spanish

ARRIVAL OF THE SPANISH

A thing like 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 arms are all made of iron…. They are carried on the backs of stags [horses] wherever they like to go.

Their skin is white, as though made of 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, seeking adventure and wealth. With him were over 550 men, 16 horses, 14 cannons, and a few dogs.

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 stunned. They rushed back and reported to Moctezuma.

The Aztec had never seen cannons or horses or men with white skin before. Aztecs who had been with Moctezuma reported that "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 appeared on American shores in the early 1500s. At that time civil war (fighting between parts of the empire) weakened both the Aztec and Inca.
In the Aztec Empire, a number of tribes began to rebel against their harsh Aztec rulers. Led by the Tlaxcalans, these rebel tribes put up a bitter struggle. Infuriated, Moctezuma sent huge attacks against them.
     Rebellion was everywhere and the Aztec were forced to fight in many areas at once. Because their armies were spread all over, they lost many battles. Also, war costs became very high. There were few resources left for making new conquests.
     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 more tribute from his conquered tribes. This demand led to even more resentment and rebellion .
      The Inca were also facing problems in their empire when Spanish adventurers, led by Francisco Pizarro, arrived in 1532. When the Inca ruler died in 1525, his two sons, Huascar and Atahualpa, fought each other for the throne. The northern half supported Atahualpa and the southern half supported Huascar. 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 (keht sahl koh AHTL), an ancient god who had returned to earth to control the Aztec kingdom. Moctezuma welcomed the Spanish into Tenochtitlan (the Aztec capital)

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saying, "It appears that our Lord has returned to his country. Go and receive him worthily."
But soon he learned he had made a terrible mistake. Only a few days later Cortes took Moctezuma hostage. Moctezuma ordered vast amounts of gold and silver brought to the palace, hoping the foreigners would take it and leave his city. But they did not. Moctezuma remained a prisoner. Even worse, his people blamed him for the Spanish takeover of the capital.

Six months later, one of Cortes' leaders massacred thousands of Aztec people,

causing a massive Aztec rebellion. Moctezuma died in the rebellion, but who killed him- the Spanish, or his own people? Writers at the time tell different stories. After the rebellion the Aztec forced the Spanish out of their capital. Cortes lost most of his army in his retreat.
The remaining Spanish escaped to a Tlaxcalan camp. The Tlaxcalan had hated the Aztec for a long time, so Cortes had no problem persuading them to help him defeat the Aztec. Other conquered tribes eagerly joined the 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, stranding the Aztec in their city without supplies. The situation for the Aztec became worse when an epidemic of smallpox or measles occured in the city . Finally, on August 13, 1521,after fierce fighting,

with most of their warriors dead from disease, starvation, or war wounds, the Aztec gave up. Within two years' time the Spanish had destroyed the Aztec Empire.

Pizarro Conquers the Inca

The Inca Empire ended in similar ways 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 in Tumbes on the northern coast of the Inca Empire in early 1523. The Spanish assured Inca messengers that they wished only to admire the empire. The Inca ruler Atahualpa

then allowed the Spanish to come as far as his military fortress in Cajamarca, northwest of Cuzco.

Pizarro decided that only a quick, brutal attack would give his troops an advantage over the thousands of Inca warriors. With this plan in mind, he called for a meeting with Athualpa at Cajamarca on November 16, 1532. But Pizarro waited safely behind with his army and sent a Spanish monk in his place. The monk offered Athualpa a Bible and told the chief that he should give up his Inca beliefs. Athualpa was outraged 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 could not be converted, Pizarro and his troops 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. The Spanish later tied him to a stake and strangled him.

In February 1536, Manco Inca, the last heir to Huascar's throne, led an army estimated at 200,000 Inca warriors to the capital of Cuzco.

But the Inca failed because most supplies had been used up in civil war. Manco Inca retreated with his army into the Andes Mountains. There they continued to fight the Spanish until 1572, when the Spanish finally defeated them.

Two Empires Destroyed

Historians give many reasons for the quick Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires.

First , the Spanish weapons were superior.

They fought with cannon

and crossbow

as well as spears and swords made of iron.

The Aztec, with bronze and copper shields, stone knives, and woven-cloth armor, were no match for them.

Second, the Spanish and the Aztec came from very different cultures. They had different ways of living and believing. Moctezuma believed that Cortes might have been a god and allowed him 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 fought to take captives to kill in a ceremony of sacrifice to their gods.

The Spanish, however, fought to kill their enemies on the battlefield.

Third, the Spanish took advantage of the weakened and rebellious state 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 had a disastrous effect on the Aztec and Inca.

Smallpox and measles, which the Aztec and Inca had never been exposed to, spread rapidly through their empires.Disease killed off many in their armies, and killed off many leaders too, leaving the Aztec and Inca even weaker.

In some areas more than 90 percent of the population died as the result of the Spanish takeover.
With no one to stop them, Spanish nobles took over the land and forced the Aztec into slavery. As slaves, they labored 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.

     The Aztec and Inca responded differently to the invaders. The capture of Tenochtitlan (the Aztec capital) meant the end of Aztec civilization, because the city had been the center of Aztec life. When it fell, they stopped all resistance and allowed the Spanish to take over their land and people.
            An Aztec poet described the feelings of the Aztec just after the Spanish conquest in 1512:
            "There is nothing but grief and suffering in Mexico and Tlatelolco, where once we saw
              beauty and valour. Have you grown weary of your servants? Are you angry with your
              servants, O Giver of life?"
    The Inca, on the other hand, did not give up after their capital city (Cuzco) was conquered. Resistance to Spanish rule continued for 40 years. Some historians believe this is because the Inca rulers took much better care of their subject tribes. They provided their subjects with both food and land. By spreading their culture, religion, and language throughout their empire, the Inca bonded their subjects together.

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.