Spanish conquest of Mexico
Encyclopedia
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas
. The invasion began in February 1519 and was acclaimed victorious on August 13, 1521, by a coalition army of Spanish conquistador
s and Tlaxcalan
warriors led by Hernán Cortés
and Xicotencatl the Younger
against the Aztec
Empire.
empire
are predominantly Spanish. Most primary sources of the conquest come from Hernán Cortés' letters to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
and Bernal Díaz's written work, The Truthful History of the Conquest of New Spain. The primary sources from the people affected as a result of the conquest are seldom observed. Indigenous accounts, however, were documented as early as 1528. Written in the native tongue of Nahuatl
, the natives of the Aztec empire described eight omens that were believed to have occurred 10 years prior to the arrival of the Spanish from the Gulf of Mexico. The eight omens included:
The emperor Motecuhzoma (often spelled Montezuma in English) was said to have consulted fortune tellers to determine the causes of these omens; but they were unable to provide an exact explanation until after the arrival of the Spaniards.
However, it should be noted that all sources depicting omens were written after the siege and fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521. Ethnohistorians say that when the Spanish second arrived, native peoples did not view them as supernatural in any sense but rather as simply another group of powerful outsiders. Many Spanish accounts incorporated omens to emphasize what they saw as the preordained nature of the conquest and their success as Spanish destiny. This means that native emphasis on omens and bewilderment in the face of invasion "may be a postconquest interpretation by informants who wished to please the Spaniards or who resented the failure of Montezuma and of the warriors of Tenochtitlan to provide leadership."
, commissioned a fleet of three ships under the command of Hernández de Córdoba to sail west and explore the Yucatán
peninsula. Córdoba reached the coast of Yucatán. The Mayans at Cape Catoche invited the Spaniards to land, upon which Córdoba had the Spaniards read the Requirement of 1513
to them. Córdoba took two prisoners whom he named Melchor and Julián to be interpreters. On the western side of the Yucatán Peninsula, the Spaniards were attacked at night by Maya chief Mochcouoh (Mochh Couoh). Twenty Spaniards were killed. Córdoba was mortally wounded and only a remnant of his crew returned to Cuba.
The year after the ill-fated Córdoba expedition, Governor Velázquez decided to commission another expedition under the leadership of his nephew Juan de Grijalva
. Grijalva's expedition of four ships sailed south along the coast of Yucatán to the Tabasco
region, a part of the Aztec empire.
of the Late Postclassic
Maya civilization
came many years later. With the help of tens of thousands of Xiu Mayan warriors, it would take more than 170 years for the Spanish to establish full control of the Maya homelands, which extended from northern Yucatán to the central lowlands region of El Petén and the southern Guatemalan highlands. The end of this latter campaign is generally marked by the downfall of the Maya state based at Tayasal
in the Petén region, in 1697.
Even before Grijalva returned to Cuba, Velázquez decided to send a third and even larger expedition to explore the Mexican coast. Hernán Cortés
, then one of Velázquez's favorites, was named as the commander, which created envy and resentment among the Spanish contingent in the Cuban colony. Velázquez's instructions to Cortés, in an agreement signed on 23 October 1518, were to lead an expedition to initiate trade relations with the indigenous coastal tribes.
One account suggests that Governor Velázquez wished to restrict the Cortés expedition to being a pure trading expedition. Invasion of the mainland was to be a privilege reserved for himself. However, by calling upon the knowledge of the law of Castile that he gained while he was still a student in Salamanca and by utilizing his famous powers of persuasion, Cortés was able to maneuver Governor Velázquez into inserting a clause into his orders that enabled Cortés to take emergency measures without prior authorization if such were "...in the true interests of the realm."
Cortés ostentatiously invested a considerable part of his personal fortune to equip the expedition. Cortés committed the greater part of his assets and went into debt to borrow additional funds when his assets ran out. Governor Velázquez personally contributed nearly half the cost of the expedition.
The ostentatiousness of his endeavor probably added to the envy and resentment of the Spanish contingent in Cuba who were also keenly aware of the opportunity that this assignment offered for fame, fortune and glory.
For this reason, Velázquez sent Luis de Medina with orders to replace Cortés. However, Cortés' brother-in-law had Medina intercepted and killed. The papers that Medina had been carrying were sent to Cortés. Thus warned, Cortés accelerated the organization and preparation of his expedition.
He was ready to set sail on the morning of 18 February 1519 when Velázquez arrived at the dock in person, determined to revoke Cortés's commission. But Cortés, pleading that "time presses," hurriedly set sail thus literally beginning his conquest of American Indian territories and nations with the legal status of a mutineer
.
Cortés' contingent consisted of 11 ships carrying about 100 sailors, 530 soldiers (including 30 crossbowmen and 12 arquebusiers), a doctor, several carpenters, at least eight women, a few hundred Cuban Natives and some Africans, both freedmen and slaves.
island, trying to convert the locals to Christianity and achieving mixed results. While at Cozumel, Cortés heard reports of other white men living in the Yucatán. Cortés sent messengers to these reported castilianos, who turned out to be the survivors of a Spanish shipwreck that had occurred in 1511, Gerónimo de Aguilar
and Gonzalo Guerrero
.
Aguilar petitioned his Maya chieftain to be allowed leave to join with his former countrymen, and he was released and made his way to Cortés's ships. According to Bernal Díaz, Aguilar relayed that before coming he had unsuccessfully attempted to convince Guerrero to leave as well. Guerrero declined on the basis that he was by now well-assimilated with the Maya culture, had a Maya wife and three children, and he was looked upon as a figure of rank within the Maya settlement of Chetumal
where he lived.
Although Guerrero's later fate is somewhat uncertain, it appears that for some years he continued to fight alongside the Maya forces against Spanish incursions, providing military counsel and encouraging resistance; it is speculated that he may have been killed in a later battle.
Aguilar, now quite fluent in Yucatec Maya as well as some other indigenous languages
, proved to be a valuable asset for Cortés as a translator - a skill of particular significance to the later conquest of the Aztec Empire that was to be the end result of Cortés' expedition.
Bernal Díaz del Castillo
wrote in his account The True History of the Conquest of New Spain that Doñaf Marina was "an Aztec princess sold into Mayan
slavery." She was not actually an Aztec princess but was of noble birth, probably of Toltec or Tabascan origins.
Her lineage notwithstanding, Cortés had stumbled upon one of the keys to realizing his ambitions. He would speak to Gerónimo de Aguilar
in Spanish who would then translate into Mayan for Malinche. Malinche would then translate from Mayan to Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. With this pair of translators, Cortés could now communicate to the Aztecs quite effectively.
Christened Marina by Cortés, she later learned Spanish, became Cortés' mistress and bore him a son. Native speakers of Nahuatl, her own people, would call her "Malintzin." This name is the closest phonetic approximation possible in Nahuatl to the sound of 'Marina' in Spanish. Over time, "la Malinche" (the modern Spanish cognate of 'Malintzin') became a term that denotes a traitor to one's people. To this day, the word malinchista is used by Mexicans to denote one who apes the language and customs of another country.
La Malinche
was later made legendary through depictions in book and film.
Cortés landed his expedition force on the coast of the modern day state of Veracruz
. He learned of an indigenous settlement called Cempoala
and marched his forces there. On their arrival in Cempoala, they were greeted by 20 dignitaries and cheering townsfolk.
