a) Honestly, the Spanish conquest was brutal. However, it was also very intelligent on Cortes’s part. He used the superior Spanish technology (steel and horses) to his best advantage. He also used the preexisting dived in Mexico. The Mexica demanding tribute from Nahua people made them more willing to ally themselves with the Spanish invaders. Plus, according to the article, they exploited the fact that many Mexicans thought they were gods. In addition, they brought foreign diseases that wiped out a large number of natives without the Spaniards having to do anything. The impression I got from the article was that the Mexicans didn’t know what to do with the Spanish invades, they had never seen anything of the like and simple assumed
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It was an intelligent invasion that used every advantage they were given with the sole purpose of finding gold. Not only that, but the Spanish sought to destroy the culture of the Mexican people. They started with They burned books and destroyed temples in order to convert Mexicans. By the end, most of a culture and people were dead and the ground work was set for more invasions.
b) The biggest contributing factor to events playing out as they did was gold. The Spanish wanted gold and they were willing to kill and destroy to get it. Their greed lead them to think only of themselves and not of the culture they were ending. Furthermore, they were far ahead of the Mexicans in terms of technology. The article describes spears of various sized the natives used opposed to the guns and armor of the Spaniards. Another important factor was the preexisting dived in Mexico. If the Mexicans had been united against the Spanish invaders, things …show more content…
By understanding the past of our nation, we can better understand how it became what it is. Learning about Native American societies, Europe, and the Spanish conquest gives us the framework for United States history. It is the ground level, the foundation of what would eventually become the United States. By understanding the foundation we will be able to better understand the country we are trying to study. We would not be learning about this, we would not be here, if not for the time before the 1600, if not for the European “discovery” of America and the Spanish conquest. We could skip all this and go straight to more recent U.S. history, but by including this in our studies we gain a deeper understanding of where we came from. The European discovery of American was the first step to our more current history, without it everything could have been different for us. It’s kind of like teaching children a formula in math without showing them why it work. If they just memorizes the formula, they will be able to perform the math problem correctly, but they will not understand the process as well as they could have. However, if you breakdown the formula and explain why it works, they will remember it better and be able to apply parts of it to different scenarios and possible use it to explain more complicated formulas. They will gain more from understanding
It was an intelligent invasion that used every advantage they were given with the sole purpose of finding gold. Not only that, but the Spanish sought to destroy the culture of the Mexican people. They started with They burned books and destroyed temples in order to convert Mexicans. By the end, most of a culture and people were dead and the ground work was set for more invasions.
b) The biggest contributing factor to events playing out as they did was gold. The Spanish wanted gold and they were willing to kill and destroy to get it. Their greed lead them to think only of themselves and not of the culture they were ending. Furthermore, they were far ahead of the Mexicans in terms of technology. The article describes spears of various sized the natives used opposed to the guns and armor of the Spaniards. Another important factor was the preexisting dived in Mexico. If the Mexicans had been united against the Spanish invaders, things …show more content…
By understanding the past of our nation, we can better understand how it became what it is. Learning about Native American societies, Europe, and the Spanish conquest gives us the framework for United States history. It is the ground level, the foundation of what would eventually become the United States. By understanding the foundation we will be able to better understand the country we are trying to study. We would not be learning about this, we would not be here, if not for the time before the 1600, if not for the European “discovery” of America and the Spanish conquest. We could skip all this and go straight to more recent U.S. history, but by including this in our studies we gain a deeper understanding of where we came from. The European discovery of American was the first step to our more current history, without it everything could have been different for us. It’s kind of like teaching children a formula in math without showing them why it work. If they just memorizes the formula, they will be able to perform the math problem correctly, but they will not understand the process as well as they could have. However, if you breakdown the formula and explain why it works, they will remember it better and be able to apply parts of it to different scenarios and possible use it to explain more complicated formulas. They will gain more from understanding