When the Spanish arrived in the Americas 500 years ago, they encountered diverse cultures across the continent, including powerful civilisations such as the Mexica and the Incas. This article, first published in issue 40 of In Defence of Marxism magazine (click here to subscribe), takes a look at the material foundations of these rich cultures, their internal contradictions, as well as the conditions of contemporary Spain itself at the time of the conquest. Only by understanding these conditions can we in turn understand the devastation that the conquest wrought, and the wider role of these events in the ascent of capitalism.

The following document was passed at the 2023 World Congress of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). Here, we offer our perspective and analysis of the main trends that are shaping world politics and the class struggle in this dramatic period of capitalism’s death agony.