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Destruction Of The Aztecs

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THE DEFEAT OF THE AZTECS

The conflict between the Aztecs and the Spaniards goes way back to the 16th century and is mostly remembered as the fall of the Aztecs. Aztec was an empire which settled in the valley of Mexico. The fall of the Aztecs empire was inevitable, simply because of 3 major aspects, religion, diseases, and the cunning tactics which the friendly Aztecs have never experienced or encountered before, this devoting nature of the Aztecs was used against them by a greedy middle class man who craved only one thing gold, he was known as Cortez. But their greatest weapon that brought Spain the great victory was the diseases that were carried to the New World.

Disease played a huge part in the fall of the Aztecs empire. As the Spanish …show more content…

This was a major contribution to the defeat of the Aztecs. Killing thousands of people, whether they themselves or the citizen from their neighboring cities, this evidently couldn’t be good for the society. By giving sacrifices to god from their own people, was rapid, causing their population to substantially decrease, on top this, the ritual led to the hatred of other surrounding people. The powerful city of Tlaxcala was one of them. Many of their own soldiers have been killed and sacrificed, this rage of anger led the Tlaxcala to join the army of the Spaniards, which ultimately created a powerful force. When the human sacrifice was first introduced to Cortez by Montezuma, he immediately called him a fool for believing in such hogwash. In other words, he considered of the sacrifice as a sign of an evil culture. This highly motivated the Spaniards to conquer, what they considered was an inhuman culture. When the Aztec first attacked after the death of Montezuma, they killed many Spaniards and drove the rest outside the city but saved few to sacrifice to the gods. This was a turning point in history the Spaniards were unhesitant to attack back. On top this at the beginning when the two separate worldviews first met the Aztec showed at most respect and worship them as they saw a resemblance between Hernan Cortez and Quetzalcoatl. Montezuma as being the leader was knowledgeable of their holy scripture, …show more content…

The Aztecs were no imbecile either, they soon realised the Spaniard tactics and were close to victory, but Cortez still being more devious one knew having a 600 people’s army was not sufficient to kill the fierce warriors, so he had made allies with the Tlaxcala, a powerful army who wanted to take revenge. This in combination with the epidemic of disease and the siege, brought the end of the Aztecs. Aztecs had no formal military strategy used during a war, they only fought for one reason, sacrifices to please their god. Their weapons were powerful and effective, but no way stronger as the European steel. Cortez when first met the ambassador when they first landed cunningly deceived the Aztec into giving them valuable gifts of gold, by saying he had a terrible heart disease that could only be cured by gold. Cortez’s army knew they were sent to Mexico with order to capture the territory, but if they went back empty handed they knew they would be severely punished, so they desperate to win the battle. Another big advantage Spaniard have is the weapon, they completely took Aztecs by surprise. Some of the firearms included muskets, crossbows, sword, halberd, and the most destructive canons. This naturally feared the Aztecs and gave the Spaniards the victory. Canons were very powerful and could kill dozens at the same time. The last military advantage the Spanish had

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