Key Idea: In just over thirty years, small bands of Spanish adventurers toppled the two largest empires in the Americas. Hernán Cortés destroyed the Aztec Empire of Mexico by 1521, and Francisco Pizarro destroyed the Inca Empire of Peru by 1533. They came for gold, God and glory, they won because of weapons, native allies and disease, and they left behind a shattered population and a new Spanish-ruled world.
💰 2.2.1 — Why Spain conquered the Aztecs and Incas
Spain in 1492 had just finished the Reconquista — the centuries-long Christian campaign to retake Spain from Muslim rule. The same year, Columbus reached the Caribbean, and thousands of battle-hardened soldiers went looking for a new war and new riches across the ocean.
The men who sailed west were not royal armies. They were conquistadors — private soldier-adventurers who funded their own trips and expected to be paid in gold and land, so they took huge gambles to strike it rich.
It helps to split two ideas. Motives are why the Spanish wanted to invade; context is what made it possible for so few men to win. Ambition alone would have failed without the weaknesses waiting in the Americas.
- Gold — the hunger for treasure, silver and personal riches; the encomienda (a grant of local people's labour and tribute) also rewarded conquerors with workers.
- God — spreading Catholic Christianity was seen as a holy mission, growing straight out of the Reconquista.
- Glory — poor and minor nobles like Cortés and Pizarro wanted fame, titles and status; Pizarro was inspired by Cortés's success.
- Context (why they won): steel swords, guns and horses; local allies like the Tlaxcalans; and smallpox, which swept Mexico in 1520 and killed huge numbers.
- The Inca were also weakened by a recent civil war between rival brothers Atahualpa and Huáscar.
⚔️ 2.2.2 — Key events and actors
Both conquests followed the same four-step pattern: land, win allies, seize the emperor, take the capital. Keep the two stories separate — Mexico and the Aztecs first (1519–1521), then Peru and the Inca a decade later (1532–1533).
Cortés landed in 1519, founded Veracruz, allied with the Tlaxcalans, and took the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II prisoner in the capital Tenochtitlan. After a Spanish retreat (the 'Noche Triste' of 1520) he besieged the city, which fell on 13 August 1521. Pizarro then ambushed and captured the Inca emperor Atahualpa at Cajamarca in 1532, executed him in 1533, and seized the capital Cusco.
- Hernán Cortés → Aztecs → Mexico → took Tenochtitlan 13 August 1521.
- Francisco Pizarro → Inca → Peru → captured Atahualpa 1532, took Cusco 1533.
- Doña Marina (La Malinche) — an enslaved native woman who was Cortés's interpreter and adviser, vital to building alliances.
- Native allies did most of the fighting, and smallpox killed far more people than any weapon.
- The story ran on past 1533: Pizarro was assassinated in 1541 by rival Spaniards, and royal control was only firmly restored by around 1551.
🏛️ 2.2.3 — The impact of the conquest
The conquest's deepest impact was not the battles but what came after: disease, forced labour, new rulers and a new religion. A useful memory hook is to think DEEP — Disease, Empires replaced, Encomienda, Priests and silver.
The deadliest impact was disease. Indigenous people had no resistance to smallpox and other European illnesses, so epidemics caused a massive population collapse — even though the Spanish never planned it.
- Population collapse — smallpox and other diseases killed a huge share of Indigenous people over the following decades.
- New rulers — Spain replaced the Aztec and Inca states, governing through viceroys (royal governors) with Spanish law, language and taxes.
- Forced labour — the encomienda gave settlers the right to demand labour and tribute from Indigenous people.
- Silver — enormous deposits found at Potosí in 1545 enriched Spain but demanded brutal forced labour.
- Religion — Catholic missionaries converted people and rebuilt on old temple sites; the New Laws of 1542 tried, with limited success, to curb the encomienda's abuses.
✍️ Exam-ready answers
Paper 1 is source-based, but you also use your own knowledge. Two moves come up again and again: judging a source's value and limitation through its origin, purpose and content (OPVL), and reaching a judgement on why the conquest happened or what mattered most.
'The desire for gold was the main reason for the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires.' Using your own knowledge, evaluate this claim.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
With reference to its origin, purpose and content, analyse the value and limitations of a 1521 letter from Hernán Cortés to the King of Spain, describing his capture of Tenochtitlan and asking for rewards and more soldiers.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
🎯 One-glance recall
Why did Spain conquer? (Gold, God, Glory) Gold (treasure and the encomienda's rewards), God (spreading Catholic Christianity from the Reconquista) and glory (fame, titles and status for poor and minor nobles).
Who, what, when? Cortés → Aztecs → Mexico → Tenochtitlan falls 13 August 1521. Pizarro → Inca → Peru → Atahualpa captured 1532, Cusco taken 1533.
How did so few men win? Not by swords alone: superior weapons (steel, guns, horses), native allies like the Tlaxcalans, smallpox that devastated populations, and the Inca civil war. Doña Marina interpreted for Cortés.
What was the impact? (Think DEEP) Disease caused a huge population collapse; Spain replaced both empires with viceroys; the encomienda forced labour; Potosí silver (1545) enriched Spain; the Catholic Church reshaped belief. The deadliest impact — disease — was unplanned.