The Aztec Empire: The Spanish Conquest Of Spain

Words: 1063
Pages: 5

Spanish Conquest

The Aztec empire fell to the Spanish army in August 13, 1521. It took the Spanish three years attempting to defeat the Aztec empire, it started in February 1519. In the fourteenth century Spain was facing multiple challenges in religion and power, they were strongly devoted to Christianity converting many Muslims and Jews; or otherwise being expelled. The rulers of Spain, King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, driven by a desire of wealth, land, and to spread Christianity were convinced by Christopher Columbus to fund a voyage from the Atlantic to Asia. Columbus thought that sailing west of Spain would be a closer way to reaching Asia. Columbus set sail and reached the Bahamas, he thought he had landed in India. Columbus died believing he had been exploring Asia. Immediately after learning they had discovered the new land the Spanish was ready to conquer and explore it. The age of exploration began, the Spanish had technology, luck, and disease to facilitate the
…show more content…
Many factors facilitated Spain the conquest among the factors was the right timing and luck. Spaniard’s had advanced weapons that the indigenous did not have, such as firearms, gunpowder, cannons, steel swords, and horses. The Spaniards also took advantage of the internal conflict Mexico was having among the civilizations. All the cities surrounding Tenochtitlan hated the Aztecs because they had to pay tribute to the Aztecs, and later cooperated with the Spaniards to invade Tenochtitlan. By the time Spaniards began to attack the Aztecs, the Aztecs were plagued with smallpox brought to them by the Spaniards. Indigenous were not advanced in medicine so had no way to alleviate or heal smallpox, the plague killed many indigenous and weakened the Aztecs. All the factors combined gave the Spaniards the ease of domination over a weak and less advanced