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Why Did The Spanish Explore And Conquer Research Paper

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Victoria Waz December 12 Period 5 WS Mrs. Campara Why did the Spanish Explore and Conquer? During the Age Of Exploration which lasted from the 1400-1600’s the World became the one global. Many people wanted a way to sail around to Asia and the Americas to find what’s out there. Columbus was one of the first to sail to the Americas and discover it. Once Columbus returned back from the New World many Spanish explorers and conquistadors were drawn to explore the Southern part of the World, which is known as Mexico today. For instance, Hernan Cortez a Spanish conquistador, led an expedition to Mexico which made the Aztec Empire fall. Once it had fallen, he sailed farther and was motivated to journey further out. The Spanish were motivated to explore and conquer because they wanted to discover the …show more content…

The Spanish “wanted to find the Northwest passage, which they believed was a direct and efficient route to the Orient- home of the spices. . .” They used spices such as pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg for trading to make money off and also to prepare food. The Spanish were always searching for wealth and spices offered a perfect way to make money. They aimed for more riches and always found ways to become wealthy. Similarly, gold was also a great way to make money for the Spanish to keep them to dominate. Furthermore, the Spanish wanted to get riches. When exploring, “the search for gold became an obsession with the Spanish.” They would do anything to get their hands on gold, it was all they really cared about, being wealthy. They betrayed and treated Native Americans poorly. The Spanish would do it all for gold, “throughout the region the conquistadors seized the Native Americans’ gold. . .” The Spanish were bloodthirsty for gold, they loved wealth and didn't care what or who were in their way. Likewise, they forced the Tíno’s into giving them gold and had then converted them into

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Aztecs had a wide majority of power over Southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Yucatan. Spanish arrived in Mexico in 1519, and wanted to take advantage of the massive amount of silver, the mines produced in the Aztec’s land. In South America, ingitis labor was cheaper, so it was beneficial to the Spanish to use these people to work in the mines to earn them high valued items that they can take back to the Old

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When the Spanish arrived, things changed. The Spanish conquistadors were looking for lands to seize. They were looking for gold, silver, slaves and people to spread the Catholic religion to. While on their search for new land to colonize, Columbus discovered a new continent, America. After Columbus's discovery, Francisco de Cordoba landed on the Mexican peninsula Yucatan, and soon, the Spanish were amazed

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Conquest of The Aztecs The Spanish Conquistadors were able to conquer the Aztecs because they had superior weapons, strategies, and alliances. If the Aztecs were powerful Indians, why did they not attack instead of giving the conquistadors gifts? What made them not attack? How did they permit the conquistadors conquer them?

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For example Tenochtitlan of the Aztec empire was shattered by Hernan Cortes. The Spanish erected a government to rule over the Aztecs after the conquered them. This government controlled all details. They forced the colonies to be modeled after Spanish traditions. Some exploration achievements of Spain came about through Vasco Núñez de Balboa, and Ferdinand Magellan.

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The French and Spanish both expanded to the Americas during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Both had different desires in doing so, but had similar viewpoints on the Natives that have settled American lands. The French sought out to find tradeable goods and new riches in the Americas while the Spanish expanded due to religion, competition and slavery. In Document 5, an Algonquian village with the name “Secotan” is pictured showing readers what a Native village in the Americas may have looked like in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Cottages made with lumber and sticks were used as shelter and storage facilities for food and weapons.

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The Spanish, English, and French would all agree that the New World was a bountiful land, and a place where they could all potentially make a profit. These three groups began colonizing so they could gain profits off the land. The Spanish were mining for gold and silver, the English were harvesting agriculture, and the French were trading for fur skins, and through their attempts to gain money and power they all interacted with Native Americans. During colonization, the Spanish, English, and French treated the Native Americans they encountered with varying degrees of severity, and little kindness in most cases; consequently, their treatment heavily impacted relations with Native Americans.

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Many argue that the defeat of the Aztec was completely avoidable, however their defeat was inevitable. No matter how the Aztec could have reacted differently, the conquest of the Aztec empire could not have a different outcome. Too many factors played a part in the collapse of the Aztec empire, factors that could not have been bypassed. Others say this event could have been avoided if the Aztec and Spanish allied with each other, or if the Aztec surrendered. These could be valid points, except the Spanish were not looking to reason, they were out for gold and lots of it.

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These included expanding their empire, acquiring new territories, and securing resources such as gold and silver. Additionally, many of the Spanish conquistadors were motivated by religious zeal and the desire to spread Christianity. Despite being vastly outnumbered, the Spanish were able to subjugate the indigenous population of Mexico for a number of reasons. First, the Spanish had advanced military technology, including

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European explorers and conquistadors during the age of exploration were motivated by three things: God, gold and glory. The two most prominent of the three between 1492 and 1607 were gold and glory. Beginning in 1492 gold motivated many explorers, from Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the New World to the Virginia Company’s colonization of America. Gold is a symbol for wealth, and many explorers soon realized the New World’s potential for wealth. The Spanish’s interest in wealth inspired Columbus’s expedition in the first place, as he was sent to India to trade for spices.

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The English were more concerned with finding gold rather than building functioning societies; which were primarily built around biblical teachings, while the Spanish intended for European national power to extend to western civilization beginning with Catholicism and influence of the pope. English settlers were driven from England due to religious practices and perceived themselves as saving the Indians from the Spanish and their tyrannical ways. For the English, owning land would give men control over their own labor and the right to vote in most colonies, and this land possession would show wealth. This new obtained wealth would not only have demonstrated power, but it could also be used to influence a society a certain way to convince others to follow suit. The English believed that their motives for colonization were pure, and that the growth of empire and freedom would always go together, unlike the Spanish.

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The Native Americans were seen as weak willed, for they barely resisted the conquest of their homes. If the Native Americans showed no incentive of retaliating and were better at manual work, it seemed natural to the Spanish that they be enslaved. The Native Americans, on the other hand, saw the Spanish in a different light as well as they watched many Spaniards become obsessed with gold. The Spanish were given Gold as gifts and went crazy just holding it and lusting for more, like savage monkeys. The Spanish, by nature, couldn’t help but become greedy monsters for gold, because in Europe riches were equivalent to power.

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The Spanish empire wanted to come and expand their religion and get money as well of their purpose towards the reason why they migrated to the New World. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who was one of the Spanish conquistadors, on the reason of Spanish motivations towards the New World stated that, “We came to serve God and to get rich, as all men wish to

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This power imbalance and these payments are key in the subjugation of the natives. Furthermore, the paternalism of the Spanish toward the Indigenous peoples is obvious: “Captain [Cortes] stared at him [Cuauhtemoc]…then patted him on the head” (p.117). Post-conquest, and still today, “difficult relations” between the descendants of the Indigenous peoples and the “others” (p.117) still exist. The European view of the natives “as idolatrous savages” or, on the contrary, as “models of natural virtue” (p.175) demonstrate the versatile and often contradictory views held. Similarly, the Aztecs at times saw the Spaniards as gods, and other times as gold-hungry savages who “fingered it like monkeys” (p.51).

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