{"id":2462,"date":"2018-08-21T19:46:29","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T19:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=2462"},"modified":"2026-02-25T07:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:36:15","slug":"impact-of-european-diseases-on-the-aztec-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/impact-of-european-diseases-on-the-aztec-empire\/","title":{"rendered":"Impact of European Diseases on the Aztec Empire: A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The impact of European diseases on the Aztec Empire<\/a> was profound. Before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors into Aztec territory, the Aztec Empire extended across much of the Valley of Mexico. In fact, the Aztec were the most dominant Mesoamerican civilization in the region. However, after the arrival of the Spanish also brought European diseases which devastated the Aztec people (along with other Indigenous populations).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

THE ARRIVAL OF THE SPANISH IN THE AZTEC EMPIRE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As part of the conquest the Spanish conquistadors, who were led by\u00a0Hernan\u00a0Cort\u00e9s<\/a>, took the Aztec leader Moctezuma II<\/a>\u00a0captive.\u00a0 Soon after, Moctezuma II was dead and the Aztec people retaliated against the Spanish forcing them to flee the Aztec capital.\u00a0\u00a0The Spanish referred to this event as \u2018Noche Triste<\/a>\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0Following the events of Noche Triste, the Spanish fled to Tlaxcala, chased away by Aztec warriors.\u00a0 In Tlaxcala the Spanish recovered from their wounds, including Cort\u00e9s and Alvarado who were both injured in the escape from\u00a0Tenochtitlan<\/a>.\u00a0 This time in Tlaxcala had impacts for both the Spanish and the Aztec, because the Spanish were able to resupply and received new Spanish troops while the Aztec suffered from the consequences of the spread of European diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Spanish
‘Spanish conquistadors and their Tlaxcalan allies enter Tenochtitlan’ by Margaret Duncan Coxhead. (1909)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

IMPACT OF EUROPEAN DISEASES ON THE AZTEC EMPIRE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When European explorers arrived in the New World during the\u00a0Age of Exploration<\/a>\u00a0they brought with them many different types of diseases that were not already present in the New World, including: smallpox, influenza, measles, malaria, chicken pox and yellow fever.\u00a0 These diseases were spread as part of the\u00a0Columbian Exchange<\/a>\u00a0and led to the deaths of millions of people.\u00a0 In fact, some historians have suggested that as many as 90% of people in the New World died from the spread of European diseases.\u00a0 Since the indigenous people of the New World had never been exposed to these diseases before, they lacked the immunity and were susceptible to the deadly effects of the disease.\u00a0 One of the more significant European diseases was smallpox which is said to have had the largest impact on the indigenous people of the New World.\u00a0 For example, the Aztecs in Tenochtitlan supposedly underwent a mass spread of smallpox from September to November of 1520.\u00a0 Historians are unsure of how many of the Aztec people suffered and died from the disease at this time, but their newest tlatoani, Cuitl\u00e1huac, died from the disease. \u00a0This is important because the Aztecs lacked stable leadership during the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, since their leaders (Moctezuma II<\/a> and Cuitl\u00e1huac) died.\u00a0 Regardless, the spread of smallpox throughout Tenochtitlan severely weakened the Aztec people and aided the\u00a0Spanish in their final battle against the city. A new tlatoani, and the final one to rule over the Aztec Empire, Cuauht\u00e9moc, was chosen in February of 1521.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Columbian
Columbian Exchange Map created by History Crunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

European diseases such as smallpox had a significant impact on the Aztec people and ultimately contributed to the fall of the Aztec Empire. This article details the history and significance of the impact of European diseases on the Aztec Empire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,80],"tags":[77,15,79],"class_list":["post-2462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aztec-empire","category-mesoamerica","tag-aztec-empire","tag-history","tag-mesoamerica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2462"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5734,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462\/revisions\/5734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}