Conquest in Mesoamerica & the Andes?

In using the word “Conquest” to describe the Spanish interaction with the native in the Americas inIn Matthew Restall's Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest he debunks many of the explanations for the success of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire in Mesoamerica and the Inca empire in the Andes.   In chapter 4 Restall addresses the myth of completion of the Spanish Conquest and he argues that during this time conquistadors had “obligations” to fulfill and that often times they exaggerated their accomplishments through probanzas de merito yet the “conquest” was incomplete for centuries after the initial Spanish invasion.  It can be clearly argued that the term “conquest” should not be used when describing the Spanish contact with natives in the Americas. The term conquest as defined by Webster’s dictionary states “ The subjugation and assumption of control of a place or people by use of military force” while the Spaniards might have possessed more efficient weapons and warfare tactics, they were not able to control the vast and faraway lands that are part of Latin America. In Restall’s book he states that it was this system of patronage of “probanzas” which further encouraged rapid claim of success in exploration and conquest.  As in his previous assertions, Restall blames the sources and historians’ interpretations for the creation of the myth. Restall states that it was in the interst of the conquistadors to make as many claims as they possibly could in order to seem great, and to do so they were eager to perpetuate their supposed successes, and it was through these claims of conquest and success that historians were misled. On page 64 of Restall’s Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest “But many kingdoms and providences were not totally or entirely conquered, and there were left among providences and kingdoms great portions of them unconquered, unreduced, unpacified, some of them not even yet discovered” – Juan de Villagutierre Soto-Mayor (Restall, 64). To use the term “conquest” is quite unfair as this is not what happened in entirety in Latin America after contact with the Spanish. Many native civilizations retained their way of life, culture, language and identity even after the Spanish colonization and extraction efforts finished in early 17^th century.