Fall of the Aztec or the Mexica Empire

Using a range of Nahua sources, a generation of new scholarship has challenged traditional interpretations of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, providing readers with much more complex and nuanced understandings of the dramatic events of 1519-21 and their aftermaths (for two examples, see the introduction in Victors and Vanquished and the Matthew Restall interview posted on the Blackboard site). Using specific examples from at least 4 to 6 different documents from Victors and Vanquished, critically analyze the roles played by two of the following factors in the fall of the Aztec or Mexica Empire: relations between Tenochtitlan and the indigenous communities of their tributary empire; Spanish good luck; military technology; and/or disease. I might note that students would do well to incorporate the insights of Robert Markss Origins of the Modern World into their papers.

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