Hernan Cortes's Campaign Against Machu Picchu

From the moment Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico and began his campaign against the Aztec empire, the people of the new world were doomed to be conquered by both technological and biological means. Smallpox, a disease that had never been experienced in America before the arrival of the Europeans devastated large scale native populations. The abandonment of the famous lost city of Machu Picchu stands as a famous example of the devastation of native populations.

By 1515, the Spanish had conquered large swathes of territory in South America including the modern day Dominican Republic. In these territories administered by the Spanish Empire, slavery was a major institution (one inherited from the Romans and the Moors, previous occupants of the Iberian Peninsula). At the time of the Romans, slavery had never been about race or religion, but rather a slave was a victim of their own poor luck. When the Spanish conquered their colonies, they saw

In Spain at the time, the church had authority second only to the crown. The position of a Catholic priest was well-nigh unassailable in the world of the Spanish empire. In fact Spanish priests led the Spanish inquisition, purging society in Spain of Jews, unreligious peoples and those who disagreed with the church. A group that was capable of policing society separate from the power of the government and the monarch had a great amount of power in society and people looked up to priests as role models.

However, Friar De Las Casas with his sermons against the greed of the colonists threatened the established order of the Spanish colonies. This established order ensured the flow of money and resources to the Spanish empire, thus allowing it to grow. When Friar De Las Casas questioned the institution of slavery in the colonies and the systematic brutalities inflicted upon the natives, he was really criticizing the Spanish empire at