The “Age of Encounters” is a term used in place of a formerly-widespread term, the “Age of Discoveries.” While the “Age of Discoveries” is a Eurocentric term that suggests that Europeans “discovered” a new and underdeveloped world, the term “Age of Encounters” emphasizes the pre-existence of Indigenous peoples and civilizations in the Americas, stressing that both the Europeans and the Indigenous peoples are of equal importance in the history of this time period.

The Incas were an Indigenous ethnic group that extended imperial power over large portions of Andean South America from the 15th to the early 16th centuries. This empire included the modern nations of Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and parts of northern Chile and Argentina. The Spanish conquered the wealthy empire, which was weakened by disease and civil war, in 1532 under the direction of the conquistador Francisco Pizzaro.

The Mexica (or Aztec) Empire was centered on Mesoamerica with its capital at Tenochtitlán. It was established by Nahua peoples who conquered surrounding territories during the 15th century. This Mexica imperialism generated regional rivalries from which Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés, benefited when he allied with the Tlaxcalans in the conquest of the Mexica in 1521.