ARRIVAL OF THE SPANISH
"A ball
of stone
flies
out of their bellies and rains fire…. If the ball hits a tree, it blows
away in splinters, as though a magician had blown it away from inside."
|
"Their
battle
dress and their weapons are all made of iron…. They are carried
on the backs of large deer [horses] wherever they like to go.
" |
"Their skin is
white, as chalk... Their dogs are great monsters with
flat
ears and long tongues which hang out." These are the words used by
Aztec messengers who tried to describe what they saw when they met the
Spanish for the first time in Mexico.
Hernando
Cortes, the Spanish conquistador (conqueror),
landed on the shores of central Mexico in April 1519, looking for adventure
and wealth. With him were over 550 men, 16 horses, 14 cannons, and a
few
dogs.
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He was greeted by
messengers of
the Aztec ruler Moctezuma. Wanting
to show the Aztec his power, Cortes had the ships' cannons fired. The
Aztec
were amazed. They rushed back and reported to Moctezuma.
|
| The Aztec had never
seen cannons
or horses or men with white
skin before. "When
Moctezuma heard this report, he was seized with fright. His heart grew
weak to the point of faintness…. And despair overcame him." |
 |
The Empire Weakens
The Spanish came to the coast of
modern day Mexico in the
early 1500s. At that time civil war (fighting between parts of the
empire)
had weakened both the Aztec and the Inca in Peru.
In the Aztec Empire, tribes began to rebel against
their harsh Aztec rulers. It was a bitter fight, and Moctezuma sent huge attacks against
them but they lost many battles.
Higher war costs, less tribute (gold or food
or slaves) from new conquests,
and a famine( loss of crops) in 1505 caused Moctezuma to demand even more from his conquered
tribes leading to even more resentment and rebellion .
The Inca were also facing problems in
their empire when Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro
arrived
in 1532. When the Inca ruler died in 1525, his two sons, Huascar and
Atahualpa,
fought each other for the throne.
After three years of
bloodshed,
Atahualpa became the ruler of a greatly weakened empire.
Old and New World Clash
Because of problems inside their
empires, the
Aztec and Inca could not keep out the Spanish invaders. When the
Spanish
saw the wealth of these two empires, they set out to conquer them.
Cortes Conquers the Aztec
When Moctezuma first learned of the
Spanish arrival,
he believed that Cortes might be Quetzalcoatl , an
ancient god who had returned to earth to control the Aztec kingdom.
Moctezuma
welcomed the Spanish into Tenochtitlan (the Aztec capital)
,
Later, Cortes'
leaders massacred thousands
of Aztec people,
The Aztecs realized quickly these were not GODS ! They fought back. Moctezuma died
in the fighting, but it wasn't clear who killed him- the Spanish, or his own
people? The
Aztec
forced the Spanish out of their capital. Cortes lost most of his army
in
his retreat.
The Spanish who survived escaped and were helped by native tribes who hated the Aztec. Cortes
had no problem persuading these tribes to help him defeat the Aztec.
Soon there were many who joined Cortes' army.
In
May 1521,
the Spanish led a huge army of
angry tribes against the Aztec capital.
They blocked boat traffic to
and
from the mainland, keeping the Aztec in their city without supplies. It became worse for the Aztec when an epidemic of smallpox
or
measles occured in the city .
Finally, in 1521,after fierce fighting,
with most of their warriors dead
from disease, starvation, or war wounds, the Aztec gave up. It had taken only two
years for the Spanish to destroy the Aztec Empire !
Pizarro Conquers the Inca
The Inca Empire ended 11 years
later when the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro arrived in Peru
to
steal his share of New World riches.
Leading about 150 men, Pizarro
landed on the northern coast of the Inca Empire in early 1523. The
Spanish told Inca messengers that they wished only to admire the empire.That was a lie !
The
Inca ruler Atahualpa then allowed the Spanish to
come to his
military
fortress .
Pizarro decided that
only a
quick, brutal
attack would give his men an advantage over the thousands of Inca
warriors.
So, Pizarro called for a meeting with
Atahualpa. But
Pizarro waited safely inside some buildings in the town square with his
army. When Atahualpa arrived in the town square with thousands of his
men, Pizarro
sent a Spanish monk to talk to Atahualpa.
| The monk offered Athualpa a Bible and
told the chief that he should put his faith in Jesus and become a Christian. Athualpa
was angry and threw the Bible to the ground saying, "I will be no
man's
slave. I am greater than any prince upon the earth…. As for my faith, I
will not change it."
|
When the monk reported that the Inca chief would not become a Christian,
Pizarro and his men came out of hiding , killing more than 5,000
Inca.
 |
Athualpa was taken prisoner.
The Spanish took control of the capital
.The Inca gave Pizarro 24 tons of gold and silver as a ransom for
Athualpa,
but he was not released. |
Pizarro convinced Atahualpa to become a Christian so that he would not be burned alive.Then the Spanish tied him to a pole
and
strangled him.
|
In February 1536, an army of 200,000 Inca warriors went
to fight the Spanish.
But the Inca failed because most supplies had been used
up in a civil war only a short time before the Spanish arrived.
The Inca retreated into the
Andes Mountains.
There they continued to fight the Spanish until 1572, when the Spanish
finally defeated them.
Two Empires Destroyed
How could these empires have been taken so quickly?
First , the Spanish weapons were
better.
They fought with cannon and crossbow  ,
as well as spears and swords made
of iron.
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The Aztec, with
bronze and
copper shields, stone knives,
and cloth armor, were no match for them.
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Second, the Spanish and the Aztec
came from very
different cultures.
Moctezuma believed that Cortes might have been a god, so he allowed Cortez to
walk freely into the capital city. But Cortes saw the
Aztec culture as something evil to be destroyed and replaced by the
Christian
faith. The two groups even fought by different rules. The
Aztec
usually took captives to kill as sacrifices to
their
gods.
The Spanish, however, fought
to kill
their enemies on the
battlefield.
Third,
the
Spanish took advantage of the weakened
and rebellious condition of the Aztec and Inca empires.
Many tribes
were angry against the Aztec, so they were willing to guide the Spanish
through their territory and help
them win their battles. Tragically, the Spanish then turned and fought
those
helpful
tribes once the Spanish got what they wanted.
Finally, disease brought by the
Europeans killed many Aztec and Inca.
In
some areas 90 percent of the population died
as the result of the Spanish takeover.
Rich Spanish nobles took
over the land and
forced
the Aztec into slavery on farms and in
silver
mines.
The chart on the right shows the
population decline among the Aztec and the Inca after the arrival of
the
Spanish.
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The Aztec and Inca responded
differently to
the
invaders. The capture of Tenochtitlan (the Aztec capital) meant the end
of the Aztecs, because it was the center of Aztec
life.
When their capital fell, they stopped all resistance and allowed the Spanish to
take
over their land and people.
The Inca did not give up after
their capital city (Cuzco) was conquered. They fought the Spanish
for 40 more years.
This may be because the Inca rulers
took
much better care of their conquered tribes-giving them both food and
land, bonding with their subjects.
The
Spanish
destroyed temples, artwork, and
something
the Inca held very sacred - the mummies of their previous rulers-
as
well
as anything else that represented Inca culture.
But some Inca
traditions
survived.
Today, some 20 million Inca descendants still speak Quechua,
celebrate ancient religious ceremonies, and farm in small villages.
