They would give them items such as alcohol, guns, textiles, metal tools, and pots in return for the elite furs. As the demand for furs rose, they began to corrupt the nature of animals that the Indians followed. Unknowingly the French also killed many natives through illness; the goods that the French offered to the natives carried diseases and led to the death of many Indians because of their lack of immunity. The relationship between the Spanish colonists and the Indians was a callous one and only benefited the Spanish. In the 1500s, the Spanish arrived in the New World with the intent to convert natives to Catholicism, trade, and discover riches.
The book “The Broken Spears” covers events of the Spaniards making their way into the Valley of Mexico and taking over the great city of Tenochtitlan. In contrary to the Spaniards views many of the documents featured in the book are taken from the point of view of those who actually saw the conquest of Tenochtitlan, that is, the Aztecs. The documents tell us about fear, bravery, loyalty, and courage of the Aztecs. As the Spanish traveled toward the Aztec city, news from the messengers of destroyed cities alerted others of what was to come. The Tlaxcaltecas immediately allied
Many factors influenced the conquering of the Aztec people by the Spaniards including the Aztec’s religion, Spain’s superior weapons, alliances, and disease. The first cause of the Aztec’s fall was their religion. They practiced polytheism and used human sacrifice to keep their gods happy. The Aztec’s believed their god Quetzalcoatl planned to return in human form and rule them. The Aztec people mistook Cortes and his soldiers for Quetzalcoatl.
In this case, they were, but the Aztecs did not know the best way that they captured most of the villages and told them they had to give sacrifices, and forced them to do whatever the Aztecs needed them to do. As a big empire, when you have lots of land that also splits your forces farther from each other since you have to defend that area too. It is just like the quote in Spider-Man, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Now for some tens or hundreds of villages who hated the Aztecs and would do anything to get them back, or revenge as they call it, they would join any force to rebel back against the Aztecs, and that includes the Spaniards, which the villages did later in the fight against the Aztecs. One reason tat may go against the Aztecs being a powerful empire is their leader. The Montezuma did not react to the deaths the Spaniards caused and the enemy forces the Spaniards were gathering to attack him.
The death of their ruler made a fight for the spot. After the civil war the people then spread out over many miles of land. • • The Aztecs were a little different. They were serfs; or agricultural laborers; and mercenaries. Powerful aristocrats selected new rulers from male members of the ruling ancestors.
Initially, small tribes greeted them and bestowed them with gifts, and Cortes even acquired a translator named Malinche who would play a crucial role in the downfall of her own people. As the Spaniards moved further inland towards the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, they encountered larger groups of Indians, but there was little to no resistance. The question has often been discussed of why the Aztecs did not attack the Spaniards at this point. Cortes and his men were an obvious threat, and the Aztecs could have easily raised an army that would have far outnumbered Cortes’ 500 soldiers. The answer is that the
How it affected their people and some of the surrounding people and justification by the Spanish for war against the Aztecs. Secondly, what the Aztecs believed to be the return of the god Quetzalcoatl, the Spanish conquistador, Cortes and his Spanish army. Disease played a huge part in the fall. Small pox brought upon the Spanish spread quickly to the people and no cure for the disease was known therefore leading to many deaths. Lastly, the skillful tactics used by Hernan Cortes that leads to the surrender of the last Aztec emperor.
The transformation of women in Latin America through the conquest Throughout the 15th century the Spanish conquest of the Americas changed the way of life for the indigenous people already living here. When the Spanish arrived in the Americas they witnessed something they probably thought was really strange, gender parallelism. The natives in Mesoamerica had way of life that saw women and men as different, but equal in their own manners. Women and men had different roles in life but neither was seen as dominant over the other (16, 17). As for the Spanish, they had a very patriarchy type society; men dominated the legal system, religion, and house.
Mexican War of Independence An article written by Jesus F. de la Teja, "MEXICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE," Handbook of Texas Online depicts the series of events that took place to end the Spanish rule in Mexico. There are many causes of the revolution of Mexico, some of the causes being the lack of political stability and economic reasons. Another cause of the Mexican revolution was the exploitation and mistreatment of the poor. The middle class unable to own land due to not having any wealth contributed to the political instability. Father Michael Hidalgo is considered an important figure in the history of Mexican Independence as he is the one to begin the rebellion against bad government and Spaniards.
Human sacrifice was a religious practice characteristic of pre-Columbian Aztec civilization, as well as of other Mesoamerican civilizations like the Maya and the Zapotec. The extent of the practice is debated by modern scholars. Spanish explorers, soldiers and clergy who had contact with the Aztecs between 1517, when an expedition from Cuba first explored the Yucatan, and 1521, when Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, made observations of and wrote reports about the practice of human sacrifice. For example, Bernal Díaz's The Conquest of New Spain includes eyewitness accounts of human sacrifices as well as descriptions of the remains of sacrificial victims. In addition, there are a number of second-hand accounts of human sacrifices written by Spanish friars that relate the testimony of native eyewitnesses.