What happened to the Aztecs after the Spanish conquest?

The Aztecs were severely weakened by diseases that the Spanish brought such as smallpox, influenza, and malaria. Over time, around 80 percent of the people living in the Valley of Mexico died from these diseases. Cortés founded Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan.

Why did the Inca and Aztec empires fall to Spain?

In the early 1500s, Spanish forces sailed across the Pacific and conquered the Aztec and Incan civilizations, even though the invading armies were greatly outnumbered by the indigenous population. This conquest was due, in part, to differences in technology and experience.

Why did the Inca Empire decline?

Disease. Disease was a very important factor that led to the collapse of the Inca Empire. Smallpox, which was a very dangerous disease back then, arrived way before the arrival of the Spanish. This disease killed over 200,000 Incas and weakened most of the population.

Why did the Aztecs fall?

Disease. When the Spanish arrived, they brought with them smallpox. Smallpox spread among the indigenous people and crippled their ability to resist the Spanish. The disease devastated the Aztec people, greatly reducing their population and killing an estimated half of Tenochtitlán’s inhabitants.

What caused the Incas downfall?

What was the Incas decline?

Influenza and smallpox were the main causes of death among the Inca population and it affected not only the working class but also the nobility.

Why was it so easy for the Spanish to defeat the Aztecs?

They found that the city’s society had crumpled. The Aztecs no longer trusted Montezuma, they were short on food, and the smallpox epidemic was under way. More than 3 million Aztecs died from smallpox, and with such a severely weakened population, it was easy for the Spanish to take Tenochtitlán.

Why was the Spanish conquest of the Incas so difficult?

Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. The large extent of the empire, the extremely difficult terrain of much of it, and the fact that all communication and travel had to take place on foot or by boat, seems to have caused increasing difficulty in the Incas’ effective administration of the empire.

How did the fall of the Aztec Empire affect the Spanish Empire?

The fall of the Aztec Empire was the key event in the formation of the Spanish Empire overseas, with New Spain, which later became Mexico.

How did the indigenous people react to the Spanish conquests?

Although many of the Indigenous people fought back fiercely, others allied themselves with the Spanish. The Inca were not universally loved by the neighboring tribes they had subjugated over the centuries, and vassal tribes such as the Cañari hated the Inca so much that they allied themselves with the Spanish.

Why did the Spanish treat the Aztecs as slaves?

Since the Spanish crown was across the ocean, it was not able to enforce the system. In many cases, the Spanish treated the Aztecs as slaves. In hopes of expanding European society into the area, the indigenous people ultimately lost their religion, their culture, their freedom, and their dignity under this system.