Immediate conflicts:
... The USA had atomic weapons and the USSR did not. (The US would not share that technology with the Soviets.)
... The USSR did not assure that free and fair elections took place in Eastern Europe -- it saw to it that Soviet-aligned governments were installed there.
... Tensions over the East Germany / West Germany and East Berlin / West Berlin division of territory.
Deeper causes:
The USA was committed to capitalism and democratic institutions of government.
The USSR was committed to communism and imposed authoritarian government.
The Cold War was mostly a tension between these worldviews.
The main reason the US Senate rejected the treaty of Versailles was because they feared that US involvement in the League of Nations would mean that American troops would be sent into Europe and settle European disputes.
Answer:
1. Moctezuma II welcomed the Spanish, thinking that Cortes was the human incarnation of the god Quetzalcoatl
2. Cortes and his man brought smallpox to the city of Tenochtitlan, killing many Aztec
3. Cortes established alliances with enemies of the Aztec such as the Tlaxcalans
4. Cortes marched up the coast of Mexico and conquered the territory of Veracruz
Explanation:
When the Spanish arrived in Mexico, the Aztecs were thinking that they were deities, and that Cortes is a human incarnation of Quetzalcoatl, with the main reason for that being that they looked much different and came with ships from where the legend said that Quetzalcoatl will one day return. The Spanish used this in their advantage and left the Aztecs to think that way, bringing them in their capital and making them familiar with it, but also brought smallpox with in the city, killing off the Aztecs. Cortes and his men were hungry for gold, and the Aztecs had lot of it. The Spanish understood that most of the people conquered by the Aztecs hated them, so they made alliances with them in order to attack them and take over their empire. Together, the Spanish and the local people managed to defeat the Aztecs and took over their territory, marking the beginning of the Spanish empire in the New World.
