I agree with Jared Diamond that the geographic advantages of the Europeans made the Spanish conquistadors accidental conquerors. The geographic location of Europe enabled the countries of that time to develop the most update weaponry for that time. One other advantage came from the Chinese in the form of gunpowder and the technology from the Arabs that was used to make guns. Due to so much travel during that time diseases were spread much more quickly and allowed some of the people to build up immunity to the diseases, (Diamond). These simple factors shaped by the advantages of the different regions of Eurasia allowed a small band of Spanish conquistadors to conquer the mighty Inca Empire.
The conquistadors who invaded had a great advantage over the Inca Empire when it came to weapons, because the Spanish possessed the newest and most deadly weapons of the time. Due to Europe’s close proximity to the Fertile Crescent they were able to learn how to engineer steel to make stronger and sharper swords. Along with being in close proximity to the Fertile Crescent the Europeans also possessed writing, which enabled information to spread far more widely, more accurately, and in more detail than it could have been if transmitted by mouth, (Diamond 78). The written word also gave Pizarro records of Cortez’s battles with the Aztecs which he was able to utilize to make battle strategies that he knew would succeed in his conquests of the New World, (Diamond). In addition the written word enabled the sword smiths in Europe to create a new type of sword known as the rapier, and it was a sword meant for close hand to hand combat. This was a sword that was light weight, flexible, and durable to withstand fighting without breaki...
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...velop immunities to these diseases that would be taken to the New World, (Diamond). Eurasia was geographically blessed with a landscape and vast resources that enabled the people to thrive, develop new and advanced technology, and survive the epidemics of the Middle Ages, and it was these geographically blessed factors that enabled the Spanish to become accidental conquerors in the New World.
Works Cited
Diamond, Jared M. Guns, germs, and steel :
the fates of human societies . New York, New
York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1997. 74, 76, 78,
86-87, 91 . Print.
Diamond, Jared M., Perf. Guns, germs, and
steel . [United States] : National
Geographic: 2005, Film.
Dunnell, Tony. "Spanish Conquistador Weapons
from Sword to Guns: Spanish Medieval
Weaponry and the Conquest of the New
World ." Suite101.com 26, November 2009
: n. pag. Web. 25 Jan 2011.
The Aztec’s and the Inca’s have many similarities such as religious beliefs, and views about gods. Inca’s views about training for war are different, and the Aztec’s artifacts are somewhat different to. The farm land compared to the Inca’s is differs also, because where the Aztec’s lived the land was elevated about ten thousand feet.
Christopher Columbus and Alvez Nunez Cabeza de Vaca were both explorers for Spain, but under different rulers and different times. The more famous, Christopher Columbus, came before de Vaca’s time. Columbus sailed a series of four voyages between 1492 and 1504 in search for a route to Asia which led accidentally to his discovery of new land inhabited with Indians. Christopher sailed under the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella for his journey to the “Indies,” whom he was loyal to by claiming everything in their name. De Vaca , followed in Christopher’s footsteps and journeyed to Hispanionola for Spain’s emperor, Charlves V, the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella. Both, Columbus and de Vaca composed a series of letters addressing the main issue of their journey to the new land, but both were expressed in a different manner, included different material, and were motivated to write for dissimilar reasons.
The Incan Empire was older than the Aztec empire and included over five million people before the Spanish arrived. The strength of the empire was impressive considering most of the empire's terrain was mountainous and they had only llamas and people to transport goods. One of the systems that the Incas had in place that allowed their road systems to flourish was that every young poor male had to work for their government building villages, roads, etc. After the Spanish arrived, many Incas died from disease. It is believed that the similarities between the Spanish religious and political systems and the Mesoamerican political/religious systems allowed for an easier takeover of the empires for the Spanish. The Spanish had originally come to the "New World" in search of gold and they found little of it, however, they found a surplus of silver, especially in the mountain practically made of silver in Peru. The responsibility of mining for the silver fell to the natives, despite the mercury poisoning and the deadly conditions in the mines. Spain did eventually become rich from the silver, but inflation and the cost of their wars left them damaged. China had also suffered inflation after they developed paper money and they changed their tax system to require that taxes be paid in silver, which meant their people gave up agricultural jobs for jobs that usually involved silk (which paid in
Human mobility, in terms of European transcontinental exploration and colonization, began to truly flourish after the 1400s. This travel, inspired by financial motives and justified by religious goals, resulted in the European dominance and decimation of countless cultures in both the Americas and Eurasia. While at first glance it seems as though this dominance was achieved through mainly military means - European militias, like Spanish conquistadors, rolling over native tribes with their technologically advanced weapons - the reality is significantly more complex. The Europeans, most likely unknowingly, employed another, equally deadly weapon during their exploits. With their travel, they brought with them the infectious diseases of their homelands, exposing the defenseless natives to foreign malady that their bodies had no hope of developing immunities against. Because of the nature of disease and their limited knowledge about its modes of infection, the Europeans were able to dispense highly contagious and mortal illnesses while limiting their contraction of any native ones to the new territories. In short, they were able to kill without being killed. In this way, the travel of disease in conjunction with the travel of humans in a search for exotic commodities was able to limit or even halt the development of some cultures while allowing others to flourish at exponential rates.
The discovery of the new world is what led to the fall of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas. The Europeans were greatly outnumbered when they arrived in the New World, and could have easily been squashed by the warriors of these mighty Pre-Columbian civilizations. Lack of knowledge and trickery were what lead to their down-fall. The "Indians" were left dumbfounded as they tried to figure out what horses were and how it was possible that a man and horse were not the same creature. La Malinche led the Aztecs to believe that the horses could talk and think for themselves and that Herenan Cortez was really a god.
