Native Americans - Aztecs and Indians :: essays research papers

Two of the biggest and greatest civilization in the Americas werethe Aztecs and Incas. These two civilization were both said to beconquered by the Spanish, but it wasnt just the Spanish whoconquered them. These two civilizations both fell from acombination of a weak government, lack of technology, newdisease introduced by the invaders, and not being prepared for theinvaders. For many centuries the Aztec civilization revolved around aideological, social, and political system in which magnification was thecornerstone. Expansion was the cornerstone of their totallycivilization, because their religion requested that a large number ofhuman sacrifices where to be made to the gods. To get thesacrifices the Aztec went to war with other tribes in Mexico to getthese human sacrifices (Conrad & angstrom unit Demmest 47-49) . With eachconquest more sacrifices and more land was added to the Azteckingdom. The Aztec were a strong civilization who were familiarwith organized large scale war, had s pecialized war chiefs, and awell organized system of territorial levy in which large armies couldbe amassed in a short time (Age of Reconnaissance 124-125). Theymay d bear been well organized for war, but they were not preparedfor informal changes in there civilization. When expansion was nolonger an option there system crumbled. Without expansion theycould no longer give human sacrifices in the same amount in whichthey use too. Upon the arrival of the Spanish the Aztecgovernment was falling apart, and "Moctezuma II programs ofinternal military consolidation and administrative and socialstabilization had failed" (Conrad & Demmest). When the Aztecsfirst met the Spanish they were amazed by them. The Spanish usedthe Aztecs own legends to take advantage of them and gain theupper hand. Other disadvantages that the Aztecs had was theneed to take prisoner to sacrifice, they were not untied with othertribes (Spanish were able to unite with other tribes to foster fight theAztec s), had primitive weapons, and couldnt stay on the battlefield for long, because they ran out of supplies quickly (Age ofReconnaissance 167). The Spaniards didnt destroy the Azteccivilization all by their self another factor which helped the Spanishwere the disease that they brought over to the Americas fromEurope and Africa. The introduction of diseases like syphilis,measles, smallpox, malaria, mumps and yellow fever are just somewhatsickness that plagued the Budhu 2Aztecs. Also the introduction of different species of animals andplants caused a ecological imbalance (Plagues and Peoples176-199). All these are some reasons to why the Aztec civilizationwas destroyed. With the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico rumors started to reach