An outline, era by era

Spanish conquest of the Aztecs (1521) and Incas (1532)

Early Modern Era · ~1500 – ~1800

Between 1519 and 1532 small Spanish forces, backed by large numbers of Indigenous allies, overthrew the two biggest states of the Americas. In central Mexico the Mexica (Aztec) Triple Alliance, centred on Tenochtitlan, fell in August 1521. In the Andes the Inca empire, called Tawantinsuyu, was broken after Francisco Pizarro captured the ruler Atahualpa at Cajamarca in November 1532. Inca resistance lasted until 1572.

The conquests matter because they opened the Spanish colonial empire in the Americas and brought wealth, especially silver, into the world economy. Spanish weapons played a part, but so did Indigenous alliances, civil strife within both empires, and epidemic disease, above all smallpox. The population of the Americas fell sharply in the following decades. The Spanish and Indigenous accounts of these events were written down afterwards, and historians still weigh them carefully.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Columbus and the Spanish settlement of the Caribbean

    Event

    What happened

    In 1492 Christopher Columbus, sailing for the Spanish crown, reaches the Bahamas, and in the following years Spain founds settlements on Hispaniola. By 1511 to 1519 Spaniards have occupied Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Cuba. They set up a system of forced Indigenous labour called the encomienda.

    The rest is history

    Caribbean settlements became the base from which expeditions to the mainland set out. Diego Velázquez, governor of Cuba, authorised the voyage that Hernán Cortés led to Mexico in 1519. The Taíno population of the islands collapsed within a few decades from disease, violence and forced labour. Spaniards looking for new labour and gold then turned to the mainland.

    Sources

    1. BookWilson, Samuel M. The Indigenous People of the Caribbean. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997.
    2. PrimaryLas Casas, Bartolomé de. Historia de las Indias. Spanish chronicle, written 1527 to 1561.

  2. The rise of the Mexica Triple Alliance

    Event

    What happened

    Tenochtitlan is founded on an island in Lake Texcoco, traditionally in 1325. In 1428 the Mexica join Texcoco and Tlacopan in the Triple Alliance and defeat Azcapotzalco. In the following decades the alliance conquers much of central Mexico and demands tribute from many subject towns.

    The rest is history

    The empire ruled through tribute, not direct administration, and many subject peoples resented it. That resentment helped Cortés find allies after 1519. Tlaxcala, a state that had long resisted the Mexica, became his most important partner. By 1519 Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities in the world, with a population often estimated in the low hundreds of thousands.

    Sources

    1. BookSmith, Michael E. The Aztecs. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.
    2. BookHassig, Ross. Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988.

  3. The Inca expansion and civil war

    Event

    What happened

    From the 1430s the Inca ruler Pachacuti expands from Cuzco, and his successors extend Inca rule along the Andes from present-day Ecuador to central Chile. Around 1527 the ruler Huayna Capac dies, probably during an epidemic. His sons Huascar and Atahualpa then fight a civil war over the succession.

    The rest is history

    Atahualpa's forces defeated Huascar around 1532, shortly before Pizarro reached Cajamarca. The empire was therefore divided and exhausted when the Spaniards arrived. Whether an epidemic of an Old World disease reached the Andes before Pizarro is debated by scholars. The civil war is well attested in Spanish and Andean accounts.

    Sources

    1. BookD'Altroy, Terence N. The Incas. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002.
    2. BookHemming, John. The Conquest of the Incas. London: Macmillan, 1970.

  4. Cortés lands in Mexico and allies with Tlaxcala

    Event

    What happened

    In February 1519 Hernán Cortés sails from Cuba with about 500 men and lands on the Gulf coast. He founds Veracruz and defies Velázquez's authority. Marching inland, he fights Tlaxcalan armies in September 1519 and then makes an alliance with Tlaxcala. He is helped by Malintzin (Doña Marina), an Indigenous woman who serves as interpreter.

    The rest is history

    Tlaxcalan warriors, with other allies, formed the bulk of the forces that later besieged Tenochtitlan. Cortés's own letters to Charles V are the main Spanish source. Indigenous accounts, such as the Florentine Codex and the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, give other views. The alliance made the conquest possible, and Cortés could not have taken the capital without it.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryCortés, Hernán. Cartas de relación. Letters to Charles V, 1519 to 1526.
    2. BookRestall, Matthew. When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting that Changed History. New York: Ecco, 2018.

  5. The fall of Tenochtitlan, 1520 to 1521

    Event

    What happened

    In November 1519 Cortés enters Tenochtitlan and holds the ruler Motecuhzoma II under guard. In June 1520 Motecuhzoma dies and the Spaniards flee the city with heavy losses on the night later called the Noche Triste. A smallpox epidemic then strikes the city. Cortés returns with Indigenous allies and a fleet of boats built for the lake, and after a siege of about three months Tenochtitlan falls on 13 August 1521.

