The Aztec empire was one of the most sophisticated and advanced civilisations of its time, emerging in 1325 AD. Hernan Cortez arrived in Mexico in 1519 AD while on his quest for glory, to obtain more Christian converts, and to find gold for the Spanish monarch. The demise of the advanced society would only take place in one year when it surfaced in 1520 AD. Slave Francisco Eguia transferred the lethal and foreign disease to the mortal Aztecs on the compact island of Tenochtitlan. This ultimately led to the collapse of the Aztec empire. Disease was a significant factor in the collapse of the sophisticated civilisation because smallpox was an unknown disease in the new world that ultimately led to the sudden downfall of such an advanced civilisation. …show more content…
A native account describes the impact that the unknown diseases had on the mortal Aztecs in Tenochtitlan during their conquest of the Aztecs. This perspective comes from a native quote. “It began to spread, striking everywhere in the city and killing a vast number of our people. Sores erupted on our faces, our breasts, our bellies. The sick were so utterly helpless that they could only lie on their beds like corpses. A great many died from this plague, and many others died of hunger.” (Barton, 2018). This quote clearly states that smallpox had a major effect on the Aztecs who had not encountered a disease as lethal as smallpox which caused the Aztecs to die in masses and be unable to farm which led to starvation or defend their land from the modern invaders. Due to the lack of immunity that the Aztecs had, the Aztecs ultimately were not able to continue farming or defending, which led to mass starvation and a rapid depletion in population. Therefore, historical sources prove that smallpox played a critical role in the collapse of the advanced civilization being an advantage for the Spanish to conquer the
... The plague was brought over by the Spanish who where immune to the disease, but the Aztecs weren't so lucky. Many where killed over the course of seventy days, including the new King Cuitlahucs (92). Obviously this had a dramatic impact because they lost their leader. Those that remained where very weak with a milder form of the disease (93). Obviously this affected their strength to fight.
There were millions of Aztecs and only a few hundred Spaniards. How was it then that the Spaniards, even with their steel and guns, could overrun them? The answer lies in a number the Spanish had even more of: microbes, which no one counted on. Yes, the encounters destroyed the Indians’ homes and made them slaves, but they also brought in disease and unknown illnesses to the New World. Millions had died, and generations disappeared. 50 years after the Spanish conquest 88% of the Mexican population was destroyed and only up to 200 thousand natives survived the ordeal. Also, the second in the list of causes of death had become the commonplace brutal treatment and poor conditions during slavery, and the third was by war
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.
The outnumbered Spanish conquistadors were able to so easily defeat the natives of South and Central America for many reasons. These reasons include the spread of disease, the fear the Spanish spread, civil war, and the thought that Cortez was a God. The Natives were not immune to the European disease such as smallpox, influenza measles, typhus, plague, malaria, and yellow fever. This wiped out 85-90% of the Native population in 50 years. This was the largest demographic catastrophe in human history. (Document 4: The American Holocaust)
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
Beginning in the fifteenth century with the arrival of Columbus, natives of the Americas were infected with European diseases that proved to be deadly to the Indians. The population in northern Mexico suffered an immense decimation of 2,500,000 peoples to less than 320,000 by the end of the sixteenth century (Vargas, 30). The Spaniards’ cruel treatment of the natives aided this vast reduction in the Aztec and Mexican population, enabling the Spaniards to conquer the lands of the Aztecs and other native tribes. By the end of the sixteenth century, the Spaniards had expanded their conquests into the southwest region of what is now known as the United States of America.
The spread of disease through trade nearly diminished the whole population (Doc 2, Doc 4, & Doc 6). According to Geoffrey Cowley and Dinesh D’Souza, the Europeans who crossed the Atlantic have each battled an illness resulting in the Native Americans later becoming immunologically defenseless (Doc 2 & Doc 6). The Native population of Central Mexico in 1519 began at 25.3 million, but in 1605, the population drastically dropped to 1 million (Doc 4). The vast majority of Indian casualties were not due to hard labor nor deliberate destruction but occurred due to the contagious diseases spread by the Europeans; smallpox, measles, influenza, and typhus (Doc 6). The Indians, having not developed any immunity to the unfamiliar illnesses transmitted by the Europeans, quickly began to diminish, leaving behind a small population. A document that would have been useful would’ve be one from a women’s view on the economy. Men wrote all documents so this additional document could have provided information about how the Columbian Exchange impacted the women population and their views on
The Spaniards didn’t destroy the Aztec civilization all by their self another factor which helped the Spanish were the disease that they brought over to the Americas from Europe and Africa. The introduction of diseases like syphilis, measles, smallpox, malaria, mumps and yellow fever are just some sickness that plagued the Budhu 2 Aztecs. Also the introduction of different species of animals and plants caused a ecological imbalance (Plagues and Peoples 176-199). All these are some reasons to why the Aztec civilization was destroyed. With the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico rumors started to reach
The European Invasion of the Aztec Civilization Thunder on their Ships They are landed with rulers, squares, compasses. Sextants White skin, fair eyes, naked word. Thunder on their ships. Leopold Sedar Senghor, “Ethiopiques” (Adas). “Thunder on their ships” can be used to describe Herman Cortes when he landed at what is now Veracruz, Mexico in 1519 A.D.
