Negative Impact of Spanish Exploration At the peak of its power in the sixteenth century, the Spanish Empire was quick to send their powerful navy to the newly discovered Americas. With a growing population, the most dominant entity in the world was looking to expand. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of the Western hemisphere, the purpose of their voyage was to conquer land and take resources. This “age of exploration” for the Spanish had a tremendous effect on the population of Aztecs living in current day Mexico, who were adversely damaged. The downward spiral that Aztecs experienced is the result of many intentional and unintentional acts by Spanish conquerors of the 1500’s , called conquistadors, led by Hernan Cortes. These include:
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The diseases had an enormous impact on the destruction of the Aztec civilization because Native Americans had no immunity to them. More than half of the population was killed by diseases such as smallpox, influenza, and measles. Smallpox are believed to have come to the Americas because of the African Slaves of the conquistadors, and animals shipped to the Americas had fatal diseases. Europeans had immunization because of their domestication and trade of animals. Smallpox was an issue for the Aztecs in the 1520’s not only because of the population dropping dramatically, but also affected the battles with the conquistadors. Many of the best tacticians and leaders such as Cuitlahuac, the emperor, died of the disease and this left a lack of leadership in the fight against Cortes. Overall, the effect that diseases had on the population of the empire was monumental to the eventual fall of the Aztec civilization. However, the Spanish were not only stripping the Aztecs of …show more content…
Cortes manipulated the religion of the Aztecs to spark a civil war between a group that was constantly being used to perform sacrifices and the capital. He used his resemblance to the God of the East to get them to take action. After the Spanish had outgunned, spread diseases, and took resources, They took the remains of the Aztec society and stripped them of Aztec culture, beliefs, and language. They taught them Spanish and converted them to Catholicism. The remaining population was not allowed to study their own culture, and the elements of Aztec faith were gone forever. The Spanish was motivated by the fact that they thought Aztec traditions, such as human sacrifice were inhumane and against Catholic belief. Spain, being the vastly Catholic country that it was, colonized Mexico and built a Catholic extension of the Spanish Empire as they did with a vast area of land in the rest of America. The exchange of culture, technology, and diseases between the “new and old worlds” is referred to as the Columbian
The diseases had an enormous impact on the destruction of the Aztec civilization because Native Americans had no immunity to them. More than half of the population was killed by diseases such as smallpox, influenza, and measles. Smallpox are believed to have come to the Americas because of the African Slaves of the conquistadors, and animals shipped to the Americas had fatal diseases. Europeans had immunization because of their domestication and trade of animals. Smallpox was an issue for the Aztecs in the 1520’s not only because of the population dropping dramatically, but also affected the battles with the conquistadors. Many of the best tacticians and leaders such as Cuitlahuac, the emperor, died of the disease and this left a lack of leadership in the fight against Cortes. Overall, the effect that diseases had on the population of the empire was monumental to the eventual fall of the Aztec civilization. However, the Spanish were not only stripping the Aztecs of …show more content…
Cortes manipulated the religion of the Aztecs to spark a civil war between a group that was constantly being used to perform sacrifices and the capital. He used his resemblance to the God of the East to get them to take action. After the Spanish had outgunned, spread diseases, and took resources, They took the remains of the Aztec society and stripped them of Aztec culture, beliefs, and language. They taught them Spanish and converted them to Catholicism. The remaining population was not allowed to study their own culture, and the elements of Aztec faith were gone forever. The Spanish was motivated by the fact that they thought Aztec traditions, such as human sacrifice were inhumane and against Catholic belief. Spain, being the vastly Catholic country that it was, colonized Mexico and built a Catholic extension of the Spanish Empire as they did with a vast area of land in the rest of America. The exchange of culture, technology, and diseases between the “new and old worlds” is referred to as the Columbian