How did the Spanish beat the Aztec with weak guns?

OP
G

GZepeda

Guest
Hello, newbie here, but I would like to chime in with my 2 odd cents.
Lone coyote's right, the Aztecs had many enemies.
The Spanish adopted a genius strategy in the New World as far as conquering the natives went. The used "divide and conquer". They played upon political conflicts, and used this to their advantage. There is also the religious connotations that were mentioned earlier, Cortez's arrival coincided with the date of Quetzalcoatl's return from exile by way of another elder god many years earlier. Quetzalcoatl had blue eyes and blonde hair, so indeed, Cortes somewhat resembled him.
Cortes tricked the leader of the Aztecs, Montec(a)zuma into sublimating his kingdom. As soon as he did that, Cortes had him killed.
Also, there was mention of the disease that had decimated the population. This was very true, and used by Cortes to imply an "omen", hence, more credit to his "godliness".
As far as Cotes being crazy, he was. His men weren't so much so, although Pedro de Alvarado was by far the most intense of the conquistadores.
When Cortes landed his ships of the coast of Mexico, he had his most loyal troops scuttle his fleet. He never intended on returning! His troops had no other choice but to follow him at this point.
One important war factor that hasn't been noted yet was the Aztec and New World indigenous fear of the Wardog. They were terrified of the Spanish warhounds. The only domesticated dogs they had were of course, the familiar Chihuahua, and these were used for food.
gzepeda
 

Feisty Mouse

Senior Master
MTS Alumni
Joined
Jun 15, 2004
Messages
3,322
Reaction score
31
Location
Indiana
For an *excellent* look at the whole picture of this scenario, and other conquests in human history, I highly recommend Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond. He starts out asking the question of why the Spanish invaded and conquered the Aztecs, and not the other way around, and works from there. Really fascinating look at human history!
 

Latest Discussions

Top