    The rest is history

    The Spaniards founded Mexico City on the ruins of the capital, and the colony of New Spain grew from it. The ruler Cuauhtemoc was captured at the fall and later executed by Cortés in 1525. Indigenous allies were far more numerous than the Spaniards in the siege. Smallpox killed a large share of the city's people, though historians disagree on the numbers.

    Sources

    1. PrimarySahagún, Bernardino de. Florentine Codex (General History of the Things of New Spain). Nahuatl and Spanish, c. 1555 to 1577, Book 12.
    2. BookTownsend, Camilla. Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.

  6. Pizarro's expeditions to Peru

    Event

    What happened

    Francisco Pizarro, who had been in Panama, makes voyages down the Pacific coast of South America in the 1520s. In 1528 his party sees the Inca town of Tumbes. In 1529 he gets a royal licence from Charles V to conquer Peru. In 1531 he sails again with about 180 men and some horses.

    The rest is history

    Pizarro's partners included Diego de Almagro. The men landed on the coast and marched inland in 1532 as Atahualpa was celebrating his victory in the civil war. The Spaniards had learned of Inca wealth from the early voyages. This led directly to the encounter at Cajamarca.

    Sources

    1. BookHemming, John. The Conquest of the Incas. London: Macmillan, 1970.
    2. PrimaryXérez, Francisco de. Verdadera relación de la conquista del Perú. Spanish eyewitness account, 1534.

  7. Cajamarca and the capture of Atahualpa

    Event

    What happened

    On 16 November 1532 Pizarro's men ambush Atahualpa and his unarmed retinue in the square at Cajamarca. They kill many of his followers and take the ruler prisoner. Atahualpa offers a room filled with gold and silver for his release. Despite the ransom, the Spaniards put him on trial and execute him in July 1533.

    The rest is history

    The Spaniards entered Cuzco in November 1533 and installed a puppet ruler, Manco Inca. Manco rebelled in 1536 and besieged Cuzco, then withdrew to Vilcabamba. The last Inca ruler there, Tupac Amaru, was executed in 1572. The loot shared out at Cajamarca was very large, and the silver mines at Potosi, found in 1545, soon followed.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryXérez, Francisco de. Verdadera relación de la conquista del Perú. Spanish eyewitness account, 1534.
    2. BookHemming, John. The Conquest of the Incas. London: Macmillan, 1970.

  8. Epidemics in the Americas

    Event

    What happened

    Old World diseases, especially smallpox, reach the Caribbean after 1492 and the Mexican mainland in 1520. Further epidemics of smallpox, measles and other diseases follow in central Mexico and the Andes through the 1500s. Indigenous populations had no prior exposure to these diseases.

    The rest is history

    Population fell steeply across the Americas in the 1500s. Scholars disagree on the size of the pre-conquest population and on the scale of the losses, but most accept very large declines. Disease weakened Indigenous resistance and also shaped later labour systems. The debate over numbers continues.

    Sources

    1. BookCook, Noble David. Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
    2. BookCrosby, Alfred W. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Westport: Greenwood, 1972.

  9. Cortés burns his ships

    Popular belief

    The legend

    On landing in Mexico, Cortés is said to burn his ships so that his men cannot turn back and must conquer or die. The story is told as a classic act of daring leadership.

    The rest is history

    The early accounts say Cortés ran the ships aground, or sank them, at Veracruz in 1519 after his men had stripped them of useful gear. Some say he did so to prevent desertion. Burning does not appear in the main early sources, and the image became popular later. The ships' timbers and fittings were reused, and the vessels were not set alight.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryDíaz del Castillo, Bernal. Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España. Spanish chronicle, completed 1568.
    2. BookRestall, Matthew. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

  10. The Aztecs thought the Spaniards were gods

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Motecuhzoma is said to have believed Cortés was the returning god Quetzalcoatl, and so welcomed him and gave up the empire without a real fight. The story is often repeated in popular histories.

    The rest is history

    Historians now regard this as doubtful. The idea appears mainly in sources written decades after the conquest, including Sahagun's Florentine Codex and later Spanish friars' writings, when the Mexica story was being shaped for new audiences. Cortés's own letters do not say it. Restall and others argue it is a later invention, and the Mexica fought hard for the city for months.

    Sources

    1. BookRestall, Matthew. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
    2. BookTownsend, Camilla. Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.

  11. The conquest by a few hundred men

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A few hundred Spaniards, with steel and guns, are said to have conquered two great empires on their own.

    The rest is history

    Both conquests relied on huge numbers of Indigenous allies. Tlaxcalans and others supplied tens of thousands of fighters at Tenochtitlan, and in Peru many Andean groups sided with the Spaniards against the Inca state. Disease, civil war and Spanish reinforcements also played parts. Spanish accounts stressed their own role, and modern scholarship has corrected this.

    Sources

    1. BookRestall, Matthew. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
    2. BookMatthew, Laura E., and Michel R. Oudijk, eds. Indian Conquistadors: Indigenous Allies in the Conquest of Mesoamerica. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.

← Back to the outline