16th Century/1500s

Downfall of Empires

Key Terms:
Huayna Capac [1493-1530 AD]
Montezuma II [1502-1520]
Cortez [1519]
Quetzalcoatl
Cuitlahuac [1520]
Huascar [1530-1532]
Atahualpa [1532-1533]
Pissarro [1532]
Cajamarca
Manco [1533-1536]
Tupac [1572]

I. European Empires & Conquest

A. Empire of the Aztecs
1. The empire consisted about twelve million people, most of the people were not Aztec, they were different
ethnic groups that were conquered by the Aztecs and despised/hated the Aztecs
a. The capital of their empire was built on an island inside of the valley of Mexico’s lake and was connected
towards the mainland through a series of bridges
b. Ruled by Montezuma II
 He ruled for exactly ten years after Columbus had encountered the “new world” by the time of his rule,
the Spanish had already conquered all if not the majority of the Caribbean, the Spanish headquarters
were on Cuba
 By 1519, the Spaniards hear about the Aztec Empire
2. In 1519, the Spanish decided to make official contact with the Aztec Empire and sent a small Spanish force of
600 soldiers to Veracruz led by Hermann Cortez
a. They were supposed to be peaceful with the Spanish but if they were able to have the opportunity, they
would rather conquer them
 Cortez then marches towards the capital city and realizes that many of the civilians hated the Aztecs and
were not really Aztec, he also discovers that the military weapons that the Aztecs had were crappy
compared the Spanish ones
 Spaniards had horses, iron weapons, and armors
 Aztecs had wooden paddles with sharp rocks on the end of it
 It takes two months for Cortez to reach the valley of Mexico
3. The Confrontation
a. Montezuma does not attack or interrogate Cortez but just tells him, “We have been expecting you.”
 Montezuma believed that Cortez and his men had something to do with their God Quetzalcoatl
 Legend: The God left the Aztec empire and had vowed to return to the Aztecs in the year 1519
 The Spanish don’t want to just hang around and be peaceful, they want to grab whatever riches they
can grab and steal all the gold that they have. The Aztecs then start realizing that he has nothing to do
with their god Quetzalcoatl.
b. In June of 1520, Montezuma II was killed by an unknown assassin and was replaced by Cuitlahuac who did
not believe that Cortez and his men had anything to do with their god Quetzalcoatl
  In July of 1520, Cuitlahuac tried to launch a surprise night attack against the Spanish and they fled west
out of the city in which many of them were killed and ironically, they drowned in the lake because they
were trying to carry their gold along with them
c. Cortez wants revenge for what Cuitlahuac did and called for reinforcements from Cuba from the Spanish
and enlisted natives into his army (people who hated the Aztecs). In the end of 1520, Cortez had a huge
army and @ attacks Cuitlahuac in their capital city
 The Aztecs were defeated in 1521 due to being outnumbered and militarily advanced; another main
reason was the growth of small pox to the Aztec people
 While Cortez was living in their capital city, thousands and thousands of people died from Small Pox
and eventually 90% of the population of the Aztec empire would die of the Small Pox
 Marks the end of the Aztec Empire
B. The Inca Empire
1. Led by Huayna Capac
a. The Spanish visited the Inca empire and didn’t stay very long sometimes but they did accidentally leave their
diseases that began to spread across the Inca Empire
b. Huayna dies in 1530 due to Small Pox and is succeeded by Huascar (his son), his other son, Atahualpa
wanted to be king and rose up in rebellion
 A civil war breaks out and is called The War Between the Brothers (Huascar v. Atahualpa)
 Huascar is killed and Atahualpa becomes the new king in 1532 and inherited an empire that was
incredibly weak due to the civil war and diseases that the Spaniards left behind
2. Atahualpa decides to meet up with Pissarro (Spanish) in the plaza called the Cajamarca and Pissarro decides to
kidnap the king and surrounds the plaza with soldiers before the meeting begins
a. Atahualpa does things that should give advantages to Pissarro:
 He has an insanely large army but only brings 5k with him to the meeting and they were all unarmed
 Also, since the plaza was hella small he could only bring a small amount of his 5k soldiers
 They did not know what happened to the Aztecs so they were off guard
b. The meeting takes place in 1532 in the plaza of the Cajamarca and Pissarro does not come out by himself
but sent a priest to talk to Atahualpa and he hands him a bible and tells him that Spain is the representation
of God on Earth and tells him to just surrender
 Atahualpa refuses to surrender and the Spanish soldiers come out and capture the king and kills some of
his bodyguards & Pissarro tells him that all he really wants is a ransom for his capture
 The Inca collect the biggest ransom in the history of the world—but once it’s paid, Pissarro decides
that he doesn’t want to leave and let Atahualpa go, so instead, he puts Atahualpa on trial and a
charge with treason against Huascar and the Incas
3. Atahualpa is charged guilty and is given the choice to either be burned as a steak or convert to Christianity and
be strangled to death
a. Atahualpa’s younger brother is put into power—Manco—as a puppet king to the Spaniards because they
thought he was a wimpy guy who would not cause any trouble against the Spaniards
 Manco secretly starts/plots a rebellion against the Spaniards and in 1536, they rise up in rebellion
 The Incas are defeated  due to the same reasons of how the Aztecs were defeated
4. Manco leaves in exile and sets up an Inca Empire in Exile
a. This last Inca kingdom lasts until 1572 and was finally destroyed by the Spanish and the last Inca king was
called Tupac and was executed by the Spanish