The Spanish conquest of the Americas started in 1492 after Christopher Columbus found the new land under the crown of Spain. The Spanish explored and conquered most of the land in what is present day South America, Central America and Mexico. The expeditions most notable leaders were Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro. The Spanish fought many different tribes in the Americas, such as the Inca empire and the Aztec empire. What made this conquest of the new land even possible, were the vast advantages the Spanish had compared to the native tribes of the land. The Spanish had better technology than the natives of the land, along with the carrying of diseases, and having very good diplomacy skills. These advantage overall led to the downfall of the natives and the success of the conquistadors. The Spanish came to the land with technology new to the native tribes. One technology advancements were the swords carried by the Spanish Soldiers. “The conquistadors who swept through the New World were armed with steel swords.” The Spanish came to the New World with steel, a material the native tribes have not used or perhaps seen until the conquest. These swords had a devastating effect on the tribes as it could easily cut through the light garments the natives were accustomed to wearing. Along with swords came armor, “the latest forging techniques were used to create the strongest, sturdiest, lightest and most flexible armor.” This armor would prove to be very useful in
Firstly, Blackhawk discusses the rise of the Spanish nations and how it was one of the first things to effect the Native Indians from trade to needing warfare supplies like rifles and ammunition. However this did not last long as Blackhawk goes into depth about how slavery has played a very large role into their economies. This also ties into another main concept in this book and it is about how the Indians have played a major role no matter what is was in the rise and fall of each of these nations. In the text (The Last Years of the Ute-Comanche Alliance pg.45-46) Blackhawk discussed how New Mexican’s started to take native Indians as slaves. Which is the start of many major hardships they encounter over this period of time.
The Spanish superiority over the Indigenous people ended when they needed to travel along the coast by creating rafts for transportation, at the cost of their weapons. The way they interacted with the Indigenous people completely changed, instead of conquering they had to rely on them to survive. Eventually the castaways became traveling healers who passed from village to village using their skills and higher knowledge to cure the sick/ wounded. Before the castaways, their ways of healing comprised of mainly praying and blowing into the sick mouths of people, which we know doesn’t really work. Now that they were helping the indians instead of conquering them, they were treated with respect and were given shelter, food, and even gifts.
The author gives insight on how many ways the Spaniards used their power to assist in the downfall of the Aztecs. The reason why the Spaniards became victorious, was because the Spaniards were looked upon as if they were gods because of their outer appearance. The Aztecs broke bread and welcomed the Spaniards with gifts and parties. The Aztecs triggered their relationship with the Spaniards by holding a ritual for the arrival of the god which included a human sacrifice. The Spaniards didn’t agree with the rituals and began to despise the Aztecs.
The Native Americans were seen as weak willed, for they barely resisted the conquest of their homes. If the Native Americans showed no incentive of retaliating and were better at manual work, it seemed natural to the Spanish that they be enslaved. The Native Americans, on the other hand, saw the Spanish in a different light as well as they watched many Spaniards become obsessed with gold. The Spanish were given Gold as gifts and went crazy just holding it and lusting for more, like savage monkeys. The Spanish, by nature, couldn’t help but become greedy monsters for gold, because in Europe riches were equivalent to power.
When thinking of the Spanish Conquest, two groups often come to mind: the Spaniards and the Native Americans. The roles of each of these groups and their encounters have been so heavily studied that often the role of Africans is undermined. As Matthew Restall states in his article Black Conquistadors, the justifications for African contribution are often “inadequately substantiated if not marginalized [as the] Africans were a ubiquitous and pivotal part of the Spanish conquest campaigns in the Americas […]” (Restall 172). Early on in his article, Restall characterizes three categories of Africans present during the Conquest – mass slaves, unarmed servants of the Spanish, and armed auxillaries (Restall 175).
Trade can be seen as a positive side. The Spanish brought goods such as gun powder, sugar, horses, steel, and farming machinery and more. In return the Latin American natives introduced tobacco, potatoes, tomatoes, turkey and corn. The natives were taught new skills in trade and even architecture using the new materials. Although this may initially be viewed as positive, the Spanish soon began to take advantage and exploit the natives.
