The Spanish conquest of the Inca in the 1500s A.D. was an event that significantly changed the peoples of South America by leading to the decline of the Inca Empire. This essay discusses why in the last millennium the Europeans were the people who were able to conquer so many of the world’s great civilizations and control so much of the world. While there were other Europeans that conquered other groups of people, this essay focuses on the Spanish and the Incas. Motivation to conquer and ability to do so (such as steel and immunity to diseases) are the key aspects in Europeans gaining power of much of the world that this essay discusses. The motivation of the European explorers was extremely important for European colonization and Spanish victory. In addition to the desire for power, land, and wealth, the Spanish had a religious motivation for colonization. At a general level, they wanted to spread Christianity, and at a more particular level they were angry at the way that the Bible was treated by the Inca- having Atahualpa, an Inca leader, throwing it on the ground. The Bible was very meaningful for the Spanish because it was what their whole life was based on. Had Atahualpa thrown some random book on the ground, or even harmed the man who gave him the Bible, the …show more content…
Incas were not immune to diseases like the Spanish were. For example, the impact of smallpox on the Incas was extremely fatal: While only 5% of the Incas who died were killed (e.g., getting shot or stabbed), 95% of the Incas who died did so because of diseases, mostly smallpox. This is important because the Spanish had brought a secret weapon with them which helped wipe out all of the Inca. Smallpox killed much of the Incas, which would have been harder to kill than let them die of disease. If smallpox and other diseases had not affected the Incas, then the Spanish might not have gained control over the Inca territory
Anais Nin once said that “we write to taste life twice: in the moment and in retrospection.” In his book, Seven Myths of Spanish Conquest, Matthew Restall tries to change our perception of the past in other to open our eyes to what life was really like during the colonial period. As Restall puts it, the main propose of the book is to “illustrate the degree to which the Conquest was a far more complex and protracted affair” (p.154) than what was supposed in the latters and chronicles left by the conquistadores. Each one of Restall’s chapters examines one of seven myths regarding the mystery behind the conquest. By doing so, Matthew Restall forces us to look back at the Spanish conquest and question
The passage from Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s The True History of the Conquest of New Spain is a clear example of a narrative source. Díaz is presenting his personal account of Hernan Cortes’s expedition into Tenochtitlan. An interesting aspect of this narrative is that it was written almost 50 years after the events described occurred . Bernal Díaz del Castillo was only 24 years old when on November 8, 1519 he and the rest of Hernán Cortés’s expedition first entered the city of Tenochtitlán . He did not finish his account, titled The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, which many suspect was intended as a slight to Francisco López de Gómara’s accounts of the expeditions , until 1567 . This was not his first travel to the New World, in fact, it was his fourth . Díaz del Castillo was 19 years old the first time he traveled to the Americas, this time was to Panama . Díaz later became a governor in Guatemala, mostly as a reward for his actions as a conquistador . The event that is commonly seen as spurring the not-well-educated Bernal Díaz del Castillo to write of his experiences with Cortés was the publication of Francisco López de Gómara’s Coleccion de historiadores primitivos de las Indias Occidentales, which Díaz saw as seriously flawed and underappreciating the work of the conquistadors . The book this passage comes from languished on shelves until it was published in 1632, posthumously .
Their main goal was to come to the New World and spread Christianity, and they were determined to do so. Document 1 explains that from the minute they arrived in the Americas, the Europeans were instilling their religion into the Native people through friendship and gifts. Not to mention, Document 6 states, “missions were built to help spread Christianity.” It also says, “missions and settlements helped spread European languages.” By looking at Latin America today we can see how much the Spanish and Portuguese have helped mold what it is today.
Looking back into the history of certain events affords the modern researcher the ability to examine a variety of documents and artifacts. It is important, however, to take into account biases, inaccuracies, errors in translation, and overall misinformation when examining primary sources, particularly historical documents. Examining the history of the conquest of the Aztec empire is no different, and in a scenario as tense as it was it is extremely important to consider the authorship of the text. Bernal Diaz’ The Conquest of New Spain and Miguel Leon-Portilla’s The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico offer two distinct looks into the same event in history. Both documents offer differing takes of the same events, so when
Jared Diamond's fundamental argument in Guns, Germs, and Steel is that Eurasians were able to conquer the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, and Australia because continental differences set Eurasia on a different, better trajectory than the other continents. His argument addresses a simple question: Why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents? According to the author, the most important continental differences appear in domesticable plants and animals, germs, orientation of continental axes, and ecological barriers. Throughout the book, he refers back to the "Collision at Cajamarca," or the first encounter between the Incan emperor Atahuallpa and the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, as a "broad window onto world history." The encounter is effective in capturing his argument, nam...
The Inca Empire Janos Gyarmati’s Paria la Viexa and an expanding empire: Provincial centers in the political economy of the Inca Empire proved that the Inca’s built an empire unlike any other. From 1440 to 1532 A.D., the Inca Empire dominated the Americas. Known as “the fastest growing and largest territorial empire”(Gyarmati 37) of its time, the Inca Empire left a mark with their complex, perpetual and innovative economic, road, and settlement system. The Inca’s were advanced for their time, however, they lacked a system that would guarantee the survival of their kin. In order to strive, for the long-term, the Inca’s created provincial centers that would ensure their growth and economy for the generations to come.
