By: Bree-Anna Brown Conquest in the Americas

Introduction In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean. Which is now called the West Indies.

First Encounters in the Americas Columbus first meeting with the Natives began a cycle. Encounter, conquer and death.

Meeting with the Tainos When Columbus first arrived in the west Indies, he came upon the Tainos. These Tainos live in little villages and grew crops and cotton. They were very friendly towards the Spanish. Regardless of how nice they were, the Spanish still treated them bad. Columbus’s encounter was repeated by a wave of Spanish conquers who arrived in America. They settled in the island of Hispanola

Guns, Horses and disease The Spanish had many advantages over the Natives The Spanish had horses which helped them carry things and get around to places. The natives were very afraid of horses because the have never seen them before Diseases killed a lot of the natives because they couldn’t fight against the diseases. So the natives population went down as much as 90%

Cortes Conquers Mexico From the Caribbean, the Spanish explorers studied the coasts of America. They told stories about empires rich in gold. They also told them that there were fierce fighting people there.

Cortes Advances on the Aztecs Among the earliest conqueror was Hernan Cortes. He was a landowner in Cuba. He heard of the Spanish journeys that had been pushed back by the Indians. He went to Mexico in 1519 and met with an Indian woman name Malinche. She told them how she gained power by conquering other groups of people. They arranged an alliance so they agreed to help Cortes fight the Aztecs.

Moctezuma Faces Dilemma Moctezuma was terrified when wondered if the leader of the pale-skinned bearded strangers might be Quetzalcoatl. So he sent gifts and other goods. Cortez had no intentions of turning back.

Tenochtitlan Falls to the Spanish Moctezuma welcomed Cortes. The relationship between the Aztec and Spanish began to strain. The Spanish tried to convert the to Christianity. They imprisoned Moctezuma so Cortez could gain power and gain control of their riches. Cortez forced Moctezuma to sign over his land and treasure. A new Spanish conquer had arrived one the coast to challenge Cortes. With all this confusion that followed with the various groups the Aztecs drove out the Spanish. Cortez retreated in 1521.His Indians captured and demolished Tenochtitlan.

Pizarro Takes Peru Cortes’s success inspired other adventures. Francisco Pizarro was interested in Peru’s Inca empire which had more riches than the Aztecs. He arrived in Peru in 1532 after Atahualpa had won the throne from his brother. Atahualpa refused to become a Spanish vassal or convert to Christianity. Pizzarro with the help of Indians killed ten thousand Incas. The Spanish demanded a ransom for their ruler, they paid it but the Spanish killed him anyway. Piazarro himself was killed by a rival Spanish faction a few years after he established the city of Lima.