When one thinks about the Spanish conquests in the New World, one probably imagines hordes of conquistadors sailing across the Atlantic, armed to the teeth and ready to rape and pillage. In truth, it was much more complex. While thousands of would be conquistadors did sail to the New World during this period, the majority of the conquest was carried out by the local natives themselves. The great civilizations of Mesoamerica and South America were largely defined by rival city-states who were constantly making and breaking alliances and attacking each other for resources, power, and prestige. It was a hotbed of political intrigue. Even the great New World empires, such as the Incan Empire, were divided by internal and dynastic rivalries. The arrival of the Spanish, though limited in number, heralded a significant shift in power thanks to their horses, steel armor and weapons, guns, and cannons. For many of the great civilizations, the Spanish were seen as an opportunity to beat their rivals and expand their influence. Making alliances with the strange newcomers from across the ocean made sense.
When Cortes first invaded Mexico in 1519, the population was estimated to be around 22 million. Due to the spread of small pox, 30% died over the next twenty years, the majority in a fairly short period of time. For both the Spanish and the locals, who knew little to nothing of how disease spread, this would have been seen as a sign of some divine power not being too happy. For the Spanish, it meant god was totally cool with what they were doing. For many of the locals, millions of their brethren dying while the strangers from across the sea remained much more a-okay health wise convinced many that it was in their best interest to go the Spanish way on things. The fact that the Spanish didn’t insist on performing thousands of human sacrifices every year probably didn’t hurt either. Though some continued to resist, the majority willingly accepted the Spanish as the new ruling class, converted to Catholicism, and just generally went along with things. Apocalyptic plagues have a way of upending societies like that. This pattern pretty much repeated itself everywhere the Spanish went, at least until they started coming more in contact with more scattered and nomadic tribes, where the various diseases they brought with them didn’t spread so quickly.
To reward them for their conquests, the conquistadors of all ranks were granted ownership over wide swaths of land. Most of the great Mesoamerican civilizations had been feudal societies where those living on the land had to provide those above them with a certain amount of tribute and free labor, not unlike the Spanish feudal system, so it was a fairly easy conversion for everybody. The Spanish built new cities and roads, imported livestock, introduced wheat, and gathered scattered natives into larger villages where they would be easier to convert and control. To help maintain control, the Spanish were careful not to give the natives any weapons or teach them to ride horses. There not being many women amongst the Spanish, most married native women, their children being given a status that while above the natives, was below people born in Spain. Though in Peru the natives were practically enslaved to mine for gold and silver, in Mexico the mines were in more remote locations, so the natives were paid wages to draw in labor, resulting in the intermingling of many different groups, leading to them being more rapidly assimilated into Hispanic culture.
It should go without saying that the Spanish did not treat their new native subjects all that great. Though serfs back in Spain got treated like shit too, they were still Spanish, so a certain amount of ethics had to be upheld. In comparison, no such qualms existed about the natives, and the Spanish land owners did pretty much whatever the hell they wanted with the natives living on their land, with many pretty much treating them as slaves. However, not everyone was down with this situation, and many of the Christian friars and missionaries sent to convert the natives began to complain to the king of Spain about what was happening. These friars eventually convinced the king to create a law in 1542 declaring the natives were people, and requiring they be paid for their labor and generally not treated as slaves. This did not go over well in all parts of the New World, with some areas openly revolting against the Spanish crown, most eventually accepted the change.
Unfortunately, just four years later, a new apocalypse began. Severe droughts spread across Mexico and Central America, leading to famines in many regions, which in turn led to people flocking more thickly to areas with good food and water supplies. This was soon after followed by severe outbreaks of typhoid, typhus, and a plethora of other Old World diseases. Known as the Cocoliztli epidemic, it killed so many millions of people that there was no longer enough labor to grow food, resulting in even more people starving to death. In total, some 80% of the remaining native population of Mexico, over 12 million people, died in just four years. The Spanish, largely unaffected, were horrified to see the collapse, mostly because the work of the natives was their primary source of wealth. The economic system, largely based on what was pretty much slave labor, collapsed, replaced by a system where Spanish landowners had to increasingly pay wages to the natives. To counter this, the natives were forcefully relocated into smaller areas where any sense of distinct cultures completely disappeared. The largescale loss of life also resulted in an influx of new Spanish settlers, eager to claim newly abandoned lands. A second Cocoliztli epidemic struck in 1576, killing 50% of the remaining native population, or 1.5 million people. The overall population of Mexico would not return to pre-conquest levels until the 1940s.
