But they did pose a meaningful defense. The Mayans weren't fully conquered until the early 1800s, the Mapuche the late 1800s--effectively, it took Spain (and later Chile/Argentina) over 300 years to conquer the Native Americans. Quite frankly, the main reason they succeeded was not that the indigenous peoples were inferior, but that the Europeans could afford to wage a low-grade war for centuries, and stomach the surprisingly frequent setbacks, whereas the indigenous peoples couldn't.