What fate was shared by the Aztecs and the natives who fought with the Spanish against them?
1 Answer
Death and Misery
Explanation:
The tribes that got annihilated by the Spanish Empire, primarily ended up getting slaughtered, and then exploited.
When it comes to the Spanish-Aztec conquest, despite the Aztecs having vastly superior numbers, the Spaniards (with guns and horses) manage to rout the Aztec armies. However, the most predominant factor in the war, was of course the European diseases (which natives were extremely susceptible to, as they hadn't experienced them). This was conspicuous in the Siege of Tenochtitlan (Aztec capital), where a mere 480 Spaniards (along with 80-200,000 native allies) managed to kill 200,000 Aztecs. As I stated before, it is important to remember that disease was the primary factor here. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Tenochtitlan)
When it comes to the Incan conquests, they had a civil war going, but despite that the Spaniards still managed to beat them in a similar fashion (only that against the Incas, they managed to capture the emperor by beguiling him).
Aftermath:
The aftermath, was that the tribes got horrible mistreatment under the Encomienda system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encomienda), wherein they were essentially slaves, worked inordinate amounts of hours, had to do grueling labour, and you can see how that progressed.