Cortés quickly persuaded the Totonac
chief Chicomecoatl
(misspelled as Chicomacatt by Spanish writers) to rebel against the Aztecs.
Faced with imprisonment or death for defying the governor, Cortés' only alternative was to continue on with his enterprise in the hope of redeeming himself with the Spanish Crown. To do this, he directed his men to establish a settlement called La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. The legally constituted "town council of Villa Rica" then promptly offered him the position of adelantado
.
This strategy was not unique. Velásquez had used this same legal mechanism to free himself from Diego Columbus' authority in Cuba. In being named adelantado by a duly constituted cabildo
, Cortés was able to free himself from Velásquez's authority and continue his expedition. To ensure the legality of this action several members of his expedition, including Francisco Montejo, returned to Spain to seek royal acceptance of the cabildo's declaration.
The Totonacs helped Cortés build the town of La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, which was the starting point for his attempt to conquer the Aztec empire. This settlement eventually grew into the city now known as Veracruz ("True Cross").
his ships, on the pretext that they were no longer seaworthy. There is a popular misconception that Cortés burned the ships to prevent further mutiny.
This misconception has been attributed to the reference made by Cervantes de Salazar in 1546 as to Cortés burning his ships. This may have also come from a mistranslation of the version of the story written in Latin.
With all of his ships scuttled except for one small ship with which to communicate with Spain, Cortés effectively stranded the expedition in Mexico and ended all thoughts of loyalty to the Governor of Cuba. Cortés then led his band inland towards the fabled Tenochtitlan. The ship was loaded with the Royal Fifth
(the King of Spain claimed 20% of all spoils) of the Aztec treasure they had obtained so far in order to speed up Cortés's claim to the governorship.
In addition to the Spaniards, Cortés force now included 40 Cempoalan warrior chiefs and 200 other natives whose task was to drag the cannon and carry the supplies. The Cempoalans were accustomed to the hot climate of the coast, but they suffered immensely from the cold of the mountains, the rain, and the hail as they marched towards Tenochtitlan.
, a confederacy of about 200 towns, but without central government. Their main city was Tlaxcala. After almost a century of fighting the Flower wars, a great deal of hate and bitterness had developed between the Tlaxcalans and the Aztecs. The Tlaxcalans knew that eventually the Aztecs would try to conquer them. It was just a matter of time before this tension developed into a real conflict. The Aztecs had already conquered much of the territory around Tlaxcala. It is possible that the Aztecs left Tlaxcala independent so they would have a constant supply of war captives to sacrifice to their gods.
The Tlaxcalans initially greeted the Spanish with hostile action and the two sides fought a series of skirmishes, which eventually forced the Spaniards up onto a hill where they were surrounded. Conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo
describes the first battle between the Spanish force and the Tlaxcalteca as surprisingly difficult. He writes that they probably would not have survived, had not Xicotencatl the Elder persuaded his son, the Tlaxcallan warleader, Xicotencatl the Younger, that it would be better to ally with the newcomers than to kill them.
On 18 September 1519, Cortés arrived in Tlaxcala and was greeted with joy by the rulers, who already saw the Spanish as a possible ally against the Aztecs. Due to a commercial blockade by the Aztecs, Tlaxcala was poor, lacking, among other things, both salt and cotton cloth, so they could only offer Cortés and his men food and women. Cortés stayed 20 days in Tlaxcala. Cortés seems to have won the true friendship of the old leaders of Tlaxcala, among them Maxixcatzin and Xicotencatl the Elder, although he could not win the heart of Xicotencatl the Younger. The Spaniards agreed to respect parts of the city, like the temples, and only took the things that were offered to them freely.
All that time Cortés offered to talk about the benefits of Christianity. Legends say that he convinced the four leaders of Tlaxcala to become baptized. Maxixcatzin, Xicotencatl the Elder, Citalpopocatzin and Temiloltecutl received the names of Don Lorenzo, Don Vicente, Don Bartolomé and Don Gonzalo.
It's difficult to know if they understood the Catholic faith. In any event, they apparently had no problems in adding "Dios" (God in Spanish), the lord of the heavens, to their already complex pantheon of gods
.
An exchange of gifts was made and thus began the alliance between Cortés and Tlaxcala.
, which was under Aztec influence. Cholula, founded in the year 2, was one of the most important cities of Mesoamerica, the second largest, and probably the most sacred. Its huge pyramid made it one of the most prestigious places of the Aztec religion. However, it appears that Cortés perceived Cholula as a military power rather than a religious center. He sent emissaries first.
The leaders of Tlaxcala urged Cortés to go instead to Huexotzingo, a city allied to Tlaxcala. Cortés, who had not yet decided to start a war by going to Huexotzingo, decided to make a compromise. He accepted the gifts of the Mexica ambassadors, but also accepted the offer of the Tlaxclateca to provide porters and warriors. He sent two men, Pedro de Alvarado, and Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia, on foot (he did not want to spare any horses), directly to Tenochtitlan, as ambassadors.
On 12 October 1519, Cortés and his men, accompanied by about 1,000 Tlaxcalteca, marched to Cholula.
. Moctezuma
had apparently tried to stop the advance of Cortés and his troops, and it seems that he ordered the leaders of Cholula to try to stop him. Cholula had a very small army, since as a sacred city, they put their confidence in their prestige and their gods. According to the chronicles of the Tlaxcalteca, the priest of Cholula expected to use the power of Quetzalcoatl against them.
La Malinche
told Cortés, after talking to the wife of one of the lords of Cholula, that the locals planned to murder the Spaniards in their sleep and although he did not know if the rumor was true or not, Cortés ordered a pre-emptive strike, urged on by the Tlaxcalans, the enemies of the Cholulans. The Spaniards seized and killed many of the local nobles to serve as a lesson. After Cortés arrived in Cholula he seized their leaders Tlaquiach and Tlalchiac and then ordered the city set fire. The troops started in the palace of Xacayatzin, and then on to Chialinco and Yetzcoloc. In his letters, Cortés claimed that in three hours time his troops (helped by the Tlaxcalans) killed 3,000 people and burned the city. Another witness, Vázquez de Tapia, claimed the death toll was as high as 30,000.
The Azteca and Tlaxclateca histories of the events leading up to the massacre differ. The Tlaxcalteca claimed that their ambassador Patlahuatzin was sent to Cholula and had been tortured by the Cholula. Thus, Cortés was avenging him by attacking Cholula. (Historia de Tlaxcala, por Diego Muñoz Camargo, lib. II cap. V. 1550).
The Aztec version put the blame on the Tlaxcalteca claiming that they resented Cortés going to Cholula instead of Huexotzingo.
The massacre had a chilling effect on the other Mesoamerican cultures and on the Mexica themselves. The tale of the massacre inclined the other cultures in the Aztec empire to submit to Cortés' demands rather than risk the same fate.
Cortés then sent emissaries to Moctezuma with the message that the people of Cholula had treated him with disrespect and had therefore been punished. Cortés' message continued that the Aztecs need not fear his wrath if Moctezuma treated him with respect and gifts of gold.
On 8 November 1519 after nearly three months, Cortés arrived at the outskirts of Tenochtitlan, the island capital of the Mexica-Aztecs. It is believed that the city was one of the largest in the world at that time. Of all the cities in Europe, only Constantinople
was larger than Tenochtitlan. The most common estimates put the population at around 60,000 to over 300,000 people.
