⒈ Spanish Conquest Of The Americas
Spaniards had a competitive advantage in the war because the horses helped them in undertaking farming spanish conquest of the americas as load-bearing animals assisted in the transport of weapons and soldiers during the war. Contact Us Site Guide Search. Not only wife in the bath millions of Native Americans die. The authors tend to disagree on why this conquest was successful. In the early years of what later became the United States, Christian religious groups played an influential role in each of titanic the unsinkable ship British colonies, and most attempted to enforce strict religious Spiritual Well-Being (SWB): A Case Study through both colony governments and local town rules. Their Christian beliefs kept the Spanish conquest of the americas from committing atrocities against the Native American communities. Why did the Spanish want to conquer the Aztecs? Spanish conquest of the americas timeTotal duration
The Spanish Conquest of the Americas
Many of them were veteran professional soldiers who had fought for Spain in other wars, like the reconquest of the Moors or the "Italian Wars" Pedro de Alvarado was a typical example. He was from the province of Extremadura in southwestern Spain and was the younger son of a minor noble family. He could not expect any inheritance, but his family had enough money to purchase good weapons and armor for him. He came to the New World in specifically to seek his fortune as a conquistador.
Although most of the conquistadors were professional soldiers, they weren't necessarily well-organized. They were not a standing army in the sense that we think of it. In the New World, at least, they were more like mercenaries. They were free to join any expedition they wanted to and could theoretically leave at any time, although they tended to see things through. They were organized by units. Footmen, harquebusiers, cavalry, and so on served under trusted captains who were responsible to the expedition leader. Expeditions, such as Pizarro's Inca campaign or the countless searches for the city of El Dorado , were expensive and privately financed although the King still expected his 20 percent cut of any valuables discovered.
Sometimes the conquistadors themselves chipped in funds for an expedition in the hopes that it would discover great wealth. Investors were also involved: wealthy men who would provision and equip an expedition expecting a share of the spoils if it discovered and looted a rich native kingdom. There was some bureaucracy involved, as well. A group of conquistadors could not just pick up their swords and head off into the jungle. They had to secure official written and signed permission from certain colonial officials first.
Armor and weapons were crucially important for a conquistador. Footmen had heavy armor and swords made of fine Toledo steel if they could afford them. Crossbowmen had their crossbows, tricky weapons which they had to keep in good working order. The most common firearm at the time was the harquebus, a heavy, slow-to-load rifle. Most expeditions had at least a few harquebusiers along. In Mexico, most conquistadors eventually abandoned their heavy armor in favor of the lighter, padded protection the Mexicans used. Horsemen used lances and swords. Larger campaigns might have some artillerymen and cannons along, as well as shot and powder. Some conquistadors claimed that they were attacking the New World natives to spread Christianity and save the natives from damnation.
Many of the conquistadors were, indeed, religious men. However, the conquistadors were far more interested in gold and loot. The Aztecs and Inca Empires were rich in gold, silver, precious stones, and other things the Spanish found less valuable, like brilliant clothes made of bird feathers. Conquistadors who participated in any successful campaign were given shares based on many factors. The king and the expedition leader like Hernan Cortes each received 20 percent of all loot. After that, it was divided up among the men. Officers and horsemen got a larger cut than foot soldiers, as did crossbowmen, harquebusiers, and artillerymen. After the King, officers, and other soldiers had all gotten their cut, there was often not much left for the common soldiers.
One prize which could be used to buy off conquistadors was the gift of an encomienda. An encomienda was land given to a conquistador, usually with natives already living there. The word encomienda comes from a Spanish verb meaning "to entrust. In return, the natives would work in mines, produce food or trade goods, and so on. In practice, it was little more than enslavement.
The historical record abounds in examples of conquistadors murdering and tormenting native populations, and these horrors are far too numerous to list here. During the conquest of Mexico, Cortes ordered a massacre of Cholulan noblemen. How were the Spanish conquistadors able to do it? The Spanish armor and weapons had much to do with their success. The Spanish who came to settle the New World were generally not farmers and craftsmen but soldiers, adventurers, and mercenaries looking for a quick fortune.
