Essay On The Spanish Conquest

Introduction

This essay will question how the Spanish conquest of Mexico contributes to the fall of the Aztec Empire. What was the Aztec empire like prior to the invasion?, What impacts did the conquest have on the society?, and What methods did the Spaniards use to defeat the Aztecs? will be answered in this essay as well. During the Age of Discovery explorers were in search of new lands, gold and silver, and power (Gibb). In the years 1519-1521 Hernando Cortes, a Spanish conquistador that had conquered and defeated the Aztec empire (Nelson, Aztec Empire for Kids: Spanish Conquest). He wanted to find new land for Spain, covert inhabitants to Catholicism, and raid the lands for gold and other treasures. The Aztecs were wiped out and resulted in Hernan Cortez taking power of the new land

The negative effects were mostly the destruction of the empire; after three months of conflict Cortez had finally defeated the capital city of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan (Tucker). Cuauhtémoc, the emperor, was taken captive and later that year he was executed, and Cortez became the ruler of the vast empire (Tucker). The Aztecs were highly vulnerable to European diseases unknown to their nation, such as smallpox and typhus; in 1521, smallpox annihilated the population of Tenochtitlan, two following epidemics wiped out 75 percent of the remaining population (Tucker). The surviving Aztecs were not allowed to learn of their native culture and were enforced to read and write in Spanish, unfortunately a wide range of the Aztec religion and culture were lost forever (Tucker). Some positive aspects were that the Spanish helped ‘modernize’ the civilization, they introduced them to domestic animals, sugar, grains and even European farming practices (Tucker). The evidence shows that the Spaniards had changed the Aztec Empire significantly and that has affected our world