10.3 Mayans and Aztecs

Before the year 1500, the Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas were three great civilizations in Mexico and South America. All three were defeated by Spanish armies, but some historians say that with the armies came an even more horrifying weapon: smallpox. 

 In the early 1500s, the Spanish attacked the Aztecs and Mayas. At first, the Spanish army couldn’t defeat the Mayan and Aztec, who were thirty times more powerful and familiar with the area. However, one of the slaves in the Spanish army was infected with smallpox and it spread quickly. Spanish soldiers were immune to the disease, but the Mayan and Aztec soldiers had never encountered smallpox before. It weakened their armies and allowed the Spanish to defeat them.

Smallpox quickly spread south, reaching the Incas of South America in 1525. Like the Aztecs and Mayas, the Incas were unprepared for the disease. It killed their king and his successor. Without a leader, the Incas were easily defeated by the invading Spanish soldiers.