Conquest of the Aztecs and Incas
Chapter 4 Lesson 1
Fall of the Aztecs
• In the year 1519, the Aztecs were ruled by
king Motecuhzoma.
• In the past 2 years some odd things had
taken place in the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.
– The Earth had shaken (Earthquake)
– The lake had flooded the city
– Comets had been seen in the sky
• Aztec priests had studied these natural
wonders and decided that the Aztec Empire
was coming to an end.
The Aztec God
• The Aztec’s noticed that
there were men with white
skin and black beards were
coming to Tenochtitlan.
• The Aztec people believed
that Quetzalcoatl, the lightskinned god would one day
return to rule his people.
• The Aztec people thought
Hernando Cortes might be
the god Quetzalcoatl.
Hernando Cortes
• Cortes was sent by the Spanish government
to look for gold in present day Mexico.
• He traveled with more than 500 soldiers, 14
cannons, 16 horses, and several dogs.
• Before he sent out on his journey, he had
heard stories about the great wealth of the
Aztec Empire.
• In the spring of 1519, Cortes landed on the
east coast of Mexico.
• There he defeated the Indians and set out for
the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.
Cortes’ Journey
• The journey covered 200 miles from the
tropical coast, through the snowy mountains,
and into the Valley of Mexico.
• After marching for 83 days, Cortes and his
soldiers, joined by large numbers of the
Aztecs’ Indian enemies, finally reached
Tenochtitlan.
• Thinking that Cortes might be Quetzalcoatl,
Motecuhzoma welcomed him, offering
housing and gifts of gold.
Cortes conquers the Aztecs
• Soon, Cortes took
Motecuhzoma prisoner and
within two years the Aztec
ruler was dead and his
capital city was in ruins.
• Spanish weapons and
European diseases, which
were new to the Indians,
had nearly destroyed the
Aztec civilization.
• By 1521 Cortes had
conquered the Aztecs.
Spanish Rule
• Conquering the Aztecs brought wealth and
glory to Hernando Cortes.
• Among the Europeans, Cortes and his
soldiers became known as conquistadors
(Spanish word for conquerors)
• Spain now ruled Mexico and built Mexico
City which became the capital of Spain’s
new empire in the Americas.
Francisco Pizarro
Fall of the Incas
• Other conquistadors soon followed the lead of
Hernando Cortes and journeyed to the Americas
to find wealth.
• Francisco Pizarro heard stories of the Incas being
far more powerful and richer than the Aztecs.
• In 1531, sixty-year-old Pizarro and a group of
180 Spanish and African soldiers sailed from
Panama and landed on the west coast of South
America.
• For two years they wandered around the Andes
Mountains until one day they came across an Inca
camp.
It covered presentday countries of
Peru, Ecuador,
Bolivia, Argentina,
and Chile.
Trouble in the Empire
• This empire was larger and more powerful than they
heard from the stories.
• The empire covered 3,000 miles of the western coast of
South America and included over 9 million people.
• When Pizarro and his soldiers arrived, the Inca Empire
was not at peace.
– Civil War was occurring between the followers of two
brothers, Atahuallpa and Huascar.
– The two brothers were fighting for their right at the
throne.
– The war finally ended when Atahuallpa killed his
brother and became emperor.
Befriending the Incas
• Pizarro invited Atahuallpa to the Spanish camp as
an attempt to offer friendship.
• When Atahuallpa and several thousand of his
people arrived at the Spanish camp, Pizarro’s
priest asked Atahuallpa to give up his own religion
and accept Christianity and also to accept the
king of Spain as his master.
• When Atahuallpa refused, Pizarro took the new
emperor prisoner.
• Atahuallpa attempted to buy back his freedom
with promises of gold and silver, but Pizarro had
him killed anyway.
The End of the Incas
• After Atahuallpa’s death in
1533, the Spanish
conquered the Inca
Empire and made slaves
of its people.
• For the Spanish, the
conquest brought riches
and power. But for the
Incas, this encounter
ended a civilization.