, the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II
welcomed him with great pomp. Sahagún reports that Moctezuma welcomed Cortés to Tenochtitlan on the Great Causeway into the "Venice of the West".
A fragment of the greetings of Moctezuma says: "My lord, you have become fatigued, you have become tired: to the land you have arrived. You have come to your city: Mexico, here you have come to sit on your place, on your throne. Oh, it has been reserved to you for a small time, it was conserved by those who have gone, your substitutes... This is what has been told by our rulers, those of whom governed this city, ruled this city. That you would come to ask for your throne, your place, that you would come here. Come to the land, come and rest: take possession of your royal houses, give food to your body."
According to Sahagún's manuscript, Moctezuma personally dressed Cortés with flowers from his own gardens, the highest honour he could give, although probably Cortés did not understand the significance of the gesture.
Many historians are skeptical of Sahagun's account that Moctezuma personally met Cortés on the Great Causeway because of the many proscriptions and prohibitions regarding the emperor vis-à-vis his subjects. For instance, when Moctezuma dined, he ate behind a screen so as to shield him from his court and servants. There were various restrictions on seeing and touching his person.
This contradiction between "the arrogant emperor" and the "humble servant of Quetzalcoatl" has been problematic for historians to explain and has led to much speculation. All the proscriptions and prohibitions regarding Moctezuma and his people had been established by Moctezuma, and were not part of the traditional Aztec customs. Those prohibitions had already caused friction between Moctezuma and the pillis (noble classes). There is even an Aztec legend in which Huemac, the legendary last lord of Tollan Xicotitlan, instructed Moctezuma to live humbly, and eat only the food of the poor, to divert a future catastrophe. Thus, it seems out of character for Moctezuma to violate rules that he himself had promulgated.
Moctezuma had the palace of his father Axayácatl
prepared to house the Spanish and their 3000 native allies. Cortés asked Moctezuma to provide more gifts of gold to demonstrate his fealty as a vassal of Charles V. Cortés also demanded that the two large idols be removed from the main temple pyramid in the city, the human blood scrubbed off, and shrines to the Virgin Mary and St. Christopher be set up in their place. All his demands were met. Cortés then seized Moctezuma in his own palace and made him his prisoner as insurance against Aztec revolt, and demanded an enormous ransom of gold, which was duly delivered.
Knowing that their leader was in chains and being required to feed not just a band of Spaniards but thousands of their Tlaxcalteca allies, the populace of Tenochtitlan began to feel a strain weighing upon them.
had arrived. Narváez had been sent by Governor Velázquez not only to supersede Cortés, but to arrest him and bring him to trial in Cuba for insubordination
, mutiny
, and treason
.
Cortés' response was arguably one of the most daring of his many exploits. Some describe it as absolutely reckless but he really had few other options. If arrested and convicted, he could have been executed. Leaving only one hundred and forty men under Pedro de Alvarado
to hold Tenochtitlan, Cortés set out against de Narváez, who had nine hundred soldiers, whereas Cortés, reinforced as he approached the coast, mustered about two hundred and sixty. With this much smaller force, Cortés surprised his antagonist with a night attack during which Cortés' men took de Narváez prisoner.
The move was a desperate one but the secret of Cortés' success lay in his quick movements, for which de Narváez was not prepared, as well as in his rapid return to the plateau, by which he surprised the Natives who held Alvarado and his people at their mercy.
The desperate defense of the Spaniards in the absence of Cortés would have been unavailing had the latter not moved quickly. In contrast with that quickness, but equally well adapted to the necessities of the case, was the methodical investment and capture of Tenochtitlan, showing the flexibility of Cortés in adapting his tactics to various situations.
When Cortés told the defeated soldiers about the city of gold, Tenochtitlan, they agreed to join him (de Narváez lost an eye, and was eventually killed during the exploration of Florida.)
Cortés then had to lead the combined forces on an arduous trek back over the Sierra Madre Oriental
. Years later, when asked what the new land was like, Cortés crumpled up a piece of parchment, then spread it part way out: "Like this", he said.
When Cortés returned to the city, he found that Alvarado and his men had attacked and killed many of the Aztec nobility (see The Massacre in the Main Temple) during a festival. Alvarado's explanation to Cortés was that Alvarado had learned that the Aztecs planned to attack the Spanish garrison in the city once the festival was complete, and so he had launched a preemptive attack. Considerable doubt has been cast by different commentators on this explanation, which may have been self-serving rationalization on the part of Alvarado, who may have attacked out of fear (or greed) where no immediate threat existed. In any event, the population of the city rose en masse after the Spanish attack.
The Aztec troops besieged the palace housing the Spaniards and Moctezuma. The people of Tenochtitlan chose a new leader, Cuitláhuac
. Cortés ordered Moctezuma to speak to his people from a palace balcony and persuade them to let the Spanish return to the coast in peace. Moctezuma was jeered and stones were thrown at him, injuring him badly. Moctezuma died a few days later (accounts as to who was actually guilty of his death do not agree; Aztec informants in later years insisted that Cortés had him killed.) After his death Cuitláhuac was elected as Huey Tlatoani (Emperor).
The Spaniards and their allies had to flee the city, as the population of Tenochtitlan had risen against them and the Spanish situation could only deteriorate. Because the Aztecs had removed the bridges over the gaps in the causeways that linked the city to the mainland, Cortés' men constructed a portable bridge with which to cross the openings. On the rainy night of 1 July 1520, the Spaniards and their allies set out for the mainland via the causeway to Tlacopan. They placed the bridge unit in the first gap, but at that moment their movement was detected and Aztec forces attacked, both along the causeway and by means of canoes on the lake. The Spanish were thus caught on a narrow road with water on two sides. The retreat quickly turned into chaos. The Spanish discovered that they could not remove their bridge unit from the first gap, and so had no choice but to leave it behind. The bulk of the Spanish infantry, left behind by Cortés and the other horsemen, had to cut their way through the masses of Aztec warriors opposing them. Many of the Spaniards, weighed down by their armor, drowned in the causeway gaps or were killed by the Aztecs. Much of the wealth the Spaniards had acquired in Tenochtitlan was lost in this manner. During the escape, Alvarado is alleged to have jumped across one of the narrower channels. The channel is now a street in Mexico City, called "Puente de Alvarado" (Alvarado's Bridge), because it seemed Alvarado escaped across an invisible bridge. Some say the Aztec Empire fell over some; not many.
In this retreat the Spaniards suffered heavy casualties, losing probably more than 600 of their own number and several thousand Tlaxcalan warriors. It is said that Cortés, upon reaching the mainland at Tlacopan, wept over their losses. This episode is called "La Noche Triste
" (The sad night), and the old tree ("El árbol de la noche triste") where Cortés allegedly cried is still a monument in Mexico.
. Although hard-pressed, the Spanish infantry was able to hold off the overwhelming numbers of enemy warriors, while the Spanish cavalry under the leadership of Cortés charged through the enemy ranks again and again. When Cortés and his men killed one of the Aztec leaders, the Aztecs broke off the battle and left the field. The Spanish were able then to complete their escape to Tlaxcala. There they were given assistance and comfort, since almost all of them were wounded, and only 20 horses were left. The Aztecs sent emissaries and asked the Tlaxcalteca to turn over the Spaniards to them, but Tlaxcala refused.
