Another advantage that goes with military technology is the armor. While the natives fought n bare skin any kind of attack could easily injure them he Spanish people had armor and were protected against most of the Natives ways of attack, which gave them a very big advantage. Another gun-type weapon the Spanish had was the cannon. Cannons were used by Francisco Pizarro against the Incas, in Peru. They did not use it for physical attack but more for a psychological attack, which means that they were used to scare the Incas.
Old world diseases also gave the Spanish a great advantage. By that time the Spanish were resistant to these diseases, such as smallpox. Hernan Cortes, another Spanish conquistador, Mexico. He took a lot of people in case he had to fight to conquer land. One of his guys had small pox, and by the time they met with the Aztecs, the disease got spread around Mexico. Because of years and years of isolation, the Aztecs had no immunity to this deadly disease unlike the Spanish. By the time the war broke out between the Spanish and the Aztecs, the disease was heavily spread and gave the Natives a disadvantage n the fight, causing their deaths and the victory of Hernan Cortes with his army.
Horses were also a good advantage the Spanish had. These big animals were a very effective way of fast and easy transportation. Christopher Columbus hadhorses on his New World conquest, and these not only helped them move, but also intimated the Arawak, which were the people they were fighting. Horses were first introduced to these people by the Spanish, and that is why they were intimated and did not know how to fight them. Some of the natives even thought they were fighting god-like creatures, causing them to retreat.
The military techniques and the experience the Spanish had in wars were also of great help towards Natives. Before any of these events in the New World, the Iberian Reconquest had happened, in which the Spanish had fought the Muslims. This war gave the Spanish a massive quantity of experience in wars, which they brought with them to the New World. “The most decisive military advantage may have been the no-holds-barred fighting techniques the Spanish had developed during their wars at home”(Bulliet 367). No-holds-barred
Ships also helped the Spanish. By that time, ships were thetransportation over seas t was also an advantage if you were fighting near shore in the way that they could get on the ships and reach the natives with their guns while on the other hand the natives would not be able to reach the Spanish because they cannot get on the ship. Also, right after Christopher Columbus, there was a new Spanish governor in Cuba, then during Cortes’s conquest reinforcements were needed because Cortes and the Spanish underestimated the Aztecs and were loosing the war, however with the reinforcements Cortes was able to kill mostly all Aztecs and conquer Mexico.
All of these advantages explain why the Spanish people conquered the natives so easily. Weapons and military technology provided guns, cannons and armor which were of great help, old world diseases got spread between the natives and because of their isolation they were not immune to it, causing death to many of them and ultimately an advantage for the Spanish, Horses were great for quick and easy mobility and for intimidation, their military techniques and experience gave them an advantage in the sense of having experienced many wars before, and ships were good for needs of any kind of reinforcements and incase they need to get into them for long range combat, in which Spanish had advantage.
Bibliography:
- Student Achievement Series book by Richard Bulliet
Honor Pledge:
ON MY HONOR, I HAVE NEITHER GIVEN NOR RECEIVED ANY INAPPROPRIATE AID ON THIS WORK, NOR DO I HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF ANY OTHER STUDENT GIVING OR RECEIVING ANY INAPPROPRIATE AID ON THIS WORK
