The Aztecs rise from the 14th century can be linked to the military strength. In 1430 the aztecs made an alliance with two other city states to form a triple alliance. The alliance went into wars of conquest and expanded. The alliance was able to dominate most of central Mexico and distant lands. When the Aztecs conquered cities, they left their rulers in power under the condition that they payed tribute to the Alliance and supply military forces when needed.…
Cortes’ ardent determination to bring back wealth, gold, and conquer the Aztecs’ most sacred land, Tenochtitlan, wasn’t enough to defeat them in a hard fought battle. Determination was just one of the many factors that helped the Spaniards defeat the pious Aztecs. The main five factors consist of the, Spanish Worldview, Aztec Worldview, Military Technology, Military Strategy, Spread of Disease. However, out of all of these factors, the most important would be Military Technology due to all the advantages it gave the Spaniards and Cortes. Just some few examples can explain the incredible benefits they gained.…
The worshiped a war-god, called Huitzilopochtli, which he was identified with the sun and their war god. Their religion has them human sacrifice, and it has a huge role in war as well, the Aztecs would not fight to kill, but they fought to capture. While the Spanish were ready to kill. The Spanish had a full advantage in technology, since they were the side that were fighting to kill they had the equipment to do so. They had cannons on their ships and carried shields and swords, while the Aztecs had spears and wooden shields. Although technology was a major reason of the defeat, another reason for the defeat was the lack of…
Montezuma, who was the ruler of the Aztecs, had a funny feeling about them. Not too long after they arrived, the Aztecs realized that the Spanish could be killed just like their other enemies, so they went to war. They caught some of the Spanish, killed some of them, even ate some. The Spanish won out because of their preparation, and because they brought so many diseases with them, it killed some of the Aztecs as well. The Spanish came to the Aztecs land, and the Aztecs thought that this was the 'God' that they had been waiting for. They treated the Spanish with riches and lavish food, as they would a God. They only treated them to the finest of treasures because they were sure this was what they were looking for. The Spanish reported that they 'were sickened by the people's shocking routines', which was mentioning toward the sacrifice they saw. Then, when the Spanish tried to take advantage of what the Aztecs had given them, they realized they weren’t the Gods they thought they were looking for. So they cut them off. Conversely, the Spaniards had the horses, firearms, and they had most of the people of the Aztec society on their side. With that being said, the Spaniards didn’t like how the Aztec land was being run. With these people and the Spanish's knowledge expansions, they overthrew the Aztec Empire. After the Aztecs were conquered by the Spaniards, they were turned into…
Some critics might argue that the Aztec Empire had an extensive amount of people in comparison to the few Spaniards, that the Aztecs could have developed a systematic plan to avoid Spanish conquest if they did not welcome or misbelieved the Spanish were retuning gods reclaiming their rightful empire. However, the Aztecs were still going to encounter the Spanish, as they were already settled in areas in New Hispaniola in the Gulf of Mexico. The Spanish sought to increase their chances of wealth and fortune and would try to find those riches. Also, the forced tributary system and capture of slaves as sacrifice created resentment and hatred toward the Aztec empire, which was a strategic advantage for the Spanish as they could form enemy allies…
The Aztec economy should be remembered as sophisticated as demonstrated through their prosperous marketplace and their practice of requiring tributes from conquered territories. The marketplace of the Aztecs was so full of people that, “They could be heard more than a league off,” says Bernal Diaz del Castillo in History of the Conquest of Spain (Doc N). Because the Aztecs were such a large and powerful society, they conquered many territories. Document M shows that, after they had conquered a territory in war, they often required the territories to pay them with tributes. These tributes usually consisted of tools, clothing, and services. These examples show that the Aztecs had a strong and flourishing economy and were smart enough to trade goods instead of money.…
First, killing thousands of people, the loss of people in a loss that can't be calculated (war). Although the Aztecs certainly weren't the first people ever to sacrifice humans, the fact that they did and the incredible number they sacrificed led to the hatred of some of the surrounding peoples. The powerful city-state of Tlaxcala was one of these. Many of their own had been sacrificed, and in the end they joined the Spaniards to fight the Aztecs. It may be that the Spanish simply was an excuse to start what was already an inevitable civil…
Religion conferred a substantial portion of the battle within the two groups. In the Aztecs religion, they believed that a human sacrifice was essential to be made so they could keep the gods pleased. They believed that the gods could be satisfied through animals, objects, and humans. Huitzilopochtli, the god of sun and war was mostly offered the human heart, which belonged to the Aztecs enemies and prisoners during these sacrifices. So when the Spanish arrived at the land of Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs considered that these Spaniards were exceptional for the human sacrifice. Though the emperor thought contrarily, Moctezuma believed that Cortes resembled their god Quetzalcoatl, including the magnificent coincidence regarding the arrival of Cortes and the…