While the flower war
s had started as a mutual agreement, the Tlaxcala and the Aztecs had become entangled in a true war. The Aztecs had conquered almost all the territories around Tlaxcala, closing off all commerce with them. The Tlaxcalteca knew it was just a matter of time before the Aztecs tried to conquer Tlaxcala itself. Therefore, most of the Tlaxcalan leaders were receptive when Cortés, once his men had the chance to recuperate, proposed an alliance to conquer Tenochtitlan. Xicotencatl the Younger, however, opposed the idea, and instead connived with the Aztec ambassadors in an attempt to form a new alliance with the Mexicans, since the Tlaxcalans and the Aztecs shared the same language and religion. Finally the elders of Tlaxcala accepted Cortés' offer under stringent conditions: they would not be required to pay any form of tribute to the Spaniards, they should receive the city of Cholula in return, they would have the right to build a fortress in Tenochtitlan, so they could have control of the city, and they would receive a share of the spoils of war.
Cortés knew that without tributes as any of the other indigenous cultures the capital would be forced to capitulate.
Cortés returned to Tenochtitlan and mounted a siege of the city that relied on cutting the causeways from the mainland, while controlling the lake with armed brigantine
s constructed by the Spanish. The siege of Tenochtitlan
lasted eight months. The besiegers cut off the supply of food and destroyed the aqueduct carrying water to the city. Even worse, many of the inhabitants of the city were also being ravaged by the effects of smallpox
, which spread rapidly across most of Central Mexico (and beyond), killing hundreds of thousands. In fact, a third of the inhabitants of the entire valley died in less than six months from the new disease brought from Europe. Despite the resistance (during which the defenders cut the beating hearts from 70 Spanish prisoners-of-war at the altar to Huichilobos), Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco fell on 13 August 1521 when the last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc
, surrendered to Cortés. Cortés then ordered the Aztec gods in the temples taken down and replaced with icons of Christianity. He also announced that the temple would never again be used for human sacrifice.
The city had been almost totally destroyed by fire and cannon shot during the siege, and once it finally fell the Spanish continued its dismantlement, as they soon began to establish the foundations of what would become Mexico City on the site. Meanwhile the surviving Aztec people were forbidden to live in Tenochtitlan and the surrounding isles. The survivors went to live in Tlatelolco.
and Spanish King Charles V
named Antonio de Mendoza
the first viceroy of New Spain
. The name "New Spain" had been suggested by Cortés and was later confirmed officially by Mendoza.
usually is referred to as the main episode in the process of the conquest of Mesoamerica. However, this process was much more complex and took longer than the three years that it took Cortés to conquer Tenochtitlan. It took almost 60 years of wars for the Spaniards to suppress the resistance of the Indian population of Mesoamerica.
After the Spanish conquest of central Mexico, expeditions were sent further northward in Mesoamerica, to the region known as La Gran Chichimeca
. The expeditions under Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán
were particularly harsh on the Chichimeca
population, causing them to rebel under the leadership of Tenamaxtli
and thus launch the Mixton War.
In 1540, the Chichimecas fortified Mixtón, Nochistlán
, and other mountain towns then besieged the Spanish settlement in Guadalajara
. The famous conquistador Pedro de Alvarado
, coming to the aid of acting governor Cristóbal de Oñate
, led an attack on Nochistlán. However, the Chichimecas counter-attacked and Alvarado's forces were routed. Under the leadership of Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza
, the Spanish forces and their Indian allies ultimately succeeded in recapturing the towns and suppressing resistance. However, fighting did not completely come to a halt in the ensuing years.
In 1546, Spanish authorities discovered silver in the Zacatecas
region and established mining settlements in Chichimeca territory which altered the terrain and the Chichimeca traditional way of life. The Chichimeca resisted the intrusions on their ancestral lands by attacking travellers and merchants along the "silver roads." The ensuing Chichimeca War
(1550–1590) would become the longest and costliest conflict between Spanish forces and indigenous peoples in the Americas. The attacks intensified with each passing year. In 1554, the Chichimecas inflicted a great loss upon the Spanish when they attacked a train of sixty wagons and captured more than 30,000 pesos worth of valuables. By the 1580s, thousands had died and Spanish mining settlements in Chichimeca territory were continually under threat. In 1585, Alonso Manrique de Zuñiga, was appointed viceroy. The viceroy was infuriated when he learned that some Spanish soldiers had begun supplementing their incomes by raiding the villages of peaceful Indians in order to sell them into slavery. With no militaristic end to the conflict in sight, he was determined to restore peace to that region and launched a full-scale peace offensive by negotiating with Chichimeca leaders and providing them with lands, agricultural supplies, and other goods. This policy of "peace by purchase" finally brought an end to the Chichimeca War.
took almost 170 years. The whole process could have taken longer were it not for three separate epidemics that took a heavy toll on the Native Americans, killing almost 75% of the population and causing the collapse of Mesoamerican cultures. Some believe that Old World
diseases like smallpox caused the death of 90 to 95 percent of the native population of the New World
.
, of the life and culture of the Mexica and the Aztec Empire before the arrival of the Spanish. The Florentine Codex were subsequently banned in the New World because they contained religious tradition of the Mexica. Cortés banned all human sacrifice
in Mesoamerica.
But soon all that changed. To reward the Spanish army that captured what is now contemporary Mexico, the soldiers and officers were granted large areas of land and native labor under the Spanish land management system of Encomienda
. Although officially the natives were not to become slaves, the system became one of oppression and exploitation of natives, although its originators may not have set out with such intent.
In short order, the upper echelons of patrons and priests in the society lived off the work of the lower classes. Due to some horrifying instances of abuse against the indigenous peoples, Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas
suggested importing black slaves to replace them. Bartolomé later repented when he saw the even worse treatment given to the black slaves.
The other discovery that perpetuated this system was extensive silver mines discovered at Potosi
, in Peru and other places that were worked for hundreds of years by forced native labor and contributed most of the wealth that flowed to Spain. Spain spent enormous amounts of this wealth hiring mercenaries to fight the Protestant Reformation
and to halt the Turkish invasions of Europe. The silver was used to purchase goods, as European manufactured goods were not in demand in Asia and the Middle East. The Manila Galleon
brought in far more silver direct from South American mines to China than the overland Silk Road, or even European trade routes in the Indian oceans could.
The Aztec education system was abolished and replaced by a very limited church education. Even some foods associated with Mesoamerican religious practice, such as amaranto, were forbidden.
In the 16th century, perhaps 240,000 Spaniards entered American ports. They were joined by 450,000 in the next century. Unlike the English-speaking colonists of North America, the majority of the Spanish colonists were single men who married or made concubines of the natives, and were even encouraged to do so by Queen Isabella during the earliest days of colonization. As a result of these unions, as well as concubinage and secret mistresses, a vast class of people known as "Mestizo
s" and mulattoes came into being.
, La conquista (2005) and of a set of six symphonic poem
s, La nueva España (1992–99) by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero
.
The conquest was also depicted in an episode titled 'Cortes' in the BBC
series Heroes and Villains
, with Cortes being portrayed by Brian McCardie
.
