Zinn focuses the written work on the unnecessary violence expressed by different conquistadors and the way that other sources portray the events in a less than factual way. The conquistadors were led by their desire for treasures and grew increasingly lazy and cruel as they stayed in the America’s. Their stay had affected the way that they think and do things everyday because they had the “indians” at their every beck and call. To achieve the submissive actions of the Natives the conquistadors has taken advantage of their hospitality by having them lead them to the gold and punished them to death. This cruelty is what lead to the mass genocide of a single community of people.
The conquistadors were no heroes. By the early 1500’s, the Spanish were already conquering more land by killing more natives for gold and greed. The conquistadors first conquered the Great Antilles islands, particularly Hispaniola. When the conquistadors came, the natives were passive and peaceful, accepting the new culture
In 1532, only three other members of the original expedition were still alive, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, Andres Dorantes de Carranca, and Estevan, an African slave. Together with Cabeza de Vaca, they headed west and south hoping to reach the Spanish Empire 's outpost in Mexico, becoming the first men of the Old World to enter the American West. Their route is not clear, but they apparently traveled across present day Texas, perhaps into New Mexico and Arizona and through Mexico 's northern provinces. In July 1536, near Culiacan in present day Sinaloa, they finally encountered a group of fellow Spaniards.
The Spanish American war was a product of Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis and the urbanization of America. In 1895, a rebellion broke out in Cuba, as Cuban patriots wanted independences from Spain. Through the yellow journalism, reports of Spain’s cruel military tactics lead to a public uproar in the U.S. However, most of these stories were exaggerated as a form to promote war. After an American battleship, the USS Maine, was destroyed, America was “forced” to start war and stop Spanish occupation.
However, it is important to note that while important, the advantage given by horses was by no means absolute. The Mexica forces were able to utilize numerous tactics to lessen the impact of the horses. One of these was the establishment of blockades which were defended by Mexica warriors with lances. Another tactic that the indigenous forces utilized was attempting to pull the Spaniards off of their horses by grabbing their lances or legs. An account of this tactic’s success can be found within the Florentine Codex wherein it discusses the Mexica forces successfully pulling a Spaniard off of his horse and killing him.
The Aztec Empire was conquered by the Spanish in 1519 so quickly and rapidly that the Aztec people were left with devastating effects. When the Spanish went to invade the Aztecs they were ready, they had strong steel swords that didn 't break easily and they had cannons and guns as well. But sadly the Aztecs weren 't as rich as the Spanish and only had wooden spears, wooden clubs and wooden and leather shields which could break easily and were no match for the
The Aztecs who were most likely introduced as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, and reached Mesoamerica around the start of the 13th century. From their superb capital city, Techochtitlan, the Aztecs appeared as the superior force in central Mexico developing a complex, social, political, religious and profitable organization that brought many of the regions city-states under their control by the 15th
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).
The most obvious is the shier size and composition difference. The Aztec force stood 300,000 warriors versus 700 Spanish infantrymen, 86 cavalrymen, and 118 crossbowmen were comprised of volunteers and adventurers, and over 50,000 Native Americans allied forces (Davis, 1999, p. xx). Aztec obsidian clubs and bows and arrows proved no match for the emerging technology armored infantrymen and cavalry of the Europeans.
Finally, the Conquest did not lead to native desolation. Restall’s arguments about the identity of conquistadors and the nature of the Conquest culminate into his final point about the “myth of superiority.” He points out that the Spanish conquistadors’ success was not due to technological or cultural superiority. Rather, factors such as disease, weaponry, and disunity among natives aided the Spanish in their success. Restall and Diamond’s arguments overlap in that they use weaponry and disease to explain the success of white colonizers over natives.
Before the fight even began, it was clear that the Spaniards had a big advantage and would come out on top. It states in the text, “Immediate reasons for Pizarro’s success included military technology based on guns, steel weapons, and horses; infectious diseases endemic in Eurasia; European maritime technology; the centralized political organization of European states; and writing” (Diamond 78). While striking the Indian villages, Governor Pizarro’s troops were easily able to kill off many people because of their new technology and weapons that they created for themselves. Instead of having stone, bronze, or wooden clubs, maces, and hand axes that would easily crack under pressure, the Spaniards created steel swords, lances, and daggers that were able to swiftly
While many worldviews exist, The fall of the Aztec empire was unavoidable. The Aztec’s were a group of people who were very religious and lived in Mexico for hundreds of years but one day a group of Spanish people arrived and executed all of the Aztec people. Many of them died from diseases the spanish brought with them like small pox. The others were killed by the spanish and some were taken to spain as slaves. This was led by an explorer named Hernan Cortes.
Juan Ponce De Leon was born in Santervas De Campos, Spain on 1460. Juan led a european expedition for gold and gave the state Florida its name, and went on to become the first governor of Puerto Rico. Let’s go back to his childhood, He was born in a poor but noble family, became a soldier and fought against the Moors in Granada. Ponce De Leon was known for his hard work, ambitiousness, and ruthlessness. He is also known for when he built a small financial empire that helped advance spanish colonization in the Caribbean.
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.
European explorers and conquistadors during the age of exploration were motivated by three things: God, gold and glory. The two most prominent of the three between 1492 and 1607 were gold and glory. Beginning in 1492 gold motivated many explorers, from Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the New World to the Virginia Company’s colonization of America. Gold is a symbol for wealth, and many explorers soon realized the New World’s potential for wealth. The Spanish’s interest in wealth inspired Columbus’s expedition in the first place, as he was sent to India to trade for spices.
