This paper will discuss the transatlantic world before, at the time, and after Europe decided to explore and conquer the Americas. A focus will be on the Aztec and Mayan cultures and how they existed, then perished. A look at the Spanish will be applied to see how they are culpable for the current lack of knowledge of the Mayan and Aztec cultures.

The Maya inhabited the Americas as early as 2000 BC. They had continued to evolve and develop until the Spanish arrived and conquered them. However, the Spanish were not solely responsible for the decline of the Maya. We have been able to ascertain that the Maya had begun a decline near 900 AD, although the reason for this decline is not known. Some scientists have uncovered that there may have been an extreme draught around this time and an extreme change in climate.

It is assumed that this may have contributed to the loss of population. The scientists can conclude there was a mass reduction in population but there is no evidence of death. There are no gravesites or a collection of human remains. This indicates that there may have been a slow migration to another city for an unknown reason. Whatever the reason, there was a smaller numbers of people that did remain behind. Unfortunately, the Spanish massacred these people when they conquered the Maya. During the conquest, the Spanish destroyed all historical documents they found. They did this because they wanted to stamp out and remnant of the Maya religion to facilitate their own growth under the Catholic religion.

A few hundred years after the decline of the Maya, the Aztec empire emerged. They emerged on a lake name Texcoco in a city named Tenochtitlan. This is North West of where the Maya empire was located. Although it was quite a distance away, it was on the same continent. When surveying the area where the Aztec inhabited, we can see that the area is now the city of Mexico City. When it was a lake, the actual city that the empire ruled from was on an island. Tenochtitlan eventually became one of the largest cities in the Americas.

This large city gave little resistance to the Spaniards when they arrived to conquer them. The Aztecs had a few things against them during the conquest. One is they felt it more important to