Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, European seafarers crossed the oceans and brought two worlds into contact: the peoples of Europe and the indigenous civilisations of the Americas. This chapter examines the voyages of discovery, the conquest of the great empires of the Aztecs and the Incas, and the devastating impact of European expansion on the native peoples. The meeting of cultures was less an exchange than a confrontation, in which one side held overwhelming technological and biological advantages.
The European voyages were driven by a combination of motives: the search for new trade routes to the spices of the East, the desire for gold and treasure, the spread of Christianity, and the spirit of adventure and national rivalry. The Portuguese and the Spanish led the way. Advances in shipbuilding, navigation and weapons gave Europeans a decisive edge, as did their horses, steel weapons and gunpowder.
The most dramatic encounters were in the Americas. The Spanish, led first by Christopher Columbus who reached the Caribbean in 1492, and later by Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro, overthrew the Aztec and Inca empires with astonishing speed. The indigenous peoples were also struck by diseases such as smallpox to which they had no immunity, causing a demographic catastrophe. This chapter traces these events and their consequences for world history.
For centuries, Europeans had obtained Asian spices, silks and precious metals through long and expensive routes passing through the Middle East. The Portuguese, under Prince Henry the Navigator, began to sail south along the coast of Africa in the fifteenth century. In 1498, Vasco da Gama reached the coast of India by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, opening a direct sea route to the East and breaking the old monopoly of middlemen.
The Spanish sought a western route to Asia. In 1492, Christopher Columbus, sailing west across the Atlantic under the Spanish flag, reached the Caribbean islands, believing he had arrived in Asia. The Americas, unknown to Europeans, were named after Amerigo Vespucci, who realised they formed a new continent. In 1519-22, the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan completed the first circumnavigation of the globe, proving the world was round and the oceans connected.
These voyages were made possible by new navigational instruments — the magnetic compass, the astrolabe — and by new ship designs such as the caravel, a small, fast, manoeuvrable sailing ship. National competition between Portugal and Spain led to treaties dividing the newly discovered lands. The European discovery of the Americas created a transatlantic connection that would transform the entire world.
The Aztecs (or Mexica) ruled a powerful empire in central Mexico from their capital Tenochtitlan, built on an island in Lake Texcoco, around 1325. At its height in the early sixteenth century, the Aztec capital was a magnificent city with temples, palaces, markets and canals. The Aztec empire collected tribute from many subject peoples and demanded tribute in goods and victims for sacrifice to their gods.
Aztec society was hierarchical and militaristic. The ruler, the tlatoani, combined political and religious authority. Aztec religion centred on a great pyramid temple and on human sacrifice, which was believed necessary to sustain the sun god. The subject peoples of the empire resented Aztec domination and tribute demands, a resentment that the Spanish would later exploit.
When Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico in 1519, the Aztec ruler Moctezuma received him with uncertainty. The Spanish had horses, steel swords, guns and, above all, the support of disaffected subject peoples. With their allies, they besieged Tenochtitlan, and in 1521 the city fell. The Aztec empire was destroyed; its population was devastated by smallpox and warfare, and its treasures were seized.
The Inca empire, with its capital at Cusco in the Andes of South America, was the largest state in the pre-Columbian Americas. At its peak it stretched along the Pacific coast and highlands of Peru and into present-day Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. The Incas built an astonishing system of roads, suspension bridges and terraced agriculture, and administered their empire through a network of officials and storehouses.
Inca society was organised and efficient. The emperor (Sapa Inca) was considered a descendant of the sun god. Labour service, the mita, provided workers for state projects. The Incas had no writing, but they used a system of knotted cords called quipu for record-keeping. Their architecture, including the fortress of Machu Picchu, still impresses modern visitors.
The Spanish, led by Francisco Pizarro, entered Peru in 1532. The empire was then weakened by a civil war between rival heirs, and Pizarro captured the emperor Atahualpa, held him for ransom and then executed him. With cavalry, steel weapons and guns, and aided by internal division and epidemic disease, the Spanish conquered the empire within a few years. By 1535 they had established their control over the former Inca lands.
The conquests cannot be explained by weapons alone. The most devastating weapon of all was disease. Smallpox, measles and other diseases carried by Europeans were new to the Americas, where people had no immunity. Epidemics swept through native populations, killing possibly 90 per cent of the people of the Americas over the course of the sixteenth century. The demographic catastrophe destroyed native societies and made resistance far easier to overcome.
The Spanish imposed new systems of exploitation. The encomienda system granted colonists the right to the labour and tribute of native communities in return for religious instruction and protection — in practice, a system of forced labour. Many natives were also enslaved, while large numbers died from overwork, malnutrition and disease in mines and plantations. Silver from the great mines of Potosi flowed to Spain and into the world economy.
European conquest reshaped the world. The destruction of the native civilisations of America was accompanied by the rise of colonial empires, the forced movement of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, and the exchange of plants, animals and diseases between the Old World and the New — what historians call the Columbian Exchange. Crops such as maize and potatoes spread to the Old World, transforming agriculture there, while the Americas received wheat, cattle and horses.
The indigenous peoples did not submit passively to conquest. They resisted in many ways — through revolts, flight to remote regions, and the preservation of their languages, beliefs and ways of life. The conquest was a long process, not a single event, and native resistance continued for centuries.
Some resistance was dramatic. In Mexico, Aztec warriors fought fiercely during the siege of Tenochtitlan. In the Andes, the Inca resistance led by Manco Inca and later the rebellion of Tupac Amaru in the eighteenth century challenged Spanish rule. Native peoples often used European institutions and documents to defend their rights, claiming land and status before colonial courts.
Even in defeat, the indigenous peoples transformed the culture of the conquerors. Languages, foods, religious practices and kinship systems of the natives blended with those of the Spanish and Portuguese to create new, mestizo cultures. The confrontation of cultures thus produced not only destruction but also a new synthesis, though it was achieved at an enormous human cost.
| Event | Date | Figure | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voyage to the Caribbean | 1492 | Christopher Columbus | European discovery of the Americas |
| Sea route to India | 1498 | Vasco da Gama | Direct route to Asia around Africa |
| First circumnavigation | 1519-22 | Ferdinand Magellan | Proved the world is round |
| Fall of the Aztec capital | 1521 | Hernan Cortes | Destruction of the Aztec empire |
| Conquest of the Incas | From 1532 | Francisco Pizarro | Fall of the Inca empire |
| Feature | Aztecs | Incas |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Central Mexico | Andes of South America |
| Capital | Tenochtitlan | Cusco |
| Famous for | Tribute empire, human sacrifice, great city | Roads, terraced farming, quipu records |
The confrontation of cultures that followed the European voyages of discovery was one of the most consequential events in world history. The technological and biological advantages of the Europeans, together with the internal divisions of native societies, enabled the swift overthrow of the great Aztec and Inca empires. The consequences were catastrophic for the indigenous peoples — epidemic disease, forced labour and the destruction of their civilisations. Yet the encounter also produced the Columbian Exchange, which transformed agriculture and societies on both sides of the Atlantic, and the resilience of native peoples gave rise to new, mixed cultures. The conquest of the Americas thus marked both a tragedy and the beginning of the global world.