In the early 1500s, Spain began sending conquistadors to Latin America. In 1519, Hernán Cortés and 600 Spanish soldiers laid siege on Tenochtitlán. Cortés and his men had landed on the Gulf Coast and made their way inland toward the Aztec’s capital city. Along the way, they allied themselves with the civilizations surrounding the Aztecs. The neighboring tribes and villages were constantly at war with the Aztecs and they were happy to help Cortés and his men defeat the Aztecs. Within two years, the Aztec empire fell to the Spanish. And not long after that, the rest of the remaining native groups in Mexico had been conquered as well.
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As the Spanish began to rule in the area known as New Spain, there were four social classes that people were part of. People born in Spain held the highest offices. People of Spanish ancestry but born in New Spain were the next highest group. The third group was known as mestizos. They were people of mixed European and native ancestry. People of indigenous ancestry ranked the lowest. This social class system held firm for over 300 years.
Native people were used as slaves and low wage workers on the Spanish haciendas. The large estates were usually farms or cattle ranches. The haciendas were given to conquistadors by the Spanish king as their rewards for growing the Spanish Empire. The Spanish king also gifted with conquistadors with indigenous people to work the land. The landowners were required to care for their workers’ welfare under the ecomienda system. However, the indigenous people lived with extremely low wages and constant debt.
Spanish Conquest
Why do you think Cortés took such a long and winding route to reach Tenochtitlán?
The conquistadors had to cross the mountains, so there wasn’t a direct route. Also, they wanted to get neighboring villages and tribes on their side before facing the Aztecs.
