The document summarizes early encounters between Europeans and indigenous peoples in the Americas. It describes Christopher Columbus landing in the West Indies in 1492 and encountering the friendly Taino people. It then discusses the conquests of Hernan Cortes of the Aztecs in Mexico in 1521 and Francisco Pizarro's destruction of the Incas in Peru in 1532. The Spanish were able to defeat the Aztec and Inca empires through superior technology, exploiting divisions among indigenous groups, and diseases that weakened native populations.