How did the conquest of the Aztec and Inca Empires affected the American Indians?
1 Answer
Horses and horse culture imported by the Spaniards in Mexico and California made their way to the American Great Plains. This revolutionized the life of the Indians there.
Explanation:
Prior to European conquest there were no large draft animals in the Americas since there extinction some time before. After re-introduction after Columbus, by the mid 1700s, in the American west many Indians had adapted their lifestyle to having horses.
The horses made their nomadic hunter gatherer way of life easier by making them more mobile. Hunting the major food source, Bison, became easier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horses_in_the_United_States
Other influences were less important because of the limited nature of North-South trade connections between Mesoamerica and North America. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel
for a discussion of these.
