Spanish Conquistadors
- What is a Conquistador?
- Spanish term for the word conqueror
- Soldiers, explorers, and adventurers through the service of the Spanish Empire
- Very holy people – pray before going to battle
- Most famous
- Cortes, Pizarro but also Coronado
- Obsessed with matters of honor and reputation
- Spanish soldiers had a reputation for rowdiness and duels weren’t uncommon
- Cortes
- Born to Spanish family
- Father was an infantry Capitan for Spanish army
- He is 2nd cousin once removed with Pizarro
- Conquered the Aztec Empire
- Aztec thought he was Quetzalcoatl
- Pizarro
- Spanish conquistador
- Conquered the Incan civilization
- Only had 168 men and 27 horses and 1 cannon
- Got the defeated soldiers from the Incan civil war to fight on his side
- 2nd cousin once removed from Cortes
- Reasons why for conquering the Mesoamerican people
- Treasure – gold, silver
- Polytheistic – not a fan. Spanish inquisition rings a bell?
- Human sacrifice wasn’t a well-received practice worldwide at this point
- Exploring and wanted the land to set up Spanish colonies – very successful
- Slaves
- Thought a lot of Mesoamerican’s rituals and dances were devil like
- Issues with splitting the treasure
- The division of treasures caused bloody conflicts, such as one between Pizarro and Almagro
- After Peru ell to Spain, Francisco Pizarro told Almagro, before they became enemies to go to the Incan Empire’s northern city of Quito to claim it
- Their fellow conquistador Sebastian de Belalcazar, who had gone forth without Pizarro’s approval, had already reached Quito
- Issues
- The arrival of Pedro de Alvarado from Mexico in search of Inca fold further complicated the situation for Almagro and Belalcazar
- Alvarado left South America in exchange for monetary compensation from Pizarro
- Almagro was executed on 1538 under Pizarro’s orders
- In Lima in 1541 supporters of Diego Almagro II assassinated Francisco Pizarro
- Belalcazar had Jorge Robledo killed, he governed a neighboring province in another land-related vendetta
- Belalcazar was condemned of killing Robledo
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