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What Factors Allowed The Spanish Force To Overtake The Aztecs

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How was a small Spanish army able to defeat the entirety of the large, warlike Aztec empire in only two years? While there are many contributing factors that led to a victory against such odds, there are a few key causes that allowed the Spanish force to overcome the Aztecs. Namely, there are three most important factors: 1. The trusting nature of the Aztecs toward the Spaniards, 2. The differences in warfare between the two forces, and 3. The more advanced technology of the Spaniards. These three factors will be discussed and explored in this paper. Aztecs’ Trust of Spaniards One of the most important factors that allowed the Spaniards to overtake the Aztecs was the generally trusting attitude the Aztecs held toward the Spaniards. This can be broken down further into two different aspects. First, many Aztecs, including, most importantly, their ruler Motecuhzoma, initially “…believ[ed] that they might be Quetzalcoatl and other divinities returning to Mexico, as the codices and traditions promised they would." …show more content…

The Aztecs greeted them when they first arrived in Mexico with many gifts of welcome, made with materials highly valuable to the Aztecs such as gold, quetzal feathers, turquoise, shells, and mother-of-pearl (León-Portilla 23-25). And when the Spaniards arrived at the capital city of Tenochtitlan, Motecuhzoma greeted them with gifts of gold and flowers and praised them as gods (León-Portilla 63-64). Had the Spaniards been peaceful, this would not be relevant; however, the Spaniards took advantage of this openness and kindness from the Aztecs and immediately imprisoned Motecuhzoma and placed a guard over the city. Had the Aztecs not viewed the Spaniards as gods and welcomed them into their city without any suspicion, the Spaniards would have had a much harder, perhaps impossible time defeating

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On May 22, Hernan Cortes and his military forces stormed the great Aztec city, Tenochtitlan. Hernan Cotes did this for gold, God, and glory. The Aztecs were fighting a losing battle that only lasted 93 days before defeat, in total it is estimated that only 100 Spaniards lost their lives, but 100,000 Aztecs lost their lives. Therefore, Spanish military technology severely affected the fall of the Aztec civilisation because the Aztecs didn’t have advanced Military technology as the Spanish did like advanced ships, armour, weapons, and tactics.

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A possible reason for why the Spanish conquered the Aztecs was the Spanish wanted to spread Christianity. Two sources corroborate that Spain wanted to spread Christianity. According to Document A, it says “There is to be a church and a chaplain entrusted with indoctrinating and teaching them our Holy Catholic faith.” The government was paying for the churches and making sure the culture is spread from town to town. As a result of the churches being established in the Aztec Empire, the Aztecs have to practice the religion and learning the culture of Spain.

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Adjustments in areas such as the Aztecs’ very worldview, as well as beliefs in religion. Following this, reconstruction in the Aztecs’ way of talking and writing were enforced by the Conquistadors, who spoke Spanish and wrote in words instead of pictures. During the Spanish Conquest, the Aztecs’ lifestyle changed dramatically due to a whole new language replacing their own, they dropped to the bottom of the hierarchy where they were once the

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So, the Spanish had many benefits from conquering Mexico. Believe it or not, the Tlaxcalans helped the Spanish Conquistadors conquer Mexico. Initially, when Spanish arrived in Mexico, they had a small force of about 400 soldiers and 12 horses. As they traveled, they gained allies, enemies of the Aztecs, the Tlaxcalans. The Tlaxcalans battled against

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The Aztec civilisation, led by Moctezuma II, stood as one of the most sophisticated and advanced civilisations of its era (1325 AD- 1521 AD). Armed with powerful weapons, like wooden spears and metal shields, the Aztecs faced a merciless army. When Hernan Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors entered the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, on 20 April 1519 AD, driven by their pursuit for God, gold, and glory, it would only take two years before Cortes’s small army had conquered and annihilated this powerful civilisation with Spanish military technology. The collapse of the Aztec civilisation was significantly influenced by their weak wooden weaponry, tactics of diplomacy, espionage, and sacrifice that proved no match for the superior Spanish weaponry,

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The Spanish had with them horses made for war, mastiffs, and war hounds (1 Levy) alongside this the Spanish also had superior armor and swords made of metal which compared to Aztec clubs infused with obsidian shards, would easily cut apart enemies while Aztec weaponry would only maim the enemy. Another problem that Aztec faced was that their weaponry was that the clubs would shatter on impact against the armor the Spanish were using making their melee weapons effectively useless. Alongside all the other problems the Aztecs had, they also were fighting, and invisible army, smallpox which devastated the Azteca ranks later on reducing the population of the Aztecs drastically (Rudolf 22). Finally one of the reasons why the Aztecs lost the war was that Montezuma was a deeply religious and believed that the Spanish were a god, due to the coincidental arrival and location of arrival that Spanish took along their looks, this belief is one the reasons that led to the policy of appeasement that Montezuma took as mentioned before. Adding to the numerous reasons is the alliance that the Spanish got with the regions that disliked the Aztec empire who wish to lend a hand to end them (spainishwars.net), all of this led to the loss of the war for the Aztecs and the fall of their

