Even before the arrival of the conquistadors, the Empires were politically divided. In the Incan Empire a civil war broke out between the two brothers Atahualpa and Huascar, which kept the empire somewhat divided even after the defeat of Huascar. This severely limited the manpower in the Incan military. In the Aztec empire many of its neighboring city-states held grudges against them and ended up helping the Spaniards getting through places and adapt to the local environment.
When the conquistadors meets the leader of each Empire, they all took advantage of their absolute-monarch form of government and took the leaders hostage. Without their leader, the Native Americans can’t seem to fight back as effectively and thus became easy prey for the conquistadors. Although in every battle the Europeans are probably outnumbered 20 to 1, the Europeans have a huge advantage with their armors, horses and guns. Those exotic weapons not only help them physically but also psychologically scare the Native Americans. As a result, Native American troops are afraid to charge and win with sheer mass and instead flee and allowing the conquistadors on their horses to finish them off one by one.
Perhaps the most important factor that contributed to the Spaniard’s victory was their disease. Even before the conquistadors came the diseases such as small pox killed as much as one third of the Incan population. The diseases not only limited the population of the Native Americans, but they also bring fear and suspicion to them in a way that benefits the Spaniards. If there weren’t any plagues, Montezuma probably wouldn’t be so convinced that Cortez was Queztalcoatl. If there weren’t any plagues, the Incans would definitely be more resolved to revolt since they can be sure that their god is with them. The plague brought up some religious issues that might have benefited the conquistadors. For example when Cortez fled Tenochtitlan and a plague broke out, some Aztecs might take it as a sigh from the gods not to mess with the white men, they may think perhaps Cortez is the age-old god that came back.
The Native Americans could have easily pushed off the invaders if they had been more united and organized. It doesn’t take a military strategist to realize that all you have to do to get rid of a few hundred Spaniards is to outnumber them. However, unfortunately the Native Americans weren’t united, with their leader captured and the Empire filled with fear at the Spaniards’ superior weapons and the plagues, the Native American could not fight back effectively and thus lost their struggle with the Spanish.
