The main way to explain Portugal’s decline is the Dutch. They took advantage of the overextended empire and invaded the most vulnerable parts.
Portugal showed that with firepower 1.5 million people can conquer another group that is much larger. They established the slave trade and left slums in their former colonies.
And now, for the most infamous American colonizer, Spain. The most famous non-Spanish Spaniard must be the sailor Columbus. Columbus heard stories of Leif Erikson the famous Icelander who traveled west. He was intrigued and felt these stories were true. He also thought the Earth was much smaller than it was. He also learned Latin and Portuguese which allowed him to move his status up by chatting with all the important nobles of the time. The …show more content…
By contrasting their religious practices he is more able to show them as savages worthy of conquest. By making it sound like an easy and fruitful conquest, Cortes would ensure that the royal family invested more resources into their overseas colonies. The Aztec made many enemies. Cortes capitalized on this by pitting natives against natives. He also used psychological warfare and scared the Aztec with his horses and gunshots. Montezuma cooperated with the Spanish in many ways which led to him being assassinated by his own