How did the Spanish treat the Aztecs?

They introduced the Aztecs to domestic animals, sugar, grains, and European farming practices. Most significantly, the Spanish ended the Aztec's practice of human sacrifice. The Aztecs sacrificed human victims on each of their 18 annual festivities, according to the New World Encyclopedia.

What did the Aztecs think of the Spanish?

The Aztecs first thought the Spanish were gods due to their light skin and dark hair. The Aztecs would pay the Spanish gold and other gifts to celebrate them. The Spanish saw these riches and realized they wanted more but were outnumbered by the Aztecs.

How did the Aztecs respond to the Spanish?

The Aztecs decided it was time for the Spanish to leave. They did not want to kill them because they might be gods after all, but the Aztecs wanted them to move along. The Spanish were secretly glad to leave. For some time, they had been wondering how to escape alive.

What happened between the Spanish and Aztecs?

During the Spaniards' retreat, they defeated a large Aztec army at Otumba and then rejoined their Tlaxcaltec allies. In May 1521, Cortés returned to Tenochtitlán, and after a three-month siege the city fell. This victory marked the fall of the Aztec empire.

Did the Aztecs fear the Spanish?

The Spanish fired shots, which stunned the natives and further intimidated them. Cortés entered the city, sacked it and took Montezuma hostage. La Malinche helped Cortés manipulate Montezuma and rule Tenochtitlán through him.

Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs | 3 Minute History

How did the Spanish treat the natives?

The Spanish attitude toward the Indians was that they saw themselves as guardians of the Indians basic rights. The Spanish goal was for the peaceful submission of the Indians. The laws of Spain controlled the conduct of soldiers during wars, even when the tribes were hostile.

How did the Spanish treat the people conquered?

How did the Spanish treat the peoples they conquered? Badly, forced them into "encomienda" made natives farm, ranch, or mine for Spanish landlords.

How many Aztecs were killed by the Spanish?

Within five years as many as 15 million people – an estimated 80% of the population – were wiped out in an epidemic the locals named “cocoliztli”. The word means pestilence in the Aztec Nahuatl language. Its cause, however, has been questioned for nearly 500 years.

Why did the Aztecs lose to the Spanish?

The overthrow of the Aztec Empire by Cortez and his expedition rests on three factors: The fragility of that empire, the tactical advantages of Spanish technology, and smallpox.

Why did Spain want to conquer the Aztecs?

Cortes wanted to conquer the aztecs for gold glory and god. Because of these things, many people in the Aztec Empire were unhappy. Some of them helped the Spanish conquistadors take over the Empire.

What was life like for the Aztecs when the Spanish arrived?

The Aztecs were severely weakened by diseases that the Spanish brought such as smallpox, influenza, and malaria. Over time, around 80 percent of the people living in the Valley of Mexico died from these diseases. Cortés founded Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan.

What impact did the Spanish have on the Aztec and Inca?

The Spanish were able to defeat the Aztec and the Inca not only because they had horses, dogs, guns, and swords, but also because they brought with them germs that made many native Americans sick. Diseases like smallpox and measles were unknown among the natives; therefore, they had no immunity to them.

What killed the Aztecs?

Smallpox took its toll on the Aztecs in several ways. First, it killed many of its victims outright, particularly infants and young children.

What did the Spanish have that the Aztecs didn t?

The advantages that the Spanish had over the Aztec were 16 horses, guns, armor, formed alliances, and diseases, steel.

What disease did Spanish bring to Aztecs?

Aztec people of Mexico dying of smallpox introduced by the Spaniards. Epidemics soon became a common consequence of contact. In April 1520, Spanish forces landed in what is now Veracruz, Mexico, unwittingly bringing along an African slave infected with smallpox.

Who helped the Spanish defeat the Aztecs?

Between 1519 and 1521 Hernán Cortés and a small band of men brought down the Aztec empire in Mexico, and between 1532 and 1533 Francisco Pizarro and his followers toppled the Inca empire in Peru. These conquests laid the foundations for colonial regimes that would transform the Americas.

How much gold did the Spanish take from the Aztecs?

At that point, it is estimated that the Spanish had amassed some eight thousand pounds of gold and silver, not to mention plenty of feathers, cotton, jewels and more.

Are there any Aztecs still alive?

Today the descendants of the Aztecs are referred to as the Nahua. More than one-and-a-half million Nahua live in small communities dotted across large areas of rural Mexico, earning a living as farmers and sometimes selling craft work.

Did any Aztecs survive?

By the 1500s, they had not only survived, but managed to prevail, and they were taking no chances of being forced to go backwards. They used their brains and their brawn to defeat their neighbors — first the other ethnic groups in the central basic of Mexico, and then much farther afield.

What did the Aztecs not eat?

Meat was eaten sparsely; the Aztec diet was primarily vegetarian with the exception of grasshoppers, maguey worms, ants and other larvae.

What advantages did the Spanish have over the Aztecs?

Spanish weaponry was far superior to anything used by the Aztecs or Incas. Cortés and his men used over a dozen large portable guns, mainly for their shock value against the Aztecs. Pizarro's conquest of the Incas was also made possible by the use of gunpowder, a substance the Incas didn't have at their disposal.

What atrocities did the Spanish commit?

“The Spaniards with their horses, their spears and lances, began to commit murders and other strange cruelties. They entered into towns and villages, sparing neither children nor old men and women. They ripped their bellies and cut them to pieces as if they had been slaughtering lambs in a field.

What did the Spanish do to the natives in Mexico?

At first, Spaniards destroyed Mexican culture(civilizations, heritage buildings). They slaughtered many natives and took lots of resources, such as silver and gold from Mexico, however, they never gave anything in return. Spain made Encomienda system and enslaved natives.

How did Spain treat slaves?

Under Spanish law, enslaved people were allowed a few more privileges and protections than the French had granted; in reality, Spanish slave owners violated most of these rights, though in some cases they were upheld.

How did the Spanish treat the Tainos?

In Haiti and the Dominican Republic (which they name Hispaniola), Spanish colonists force Taino people into slave labor, mutilate them, or kill them. Columbus loads his ship with enslaved Taino people.