ABSTRACT
The conquest of Latin America took place throughout the sixteenth century and even into the seventeenth century in some locations such as the Maya Highlands. Spain also conquered other Native groups such as the Maya of Mexico and Guatemala, but the Maya conquest was not a simple matter of replacing a centralized Native American government with a Spanish one, and therefore the Maya conquest dragged on for over 100 years. The Spanish military conquest of the Aztec Empire between 1519 and 1521 is in many ways the quintessential tale of how vastly outnumbered Spanish soldiers were able to topple a vast, powerful, politically centralized empire in a manner of months. When the Inca conquest is compared to the conquest of the Aztecs, several differences become apparent. But, after a few unsuccessful skirmishes with the Inca, the Spaniards decided to return to Panama for more supplies and men, with whom they would return and finish the conquest of the area.
