Page 51 - 100 Events That Made History

Moctezuma possibly welcomed Cortés After his capture,
because an Aztec prophecy foretold Atahualpa converted to
the arrival of a god with white skin. Christianity and was
renamed Francisco
Atahualpa, after Pizarro.

The fall of the Inca
In 1532, conquistador FRANCISCO PIZARRO
destroyed the other great civilization of Latin
America, the Inca. Pizarro took the Inca king
Atahualpa hostage, and although the Incas
paid a huge ransom of gold, Pizarro had
Atahualpa strangled and seized control
of Inca lands and treasures.

How it changed the world

Neither the The destruction of the
Spanish nor the ancient American cultures
Aztecs claimed paved the way for a huge
responsibility for wave of settlers from Spain
Moctezuma’s death. to South America. Today,
most South American
countries are Spanish-
speaking and have strong

Spanish success ties with Spain.
The conquistadors defeated the
Aztecs and Incas mainly because
they had HORSES AND GUNS. The
Spanish also brought illnesses such
as smallpox and the flu. Thousands of
native people died because they had
no immunity to these European diseases.

Smallpox was very
contagious. It caused
fever and blisters, and
often led to death.
What came after…
BARTOLOMÉ DE LAS CASAS
(1474–1566) was a priest who The Spanish SPREAD CHRISTIANITY
campaigned for the rights of throughout their colonies.
the Native American slaves, Today, more than 40 percent
who were brutally treated of the world’s Catholics live
by the Spanish settlers. in Latin America.
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