European Exploration:  14th Century to 17th Century

Conquest of the Americas

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The conquest of the Americas was what caused native American civilizations to fall so quickly. This was when Europeans started to come over to the Americas with the purpose of destroying and conquering Native American civilizations. This is what conquistadors, meaning conquerers, were for. Two of the best known native American Empires, the Aztec and the Inca, fell mainly because of the Europeans destroying their empires.

Fall of the Aztec

The person who played the key role in the fall of the Aztec was a Spainish explorer named Hernando Cortes. He brought 508 conquistadors to the Mexican coast, near the Aztec civilization, in 1519. At the time, the Aztec emporer was Montezuma II. He thought that Hernando Cortes was a god sent to reclaim the throne, so to try to get Cortes to go away, he gave him gifts, which only made the Spainish more excited. The Spainish started to create alliences with some of the Aztecs. Cortes traveled to the capital city of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan, where he was welcomed. Cortes captured Montezuma shortly after that, and tried giving commands through Montezuma, thinking that he could rule the Aztecs. The Aztecs rebelled and kept the Spainish in Tenochtitlan for a while, bu then the Spainish tried to escape. The failed escape broke out in fighting where about 1800 Spainish were killed. In spring of 1521, Cortes returned again to Tenochtitlan to again try to defeat the Aztec. This time, he did defeat the Aztec with some help from disease that was spreading throughout the Aztec population, killing and weakening many Aztecs.

Fall of the Inca

In 1531, Francisco Pizzaro led 180 conquistadors into Peru, where the Inca civilization was. Like the Aztec Emporer, the Inca Emporer Atahualpa welcomed the Spainish. Francisco Pizzaro killed Atahualpa and many Inca immediately. The Inca Empire then colapsed without Atalhualpa to direct them.