Comparisons between the experiences of the Aztecs with the European world, as told in Leon-Portilla's The Broken Spears, and the experiences of the Africans with the European world, as described by Thornton's Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, are like comparing apples and oranges. Both are considered to be fruits born from trees, but that is where the similarities cease between the two. The analogy holds true for Aztec and African experiences with Europeans. While there are sweeping themes that encompass both groups' experiences, there are also glaring differences between the two experiences. The Aztecs had no contact with any European groups prior to the arrival of the Spanish and held complete sway over millions of people while Africans had been trading with various other people through Saharan trade routes and the Indian Ocean inter-communication zone for centuries prior to direct European contact. South of modern Cameroon, there had been no contact with any groups other than Africans prior to the arrival of the Portuguese, however. The differing religious beliefs of these societies also played a significant roll in their differing experiences not to mention their various locations. Africans were not decimated by the introduction of European diseases the way the virgin Aztecs were almost wiped out by the introduction of European and African diseases. These mass epidemics in the New World made out right conquest much easier. As a matter of fact, the malaria belt in Africa prevented any large European communities within Africa until a means of controlling malarial outbreaks was discovered several centuries after European contact. Effective military resistance by coastal states provided a marked difference between the experiences of the two groups of people. A shift in European views toward exploration also played a large roll. The combination of these factors resulted in much different approaches by Europeans to the Aztecs than Africans.
