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Fall of the Aztec empire
Fall of the Aztec empire
Hernan cortes and the new world
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Is Hernán Cortés a Hero or is he a Villain? In fact, Hernán Cortés is a villain. Cortés was a Conquistador who did many things that were believed to be good from 1478-1834 as long as he did it for God. The actions Cortés has done would today be considered racist. Cortés was involved in the slaughter and torture of millions of innocent civilians and Aztecs. Hernán Cortés was one of the numerous people who supported The Spanish Inquisition and the defeat of the Muslims. You might be asking “What is The Spanish Inquisition?” Well don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. The Spanish Inquisition made Muslims, Jews, and any other religion converts to Christianity forcefully. The Spanish severely tortured people with torture methods. The torture …show more content…
Hernán was the cause of the fall of the Aztec Empire. The Aztecs had their own religion and it involved sacrifice. They believed that sacrificing humans were good because, without human blood, the Gods would grow sick and eventually die. After Hernán Cortés’s arrival on the coast of Mexico, they ran into a few Indigenous groups on his way to Tenochtitlan. Totonacs, Tlaxcalans, Cholulans, and Tabascan. Three out of four of those groups they fought and after defeating the Tabascan people, one of the slaves could speak Mayan, Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs), and shortly learned Spanish. Malinche helped the Spanish as an interpreter, spy, and the key to conquering the Aztecs. When Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma (Emperor of the Aztecs) allowed them in and exchange gifts. Cortés found out about their religion, traditions, and gold. He figured if they wiped them out, he’ll bring peace to Tenochtitlan and make him wealthy. Then happened a long battle of slaughtering many Aztec warriors, one by one and even place Moctezuma under house arrest in his own palace. The Europeans brought the Smallpox epidemic to Tenochtitlan and it had wiped out 25% of the Aztec population and not only that, they cut the aqueducts to the city. Finally, the Aztecs were annihilated and the Spanish tore down the city in ruins. The Aztec Empire ceased to
"The Broken Spears" by Miguel Leon-Portilla gives a different perspective on the defeat of the Aztecs. Through reasons such as religion and culture beliefs, the Spanish technological advancement, and their strategy of gaining alliances in the new land contributed to the defeat of the Aztecs. The two factors that played the biggest roles were the poor leadership of Motechuhzoma and the timing of the plague. Those two factors were indeed what brought down this great Empire.
During his reign, Hernan Cortes spent most of his time rebuilding Mexico City. He destroyed Aztec buildings and temples, and then rebuilt Christians Churches on top of the ruins. He also brought many Europeans to Mexico. Because of this Mexico City soon became the most important city in the Americas. Cortes founded new cities and appointed men to rule over these new cities and extend Spanish rule. He instituted the encomienda land tenure system in 1524. This is a trusteeship labour system in which certain per...
He attempted this primarily through his portrayal of Montezuma’s system of governance as brutal and is people as disloyal to him. He described the apparent willingness of the peoples he encountered to abandon the Aztecs and swear allegiance to the King of Spain, “Although they were subjects of Montezuma … they had been reduced to that condition by force …and when they had obtained through me some knowledge of your Highness … they declared their desire to become vassals of your Majesty, and to form an alliance with me”(Second Letter, 38–39). Cortés justified his conquest further through his proclamation to the his king that he was acting in defense of these newly acquired vassals. Cortés wrote that Montezuma subjected the local people to violent and tyrannical repression and, “took from them their sons to be slain and offered as sacrifices to his idols”(Second Letter,
Hernan Alonso was instrumental for destroying the Aztec Empire. He is the main reason why Hernan Cortes was able to succeed. He was the man that put Tenochtitlan under siege. He gained the skill of creating from being a blacksmith. He had the entrepreneurship to start his own business in this new land. He had helped from Hernan Cortes to pursue this conquest. This would also led to his downfall. Hernan Cortes was benefit for him and not one.Alonso was a “new christian” which marked him. Hernan Alonso was the first person to be burn for being a heretic in Mexico. Alonso was instrumental for the success of Hernan Cortes and vice versa.
Spain, as one of the most powerful nations in the old world, had a great influence on many events in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Spanish also had an influence on many other empires/nations' fate. One of the empires that suffered a grave fate at the hands of the Spanish was the Aztec empire. The Aztec empire was not the oldest Mesoamerican empire and it was formed from an agreement between three city-states. The Aztec's class system had the emperor on top, then the priests, and everyone else below them. The priests were responsible for keeping the gods happy. The sacrifice of goods and people was a commonplace in the Aztec culture, and it was often the goods/people of other nations that were taken for sacrifices. As one can imagine,
Aztecs were tribe. In Chronicler’s Account talked about Spaniards with Aztecs from 1519 to 1521.When the Spaniards arrived in Tenochtitlan, and they bought horses, guns and also smallpox that killed a lot of people there. A Text from the Chronicler’s Account saids “ at about the time that the Spaniards had fled from Mexico….there came a great sickness, a pestilence, the smallpox. It …. spread over the people with great destruction of men.” The Aztec chronicler was trying to be objective in what happened at that time. Aztec Chronicler wrote about struggled in
From the moment Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico and began his campaign against the Aztec empire, the people of the new world were doomed to be conquered by both technological and biological means. Smallpox, a disease that had never been experienced in America before the arrival of the Europeans devastated large scale native populations. The abandonment of the famous lost city of Machu Picchu stands as a famous example of the devastation of native populations.