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...
When the conquistadors were battling the Aztecs, weapons that were thousands of years apart were pitted against each other. The Spaniards had the best European steel available, as well as an early form of musket, while the Aztecs fought with weapons made from wood, rock, and copper.(Hassig, 1992) The machuahuitl, a razor sharp sword, the tematlatl, a sling, and the tlacochtli, an obsidian pointed spear, were all simplistic, but the Aztecs could cause remarkable damage with these weapons. Conquistadors were equipped with steel swords and lances, and horses made the cavalry remarkably effective in combat. While it seems that this was a one sided fight, the conquistadors continuously struggled against these opponents. During his conquest of Central America, Hernán Cortés had difficultly subduing the local populations. Conquistadors were matched up against a culture that was in a continuous state of war, and had extremely deadly warriors.(Hassig, 1992) Steel armor and weapons, as well as guns, were not as decisive as history shows. The Aztecs were able to hold their own in battle, and were far from the primitive tribe that conquistador’s merely steamrolled over.
The Aztecs and Incas served an important role in the primal Native American civilizations. They were similar and different with the treatment of women, the economy, and intellectual achievements. Economically, both civilizations used trade, tribute, and agriculture to build their economy. However, the Aztecs had a more mixed economy, used trade more frequently than the Incas, and had a merchant class whereas the Incan civilization had more governmental control. Intellectually, both civilizations achieved in fields such as architecture, and art; however, the Incan empire had a wider range of achievements, disregarding their lack of writing. Throughout both civilizations, women had a tough life and were underappreciated but comparing the two, Incan women had it better off due to parallel descent.
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.
The Columbian exchange was the widespread transfer of various products such as animals, plants, and culture between the Americas and Europe. Though most likely unintentional, the byproduct that had the largest impact from this exchange between the old and new world was communicable diseases. Europeans and other immigrants brought a host of diseases with them to America, which killed as much as ninety percent of the native population. Epidemics ravaged both native and nonnative populations of the new world destroying civilizations. The source of these epidemics were due to low resistance, poor sanitation, and inadequate medical knowledge- “more die of the practitioner than of the natural course of the disease (Duffy).” These diseases of the new world posed a serious
Geographic luck explains the reason for why Spain was able to concur Latin America. Spain is located in the Middle East, and is within the fertile crescent. This meaning, that Spain had the advantage over the natives. The Spaniards had access to steel and horses. The natives' bronze weapons were no match for the steel swords of Spain. Fighting on horses gave the advantage of being able to fight at all angles and being high of the ground. In result, they were able to easily win against the natives in battle. Soon enough, Spain was able to concur Latin America. The Spaniards created an opinion of the natives after arriving, that later caused conflict.
Jared Diamond the author of The Collision at Cajamarca believes that Spaniard Pizarro’s conquest of Atahuallpa was an important historical event when a conqueror from Europe defeated a New World Native American Group. This event was one of other confrontations that will happen in history. Explaining that the diseases the Europeans brought to the new World contributed to the conquering of the native tribes. Killing many of the inhabitants created competition between the tribes instead of united them against European invaders. The well-equipped Europeans were superior with their technology and easily defeated the native tribes. The foundations the author uses are credible because they are first person accounts of witnesses that were present at the conflict. There is speculation why the Indians did not try to conquer Europe, though I do not feel Diamond offers a balanced viewpoint from the perspective of the Indians. The author includes citations for the piece yet does not use in text citations other that the companions’ descriptions of the conquerors of Atahuallpa’s people, land and wealth.
Microbes from Europe introduced new diseases and produced devastating epidemics that swept through the native populations (Nichols 2008). The result from the diseases brought over, such as smallpox, was a demographic catastrophe that killed millions of people, weakened existing societies, and greatly aided the Spanish and Portuguese in their rapid and devastating conquest of the existing American empires (Brinkley 2014). Interaction took place with the arrival of whites and foreigners. The first and perhaps most profound result of this exchange was the imp...
Before the 15th century, the Indians in the Americas were not connected with the world and would remain that way until Columbus's exploration. In the beginning of 15th century, the Aztecs were the dominant group in Mesoamerica leaded by Montezuma, the last leader, before the Spanish conquest. In 1519, Hernan Cortez led the Spanish mission to explore and conquer the New World. This paper will compare three primary sources about this event. First, an informing letter sent from Cortez to King Charles V, the king of Spain. Second, the Broken Spears which is an Indian recollection about the conquest of Mexico. Lastly, Bernal Diaz’s (one of Cortez’s men) account was written by him to share his experience with Aztec civilization. Moreover, this paper will show the credibility of Diaz’s account compared to the other sources because the objectivity of his tone, written after a while of the event, and the author’s great experience and his independent purpose of the source.
We first start by looking at the individuals who participated in the conquest, primarily Columbus, Cortes, and Pizarro. We often place these people on pedestals so to speak and admire what they were able to accomplish. However, when we delve into it all, Restall notes that in many cases, in particular Columbus, we realize that his greatest accomplishment, supposedly “discovering the New World,” was an accident. “In fact, the most exceptional thing about Columbus’ geographical vision was that it was wrong. His achievements were the result of historical accident and his role in the historical process was far larger than he was. ” Restall puts tremendous focus on the role that the predecessors to Columbus, Cortez, and Pizzaro played in the success of the conquests. Many writers ignore this factor and place much, if not all of the success in the hands of these few. The reality is that many of these “successes” were in fact accidents, and those that were not were aided by years of prior attempts and failures. In Columbus’ case, he failed dozens of times and had a very small network of people. The fact that he was able to get another chance at an expedition is a miracle.