Columbus, Cortés and Pizarro: the conquest of the Caribbean, the Aztecs and the Incas
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Question
Who reached the Caribbean in 1492 sailing for Spain?
Answer
Christopher Columbus, who landed on Hispaniola and made three further voyages by 1504.
Question
Encomienda
Answer
A Spanish colonial system granting a settler the labour of Indigenous people, justified as protection and religious conversion — in practice, forced labour.
Question
Who led the Spanish conquest of Cuba from 1511?
Answer
Diego Velázquez.
Question
How did French exploration in North America differ from British exploration?
Answer
France (Cartier) focused on the fur trade and partnership with Indigenous nations; Britain (Cabot, then Roanoke/Jamestown) aimed at permanent land settlement.
Question
What four steps describe Cortés's defeat of the Aztecs?
Answer
1) Land and ally with the Tlaxcalans (1519) 2) Enter Tenochtitlan and take Moctezuma hostage 3) La Noche Triste — Aztec uprising drives the Spanish out (1520) 4) Siege and fall of Tenochtitlan, aided by smallpox (1521).
Question
Name two reasons for Spanish success against the Aztecs.
Answer
Smallpox devastating the population with no immunity, and the Tlaxcalan alliance providing most of the actual fighting force (also: steel weapons/horses/guns, and political division under Aztec tribute rule).
Question
What triggered the Inca civil war just before Pizarro's arrival?
Answer
The death of emperor Huayna Capac (likely from smallpox spreading ahead of the Spanish) led his sons Huáscar and Atahualpa to fight for the throne; Atahualpa won just before Pizarro landed in 1532.
Question
What happened to Atahualpa after he paid a room of gold and silver as ransom?
Answer
The Spanish under Pizarro took the ransom in 1533 and executed him anyway.
Question
Who was Manco Inca and what did he do?
Answer
The puppet emperor installed by Pizarro in 1533; he rebelled in 1536, besieged Cuzco, then retreated to Vilcabamba, sustaining Inca resistance until 1572.
Question
Compare the fall of the Aztec and Inca empires.
Answer
Both: emperor captured/killed, smallpox weakened the population, technology gave a battlefield edge. Different: Aztecs fell mainly through the Tlaxcalan alliance against tribute-based resentment; Incas fell mainly through a pre-existing civil war (Huáscar vs Atahualpa).
Question
Why shouldn't students describe the conquests as instant?
Answer
Because organised Indigenous resistance continued for decades — most clearly Manco Inca's Vilcabamba state, which survived until 1572, nearly 40 years after Cajamarca (1532).
Question
What was the Reconquista and why does it matter for 1492?
Answer
Spain's decades-long campaign to recapture Spanish territory from Muslim rule, completed in 1492 — it freed up Spain's army and funds just in time to back Columbus's voyage.
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Topic 19.2 hub
European explorations and conquests in the Americas (c1492–c1600)
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