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
. The invasion began in February 1519 and was acclaimed victorious on August 13, 1521, by a coalition army of Spanish conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
s and Tlaxcalan
Tlaxcala (Nahua state)
Tlaxcala was a pre-Columbian city state of central Mexico.Tlaxcala was a confederation of four altepetl — Ocotelolco, Quiahuiztlan, Tepeticpac and Tizatlan — which each took turns providing a ruler for Tlaxcala as a whole.-History:Tlaxcala was never conquered by the Aztec empire, but was...
warriors led by Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...
and Xicotencatl the Younger
Xicotencatl II
Xicotencatl II Axayacatl, also known as Xicotencatl the Younger , was a prince and warleader, probably with the title of Tlacochcalcatl, of the pre-Columbian state of Tlaxcallan at the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico...
against the Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
Empire.
Aztec omens for the conquest
Many accounts from the conquest of the AztecAztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
empire
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
are predominantly Spanish. Most primary sources of the conquest come from Hernán Cortés' letters to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
and Bernal Díaz's written work, The Truthful History of the Conquest of New Spain. The primary sources from the people affected as a result of the conquest are seldom observed. Indigenous accounts, however, were documented as early as 1528. Written in the native tongue of Nahuatl
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
, the natives of the Aztec empire described eight omens that were believed to have occurred 10 years prior to the arrival of the Spanish from the Gulf of Mexico. The eight omens included:
- fire falling from the sky.
- fire consuming the temple of Huitzilopochtli.
- a lightning bolt destroying the straw temple of Xiuhtecuhtli.
- the appearance of streaking fire across the oceans.
- the “boiling,” and water flooding, of a lake nearby Tenochtitlan.
- a woman weeping in the middle of the night for them to flee while they could.
- a two headed man running through the streets.
- Montezuma saw images of fighting men in a mirror on his bird's head.
The emperor Motecuhzoma (often spelled Montezuma in English) was said to have consulted fortune tellers to determine the causes of these omens; but they were unable to provide an exact explanation until after the arrival of the Spaniards.
However, it should be noted that all sources depicting omens were written after the siege and fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521. Ethnohistorians say that when the Spanish second arrived, native peoples did not view them as supernatural in any sense but rather as simply another group of powerful outsiders. Many Spanish accounts incorporated omens to emphasize what they saw as the preordained nature of the conquest and their success as Spanish destiny. This means that native emphasis on omens and bewilderment in the face of invasion "may be a postconquest interpretation by informants who wished to please the Spaniards or who resented the failure of Montezuma and of the warriors of Tenochtitlan to provide leadership."
Spanish arrival in Yucatán
In 1517 Cuban governor Diego Velázquez de CuéllarDiego Velázquez de Cuéllar
Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar was a Spanish conquistador. He conquered and governed Cuba on behalf of Spain.-Early life:...
, commissioned a fleet of three ships under the command of Hernández de Córdoba to sail west and explore the Yucatán
Yucatán
Yucatán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Yucatán is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 106 municipalities and its capital city is Mérida....
peninsula. Córdoba reached the coast of Yucatán. The Mayans at Cape Catoche invited the Spaniards to land, upon which Córdoba had the Spaniards read the Requirement of 1513
Spanish Requirement of 1513
The Spanish Requirement of 1513 was a declaration by the Spanish monarchy of its divinely ordained right to take possession of the territories of the New World and to subjugate, exploit and, when necessary, to fight the native inhabitants. The Requirement was read in Spanish to Native Americans...
to them. Córdoba took two prisoners whom he named Melchor and Julián to be interpreters. On the western side of the Yucatán Peninsula, the Spaniards were attacked at night by Maya chief Mochcouoh (Mochh Couoh). Twenty Spaniards were killed. Córdoba was mortally wounded and only a remnant of his crew returned to Cuba.
The year after the ill-fated Córdoba expedition, Governor Velázquez decided to commission another expedition under the leadership of his nephew Juan de Grijalva
Juan de Grijalva
Juan de Grijalva was a Spanish conquistador. Some authors said he was from the same family as Diego Velázquez.He went to Hispaniola in 1508 and to Cuba in 1511....
. Grijalva's expedition of four ships sailed south along the coast of Yucatán to the Tabasco
Tabasco
Tabasco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tabasco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa....
region, a part of the Aztec empire.
Spanish conquest of Yucatán
Not being part of the Aztec Empire, the conquest and initial subjugation of the independent city-state politiesPolity
Polity is a form of government Aristotle developed in his search for a government that could be most easily incorporated and used by the largest amount of people groups, or states...
of the Late Postclassic
Mesoamerican chronology
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian , the Archaic , the Preclassic , the Classic , and the Postclassic...
Maya civilization
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
came many years later. With the help of tens of thousands of Xiu Mayan warriors, it would take more than 170 years for the Spanish to establish full control of the Maya homelands, which extended from northern Yucatán to the central lowlands region of El Petén and the southern Guatemalan highlands. The end of this latter campaign is generally marked by the downfall of the Maya state based at Tayasal
Tayasal
Tayasal is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site that dates to the Postclassic period. The site is located in the southern Maya lowlands on a small island in Lake Petén Itzá, now part of the Department of Petén in northern Guatemala...
in the Petén region, in 1697.
Commissioning the expedition
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...
, then one of Velázquez's favorites, was named as the commander, which created envy and resentment among the Spanish contingent in the Cuban colony. Velázquez's instructions to Cortés, in an agreement signed on 23 October 1518, were to lead an expedition to initiate trade relations with the indigenous coastal tribes.
One account suggests that Governor Velázquez wished to restrict the Cortés expedition to being a pure trading expedition. Invasion of the mainland was to be a privilege reserved for himself. However, by calling upon the knowledge of the law of Castile that he gained while he was still a student in Salamanca and by utilizing his famous powers of persuasion, Cortés was able to maneuver Governor Velázquez into inserting a clause into his orders that enabled Cortés to take emergency measures without prior authorization if such were "...in the true interests of the realm."
Cortés ostentatiously invested a considerable part of his personal fortune to equip the expedition. Cortés committed the greater part of his assets and went into debt to borrow additional funds when his assets ran out. Governor Velázquez personally contributed nearly half the cost of the expedition.
The ostentatiousness of his endeavor probably added to the envy and resentment of the Spanish contingent in Cuba who were also keenly aware of the opportunity that this assignment offered for fame, fortune and glory.
Revoking the commission
Velázquez himself must have been keenly aware that whoever conquered the mainland for Spain would gain fame, glory and fortune to eclipse anything that could be achieved in Cuba. Thus, as the preparations for departure drew to a close, the governor became suspicious that Cortés would be disloyal to him and try to commandeer the expedition for his own purposes, namely to establish himself as governor of the colony, independent of Velázquez' control.For this reason, Velázquez sent Luis de Medina with orders to replace Cortés. However, Cortés' brother-in-law had Medina intercepted and killed. The papers that Medina had been carrying were sent to Cortés. Thus warned, Cortés accelerated the organization and preparation of his expedition.
He was ready to set sail on the morning of 18 February 1519 when Velázquez arrived at the dock in person, determined to revoke Cortés's commission. But Cortés, pleading that "time presses," hurriedly set sail thus literally beginning his conquest of American Indian territories and nations with the legal status of a mutineer
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
.
