Compare And Contrast The Spanish Conquest Of Mexico

The Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica was a drastically devastating occurrence for the settlers who built the early civilizations of Mexico. Following Christopher Columbus’ successful takeover and extraction of wealth from the Caribbean, leaving in his wake the decimation the native populations, culture and societal structure, a new Conquistador, Hernán Cortés was ready to begin his quest for land, riches and power, this time in Mexica. At the time, the Azteca were the most powerful civilization in Mexica. To Cortés this meant their empire must possess the most abundant wealth to plunder and led him to set his sights on overtaking them. The Spaniards advantage over the Azteca through the use of more highly advanced weaponry as well as germ warfare in the form of foreign disease enabled Cortés and his men to defeat the large and powerful Aztec Empire. …show more content…
Before the invasion of the Spaniards, the Mexica natives had never before seen the highly advanced weapons of war their army utilized. Their armor, horses, attack dogs and highly destructive weapons including gunpowder, cannons and swords left the Azteca highly disadvantage in combat against the conquistadores. Loud gunpowder and cannons frightened the people and soldiers riding horseback, whom they even believed to be one divine being, towered over the Aztec militia. While the Azteca possessed a strong, skilled military force, the invaders were unlike any army the people of Mexica had ever fought or seen before and they were not prepared to battle a force with such an artillery