The great explorations and subsequent migrations of Europeans to the Americas in the 15th-18th centuries opened up those entire continents to the fatal impact of the infectious diseases of Europe. European conquests owed a good deal of their success to the effects of disease on the indigenous peoples, especially smallpox in the Americas. Before Spanish conquest of the New World, there was no sickness or great health related issues that Natives were forced to face. That all changed, however, when European explorers, Spanish conquistadors in particular, unknowingly brought the deadly disease of smallpox into Latin America. A recollection of days before the Spanish by an Indian of the Yucatan from the book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel shows just how disease free natives were before the Spanish arrival: “There was then no sickness; they had no aching bones; they had then no high fever; they had then no smallpox; they had then no burning chest; they had then no abdominal pain; they had then no consumption; they had then no headache. At that time the course of humanity was orderly. The foreigners made it otherwise when they arrived here.” Then, after the Spanish came to the New World and spread smallpox to the natives, over 95% of them were killed. The Taino population of Hispaniola that was once estimated to be as large as 8 million went virtually extinct. Central Mexico’s population went from 15 million in 1519 to 1.5 million a century later. ...
The Rise and fall of the Aztec Empire is possibly the most important area of study in the modern world. Of all of the nomadic tribes who migrated into Mexico, the Aztecs were one of the last. At first driven away by established tribes, the Aztecs slowly began to develop an empire of immense wealth and power by the late fifteenth century. Due in large part to the accomplishments of their ruler Itzcoatl, the empire expanded to include millions of people from a number of different tribes, including the Cempoala, who would later aid the Spanish in defeating the Aztecs. Because of the "melting pot" within the empire, the Aztecs had a very diverse culture. However, this immense Aztec Empire would soon be brought to its knees by the doings of one man and his army.
In this essay I will tell how the Aztec and Inca empires ended, and also I will compare the fall of both empires, using for a point of departure the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the land of Mexico. Wherever the Spanish went always the same thing happened, from my point of view. Innocent people were killed for no good reason, cities were massacred, civilizations were destroyed or forced to convert to Christianity. And so, I think now is the time to reevaluate the actions of the European explorers who subjugated the native American peoples and their civilizations. Undoubtedly the most glorified and heroically portrayed of these figures of the European conquest of the New World were the conquistadors, the Spanish conquerors of Mexico and Peru in the 16-th century. These men, under leaders such as Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizzaro nearly eliminated the Aztec and Inca peoples. Surely many of these soldiers were extremely cruel and intolerant of the native populations. But it is important to consider, with the push of both sides toward territorial expansion, how these groups (European and American) could remain isolated from each other. Furthermore, with meeting of these two imperialist cultures, it must be considered whether it would be possible for the two to peacefully coexist.
The very existence of the Europeans posed a threat to livelihood of the natives. They had a disease called smallpox which the natives did not have an immunity to. The disease was a plague among the natives very rapidly. When the Spaniards fought and temporarily left Tenochtitlan, many Aztecs died due to the smallpox of the Spaniards as recorded by Miguel Leon-Portilla (Doc. 4). When the Europeans learned of how their disease was affecting the natives, the Europeans took advantage and used it to kill natives that were in places of possible settlement. Geoffrey Cowley gives some modern statistics of just how many natives died. In Mexico alone from 1519 to 1568 the native population dropped from about 30 million to 3 million (Doc. 6). The disease brought horror to the New World but did manage to clear the way for many colonies for the Europeans. Sadly these colonies were built because there were no natives to stop them after they were
Who were the Aztecs? Why were they considered to be an empire even greater than the Romans? And how was Hernan Cortes able to defeat them? These are some of the questions that people ask about these indigenous people. These people are known as the Aztecs but originally called themselves Mexica. They came to Mexico in the early thirteenth century and from there they started to develop a social structure and government consisting of priests, kings, peasants, and soldiers. Besides having a very organized society the Aztecs had a very large and intimidating army consisting of full time soldiers and peasants. By 1427 A.D. the Aztec empire became the dominant group and controlled most of central Mexico. Considering how advanced and large the Aztec culture and society were makes me believe that they were aware of other people outside of their civilization. A clear example would be that they knew of neighboring tribes other than their own that they went to war with and conquered. Although I do believe that the Aztecs were caught off guard and even amazed when they saw the light skinned Spaniards. I also believe that Cortes wasn’t the first outsider to make contact with the Aztecs but I do believe he was the first light skinned person to make contact with them because of Moctezumas reaction to Cortes description. Hernan Cortes was a Spanish conquistador who defeated the Aztecs with less than 1000 soldiers and a handful of horses. Some reasons that have to do with the Aztecs fall from power are the Prophecy of Quetzalcoatle, their Emperor Moctezuma, enemy tribes, disadvantages in technology, their omens, disease, and lastly their warfare rituals.