The Europeans were able to conquer the Americas because even though it was by “accident,” they were still more prepared for what was to come. Jared Diamond calls the European “accidental conquerors.” Diamond calls his theory geographical luck and concludes that the only way the Europeans were able to dominate the Americas was because of the way the ocean patterns happened to flow. The geographical wind patterns caused the ships to sail towards the Incas and the Aztecs and when the Europeans arrived they tried to conquer the Aztecs and Incas, they succeed for a number of reasons. One reason that they were able to conquer the Americas was because of their technological advances.
The Spanish and Portuguese two vast empires that took over the New World and made it their own for over three hundred years. Spain and Portugal were able to maintain their empire for over three hundred years due to the following resources and advantages. Financial stability, military superiority, and slavery, which both utilized in order to dominate the new world. In the age of exploration as Spain and Portugal were shipping out famous explores such as Christopher Columbus, Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, Pedro Alvares Cabral, and Ferdinand Magellan.
Spain began to introduce new foods into Mexican cuisine, such as wheat, meats, and olive oil. Spain was able to take techniques from mexican cuisine and blend it into their own. Native americans were also looked as like lower class people. Higher social groups like the europeans were trying to convert Native Americans to act and become civilized. Civilized meaning participating in traditions that the Spanish did.
In contrast, the Spanish were able to conquer the Aztecs and Incas much quicker. Some of this was due to help they received from other groups of Natives and the situations that were present in these societies when the Spanish arrived. Most of this was due to the debilitating effects European diseases had on Native Americans. Another difference between the two groups’ interactions is the different ways the Africans and Native Americans reacted to the Europeans’ presence. Since the Americas had been isolated from the rest of the world before 1492, they did not know how to react to the arrival of the Europeans and were frightened by how different they were.
The Spanish conquest on the Mayans was a significant event during the 1500’s. The Spanish conquest brought their military equipment’s that was no match for the Mayan Indians. As the conquest continued to expand throughout Central America there was little unity among other tribes beside the Mayan empire. The reason for this is because they believe that the Spanish were much inferior to their own beliefs and ancestry.
Using war equipment that the Aztec had never seen before and different battle techniques, Cortes and his men were able to quickly and effectively conquer Tenochtitlan. During battle against the Aztecs, animals from Spain that served in many battles called horses (about twelve), as well as swords and crossbows (a much more advanced version of the Aztec war club and spear-thrower) were labelled as advanced technology as they were quicker, deadlier, and consequently more efficient. These many advantages against the Aztecs and their traditional weapons; and therefore the Spaniards won many battles alongside their allies, and succeeded greatly by using guns that were far more powerful than the Aztecs' weapons. Unfair as it is, this gave the Spanish explorer a supremacy in conquering one of the most elaborate European cities at the time. “The Aztecs were unable to rebel against the Spaniards because most of them were sick or dead from smallpox.
When the Europeans came over, they brought diseases and wars which caused the Native American populations have a sharp decline. This happened because the diseases were killing off millions of Natives while wars between the Native Americans and Europeans cause more Natives to be killed because the weapons that the Europeans had were more advanced than the Native American weapons. This allowed for Europeans to come to the Americas and colonize without much issue because of the lack of Native Americans that were trying to stop
The history behind the New World in which we know of today as America contracts around the brawl of England, Spain and France as countries that tried to conquer this continent. People from all around crossed the oceans like the Atlantic for example to come and try to start a new way of life on this continent. These new comers all had their own and different reasons and purposes on why they were headed to the New World, from government all the way to their living conditions. They also tried to bring their own governments to this continent and they all had different approaches to their colonies and their effort to become what they wanted to be. All of the various accusations of what was to be done and what should be done brought fate to towards the New World.
The Spaniards made a big impact in the Americas. They killed many Incas,Tainos, and Aztecs. These populations lost many including their emperors. On the Spaniard 's side they had power by killing Atahualpa and Montezuma they could create colonies and take riched back to their country. The Spaniards weren 't the only ones to look for riches in the New World.