Immigrant Sruggles
...s. For example, the Aztecs believed that the Spanish cannons were fire-breathing dragons and some of the Aztecs would stick their heads in the cannons and would be killed with one fire. The Aztec’s weapons were very primitive. In fact, they were ineffective against the Spanish because they could not penetrate the Spanish’s armor. It amazes me to know that such an advanced civilization such as the Aztecs could, at the same time, be so primitive. A civilization is only as strong as its leader. The Aztecs had lost the war before it even began. The Aztecs were defeated before the war ever started, because they were psychologically at a disadvantage. Moctuzuma believed that Hernan Cortez was Quetzalcoatl. Cortez arrived at the end of a 52-year cycle. Which means that the Aztecs believed he was Quetzalcoatl returning from his exile. Because of this, Moctezuma treated Cortez like a god. As a result, when it came time to fight, the Aztecs were already psychologically defeated because they thought they were fighting against a god. The Aztecs soon began to believe that their gods were against them. With the belief of their gods as the core of their culture and civilization, their downfall became inevitable. Moctezuma ignored the warnings of his people, and because of his unwillingness to accept that Cortez was not a god, the Aztec culture and its civilization was completely wiped out. The Spanish’s most devastating weapon to the Aztec people was not their rifles, their swords, their horses, or their cannons, but the diseases that they left behind. Before the Spanish had arrived in Mexico, the indigenous people had not been exposed to any diseases. The Aztecs were pureblooded people, until the arrival of the Spanish. Right when the Aztecs thought they had driven the Spanish out of Tenochtitlan, they were hit with the deadliest weapon that the Spanish had; disease. The Aztecs were suddenly hit with small pox, and there were no cures. Suddenly, the entire civilization of the Aztecs was being completely wiped out by this infectious plag...