ABSTRACT

Spanish accounts emphasized the superiority of their firepower over Indian weaponry to make the case that the Aztec empire, the largest in the western hemisphere and numbering in the millions, fell with relative ease. Disconnect between expectation and actual experience shaped the age of exploration and early expansion. Native and European encounters produced a mix of confusion, adjustment, hostility, violence, adaptation, and accommodation. The Spanish conquerors of the Americas, known as conquistadors, had three basic goals: to establish Spanish rule, to extract wealth, and to convert the people they encountered to Catholicism. From their point of view, this was only right and proper. In their opinion, the "Indians," as the Spanish soon called the peoples they encountered, had destructive sexual practices and religious beliefs. Maya made major intellectual and artistic advances. They used glyphic writing to communicate and trace the history of war and lordships.