essay #1: aztec encounter

I. Thesis: The Spanish Conquistadors overthrew the most sophisticated empire on the American continent through Cortez's tactical manipulation of the Aztec people.

II. Topic Sentence One: Through Cortes's strategic leadership, the Aztec's played a large role in destroying their own culture.

A. Evidence that the Aztecs thought that the Spanish were gods. The Aztecs through they were sent by their god, Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl, a very important god to the Aztecs, had vowed he would appear when the end of the world was near, to save the Aztec people. The Aztecs always believed the end of the world was near. That's why they scarified so many people. They were trying to keep their gods happy so the god would postpone the end of the world. Cortes used this to his advantage by spending a lot of time withMontezuma only to capture him and have him appear infront of the Aztec people. This made the Aztecs extremely angery becayse they thought that Montezuma was a trator. As a result, many Aztecs joined Cortes's army to fight against the other Aztecs . evidence that the Aztecs did not completely destroy the Spanish army because they wanted more people to sacrifice to their gods. This was a tactical error that at least hastened the fall of the Aztec empire. Cortes used this to his advantage by killing as many Spanish as possible, and getting the Aztecs who possessed hatred for human sacrifice to join his side as thousands of people were forced to perform human sacrifice for Cortes (thinking he was Quetzalcoatl)

III. Topic Sentence Two: Throughout the Spanish-Aztec encounter, the Conquistadors accumulated wealth while the prosperity of Aztecs diminished, as all personal items were lost.

A. even after Montezuma generously offered the Spanish lots of gold and silver, the Spanish continued to steal gold and silver from anywhere they could find, would raid houses searching for it B. large amount of land was conquered, including Cholula, Tlaxcala and Narvaez, Aztecs are loosing their homes while Spanish continue to conquer more terrain C. all personal items that were not looked at as valuable to the Spanish were burned, the Spanish had little regard for person property of the Aztecs (this included cocoa beans and quachtli) similarly, things that the Aztecs regarded as invaluable the Spanish were memorized by

topic Sentence Three: The technological advantages the Spanish held allowed for the outnumbered Conquistadors to seize Aztec terrain.

A. the Spanish had guns, could kill a larger amount of people in less time while the Aztecs had bows and arrows and metal sticks, takes longer to kill an individual using that B. the Spanish could kill their enemies from far away, didn't have to come up close, this eliminates some possibilities of the enemy killing you, while the Aztecs had to get up close to kill their enemies: force other person to kneel, disarmed and grab hold of tuft of hair. At this point the enemy knows he has formally surrendered C. The thing however that did not allow for the conflict between the Spanish and Aztecs to be resolved was the fact that a truce could not be accepted by both parties (the Aztecs were pissed that the Spanish had seized all their terrain, shortly threw Cortes out of power