Hernan Cortez and the Fall Of The Aztec Empire
In the year 1519, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was the largest city in the world. Within three years of this time however, the entire Aztec empire had been brought to an end at the hand of a man named Hernan Cortez and only 600 his Spanish soldiers. ... Also, before the Spanish came, the Aztecs were accustomed to their way of life, but after Cortez landed, the Aztec people’s lives got changed around, commonly causing them to do labor for the Spaniards. ... In one case, the conquistadors had a savage attack against the natives who lived in Cholula, and as a result, they changed all of the Aztec temples into Churches (Questar). Eventually, Aztec priests were killed or imprisoned and replaced with Franciscan friars, whose role was specifically to teach and preach the ways of Christianity. The Franciscans quickly learned Native American languages and used them to teach about how the Aztec gods were devils while their god was real. ... The Aztec communities began to have more churches where the temples had been, and they became proud of the churches. ... The appearance of Christianity proved to be quite a change for the Aztec people, which ultimately helped them to fall. ... Before coming to the Aztec land, the Spaniards had been trading with a Native American people called the Tabascans. ... Upon arriving in the Aztec land, the Spaniards were given golden banners, feather streamers and golden necklaces. ... Being that Cortes only came to the Aztec empire with 600 men, it would only seem obvious that he had some other help. ... An initial symbol of weakness in terms of weapons was that in the early stages of Spanish conquest, Aztec messengers lose their senses and faint due to the blast sound of a cannon. ... Along with the Spanish warfare, a key factor in the fall of the Aztecs is the role that disease played. ... This disease obviously had a huge impact on the Aztec people and had it not been for this, the Native Americans may have easily fought of the likes of the Spaniards. Most likely what would seem to be the most significant aspect of the conquest of Mexico and the fall of the Aztecs is the cultural difference between the people. ... Along with this, the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II had been seeing omens around the same time that Cortes came. ... Eventually, Moctezuma realized that these strangers were not gods, even so however, he tried to make peace, which even led to him surrendering the empire to the Spanish. ... After this, great war erupted between the Spanish and Aztec people.