Indigenous communities were attacked and enslaved and any treasures they may have had such as gold, silver or pearls were taken. Teams of Spanish conquistadors devastated Indigenous communities on Caribbean islands such as Cuba and Hispaniola between and or so before moving on to the mainland. These small forces were able to defeat much larger ones. There were two sorts of Spanish conquistadors: horsemen or cavalry and foot soldiers or infantry.
The cavalry would usually carry the day in the battles of the conquest. When the spoils were divided, cavalrymen received a much higher share of the treasure than foot soldiers. Some Spanish soldiers would save up and purchase a horse as a sort of investment which would pay off in future conquests. The Spanish horsemen generally had two sorts of weapons: lances and swords. Their lances were long wooden spears with iron or steel points on the ends, used to devastating effect on masses of native foot soldiers.
In close combat, a rider would use his sword. Steel Spanish swords of the conquest were about three feet long and relatively narrow, sharp on both sides. The Spanish city of Toledo was known as one of the best places in the world for making arms and armor and a fine Toledo sword was a valuable weapon indeed. The finely made weapons did not pass inspection until they could bend in a half-circle and survive a full-force impact with a metal helmet. The fine Spanish steel sword was such an advantage that for some time after the conquest, it was illegal for Indigenous people to have one. Spanish foot soldiers could use a variety of weapons. Many people incorrectly think that it was firearms that doomed the New World Natives, but that's not the case. Some Spanish soldiers used a harquebus, a sort of early musket.
The harquebus was undeniably effective against any one opponent, but they are slow to load, heavy, and firing one is a complicated process involving the use of a wick which must be kept lit. The harquebuses were most effective for terrorizing Indigenous soldiers, who thought the Spanish could create thunder. Like the harquebus, the crossbow was a European weapon designed to defeat armored knights and too bulky and cumbersome to be of much use in the conquest against the lightly armored, quick natives. Some soldiers used crossbows, but they're very slow to load, break or malfunction easily and their use was not terribly common, at least not after the initial phases of the conquest.
Like the cavalry, Spanish foot soldiers made good use of swords. A heavily armored Spanish foot soldier could cut down dozens of Indigenous people in minutes with a fine Toledan blade. Spanish armor, mostly made in Toledo, was among the finest in the world. Encased from head to foot in a steel shell, Spanish conquistadors were all but invulnerable when facing native opponents. In Europe, the armored knight had dominated the battlefield for centuries and weapons such as the harquebus and crossbow were specifically designed to pierce armor and defeat them. Indigenous people had no such weapons and therefore killed very few armored Spanish in battle. The helmet most commonly associated with the conquistadors was the morion , a heavy steel helm with a pronounced crest or comb on top and sweeping sides that came to points on either end.
Some infantrymen preferred a salade , a full-faced helmet that looks a little like a steel ski mask. In its most basic form, it is a bullet-shaped helm with a large T in front of the eyes, nose, and mouth. A cabasset helmet was much simpler: it is a large steel cap that covers the head from the ears up: stylish ones would have an elongated dome like the pointy end of an almond. Most conquistadors wore a full set of armor which consisted of a heavy breastplate, arm and leg greaves, a metal skirt, and protection for the neck and throat called a gorget. Even parts of the body such as elbows and shoulders, which require movement, were protected by a series of overlapping plates, meaning that there were very few vulnerable spots on a fully armored conquistador. A full suit of metal armor weighed about 60 pounds and the weight was well distributed over the body, allowing it to be worn for long periods of time without causing much fatigue.
Later in the conquest, as conquistadors realized that full suits of armor were overkill in the New World, some of them switched to lighter chainmail, which was just as effective. Some even abandoned metal armor entirely, wearing escuapil , a sort of padded leather or cloth armor adapted from the armor worn by Aztec warriors. Large, heavy shields were not necessary for the conquest, although many conquistadors used a buckler, a small, round or oval shield usually of wood or metal covered with leather.
Indigenous people had no answer for these weapons and armor. At the time of the conquest, most Native cultures in North and South America were somewhere between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age in terms of their weaponry.
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