The Spanish Conquest of the Americas: An Enthralling Overview of the Conquistadors and Their Conquests of the Aztec and Inca Empires (Mesoamerica) by Wellman Billy

Author:Wellman, Billy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-16T00:00:00+00:00

Pedro de Alvarado in Guatemala

Parallel to the expeditions in Yucatán, the Spanish were also active in other parts of Central America. For the conquistadors, getting to previously unknown places and colonizing them was a priority since it would guarantee them rights to the riches and lands they would conquer. In most cases, personal glory and enrichment drove the conquistadors, not a higher motive of enlightening the people they came across and bringing “civilization” to them, as many colonizers would later claim. Many conquistadors flocked to the lands of Central America, landing at different points and succeeding, in various degrees, at colonizing different strips of land.

Central America was an especially hot commodity after the conquest of the Aztec Empire by Cortés. After the fall of Tenochtitlan, few expeditions were directed toward the exploration of Mexico, as it had already been claimed by and governed by Cortés. Challenging him over the control of the lands he had spent years to conquer seemed foolish. However, the Central American strip (the part between Mexico and South America), which the conquistadors knew was not that large and contained gold, promised to be a suitable destination for any newcomer who wished to take it. Still, even in this area, conquests would be modeled after Cortés’s expedition, and the conquistadors who led the campaigns against the native population would mostly be those who had already served with Cortés and gotten a lot of experience.

Francisco de Montejo, a trusted friend of Cortés, is one of the examples. Of course, it would take him (and his son) more than twenty years to conquer the northern part of the Yucatán. Additionally, with the prestige he had obtained thanks to his successful interactions with the royal court, Montejo was considered an accomplished person when he embarked on the first of his many efforts against the Maya of the Yucatán in the late 1520s. Cristóbal de Olid, the self-declared ruler of Honduras, had also been sent by Cortés to take control of the south in his name. He rebelled and was eventually killed in a mutiny, but the person who replaced him, Francisco de las Casas, was also a trusted friend of Cortés. Later on, several conquistadors would compete for domination in this part of Central America.

Another conquistador who had served with Cortés and later played a big role in the conquest of Central America was Pedro de Alvarado, who was famous (or infamous) for his role during the massacre at the Great Pyramid in Tenochtitlan in 1520. Later on, he participated in the conquest of the Aztec capital and was rewarded greatly by Cortés for his efforts. About a year after the conquest of Tenochtitlan, Alvarado was dispatched south with a sizeable conquistador force and thousands of allied Mexican natives. The reason behind this expedition was the same as it had been in other cases: the subjugation of the native peoples in what is today Guatemala.

After the fall of Tenochtitlan, Cortés and the conquistadors were approached by different tribes that tried to appeal to the Spanish in order not to meet the same fate as the Aztecs.

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