Ecological imperialism is the iea that the European conquest of the New World was more a matter of the introduced plants, animals, and diseases that accompanied the Europeans than their technology or weaponry. For example, the conquest of Spaniard Hernan Cortes over the Aztecs was aided foremost by the introduction of European disease into the Aztec population. Many more natives died from exposure to new diseases than died from the guns and superior weaponry of the conquistadors.