Factors Causing The Spanish Conquest

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Many different factors ultimately led to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Many of the factors could be considered luck and it can be mind boggling how the Spanish took on the largest empire of the day with only a handful of soldiers and weapons. The reasons the Spanish were able to control and systematically destroy the Aztecs was because of their alliances with neighboring cultures, their advanced weapons, their domesticated animals, disease, and the luckiest part of all: the Aztecs referred to the Europeans as gods.

The Aztec and Tlaxcala had been continuously fighting for more than a century in the flower wars. The Tlaxcala resented the Aztecs and knew that eventually the Aztecs would conquer their main city. Already the Aztecs had been conquering much of the territory surrounding Tlaxcala. When the Spanish entered Tlaxcala the city was poor as a result of the commercial blockade of the Aztec. Cortes seems to have won the friendship of old Tlaxcala leaders namely, Maxixcatzin and XÐ"­cotencatl the elder. However, not all the Tlaxcala approved of this friendship with the Spaniards namely Xicotencatl the younger. Cortes reportedly preached Christianity to the Tlaxcala leaders and they were baptised and "Maxixcatzin, Xicotecatl the old, Citalpopocatzin and Temiloltecutl received the names of Don Lorenzo, Don Vicente, Don BartolomÐ"© and Don Gonzalo." The Tlaxcala reportedly had no qualms adding the Spanish god "Dios" to their polytheistic religion. The Tlaxcala as an ally to the Spaniards offered food, women, and later soldiers and porters versus the Aztec. By allying with the Mesoamerican culture the Spaniards were able to better plan their exploitation of the real political heavyweight in

Factors Causing 3 the area: the Aztec. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_Mexico#Alliance_with_Tlaxcalteca) The sophisticated weapons the Spaniards utilized against the Aztec also resulted in the massacre of thousands of Aztecs. The Aztecs had never before seen guns or artillery before. The sound of these instruments and the impact they made if they ever hit anything was truly terrifying to the native populace. When in battle against thousands of soldiers Cortes and his men unbelievably won. Along with their cannons and guns the Spanish had even more technological advances over the Aztec. Steel played a major role in defeating the Aztec. The bronze weapons of the Aztec did little to the advanced steel weapons and armor of the Spanish. Steel allowed the Spanish to cut down many warriors while being very well protected from weapons made from wood and bronze. Another key factor in the destruction of the Aztec was the domesticated animal the Europeans transported: horses. Horses allowed the Spaniards to move along a battlefield efficiently, travel long distances, and were quite imposing animals. Seemingly the worst enemy of the Aztecs was the fact that the worst thing they had to fear was fear itself.

(http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/show/episode2.html)

One of the luckiest men in history must be Hernan Cortes. In the beginning the Aztec offered little resistance to advances made by the conquistadors. This was because earlier Aztec priests had warned that Quetzalcoatl was coming back to reclaim his empire. Quetzalcoatl was an Aztec god who had been driven out of the area across the sea a long time ago. It was prophesized that he would come back and that he had fair skin and dark hair: characteristics Cortes possessed. Cortes was thus treated like a god when

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he landed in the Mesoamerican area. The Aztecs brought him gifts and even their emperor who was revered as a god treated Cortes with respect. So when Cortes was allowed entrance to his enemy's capital city, given gifts and luxuries, and all of his wishes were carried out, he took Montezuma hostage. Since the Aztecs entire government revolved around Montezuma there was no other central government to tell the people what to do. They thus carried out Cortes demand of gold tribute. Cortes seemingly wanted all of the gold the Aztec possessed. After Cortes had gotten all the gold he could muster he executed Montezuma. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_Mexico#Cort.C3.A9s_as_Quetzalcoatl)

Arguably the largest factor resulting in the relative