What Role Did Cortes Play In Spanish Conquest

anyone in the expedition (Kicza, J. E., & Horn, R., 2016). This was also with the help of native allies in their conquering expeditions. With the help of many Natives as translators were able to communicate with other natives. Many of these translators who aided the Spanish conquerors would petition the crown for certain privileges in recognition for their role in the Spanish conquest. For example Malinalli, or Malinche was sold by her mother to Hernán Cortés, a Conquistador, could speak Nahuatl which was spoken within the Aztec tribes, Mayan and later Spanish. Through her Cortes met Montezuma in Tenochtitlan (Lepore, J., 2002). A strategy that both Cortes and Pizarro employed was to capture the native ruler, as with Montezuma, and rule through him. Later the Aztecs stoned and arrowed Montezuma only to find out that Cortes has kidnapped him and ruled over him (Engineering and Empire: Aztec). Encomiendas were grants of native people that the Spaniards gave each other in return for providing native people protection and conversion to Christianity. It was not slavery, because grants stipulated that native people will provide tribute or tribute labor. The encomiendas were established to collect tribute
Many of the diseases were found in the Old World but never appeared in the New World which is why thousands died. When the Spanish were in Tlaxcala, a plague broke out for 70 days. It killed a vast number of people which sores appeared from head to foot. Those who were infected could not walk or move but screamed in pain. Many dies of hunger since they could not search for food and people were too sick to care for them (Lepore, J., 2002). Because of the diseases, population dramatically fell from 20 million in 1519 people prior contact of the Spanish to 1.25 million in 1650. However, hunting and gathering societies died off in smaller numbers than agricultural peoples because of their lesser population