Cortés' contingent consisted of 11 ships carrying about 100 sailors, 530 soldiers (including 30 crossbowmen and 12 arquebusiers), a doctor, several carpenters, at least eight women, a few hundred Cuban Natives and some Africans, both freedmen and slaves.
Cortés lands at Cozumel
Cortés spent some time at CozumelCozumel
Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen, and close to the Yucatan Channel. Cozumel is one of the ten municipalities of the state of Quintana Roo...
island, trying to convert the locals to Christianity and achieving mixed results. While at Cozumel, Cortés heard reports of other white men living in the Yucatán. Cortés sent messengers to these reported castilianos, who turned out to be the survivors of a Spanish shipwreck that had occurred in 1511, Gerónimo de Aguilar
Gerónimo de Aguilar
Gerónimo de Aguilar O.F.M. was a Franciscan friar born in Écija, Spain. Aguilar was later involved with the 1519 Spanish conquest of Mexico, and with La Malinche he assisted Hernán Cortés in translating indigenous language to Spanish....
and Gonzalo Guerrero
Gonzalo Guerrero
Gonzalo Guerrero was a sailor from Palos, in Spain who shipwrecked along the Yucatán Peninsula and was taken as a slave by the local Maya. Earning his freedom, Guerrero became a respected warrior under a Maya Lord and raised three of the first mestizo children in Mexico...
.
Aguilar petitioned his Maya chieftain to be allowed leave to join with his former countrymen, and he was released and made his way to Cortés's ships. According to Bernal Díaz, Aguilar relayed that before coming he had unsuccessfully attempted to convince Guerrero to leave as well. Guerrero declined on the basis that he was by now well-assimilated with the Maya culture, had a Maya wife and three children, and he was looked upon as a figure of rank within the Maya settlement of Chetumal
Chetumal
Chetumal is a city on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. It is the capital of the state of Quintana Roo and the municipal seat of the Municipality of Othón P. Blanco...
where he lived.
Although Guerrero's later fate is somewhat uncertain, it appears that for some years he continued to fight alongside the Maya forces against Spanish incursions, providing military counsel and encouraging resistance; it is speculated that he may have been killed in a later battle.
Aguilar, now quite fluent in Yucatec Maya as well as some other indigenous languages
Mesoamerican languages
Mesoamerican languages are the languages indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The area is characterized by extensive linguistic diversity containing several hundred different languages and...
, proved to be a valuable asset for Cortés as a translator - a skill of particular significance to the later conquest of the Aztec Empire that was to be the end result of Cortés' expedition.
Cortés lands on the Yucatán peninsula
After leaving Cozumel, Cortés continued round the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula and landed at Potonchan, where there was little gold. However, Cortés discovered a far more valuable asset in the form of a woman whom Cortés called Doña Marina. She is often known as Malinche and also sometimes called "Malintzin" or Mallinali. Later, the Aztecs would come to call Cortés "Malintzin" by dint of his close association with her.Bernal Díaz del Castillo
Bernal Díaz del Castillo
Bernal Díaz del Castillo was a conquistador, who wrote an eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards for Hernán Cortés, himself serving as a rodelero under Cortés.-Early life:...
wrote in his account The True History of the Conquest of New Spain that Doñaf Marina was "an Aztec princess sold into Mayan
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
slavery." She was not actually an Aztec princess but was of noble birth, probably of Toltec or Tabascan origins.
Her lineage notwithstanding, Cortés had stumbled upon one of the keys to realizing his ambitions. He would speak to Gerónimo de Aguilar
Gerónimo de Aguilar
Gerónimo de Aguilar O.F.M. was a Franciscan friar born in Écija, Spain. Aguilar was later involved with the 1519 Spanish conquest of Mexico, and with La Malinche he assisted Hernán Cortés in translating indigenous language to Spanish....
in Spanish who would then translate into Mayan for Malinche. Malinche would then translate from Mayan to Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. With this pair of translators, Cortés could now communicate to the Aztecs quite effectively.
Christened Marina by Cortés, she later learned Spanish, became Cortés' mistress and bore him a son. Native speakers of Nahuatl, her own people, would call her "Malintzin." This name is the closest phonetic approximation possible in Nahuatl to the sound of 'Marina' in Spanish. Over time, "la Malinche" (the modern Spanish cognate of 'Malintzin') became a term that denotes a traitor to one's people. To this day, the word malinchista is used by Mexicans to denote one who apes the language and customs of another country.
La Malinche
La Malinche
La Malinche , known also as Malintzin, Malinalli or Doña Marina, was a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, who played a role in the Spanish conquest of Mexico, acting as interpreter, advisor, lover and intermediary for Hernán Cortés...
was later made legendary through depictions in book and film.
Cortés founds Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
. He learned of an indigenous settlement called Cempoala
Cempoala
Cempoala or Zempoala is an important Mesoamerican archaeological site located in the Úrsulo Galván Municipality, in the state of Veracruz...
and marched his forces there. On their arrival in Cempoala, they were greeted by 20 dignitaries and cheering townsfolk.
Cortés quickly persuaded the Totonac
Totonac
The Totonac people resided in the eastern coastal and mountainous regions of Mexico at the time of the Spanish arrival in 1519. Today they reside in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo. They are one of the possible builders of the Pre-Columbian city of El Tajín, and further maintained...
chief Chicomecoatl
Chicomecoatl
In Aztec mythology, Chicomecoatl "Seven snakes", was the Aztec goddess of maize during the Middle Culture period. She is sometimes called "goddess of nourishment", a goddess of plenty and the female aspect of corn. Every September a young girl representing Chicomecoatl was sacrificed. The priests...
(misspelled as Chicomacatt by Spanish writers) to rebel against the Aztecs.
Faced with imprisonment or death for defying the governor, Cortés' only alternative was to continue on with his enterprise in the hope of redeeming himself with the Spanish Crown. To do this, he directed his men to establish a settlement called La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. The legally constituted "town council of Villa Rica" then promptly offered him the position of adelantado
Adelantado
Adelantado was a military title held by some Spanish conquistadores of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.Adelantados were granted directly by the Monarch the right to become governors and justices of a specific region, which they charged with conquering, in exchange for funding and organizing the...
.
This strategy was not unique. Velásquez had used this same legal mechanism to free himself from Diego Columbus' authority in Cuba. In being named adelantado by a duly constituted cabildo
Cabildo (council)
For a discussion of the contemporary Spanish and Latin American cabildo, see Ayuntamiento.A cabildo or ayuntamiento was a former Spanish, colonial administrative council that governed a municipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected, but were considered to be representative of...
, Cortés was able to free himself from Velásquez's authority and continue his expedition. To ensure the legality of this action several members of his expedition, including Francisco Montejo, returned to Spain to seek royal acceptance of the cabildo's declaration.
The Totonacs helped Cortés build the town of La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, which was the starting point for his attempt to conquer the Aztec empire. This settlement eventually grew into the city now known as Veracruz ("True Cross").
Scuttling the fleet
Those of his men still loyal to the Governor of Cuba conspired to seize a ship and escape to Cuba, but Cortés moved swiftly to squash their plans. To make sure such a mutiny did not happen again, he decided to scuttleScuttling
Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull.This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives...
his ships, on the pretext that they were no longer seaworthy. There is a popular misconception that Cortés burned the ships to prevent further mutiny.
