Describe the First contact between Spanish conquistadores and
A) Aztecs
B) Mayans
C) Incas
A) When the Conquistadores first arrived by ship to the Aztecs land, the first thing the conquistadores did was to show that they had a lot of power over the Aztecs. They would shoot a cannon from one of their ships, onto the Aztecs land, hitting a tree or some other object that was not curtail to the Aztecs. By shooting a cannon at their land, they were showing their strength and advances in technology. When the Conquistadores first stepped on the Aztecs land, the Conquistadores did not cause any problems. At first, the Conquistadores told the Aztecs, ‘We will take care of you, and give you all the things you want and need, but you are our people now, our slaves.’ The Aztecs of course did not understand the Conquistadores. The Aztecs believed that the Conquistadores were gods because of their armor, huge dogs, horses, and all of there advanced goods. When the Aztecs and Conquistadores first got into a war, the Aztecs won. But by the time the next war had begun, the Aztecs had decreased in numbers rapidly, because the last group of Conquistadores had introduced small pox to the Aztecs. The Aztecs were not used to the germs of it like the Conquistadores were, so when they got sick, A lot of them died.
B) When the Conquistadores first arrived by ship to the Mayans land, the first thing they did was take two boys as prisoners to be ‘Interpreters.’ The Mayans did not approve that they took some of their people as ‘Interpreters.’ Shortly after the arrival of the Spaniards, the Maya attacked in force, killing more than fifty men. With their manpower reduced by half, the expedition was forced to return to Cuba. Córdoba himself received multiple wounds from ten arrows and died shortly after his return to Cuba. In April 1518, another expedition of four ships and 300 men under the command of Juan de Grijalva left Cuba for the Yucatán. This expedition landed near Campeche at the river Lagartos, but was soon attacked by the Maya inhabitants and left the region. In 1525, Hernán Cortés, the conqueror of Tenochtitlan, passed through a small portion of Campeche. During this time, Cortés made an alliance with Paxbolonacha, the ruler of Acalán. This accommodation initiated a gradual incorporation of the Chontal Maya into the Spanish empire. Cortés' account of his journey through Acalán served as motivation for Francisco de Montejo to lead a second expedition to Acalán and the Yucatán area.
C) When the Spanish arrived at the borders of the Inca Empire in 1528, the empire spanned a considerable distance. Extending southward from the Ancs Maya (meaning Blue River) which is now known as the Patia River in southern Colombia to the Maule River in Chile, and eastward from the Pacific Ocean to the edge of the Amazonian jungles, the empire covered some of the most mountainous terrain on earth. In less than a century the empire had grown in extent from about in 1448, to (or about the size of the eastern seaboard of the greatly varying cultures and geography, many areas of the empire were left under local leaders, who were watched and monitored by Inca officials. However, under the administrative mechanisms established by the Incas, all parts of the empire answered to, and were ultimately under the direct control of, the Emperor. Scholars estimate that the population of the Inca Empire probably numbered over 16,000,000.Ninan Cuyochic, died suddenly in 1528 from what was probably smallpox, a disease introduced by the Spaniards into the Americas during their conquest of Mexico, the question of who would succeed as emperor was thrown open as Huayna had died before he could nominate the new heir. At the time of Huayna Capac's death Huascar was in the capital Cusco, while Atahualpa was in Quitu with the main body of the Inca army. Huascar had himself proclaimed Sapa Inca (i.e. Emperor) in Cusco, but the army declared its loyalty to Atahualpa.