Their religious views of warfare inhibited their actions in certain ways. Preoccupations with human sacrifice caused them to seek captives rather than corpses. Also their liturgical traditions, which insisted that operations be prefaced by elaborate ceremonies only served to alert the Spaniards of attack. The Aztecs were perhaps weakened psychologically through their traditions, such as their fear of cavalry and gunfire.…
When Cortes heard of a vast and wealthy empire deep within the Mexican interior, the conquest of Mexico had already begun. The Aztec empire was what the ambitious Cortes had been looking for since his departure from Spain; he most certainly hoped that his wish to discover the empire would come true. The Aztecs, on the other hand, did not know Cortes. The empire was as it always had been; the Aztecs had no serious premonition of war. Cortes knew nothing of the size and power of the Aztec empire and if he did, his decision to bring only a few hundred men was certainly a gross misjudgment. The conquest of Mexico remains surprising for this reason: it seems puzzling that such a huge conflict could stem from two opposing forces, one of which was so terribly ill-prepared for war. As Inga Clendinnen states; "How was it that a motley bunch of Spanish adventurers, never numbering much more than four hundred or so, was able to defeat an Amerindian military power on its home ground in the space of two years?"…
The Aztecs were an Native Indian tribe, located in modern day Mexico,who ruled a huge part of Mexican territory from the 1400’s to the 1500’s, before they were conquered by Hernando Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors. The Aztecs had one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas and built cities as large as any in Europe at that time. They had a very unique culture compared to the Spaniards, for example they practiced a religion that affected every part of their lives and featured human sacrificed. Their impressive empire was destroyed by the spaniards in the year 1521, but the Aztecs left a lasting mark on Mexican life and culture.…
The 15th c.e Aztecs of Central and Southern Mexico utilized their religious upper hand to develop a military culture of war and human sacrifice for their sun God. They maintained their empire by backing their agriculture and tribute system with force and conquering ethnic peoples and regions to become givers of labor, raw materials, food and valuable items. This can be derived from an Aztec “Tlacochcalcatl” (military general), depicted in the Aztec manuscript ‘Codex Mendoza,’ 16th c.e, which is a primary source. The other evidence found of the tribute system is the Tribute-Roll section of the ‘Codex Mendoza,’ 16th c.e (compiled by a Spaniard). It shows specifically the Aztec religious sacrificial items needed such as animal pelts, and colored feathers. This empire was able to stay in control long enough to become one of the greatest empires of the World because of it’s definite military clout and coordinated economic…
450). The ceremonies and rituals were done and modified sometimes to show the enemy their power as an empire and at the same time to express the American spiritual and polytheistic heritage. The Aztecs and the Incas had a religious culture, and for the culture different gods were important. Also both empires, following their religious culture, performed human sacrifices for the gods, mausoleums, and mummy burials. The Incas and Aztecs had tremendous creativity with art, expressing situations happening at the moment of their empire. Statues, paintings, manuscripts, music and several other small creations were made for decoration, for sounds, and for history.…
Hernan Cortes, a fierce Spanish conquistador, landed at San Juan de Ulua, in April 1519. With him, Cortes had 508 soldiers, one hundred sailors, artillery cannons, eleven ships and sixteen horses. Cortes and his small army, marched through Mexico, forming alliances with Aztec rivals, until reaching the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Tenochtitlan was the capital city of the massive Mexican empire known as the Aztecs or Mexica. It had a population of 200,000 people; almost three times that of the largest city of Spain, Seyville (Windschuttle, 43). Within the next two years, Cortes and his men had triumphantly defeated the Aztecs and taken control of Tenochtitlan against all odds. (Daniel, 1992) So how, despite be hopelessly outnumbered, without the possibility of new supplies or reinforcements, fighting other native tribes and Spaniards, and the Aztecs on their own turf, did this tiny Spanish force defeat such a formidable army. Today, there are a number of reasons why the Spanish have believed to been able to overcome such odds. A combination of poor Aztec military tactics against advance Spanish weaponry and strategy, a weak Aztec ruler, the spread of disease, Tenochtitlan’s poor governing over its populace, and the interconnectedness of Aztec military and religion ultimately led to the demise of its empire.…
The Aztec’s claim to have originated from Aztlan, an island in a lake in northwestern Mexico. They were then led to central Mexico by Huitzilopochtli, the war god and the tangible representation of the sun (Coe and Koontz, 186). Huitzilopochtli became the Mexica’s most beloved and feared god. (religion which links to the war and human sacrifice that the Aztec’s highly valued and the political system in place-Aztec emperor).…