This misconception has been attributed to the reference made by Cervantes de Salazar in 1546 as to Cortés burning his ships. This may have also come from a mistranslation of the version of the story written in Latin.
With all of his ships scuttled except for one small ship with which to communicate with Spain, Cortés effectively stranded the expedition in Mexico and ended all thoughts of loyalty to the Governor of Cuba. Cortés then led his band inland towards the fabled Tenochtitlan. The ship was loaded with the Royal Fifth
Quinto Real
The Quinto Real or the Quinto del rey, the "King's fifth", was a 20% tax established in 1504 that Spain levied on the mining of precious metals. The tax was a major source of revenue for the Spanish monarchy. In 1723 the tax was reduced to 10%....
(the King of Spain claimed 20% of all spoils) of the Aztec treasure they had obtained so far in order to speed up Cortés's claim to the governorship.
In addition to the Spaniards, Cortés force now included 40 Cempoalan warrior chiefs and 200 other natives whose task was to drag the cannon and carry the supplies. The Cempoalans were accustomed to the hot climate of the coast, but they suffered immensely from the cold of the mountains, the rain, and the hail as they marched towards Tenochtitlan.
Alliance with Tlaxcala
Cortés arrived at TlaxcalaTlaxcala (Nahua state)
Tlaxcala was a pre-Columbian city state of central Mexico.Tlaxcala was a confederation of four altepetl — Ocotelolco, Quiahuiztlan, Tepeticpac and Tizatlan — which each took turns providing a ruler for Tlaxcala as a whole.-History:Tlaxcala was never conquered by the Aztec empire, but was...
, a confederacy of about 200 towns, but without central government. Their main city was Tlaxcala. After almost a century of fighting the Flower wars, a great deal of hate and bitterness had developed between the Tlaxcalans and the Aztecs. The Tlaxcalans knew that eventually the Aztecs would try to conquer them. It was just a matter of time before this tension developed into a real conflict. The Aztecs had already conquered much of the territory around Tlaxcala. It is possible that the Aztecs left Tlaxcala independent so they would have a constant supply of war captives to sacrifice to their gods.
The Tlaxcalans initially greeted the Spanish with hostile action and the two sides fought a series of skirmishes, which eventually forced the Spaniards up onto a hill where they were surrounded. Conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo
Bernal Díaz del Castillo
Bernal Díaz del Castillo was a conquistador, who wrote an eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards for Hernán Cortés, himself serving as a rodelero under Cortés.-Early life:...
describes the first battle between the Spanish force and the Tlaxcalteca as surprisingly difficult. He writes that they probably would not have survived, had not Xicotencatl the Elder persuaded his son, the Tlaxcallan warleader, Xicotencatl the Younger, that it would be better to ally with the newcomers than to kill them.
On 18 September 1519, Cortés arrived in Tlaxcala and was greeted with joy by the rulers, who already saw the Spanish as a possible ally against the Aztecs. Due to a commercial blockade by the Aztecs, Tlaxcala was poor, lacking, among other things, both salt and cotton cloth, so they could only offer Cortés and his men food and women. Cortés stayed 20 days in Tlaxcala. Cortés seems to have won the true friendship of the old leaders of Tlaxcala, among them Maxixcatzin and Xicotencatl the Elder, although he could not win the heart of Xicotencatl the Younger. The Spaniards agreed to respect parts of the city, like the temples, and only took the things that were offered to them freely.
All that time Cortés offered to talk about the benefits of Christianity. Legends say that he convinced the four leaders of Tlaxcala to become baptized. Maxixcatzin, Xicotencatl the Elder, Citalpopocatzin and Temiloltecutl received the names of Don Lorenzo, Don Vicente, Don Bartolomé and Don Gonzalo.
It's difficult to know if they understood the Catholic faith. In any event, they apparently had no problems in adding "Dios" (God in Spanish), the lord of the heavens, to their already complex pantheon of gods
Aztec mythology
The aztec civilization recognized a polytheistic mythology, which contained the many deities and supernatural creatures from their religious beliefs. "orlando"- History :...
.
An exchange of gifts was made and thus began the alliance between Cortés and Tlaxcala.
Cortés marches to Cholula
Meanwhile Mexican ambassadors continued to press Cortés to leave Tlaxcala, the "city of poor and thieves" and go to the neighbouring city of CholulaCholula (Mesoamerican site)
Cholula , was an important city of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, dating back to at least the 2nd century BCE, with settlement as a village going back at least some thousand years earlier. The great site of Cholula stands just west of the modern city of Puebla. Its immense pyramid exceeds the Pyramid...
, which was under Aztec influence. Cholula, founded in the year 2, was one of the most important cities of Mesoamerica, the second largest, and probably the most sacred. Its huge pyramid made it one of the most prestigious places of the Aztec religion. However, it appears that Cortés perceived Cholula as a military power rather than a religious center. He sent emissaries first.
The leaders of Tlaxcala urged Cortés to go instead to Huexotzingo, a city allied to Tlaxcala. Cortés, who had not yet decided to start a war by going to Huexotzingo, decided to make a compromise. He accepted the gifts of the Mexica ambassadors, but also accepted the offer of the Tlaxclateca to provide porters and warriors. He sent two men, Pedro de Alvarado, and Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia, on foot (he did not want to spare any horses), directly to Tenochtitlan, as ambassadors.
On 12 October 1519, Cortés and his men, accompanied by about 1,000 Tlaxcalteca, marched to Cholula.
Massacre of Cholula
There are contradictory reports of what happened at CholulaCholula (Mesoamerican site)
Cholula , was an important city of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, dating back to at least the 2nd century BCE, with settlement as a village going back at least some thousand years earlier. The great site of Cholula stands just west of the modern city of Puebla. Its immense pyramid exceeds the Pyramid...
. Moctezuma
Moctezuma II
Moctezuma , also known by a number of variant spellings including Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma and referred to in full by early Nahuatl texts as Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin, was the ninth tlatoani or ruler of Tenochtitlan, reigning from 1502 to 1520...
had apparently tried to stop the advance of Cortés and his troops, and it seems that he ordered the leaders of Cholula to try to stop him. Cholula had a very small army, since as a sacred city, they put their confidence in their prestige and their gods. According to the chronicles of the Tlaxcalteca, the priest of Cholula expected to use the power of Quetzalcoatl against them.
La Malinche
La Malinche
La Malinche , known also as Malintzin, Malinalli or Doña Marina, was a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, who played a role in the Spanish conquest of Mexico, acting as interpreter, advisor, lover and intermediary for Hernán Cortés...
told Cortés, after talking to the wife of one of the lords of Cholula, that the locals planned to murder the Spaniards in their sleep and although he did not know if the rumor was true or not, Cortés ordered a pre-emptive strike, urged on by the Tlaxcalans, the enemies of the Cholulans. The Spaniards seized and killed many of the local nobles to serve as a lesson. After Cortés arrived in Cholula he seized their leaders Tlaquiach and Tlalchiac and then ordered the city set fire. The troops started in the palace of Xacayatzin, and then on to Chialinco and Yetzcoloc. In his letters, Cortés claimed that in three hours time his troops (helped by the Tlaxcalans) killed 3,000 people and burned the city. Another witness, Vázquez de Tapia, claimed the death toll was as high as 30,000.
