September 21, 2024 | by Unboxify
At the start of 1519, the Aztec Empire was a dominant force in Mesoamerica. While commonly seen as one unified people, the Aztec Empire actually originated in 1428 as an alliance between three city-states: Tenochtitlán, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. Among these, Tenochtitlán would soon rise above the others, gaining infamy in the eyes of their tributaries. Those unfortunate enough to fall under its yoke were forced to supply not only raw materials but also a steady flow of prisoners for human sacrifice.
Although it is not entirely clear how many people were sacrificed in total, it is believed that in times of drought, thousands of human lives would be ritually killed over a matter of days. Aztec warriors also embarked on what were known as “flower wars” to capture prisoners for sacrifice. Some members of the Aztec aristocracy even practiced cannibalism, consuming parts of the victims.
Life in Tenochtitlán entailed more than just an endless stream of gruesome offerings and peculiar appetites. The Mexica, as the city’s inhabitants were called, greatly valued scholarship. Tenochtitlán contained several large libraries with manuscripts on a wide range of topics, from religion and genealogies to government and geography.
The fateful event that would radically alter the course of Mesoamerican history occurred in February 1519, when a group of several hundred conquistadors landed on the Gulf of Mexico in search of glorious cities rumored to be filled with gold. Its leader, Hernán Cortés, was following in the footsteps—or rather, the sails—of two prior expeditions which had ventured into the Gulf before him. However, unlike his predecessors, Cortés’ expedition was rife with controversy from the very start.
After having butted heads with the Cuban Governor Diego Velázquez, Cortés had his expeditionary charter revoked at the last moment. Not one to take “no” for an answer, Cortés decided to ignore the order and, in an open act of mutiny, set sail for Mesoamerica, facing certain imprisonment or even death. Cortés was highly aware of the absolute necessity of his expedition’s success.
Once on their way to their first stop in the Yucatán Peninsula, the conquistadors happened upon a shipwrecked Spaniard by the name of Gerónimo de Aguilar. Aguilar, who had learned to speak Mayan, was promptly brought aboard as Cortés’ personal translator. A few weeks later, Aguilar would prove his usefulness during peace talks with the Tabasco, a Mayan city-state the conquistadors had encountered a few weeks into their expedition. As a peace offering, the Mayans provided Cortés with 20 slaves, among whom was a woman who spoke both Mayan and the Aztec language Nahuatl. Together, Aguilar and the enslaved woman, who would become known as La Malinche, formed a crucial link for Cortés to communicate with the Aztec people.
Armed with the power of language as well as of steel and gunpowder, the Spaniards set sail for their final destination. Upon their arrival, Cortés declared the establishment of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, marking the first Spanish colony in Mesoamerica. However, in reality, Veracruz was not much more than a name on a map and primarily served as a means for Cortés to take advantage of Spanish law in an attempt to escape the jurisdiction of Governor Velázquez.
Cortés’ arrival had not gone unnoticed, and his party was soon welcomed by representatives of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II. Despite their seeming lack of hostility, Cortés knew that these formalities were unlikely to last. He was all too aware of the pressing need to address his numerical inferiority.
Fortunately for the Spaniards, years of often brutal Aztec rule had left few friends among their tributaries. Many, like the Totonac Confederacy, were relatively easily persuaded to turn against their hated overlords. Upon hearing of the news of the Spanish-Totonac alliance, Moctezuma sensed trouble and sent forth another score of polite ambassadors bearing gifts of gold and cloth in a doomed attempt to appease the Spaniards and perhaps to keep an eye on their movements. But most of all, he aimed to dissuade them from visiting Tenochtitlán.
Cortés, however, felt encouraged rather than dissuaded by the lavish gifts of gold and ordered a daring march toward the city. It was all or nothing for the Spanish leader, and to ensure the loyalty of his own men, he made sure to scuttle his ships before setting off.
Violence erupted when Tlaxcalan warriors began harrying the column as it passed through Tlaxcala territory. Two weeks later, the bloodshed spread into September as the Spanish camp was attacked by day while Cortés’ men raided Tlaxcalan villages by night. After 18 days of brutal warfare, which came at the cost of half of the Spanish cavalry and a fifth of Cortés’ men, peace finally returned to the territory. Cortés convinced the harassers that they had a common enemy in the Aztecs. The Tlaxcalans had reason to resent the empire, as it had conquered most of their territory during their yearly flower wars.
