The Conquistadors

About five hundred years ago, in the early 1500s, soldiers came from Spain to the Americas. People called them conquistadors. They crossed the ocean in ships. They wanted gold, land and a famous name. Most of them paid for the trip themselves. They were ready to risk their lives to become rich.

But the Americas were not empty. There were two big and powerful empires. In the north, in today's Mexico, was the Aztec empire. Its capital city, Tenochtitlan, was built on a lake. It had canals, markets and great temples. In the south, in the mountains, was the Inca empire. It was very large, with long stone roads. Millions of people lived in these two empires.

The Spanish were not as many as the Aztecs and the Incas. They had only a few hundred men. But they had better weapons: steel swords, armour and guns. They also had horses, which the people of the Americas had never seen. And they brought something more dangerous than any weapon, but they did not know it: diseases from Europe.

In 1519, a Spanish leader called Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico with about 500 men, a few horses and some guns. He learned something important: not everyone liked the Aztecs. Many people had to obey the Aztecs and pay them, and they were not happy. So Cortés made these people his allies. Soon, thousands of local fighters were on his side. A woman called Malintzin helped him too. She spoke the languages, so she could talk to both sides.

Cortés came to the great city of Tenochtitlan and met the Aztec leader, Moctezuma. But then he took Moctezuma prisoner. After some months, the Aztecs fought back and pushed the Spanish out of the city. Many Spanish soldiers died that night. It looked like the end for Cortés. But it was not.

Then a terrible disease came: smallpox. The Spanish brought it without knowing. The Aztec people had never had this disease, so they had no protection. It killed huge numbers of people, including their new leader. The city became weak. In 1521, Cortés came back with his allies. They surrounded the city and stopped its food and water. After about three months, the city fell. The Aztec empire was finished.

News of the gold in Mexico made other Spanish men want their own empire. One of them was Francisco Pizarro. He sailed south, to the Inca empire. He had fewer than 200 men — even fewer than Cortés. But again, disease had arrived first. Smallpox had already killed the Inca leader and many of his family. After that, two brothers, Atahualpa and Huáscar, fought a war to be the next leader. The empire was weak and divided.

In 1532, Pizarro met the new Inca leader, Atahualpa. Atahualpa came almost without weapons, with thousands of people, but he did not expect a fight. Pizarro attacked by surprise. With guns, swords and horses, the Spanish caused panic, and they took Atahualpa prisoner. To buy his freedom, Atahualpa gave them a room full of gold and twice full of silver. The Spanish took the treasure — and then they killed him anyway.

With the leader dead, Pizarro marched to the Inca capital, Cusco, and took it. Some Inca people kept fighting in the mountains for many years, but the empire was broken. Pizarro himself did not have a happy end: a few years later, other Spanish men killed him in a fight over the gold.