The big idea: In just a few years the Spanish destroyed two of the largest empires in the Americas. The lasting impact was not only the fighting but what came after: disease, forced labour and a new Spanish-ruled society built on the ruins of the old one.
Between 1519 and 1521 the Spanish leader Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec Empire in what is now Mexico. Its great capital, Tenochtitlan, fell in August 1521.
A few years later, between 1532 and 1533, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire in what is now Peru. This micro is about the impact these conquests had on the people and land of the Americas.
The four big impacts of the conquest
A population collapse
Millions of Indigenous people died, mostly from new diseases like smallpox that their bodies had never met before.
Empires replaced by Spain
The Aztec and Inca rulers were gone. Spain governed the land as colonies through viceroys and Spanish law.
Forced labour for the settlers
Under the encomienda system, Indigenous people were made to work and pay tribute.
A new religion imposed
Catholic missionaries arrived to convert people to Christianity, often replacing older temples and beliefs.
People die → Empires replaced → Forced labour → New Church
Paper 1 source tip: Sources may use different names for the same place or people.
• Aztec people are also called the Mexica. • Tenochtitlan stood where Mexico City stands today. • The Inca capital Cuzco is also spelt Cusco.
They all refer to the same history.
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To judge the impact well, you need the detail behind each change. Let's look at how the conquest reshaped the population, the government, work and belief.
The main effects of the conquest
Disease and population collapse
The biggest killer was not the sword but sickness. Diseases such as smallpox spread fast because local people had never been exposed to them. A smallpox outbreak weakened Tenochtitlan even before it fell in 1521, and later epidemics killed a huge share of the Indigenous population over the following decades.
New rulers and new laws
The Aztec and Inca states were replaced by Spanish rule. Spain governed through viceroys and officials, and imposed its own laws, language and taxes. Indigenous nobles who cooperated sometimes kept local power, but the highest authority now came from the Spanish crown far across the ocean.
The encomienda and forced labour
Settlers were rewarded with an encomienda, the right to demand labour and tribute from a group of Indigenous people. In theory the settler was meant to protect and convert them; in practice the system often meant harsh, forced work.
Silver and the mines
In 1545 the Spanish found enormous silver deposits at Potosí. The mines made Spain rich but demanded brutal Indigenous labour, which caused great suffering and more deaths.
The Catholic Church
Missionaries came to spread Christianity. They built churches, sometimes on the sites of old temples, and worked to convert people. This changed religion and culture deeply, though many older beliefs quietly survived alongside the new faith.
Life BEFORE the conquest
- Independent Aztec Empire ruled from Tenochtitlan
- Independent Inca Empire ruled from Cuzco
- Own religions, temples and gods
- Own systems of tribute and labour, run by local rulers
- Large, healthy Indigenous populations
Life AFTER the conquest
- Both empires replaced by Spanish colonies under viceroys
- Catholic Christianity imposed by missionaries
- The encomienda controlled Indigenous work
- Potosí silver enriched Spain from 1545
- Population collapse driven mainly by smallpox and other epidemics
| Date | Event | Why it matters for impact |
|---|---|---|
| 1521 | Fall of Tenochtitlan | Ended the Aztec Empire and began Spanish rule in Mexico. |
| 1533 | Cuzco taken; Atahualpa executed | Ended Inca independence and opened Peru to Spanish control. |
| 1542 | The New Laws | Showed Spain knew the system was abusive and tried, with limited success, to reform it. |
| 1545 | Silver found at Potosí | Made Spain wealthy but demanded harsh forced labour from Indigenous workers. |
Mini-case: why disease mattered so much: Picture a city that had never met a certain illness.
When smallpox reached the Americas, Indigenous people had no built-up resistance to it. The disease spread through families and whole communities very quickly. It struck before, during and long after the actual fighting.
Why this matters: it means the conquest's deadliest impact was not really the battles. Historians argue the population collapse came mainly from disease, which the Spanish did not plan but which made resistance far harder.
Paper 1 judgement tip: Don't just say 'the Spanish were cruel.'
Instead separate the types of impact: disease (mostly unplanned), political conquest, forced labour, and religious change. A strong answer weighs which impact was greatest and for whom, rather than lumping everything together.
The Mita: Peru's forced-labour system
The encomienda was not the only forced-labour system the Spanish used. In Peru, the Spanish also took over an existing Inca institution and bent it to their own purpose: the Mita.
Where the Mita came from: Long before the Spanish arrived, the Inca state had used the Mita as a form of rotational labour tax: communities sent a share of their able-bodied men to work on state projects — roads, terraces, temples, storehouses — for a set period, then rotated home. It was compulsory, but it belonged to a reciprocal system where the Inca state also fed and supported workers.
After the conquest, the Spanish kept the name and the rotational structure, but stripped away the reciprocity. From 1545, when the silver deposits at Potosí were found, colonial authorities redirected the Mita into a brutal mining draft: villages across a wide region of Peru were forced to send a quota of men to work the mines each year, under savage conditions and with high death rates.
Encomienda (Mexico)
- A Spanish invention: a grant giving a settler the right to demand tribute and labour from an Indigenous community
- Used mainly in Mexico, on land, in households and on farms
- Workers stayed roughly in their own community under a local settler
- Justified as an exchange: protection and conversion in return for tribute and work
Mita (Peru)
- An Inca-derived system: originally a rotational labour tax, repurposed by the Spanish
- Used mainly in Peru, above all to supply forced labour to the Potosí silver mines from 1545
- Workers were drafted away from their home villages for months at a time
- Became one of the deadliest forms of forced labour in the colonial Americas
Don't mix up encomienda and Mita: Same goal, different machinery. Both systems forced Indigenous people to work for the Spanish, but examiners reward precision:
• Encomienda = a grant of people to a settler, strongest in Mexico, covering tribute and general labour. • Mita = a repurposed Inca institution, strongest in Peru, focused above all on the Potosí mines after 1545.
If a source or question is about Peru and silver mining specifically, think Mita, not encomienda.
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How this is tested: Paper 1 is the source-based exam. You get four sources (A–D) and four questions, each testing a different skill: reading a source, analysing a source's value and limitations, comparing two sources, and reaching a judgement using all four plus your own knowledge.
With reference to its origin, purpose and content, analyse the value and limitations of the following source for a historian studying the impact of the Spanish conquest on Indigenous people.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Common mistakes: 1. Just retelling the source. You must judge its value and limitations, not summarise it.
2. Forgetting origin AND purpose. Both shape how reliable a source is.
3. Treating one friar's report as the full truth. It is one viewpoint.
4. Ignoring bias direction. Ask whether the writer's aim makes them exaggerate or hide things.