What were the effects of the Spanish conquest of the America's?
Loss of Indigenous cultures
Smallpox
Slave Trade
Immediate effects.
What happened
Long term effects
Immediate effects
Immediate effects
Long Term effects
What happened
Destruction of Tenochtitlan
What happened
in the year 1519, a man named Hernan Cortés landed in central America (modern day Mexico) When he first met with, Montezuma (Aztec Emperor) the Aztec emperor originally had the impression that Cortés was sent by Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent god) and brought him many gifts. But after a while Montezuma learned that Cortés was after treasure, and the relations became less friendly. Cortés then took Montezuma as a hostage and collected all the gold he could find and cleared any treasures he found in the temple. When it was may 1520, During Cortés' absence, the Spanish massacred multiple Aztec nobles during a festival, which led to an uprising inside the city of Tenochtitlan. As Cortés returned, he found that the conquistadors had lost control of the city. As the Spanish tried to withdraw quietly in the middle of the night, consequently, they were discovered, and had to fight to escape. Some managed to escape but they had lost.
In 1521, Cortés returned to the America's and successfully laid siege. They were under siege for three months, since the Aztecs were in a critical state after the smallpox sweep, and they were defeated shortly after, May 1521.
From being defeated by the Spanish, the leaders were permitted to ride horses and dress as what the Spain people dressed. They had the task of bringing outlying tribes under the rule of new Spain. In contrast from the native leaders, the ordinary Aztecs were treated with disrespect, They were to work. The Spanish wanted gold, so from the Aztecs, they were forced to work in the mines, mining gold and silver. Some of them were worked to death and were also treated brutally.
Small pox was a disease that is caused by a virus known as the variola. They are pus filled blisters, and are not similar to chicken pox. Before the Spanish, the Aztecs had never been exposed to any other people apart from themselves. Because of this, their immunity to diseases were very poor. When the Spanish had come and left, diseases had spread across the America's. It was recorded that more Aztecs had died from the diseases, than from battle. The most common disease that hit the Aztecs was the smallpox.
The immediate effects were that Aztecs were constantly tired from work because they were not used to slavery and having master etc. Many of them were overworked, and they were working under bad conditions. From this, the Aztec slaves couldn't tend to their usual routine, they couldn't farm, because of being slaves, and other animals were pests and ate the Aztec crops.
The long term effect of the Aztec slavery was that many of the Aztecs had died because of being enslaved, the slavery of the Aztecs lead to multiple deaths and the crops in which the Aztecs could no longer attend to were eaten by animals (mainly pigs since they were allowed to roam free.) and this was a problem they had before the siege of Tenochtitlan. They had also lost a sense of culture, from being worked too hard and caught up in slavery, they couldn't perform daily rituals they did before. #
the smallpox quickly spread and impacted the Aztecs after the Spanish fled. It killed many of the Aztecs were killed quickly and because of this, the Aztecs couldn't work as effectively on their farms, and they didn't have enough people to fight against the Spanish in 1521. They were defeated and sent to slavery. #
Long term effects
In the long term effects of the smallpox, the Spanish didn't have many Aztec slaves because of the smallpox, which meant that when in slavery, a lot of the Aztecs who were slaves working in the mines or general slavery, had to work harder to make up for the lost numbers of the Aztecs that died from the smallpox.
Short Term effects
The short term effects of the destruction of Tenochtitlan, was that many people both Spanish and Aztecs had died. (Aztecs mainly being wiped out from smallpox) and it would take time to settle. The landscape was in ruins because of the fight with the Spanish and the Aztecs, and it would also take time for the landscape to be rebuilt.
Long term effects
The Aztec population quickly diminished population from being hit by the diseases, to the fight with Cortes, and from slavery. The Aztecs were deeply affected in terms of their population, and they had lost some of their culture from being enslaved, they had also lost most of their people and freedom. (Though the Aztec leader were treated differently) In contrast, the conquistadors were able to thrive from the defeat of the Aztecs. #
BIBLIOGRAPHY
What happened
Other Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_the_Aztec_Empire
Author: Emily grimes
Date of publication: 23/7/2014 Title: Spanish conquest of the Americas 2 (powerpoint)
Impression of Destruction of Tenochtitlan
The Aztecs had many things that defined who they were. They had the feudal system of slaves, commoners, nobles and emperor's, and daily life like sacrificing, and other things like bloodletting into the soil, taking care of the land, and poem writing. But when they were defeated their culture was taken away from them, and they could no longer do the things they existed for.
From loss of culture, the immediate effects were that the Aztecs were unable to perform their daily rituals, (due to slavery, being occupied by work) They couldn't do the things they could and so part of their culture was lost under the the Spanish leadership. Because the Spanish had defeated them in the Battle between them, they were not able to Sacrifice, and it broke the cycle of what would happen when they sacrificed. #
The long term effects from the loss of indigenous culture was that because they weren't able to farm, since they were slaves, was that they couldn't sacrifice, from being unable to sacrifice, there was a sense of daily culture that was lost. The Aztecs also lost the gods that they believed in, from being enslaved, they couldn't go to their temples, because of the certain restrictions they had. The Aztecs had a lot of knowledge, so there was also a loss of knowledge, the Aztecs herbalists had a lot of knowledge, so by losing the knowledge, there was a sense that we could have learnt more. And because they were captured, and died from all sorts of things, they couldn't regain their numbers and couldn't do the daily things they had done before. #
Impression of smallpox
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