Two of the biggest and greatest civilization in the Americas were the Aztecs and Incas. These two civilization were both said to be conquered by the Spanish, but it wasn’t just the Spanish who conquered them. These two civilizations both fell from a combination of a weak government, lack of technology, new disease introduced by the invaders, and not being prepared for the invaders. For many centuries the Aztec civilization revolved around a ideological, social, and political system in which expansion was the cornerstone. Expansion was the cornerstone of their whole civilization, because their religion requested that a large number of human sacrifices where to be made to the gods.
Step by Step bloodshed arose from a series of actions known as The American-Spanish War. “Imperial America developed economic benefits in Cuba, and by 1894, 90% of Cuba exports went to the U.S and in return, it provided 38% of Cuban imports” (Adderson). Unfortunately, when Spain regained their interest in Cuba, they invaded, which led the Cubans to revolt. The Spaniards began putting some Cubans in concentration camps that were meant to keep them safe, but ultimately deteriorate their strength. These camps, when witnessed, described to be “impossible to forget” (Doc E), with a “complete accumulation of bodies dead and alive, so that it was impossible to take one step without walking over them” (Doc E). People in Cuba began to fight for their
The Spaniards arrived at the Americas prior to the English. The Spanish mainly wanted to explore in the first place because after the Black Death, the population increased, and thus, so did the frequency of commerce. There was a sudden new interest in new products and the new strong monarchs who sponsored the journeys wanted to be more affluent. Therefore, explorers such as Christopher Columbus attempted to go west to target Asia. However, he ended up on Cuba and called the natives Indians. The Spanish soon started to consider the Americas less of a blockage and could now see it as a source of resources. In 1518, Cortes arrived into Mexico with his group of conquistadors, or conquerors, which is a proper name because the men after gold exterminated native areas using their military skills, brutality and greed to turn the Southern America into a vast Spanish empire. The smallpox the Spanish unknowingly carried also helped wipe many people out. When they saw the religious ceremonies of the Aztecs that produced many skulls, they thought of these people as savages and not entirely human. This of coarse was quite hypocritical because the Spanish have killed before during the Inquisition for their faith. It was this contempt that made them think it was all right to slaughter the natives. Spanish colonies were established when conquistadors had gotten a license to finance the expedition from the crown to fixture encomiendas. These encomiendas were basically Indian villages that became a source of labor. The Spanish dreamed of becoming wealthier from South America, but they also wanted a profitable agricultural economy and to spread their Catholic religion (the Pueblo Indians converted to Christianity), which became very important in the 1540s.
The Spanish expansion and brutalization of the lands was not well known in Europe at the time. Even without complete knowledge, the government demanded that the native people be given a chance to convert to christianity, made aware that they fell under Spanish rule and be made aware of the laws of Spain. The Spaniards in the Americas, however, paid little but lip service to this
“The Conquest of New Spain” is the first hand account of Bernal Diaz (translated by J.M. Cohen) who writes about his personal accounts of the conquest of Mexico by himself and other conquistadors beginning in 1517. Unlike other authors who wrote about their first hand accounts, Diaz offers a more positive outlook of the conquest and the conquistadors motives as they moved through mainland Mexico. The beginning chapters go into detail about the expeditions of some Spanish conquistadors such as Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, Juan de Grijalva and Hernando Cotes. This book, though, focuses mainly on Diaz’s travels with Hernando Cortes. Bernal Diaz’s uses the idea of the “Just War Theory” as his argument for why the conquests were justifiable
Colonization in Latin America had a major effect on the Americas because the Aztecs died of the disease that the Europeans brought over though the Columbian Exchange. Since the Aztecs could not do much about the diseases that were spreading a lot of them began to die. The evidence from the pictures show that the Columbian Exchange took place during the 16th century. (doc 1). A lot of the Aztecs got sick and died. People could not do much about the diseases because they did not know what kind of disease it was. The Aztecs were also not immune to any of the disease that were spreading. Those are some reasons why the colonization in Latin America had a major effect on the Natives.
The outnumbered Spanish conquistadors were able to so easily defeat the natives of South and Central America for many reasons. These reasons include the spread of disease, the fear the Spanish spread, civil war, and the thought that Cortez was a God. The Natives were not immune to the European disease such as smallpox, influenza measles, typhus, plague, malaria, and yellow fever. This wiped out 85-90% of the Native population in 50 years. This was the largest demographic catastrophe in human history. (Document 4: The American Holocaust)
The Conquest of New Spain Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Daz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés' strategy in making Mexico "New Spain." He came as a wolf in sheep's clothing and manipulated Montezuma through his apparent innocence.
The Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire is a significant event in the Spanish colonization occurring around 1519. The Spanish conquistadors were led by Hernan Cortes. The Spanish used the Aztecs rival tribes to fight against them that aided in their victory along with slaves who drained the Aztecs water source and diseases such as smallpox that was brought upon the civilization that drastically decreased the Aztec population. Another aid in the fall of the Aztec empire was the assistance of an Aztec woman named La Malinche. La Malinche was a woman who played a major role in the Spanish conquest, she was the interpreter for Hernan Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors. She would translate either Mayan or Nahuatl language to Spanish for Cortes’