Cortes was able to conquer the Aztecs for several very different reasons. In combination these reasons allowed him to have the upper hand in the conquest of Mexico. Arguably these reasons can be sorted into six different categories. The various causes for Cortes' success will be assessed in a climax pattern. To begin with the Aztecs had a harsh tribute system that was not popular among the people of Mexico. This cruel tribute system allowed Cortes to act as a liberator. Furthermore, with the Spanish brought several diseases into Mexico in witch they were immune to but the Aztecs were not. The spread of diseases such as small pox reduced the Aztec population and furthered Cortes' success unintentionally Also Marina was a tribal girl given as a gift to Cortes, she proved invaluable in translating local dialects in combination with Geronimo de Aguilar. Also an important aspect of his success was due to Montezuma's belief that Cortes was Quetzakoatl. A predominant reason for the Spanish success was due to their weaponry especially their armour and firepower. Perhaps the most important reason of all was that of Cortes' Indian allies such as the Tlaxcalans who made up the majority of his combined army. All these reasons worked together to allow Cortes, originally with 508 men to conquer the Aztec Empire of millions of people.
The downfall of the Aztec Empire was a major building block of the Spanish colonial empire in the Americas. Spain’s empire would stretch all the way into North America from the Southwest United States all the way up the Pacific Coast. The unfortunate side effect of this was the elimination of many nations of indigenous people. The three major themes shown in this conquest really give deeper look into the anatomy of this important historical event. Without context on the extent of native assistance given to Cortez in his fight with the Aztecs, a reader would be grossly uniformed. The Spanish conquest was closer to a civil war than an actual conquest. Until reading detailed personal accounts of the fighting it is difficult to judge the deadly effectiveness of the Spaniards technological superiority. Without it is difficult to imagine 500 conquistadors holding thousands of native warriors at bay. Once the greed of Cortez and greed in general of the Europeans one understands that if it wasn’t Cortez if would have just been a different man at a different time. Unfortunately fame and prosperity seem to always win over cares about fellow human beings
At first, it seemed like the Spanish had total control of the city, but trouble soon broke out. In May 1520, Cortes briefly left the city. Ignorantly, his men, for some odd reason, attacked the Aztec. "Those Idiots!" I bet Cortes would have exclaimed as he came back to find his men being besieged in Moctezuma's palace. Cortes, being quite the intelligent thinker, thought that calming them would be the best way out of the situation.
The Aztec Empire was the most powerful Mesoamerican kingdom of all time. They dominated the valley of Mexico in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Aztecs were an advanced and successful civilization that built beautiful, sophisticated cities, temples, and pyramids. They also created a culture full of creativity with mythological and religious traditions. Aztecs lead a structured and evocative life that let their society to become a very superior civilization. The Aztec’s communication skills were very well developed for their time; through religious beliefs, government involvement, and family life they lived a full and productive life. Until in 1519 when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico, and defeated the Aztecs.
The Spanish defeat of the Aztecs has been extensively criticized for many years. Religion was a motive for discovery, enabled the Spanish to enter the heart of the empire, and was used as justification for torture of the natives. The centrality of religion as a force in Spanish conquest is undeniable. Virtually all of Aztec culture was destroyed and the Spanish victory has had lasting effects for both natives and Europeans up to and including the present-day.
Two of the biggest and greatest civilization in the Americas were the Aztecs and Incas. These two civilization were both said to be conquered by the Spanish, but it wasn’t just the Spanish who conquered them. These two civilizations both fell from a combination of a weak government, lack of technology, new disease introduced by the invaders, and not being prepared for the invaders. For many centuries the Aztec civilization revolved around a ideological, social, and political system in which expansion was the cornerstone. Expansion was the cornerstone of their whole civilization, because their religion requested that a large number of human sacrifices where to be made to the gods.
... (Schweikart 5-6). The Aztecs’ greed for sacrificial hostages turned these Indian neighbors against them (Kingfisher 196-197). The Aztecs were defeated, partially because they had been weakened by smallpox, but also because the Spanish fought together as a single force, while Aztecs fought as individuals (Schweikart 6-7).
...The last two reasons that the Aztecs were defeated had to do with the disease that the Spaniards brought with them from Europe mainly small pox and the Aztec warfare rituals. The Aztecs had never been exposed to this disease and therefore their immune systems could not beat it and it eventually claimed the lives of thousands of Indians not only the Aztecs. The Aztecs had many rituals that they performed and most of them had to do with human sacrifice and this was something unspeakable and unholy in the eyes of the Spaniards which only fueled their cause in killing them and stopping such barbaric acts. Also the Aztecs would perform rituals before declaring war which the Spaniards used to their advantage and caught them off guard with their immediate attack of Tenochtitlan. These were the most important factors that led to the eventual fall of the Aztec empire.