Thursday, October 28, 2010

What aspects of the Aztec civilisation made it appealing to the Spanish conquistadors?

Perhaps the first thing the Spanish noticed when they encountered the Aztecs was their quantity of gold; gold was relatively plentiful in the region, and as a result Aztec kings had amassed huge quantities of it. The Spanish used gold as their currency, and so it was highly valuable to them; it would be sort of like encountering a nation of people who used dollar bills as wallpaper and had no problem trading you huge quantities of them for basically nothing.

The Aztecs had a large population, which the Spanish saw as a source of cheap labor; they also had an authoritarian government, which was both familiar to the Spanish (they were under an absolute monarchy) and a useful means for them to take and maintain control. Their technology was not as advanced as what the Spanish had, particularly with regard to weaponry; so the Spanish knew that they would be able to conquer them easily.

The Aztecs were also despised by other cultures in the region, probably because they had a habit of raiding villages, capturing people, and either turning them into slaves or using them in human sacrifices. The Spanish used this to their advantage, forming alliances with other cultures in the region, notably the Tlascalans, to topple the Aztecs. Actually, due to their alliance with the Spanish, the Tlascalans remained largely unscathed throughout the 300 years of Spanish colonialism.

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