How did the Spanish build an empire?
After the discovery of the Americas, Spanish adventurers set out to seek their fortunes. They sent expeditions to South and Central America and to Mexico in search of gold and treasure. In Mexico, a group of Spanish soldiers attacked the capital of the Aztec Empire. The Aztecs had been expecting the god Quetzalcoatl to return to the Earth, and believed that the leader of the raiders, Cortes, was this god. The Aztecs offered little resistance, so Cortes captured Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, and ruled in his place.
In Peru, the adventurer Pizarro took advantage of a civil war to conquer the Incas, murdering their rulers. The Incas’ primitive weapons were no match for the Spanish guns. Pizarro’s men were able to loot gold and other treasures from both these rich regions with little resistance.
How did the Spanish defeat the Incas and the Aztecs?
Several factors made it easy for a small group of Spaniards to conquer these great civilizations. Though vastly outnumbered the Spanish had horses, armour and guns which gave them a huge advantage over the native warriors. The Incas and the Aztecs had never seen anyone in armour, and thought that the Spaniards were supernatural beings. They did not use steel and had no defence against Spanish swords and crossbows. Horses were unknown in Central and South America, and at first the Native Indians thought that man and horse were one monstrous creature.
The Spaniards brought with them devastating diseases such as smallpox, which ravaged these peoples. They had no resistance to the smallpox virus, and millions of them died. The Native Indians often offered no resistance to the Spanish advance, becoming totally demoralized at the collapse of their ordered society.
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