Conquest denotes acquisition. The desire to claim something as one’s own. The ownership is beyond the material.

Anything acquired to conquest must relinquish some control and submit to the conqueror. The Spanish conquest was precisely this: the acquisition of the Spanish empire of some Meso-American lands.

Perhaps one of the more famous Spanish conquests was the acquisition of the Aztec Empire. Headed by Hernando Cortez, the Spanish fleet exploited the Tenochtitlan. One of the reasons why the conquest of the Aztec empire was so easy was that Cortez exploited the Aztec mythology of Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was believed to be a god which in man form is a man with light hair and light skin. The Aztecs believed, upon the arrival of Cortez, that he was the god Quetzalcoatl.

Another empire conquered by the Spain is the Incan empire. The Incan empire is an empire in Peru. Francisco Pizarro conquered the region by deceiving the Incans. He persuaded them to meet the Incan leader Atahualpa. Pizarro persuaded that the Incans meet his fleet unarmed. This was the beginning of the take-over of the Incan empire.

Other Spanish conquests include the religious conquests and crusade by the Spaniards. These conquests extend as far as the Americas and the Pacific. Spanish territorial conquests include the Philippines, and even parts of California.