Seeing a golden opportunity for retribution, the Tlaxcalans lowered their arms and joined the march to the city. The violence, however, did not stop there. Before the Spanish entered Tenochtitlán, they marched alongside their Tlaxcalan allies on the city of Cholula and massacred its civilian population over the course of several days. Cholula, an important religious center, had formerly been part of the Tlaxcalan sphere of influence before switching sides and allying with the Aztecs.
The exact reasons for the massacre are disputed. It may have been a mixture of the Tlaxcalans wanting to get rid of a political rival and the Spanish wanting to send a message to other rival cities. It was clear that many city-states had a grudge with the Aztecs, and at Cholula, the Spanish clearly demonstrated what would happen if cities didn’t ally with them.
By the first week of November, the surviving conquistadors finally laid eyes on Tenochtitlán, home to over 300,000 inhabitants. This massive city dwarfed almost all of its contemporary European counterparts. The vista of its many canals, densely populated neighborhoods, and imposing temples and palaces struck the approaching Spaniards with awe and prompted some to wonder whether they were in a dream.
Having failed to dissuade him from visiting the city, Moctezuma now felt obliged to invite Cortés into his palace. It was here that the conquistadors discovered a secret room where the emperor kept his treasure. The sight of numerous golden objects, jewels, plates, and ingots dumbfounded the Spaniards.
Having located the rumored treasure trove, Cortés began to pressure Moctezuma. He asked him to allow his men to erect a cross and an image of the Virgin Mary next to two large Aztec idols. Naturally, this provocative request caused considerable consternation among the Mexica, triggering an eruption of violence that cost the lives of seven Spaniards.
Realizing the precarity of their situation, Cortés retaliated by putting Moctezuma under house arrest in the palace, assuming personal control over the city. With the emperor essentially taken hostage, the Spaniards hoped to dissuade the Aztecs from further resistance. Moctezuma, on his part, continued to stand firm behind his policy of diplomacy and peace. After firmly refusing advice from his chieftains to attack the conquistadors, he finally allowed Cortés’ men to build a Catholic altar on the temple. This was the first real sign that the once mighty emperor of the great Aztec Empire had been reduced to little more than a puppet of Cortés.
Meanwhile, off to the east, another significant development was taking place. While Cortés executed his plans, 900 conquistadors under the command of Pánfilo de Narváez were landing on the orders of Governor Velázquez. Their objective: to deal with Cortés.
Hearing of the news, Cortés assembled his best men and set off to face Narváez in battle, leaving Pedro de Alvarado and a small garrison in charge of the city. This would turn out to be a fateful decision. The cruel and easily angered Alvarado had little patience and even less respect for the Aztec people. When, on May 22, 1520, Moctezuma asked for permission to celebrate an Aztec festival which included human sacrifice, Alvarado and his men interrupted the festivities, killing nearly all of the mostly unarmed warriors and noblemen inside the Great Temple.
Alvarado’s men claimed to have merely acted to prevent human sacrifice, while survivors retorted that the Spaniards had grown wild at the sight of gold jewelry that those in attendance were wearing. Hearing of the massacre, Moctezuma again urged for cooler heads to prevail and ordered his people to stand down. The Aztecs, however, had had enough and rose up in revolt.
Due east, Cortés had managed to sneak up on Narváez at Cempoala and ordered his men to attack at nightfall. His mixed group of 250 Spaniards and 200 natives soundly defeated Narváez’s numerically superior force, which included horsemen and artillery. In an ultimate slap to the face to Governor Velázquez, the survivors were then convinced to join Cortés with promises of boundless Aztec riches.
Arriving back at Tenochtitlán, Cortés found Alvarado’s men under siege in the palace. Acting quickly, Cortés ordered Moctezuma to address his people in a final, doomed attempt to restore peace and allow the Spaniards to peacefully withdraw from the city. However, this desperate gesture merely stopped the pleas of fury. Cheers rose from the crowd as Moctezuma faced a rain of stones and darts. His people had had enough of their emperor and had already chosen his successor, Cuitláhuac. The tragic Moctezuma would not survive the assault, though the Aztecs would later claim that he was killed by the Spaniards after his usefulness to them had expired.
With their bargaining chip gone and supplies rapidly dwindling, Cortés realized that time was running out. He ordered his men to break out at night with as much gold and treasure as they could carry. The party headed west under the cover of a welcome rainstorm, winding their way through the sleeping city. However, before long, they were spotted, and the alarm was sounded. Within no time, a crowd of Aztecs emerged from their houses to attack the fleeing column, while hundreds of men in canoes harassed Cortés’ men as they fought their way across the causeway leading out of the city.