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The strong tactics of the Spanish Conquistadors, the mistakes of Montezuma, and disease lead to the defeat of the Aztec army of 200,000 men. The Spanish Conquistadors had the advantage over the Aztecs, using the allies they had and the technology they used in battle. Montezuma, the ruler of Tenochtitlan made a mistake when the Spanish Conquistadors arrived, by thinking they were Gods.. The conquistadors also brought over diseases, which whipped out most of the Aztec army leading to a slight setback for the Aztecs. The Aztecs then, had no chance against the Spanish.

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The triumph of the Aztec and Incan domains were for the most part basic battles. A few reasons in the matter of why it was so regular were because these areas were isolated, they don't know anything of the new world and distinctive social orders, they assumed that the Europeans points were of no congruity to them and stigmatized them. Another reason was advancement. Advancement was a gigantic part in the triumph of these areas Indian war systems were old and out dated. They were no match for the Spanish and their firearms, crossbows, swords, covering, shields, and the hand held dark powder weapon.

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Many of them were opposed to the Europeans coming in and claiming their land as theirs, whereas many of them wanted to create trading partners or even went as far as to believe they were gods. When the Spaniards first arrived at what was most likely Tulum on the Yucatan peninsula they were greet by many indigenous people with gifts for them, gifts of gold which made the Spaniards practically jump for joy at the thought of wealth and recognition (Stuart 117). This is how many of the explorers were met when they first arrived in the New World, but after the natives realized their true intentions they would most likely end up going to war. There was an Aztec woman of approximately 17 years of age who served as an interpreter between the Aztecs and the Spaniards, her name was Malinalli/ Doña Marina, but is more commonly known as La Malinche in Mexico, she ended marrying Hernan Cortés and had the first known mestizo, Martín Cortés (Pohl and Robinson 99). This shows that there were many people who wanted to interact more with the Spaniards and it also left a lasting impact because to this day many people view her as a traitor to her own people, but there is still argument that she was the first of many to have a mestizo which most of the Mexican population is nowadays.

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For proof of their power, the Aztecs were immense believers in gods and sacrificing others. The Aztecs went to war then, captured others to sacrifice. Hence they could not have done their intense sacrifice without neighboring civilization’s

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The author gives insight on how many ways the Spaniards used their power to assist in the downfall of the Aztecs. The reason why the Spaniards became victorious, was because the Spaniards were looked upon as if they were gods because of their outer appearance. The Aztecs broke bread and welcomed the Spaniards with gifts and parties. The Aztecs triggered their relationship with the Spaniards by holding a ritual for the arrival of the god which included a human sacrifice. The Spaniards didn’t agree with the rituals and began to despise the Aztecs.

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The Aztec Army The Aztecs, considered to be the most powerful people back in their time, were a very established civilization that worked as a group to get things done. The Aztecs (in their eyes) were very approachable people. On the other hand, in the eyes of the Spanish and the Spanish priests, they were seen as cannibals and savages due to their practices and their religious beliefs. Although, when the time came, the Aztec army was a force to be reckoned with. With hundreds of thousands of trained soldiers at the ready, it seemed as if the Aztecs were invincible when it came to warfare, but with this many troops there had to be organization within the battle, enough training prior to ensure success, enough hand-held weapons, and advanced

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The Catholic beliefs that the Spanish brought with them to the New World, along with the Aztec religions and prophecies that talked about a returning god named Quetzalcoatl, can be argued to have played the most important part in the downfall of the native empires. On one hand, it is widely believed that the Aztecs came to identify the Spaniards, and in particular Cortés, with this returning deity from their prophecies, and consequently knew that, even if they fought, they would lose the battle against him. Of whether this is completely true or not, we cannot be sure - another possibility is that, after the conquest, the remaining natives took to this explanation to make some sense of their incredible defeat. On the other hand, as Cortés explains this Aztec belief to the Charles V, he might have been twisting some aspects of the story and ideally positioning himself as the returning deity that arrived to conquer and guide a lost people, likening the conquest to the second coming of Christ described in the New Testament’s Book of Revelation.

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The Spanish were able to colonize Mexico without much resistance.” After the smallpox epidemic, the Aztecs were even more vulnerable. The Spanish exploration and conquering of Tenochtitlan was to gain power for the Spanish empire, but the city’s people were somewhat considered rebellious, and consequently, Cortes needed to conquer/kill the people first. By taking down the people of the city, Cortes was exposed to the city’s great treasures for his reward of gold; he retrieved all the gold he could, and travelled back to Spain where he was labelled a hero for his acts of

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