For centuries, Spanish soldiers and Mexican warriors wielded weapons that had proven to be effective in their respective military cultures and dominated their lands. When the Spanish conquistadors traveled to the New World during the sixteenth century, the battles of conquest revealed the deadly limitations of weaponry that the Mexica had used to build their mighty empire.

The Mexica fought with offensive weapons similar to the wooden club shown here. Razor-sharp fragments of obsidian, a glasslike mineral, studded the edges of the club, allowing Mexican warriors, like those pictured here, to deliver lacerating, even lethal, blows against an enemy at close range. The Mexica and their enemies used shields made of hides, wood, and feathers, as shown here to defend themselves against wood and stone weapons.

In Europe, Spaniards had gone to battle for centuries with offensive weapons made of steel, like the sword shown here. Like the Mexican club, the steel sword was effective only at close range; the sword shown here, for example, is three feet long. (The effective range of a modern military rifle is nearly a mile.) This sword is inscribed with Latin mottoes that read on one side, “Turn away these troubles from us,” and on the other side, “With God we achieve lofty goals but nothing by ourselves.” Why might these inscriptions have been meaningful to a Spanish soldier who slashed and stabbed enemies with this sword?

On the battlefields of sixteenth-century Europe, Spanish soldiers defended themselves against the steel weapons of their enemies with steel or iron shields, as shown here, and steel body armor. In Mexico, the wood and stone weapons of Mexican warriors tended to bounce off the Spaniards’ shields and armor, in effect disarming Mexicans’ major offensive weaponry. Likewise, Spaniards’ sword blows, which might have clanked off a European enemy’s steel shield, slashed through Mexican warriors’ shields of hide and feathers, leaving them defenseless.

Horses were unknown in Mexico until Spaniards imported them. What offensive and defensive advantages did horses provide for mounted Spanish soldiers when in combat against Mexican foot soldiers? Did horses have any disadvantages for Spaniards or any advantages for the Mexica?

While the Mexica wounded and killed many Spaniards, in the end Spaniards prevailed and conquered Mexico. Although Spaniards’ superior weaponry contributed to their success, can you imagine tactics that the Mexica might have used to delay, subvert, or even defeat Spanish conquest?

SOURCE: Mexican warriors and Spanish conquistadors: Album SuperStock; Spanish shield: akg-images, Interfoto; Spanish sword: Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Purchase, The Lauder Foundation Gift, 1984 (1984.73). Image Source: Art Resource, NY. Mexican shield: Museum fur Volkerkunde Vienna, Austria/The Bridgeman Art Library; Mexican war club: Image # 7864 American Museum of Natural History Library.

Questions for Analysis

Connect to the Big Idea

While combat was an important part of Spanish conquest, what else contributed to Spaniards’ conquest of Mexicans?