The Fall of the Aztec Empire

      Many factors contributed to the fall of the Aztec empire. Here are a few of the obvious ones.

                                                          Sacrificing

       Killing thousands of people for their gods declined the population. Because of this, The Spanish out ranked the Aztecs. Also many sacrifices caused hatred around the surrounding people. Such as the powerful city-state, Tlaxcala, who joined the Spanish in the end because many of their eople were killed.

                                               Diseases

        Disease played a huge role in the fall of the Aztec Empire. When Cortes and his army were in Mexico, another Spanish army came from Cuba to make sure that he followed orders. Cortes didn't want none of that, so he went to fight the army. In that new army was an African being held as a slave who had smallpox which is very contagious. One of Cortes' men contracted the disease.  When they returned, the Aztec army quickly overwhelmed the Spanish, killing many and causing the rest to retreat.  The soldier was killed, and, likely when his body was looted, an Aztec caught the disease. Forthwith, the smallpox spread across the population. Unfortunately, the people had no resistance and they did not know how to treat it. It is said that 25% of the population had died by the smallpox.

                                               Tactics

      The Aztecs got wise to the ways of the Europeans, and they almost won. But, Cortes still used clever tactics in the final siege that, in combination with his native allies and the epidemics of disease, brought about the fall of the Aztec empire.

References:

1. http://www.aztec-history.com/fall-of-the-aztec-empire.html