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Content: Spanish contact brings new plant life, changes the ecology of North America, brings horses and diseases. Why is Spain initially interested in coming to the New World? Religious and economic motivations: spread Catholicism (conflict with Protestants), the Spanish Armada has been destroyed and they're looking to build power/influence, they happen to land somewhere with lots of gold. Aztecs
Very large, functioning, well-off empire. They were comparable to the Spanish empire at the time, although Spain has more technology, i.e. steel. Conquest of Mexico (1519-1521) is very bloody and destructive. It establishes Spain as a great power and was celebrated by the Spanish. Cortez accrues power by going behind superiors, achieves high social status he never could've gotten in Spain. Smallpox facilitates the conquest of Mexico ("virgin soil epidemic").