterpretation through the Jesuit Relations, disease and medicine among Indians, diplomacy and war, and Jesuits’ experience of exploring the Mississippi. On the other hand, “Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest”, the author, Matthew Restall presents this book as a seven-part structure, and the writer insists that multiple Conquest history turned in myths because of…

Spaniards under the command of Cortez and Pizarro that ousted the Aztec and Inca empires. We also know of the horrid details of how the Europeans gained control of the new world and the other parts of the Americas. But in a smaller scope there are several facts and myths associated with the formation of the new world. In the book Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest by Matthew Restall, Restall aims to analyze several myths involved in the Spanish colonization of the new world that people accept…