Some soldiers lost their footing and drowned in the lake, weighed down by all their equipment and the treasure they had so desired. Cortés himself was well ahead of the group, leading a vanguard of horsemen, leaving the rest of his men behind to fend for themselves. Upon reaching safety at the village of Tacuba, the Spanish leader had a change of heart and turned around to come to the aid of those still fighting their way out. Along the way, he found a badly wounded Alvarado with a group of Spaniards and Tlaxcalans.
According to conquistador Díaz del Castillo, it was at this point that Cortés broke down in tears. During the bloody breakout attempt, an estimated 400-800 Spaniards had been killed, drowned, or captured, while around 1,000 Tlaxcalans had suffered the same fate. In terms of equipment, all of the artillery and most of the horses had been lost, and the exhausted and mostly wounded survivors were left to make do with whatever they had managed to carry along. Cortés’ alleged sorrow at the sight of this tragedy solidified it in Spanish and Mexican history as “La Noche Triste”—the Night of Sorrows.
Despite their apparent weakness, Cortés’ men were far from defeated. About a week later, the Aztecs struck again at Otumba in an attempt to deliver the killing blow. However, their victory during the Night of Sorrows had made the Aztecs overconfident, and the Spaniard’s skillful use of cavalry and targeting known leaders ultimately sent their army into disarray. Having fought off his pursuers, Cortés withdrew his remaining men to the relative safety of Tlaxcala to rest and reorganize.
Though defeated on the field of battle, the Aztecs had retaken control over their capital. This victory, however, would be short-lived. Soon, a far more lethal and insidious enemy would arrive in the form of smallpox. Having no prior contact with this disease, the vulnerable Aztecs were at its mercy. Thousands perished in short succession, among them the new emperor, Cuitláhuac, and by the end of the year 1520, it is estimated that the disease had killed some 8 million people in the area now known as Mexico.
Having licked their wounds from the Night of Sorrows and the Battle of Otumba, Cortés’ men were reinforced by more native allies from Texcoco and once again set off for Tenochtitlán in early 1521. Well aware of the weakened state of the Aztec Empire, the Spanish leaders undoubtedly expected a swift victory. However, to their surprise, the stubborn defenders of the city refused to yield.
Frustrated, the Spaniards ordered Tlaxcalan laborers to construct cannon-mounted brigantines to take control of the lake. Potable water to the city was cut off on May 10, yet by the end of June, its defenders still stood firm. Various attempts to end the siege through diplomacy failed. Having run out of patience, Cortés ordered a massive assault on the city to take the market of Tlatelolco, but his men were forced to retreat in the face of heavy resistance. Cortés himself was captured during the fighting and was fortunate to escape with his life when his men came to the rescue.
Brutal urban combat and sustained fanatical resistance persisted until the remaining defenders made their last stand at Plaza Mayor, where they finally surrendered on August 13. The reign of Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor, ended when he was captured trying to flee the city in a canoe. However, the catastrophe that had befallen Tenochtitlán would not end there. The victorious Spaniards and their native allies mercilessly sacked the city in search of gold and revenge.
Cortés, on his part, would be rewarded for the astounding success of his valiant expedition by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles I, being named Captain General of the Vice-Royalty of New Spain in October of 1522. Cortés’ lethal gamble had paid off. The mutinous soldier had become the new hero of Spain.
Within just two short years, Hernán Cortés’ relatively small group of conquistadors had managed to vanquish an empire. The scale of the Aztec expedition and its capture of treasure would not be matched until the 1532 conquest of the Incan Empire in modern-day Peru. However, as we’ve seen, Cortés’ conquest was far from a straightforward military affair. Besides the Spaniard’s technological and tactical superiority, it was the vital support of large numbers of native allies, the over-caution and inaction of Moctezuma, as well as the brutal effects of the smallpox epidemic that all played a part in the rapid toppling of the Aztec Empire.
The fall of the Aztec Empire marked the start of further Spanish conquests in the region, ultimately leading to Spanish control over the entirety of Mesoamerica. This conquest, in turn, was followed by the mass conversion of the indigenous people to Catholicism, and before long, intermarriage between ethnic Spaniards and natives would become common occurrences, marking the beginning of the modern Mexican nation.
The legacy of Cortés and the events that unfolded continue to shape the cultural and historical landscape of Mexico. The blending of Spanish and indigenous cultures has given rise to a rich and diverse heritage that endures to this day.
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