SPANISH EXPEDITIONS
...refore were completely caught off guard by the Spaniards. The limited warfare they practiced occurred only at certain times and was often announced. They only fought away from cities and town and only man to man. The goal of any battle was to capture the other sides’ leader and claim victory. The Spaniards were ready to fight anywhere and at any time, and fought to kill. This gave the Spaniards a clear advantage. Next, the Aztec and Inca empires were made up mostly of subjugated people. These people felt oppressed and after negotiating better terms with the Spaniards, provided them with safe havens and medical care. They did not fight side by side the Spaniards on the battlefield, but often helped arrange the battles and clean up the dead afterwards. Now the Spaniards were left with only the empirical to conquer, which was much easier than the entire empire full of people. Lastly, the diseases the Europeans brought to the New World turned into epidemics. These diseases attacked the indigenous people, who had absolutely no immunity to them. Smallpox was transmitted during Cortez’s conquest of the Aztecs and resulted in a plague. This did weaken the Aztecs and play a part in the conquest, but did not ensure the rule of the Spaniards in anyway. However, the Spaniards were not always so successful. For example, their attempt to conquer the semi-sedentary, non-imperial Araucanians of Chile failed. When the Spanish arrived in Araucanians settlements they quickly realized they could not organize these non-imperial people into a labor force, since they used the indigenous leaders as organizers of these labor forces. The Araucanians put the Spanish on the defensive as much as the Spanish did them. This group even conquered people in the Andes and Pedigonia at the same time they fought the Spanish. This was possible because the Araucanians realized rather quickly that they needed to use the Spanish method of warfare. They adopted horses and wooden stakes, which were driven into the ground against the Spanish. Corn, which was their major crop before the Spanish arrived, was abandoned in favor of wheat since it had a shorter growing season, which enabled them to move on faster. The Araucanians were never conquered by the Spanish, but were eventually forced onto reservations by modern armies who used the Remington repeating rifle and barbed wire to defeat them. The Spanish also had much less success conquering the Maya, a group who had no indigenous imperial structures. This fact alone made ...