The Azteca and Tlaxclateca histories of the events leading up to the massacre differ. The Tlaxcalteca claimed that their ambassador Patlahuatzin was sent to Cholula and had been tortured by the Cholula. Thus, Cortés was avenging him by attacking Cholula. (Historia de Tlaxcala, por Diego Muñoz Camargo, lib. II cap. V. 1550).
The Aztec version put the blame on the Tlaxcalteca claiming that they resented Cortés going to Cholula instead of Huexotzingo.
The massacre had a chilling effect on the other Mesoamerican cultures and on the Mexica themselves. The tale of the massacre inclined the other cultures in the Aztec empire to submit to Cortés' demands rather than risk the same fate.
Cortés then sent emissaries to Moctezuma with the message that the people of Cholula had treated him with disrespect and had therefore been punished. Cortés' message continued that the Aztecs need not fear his wrath if Moctezuma treated him with respect and gifts of gold.
Tenochtitlan
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
was larger than Tenochtitlan. The most common estimates put the population at around 60,000 to over 300,000 people.
Cortés welcomed by Moctezuma
According to the Aztec chronicles recorded by SahagúnBernardino de Sahagún
Bernardino de Sahagún was a Franciscan friar, missionary priest and pioneering ethnographer who participated in the Catholic evangelization of colonial New Spain . Born in Sahagún, Spain, in 1499, he journeyed to New Spain in 1529, and spent more than 50 years conducting interviews regarding Aztec...
, the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II
Moctezuma II
Moctezuma , also known by a number of variant spellings including Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma and referred to in full by early Nahuatl texts as Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin, was the ninth tlatoani or ruler of Tenochtitlan, reigning from 1502 to 1520...
welcomed him with great pomp. Sahagún reports that Moctezuma welcomed Cortés to Tenochtitlan on the Great Causeway into the "Venice of the West".
A fragment of the greetings of Moctezuma says: "My lord, you have become fatigued, you have become tired: to the land you have arrived. You have come to your city: Mexico, here you have come to sit on your place, on your throne. Oh, it has been reserved to you for a small time, it was conserved by those who have gone, your substitutes... This is what has been told by our rulers, those of whom governed this city, ruled this city. That you would come to ask for your throne, your place, that you would come here. Come to the land, come and rest: take possession of your royal houses, give food to your body."
Many historians are skeptical of Sahagun's account that Moctezuma personally met Cortés on the Great Causeway because of the many proscriptions and prohibitions regarding the emperor vis-à-vis his subjects. For instance, when Moctezuma dined, he ate behind a screen so as to shield him from his court and servants. There were various restrictions on seeing and touching his person.
This contradiction between "the arrogant emperor" and the "humble servant of Quetzalcoatl" has been problematic for historians to explain and has led to much speculation. All the proscriptions and prohibitions regarding Moctezuma and his people had been established by Moctezuma, and were not part of the traditional Aztec customs. Those prohibitions had already caused friction between Moctezuma and the pillis (noble classes). There is even an Aztec legend in which Huemac, the legendary last lord of Tollan Xicotitlan, instructed Moctezuma to live humbly, and eat only the food of the poor, to divert a future catastrophe. Thus, it seems out of character for Moctezuma to violate rules that he himself had promulgated.
Moctezuma had the palace of his father Axayácatl
Axayacatl
Axayacatl was the sixth Aztec Emperor, a ruler of the Postclassic Mesoamerican Aztec Empire and city of Tenochtitlan, who reigned from 1469 to 1481.He is chiefly remembered for subjugating Tlatelolco, Tenochtitlan's sister city, in 1473....
prepared to house the Spanish and their 3000 native allies. Cortés asked Moctezuma to provide more gifts of gold to demonstrate his fealty as a vassal of Charles V. Cortés also demanded that the two large idols be removed from the main temple pyramid in the city, the human blood scrubbed off, and shrines to the Virgin Mary and St. Christopher be set up in their place. All his demands were met. Cortés then seized Moctezuma in his own palace and made him his prisoner as insurance against Aztec revolt, and demanded an enormous ransom of gold, which was duly delivered.
Knowing that their leader was in chains and being required to feed not just a band of Spaniards but thousands of their Tlaxcalteca allies, the populace of Tenochtitlan began to feel a strain weighing upon them.
Defeat of de Narváez
At this point, Cortés received news from the coast that a much larger party of Spaniards under the command of Pánfilo de NarváezPánfilo de Narváez
Pánfilo de Narváez was a Spanish conqueror and soldier in the Americas. He is most remembered as the leader of two expeditions, one to Mexico in 1520 to oppose Hernán Cortés, and the disastrous Narváez expedition to Florida in 1527....
had arrived. Narváez had been sent by Governor Velázquez not only to supersede Cortés, but to arrest him and bring him to trial in Cuba for insubordination
Insubordination
Insubordination is the act of willfully disobeying an authority. Refusing to perform an action that is unethical or illegal is not insubordination; neither is refusing to perform an action that is not within the scope of authority of the person issuing the order.Insubordination is typically a...
, mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
, and treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
.
Cortés' response was arguably one of the most daring of his many exploits. Some describe it as absolutely reckless but he really had few other options. If arrested and convicted, he could have been executed. Leaving only one hundred and forty men under Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of Mexico led by Hernan Cortes...
to hold Tenochtitlan, Cortés set out against de Narváez, who had nine hundred soldiers, whereas Cortés, reinforced as he approached the coast, mustered about two hundred and sixty. With this much smaller force, Cortés surprised his antagonist with a night attack during which Cortés' men took de Narváez prisoner.
The move was a desperate one but the secret of Cortés' success lay in his quick movements, for which de Narváez was not prepared, as well as in his rapid return to the plateau, by which he surprised the Natives who held Alvarado and his people at their mercy.
The desperate defense of the Spaniards in the absence of Cortés would have been unavailing had the latter not moved quickly. In contrast with that quickness, but equally well adapted to the necessities of the case, was the methodical investment and capture of Tenochtitlan, showing the flexibility of Cortés in adapting his tactics to various situations.
When Cortés told the defeated soldiers about the city of gold, Tenochtitlan, they agreed to join him (de Narváez lost an eye, and was eventually killed during the exploration of Florida.)
Cortés then had to lead the combined forces on an arduous trek back over the Sierra Madre Oriental
Sierra Madre Oriental
The Sierra Madre Oriental is a mountain range in northeastern Mexico.-Setting:Spanning the Sierra Madre Oriental runs from Coahuila south through Nuevo León, southwest Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, and Hidalgo to northern Puebla, where it joins with the east-west running Eje Volcánico...
. Years later, when asked what the new land was like, Cortés crumpled up a piece of parchment, then spread it part way out: "Like this", he said.
The Aztec response
Meanwhile, other Aztec nobles were in dismay at the royal submissive attitude and planned a successful, but temporary, rebellion that drove Cortés and his allies out of Tenochtitlan.When Cortés returned to the city, he found that Alvarado and his men had attacked and killed many of the Aztec nobility (see The Massacre in the Main Temple) during a festival. Alvarado's explanation to Cortés was that Alvarado had learned that the Aztecs planned to attack the Spanish garrison in the city once the festival was complete, and so he had launched a preemptive attack. Considerable doubt has been cast by different commentators on this explanation, which may have been self-serving rationalization on the part of Alvarado, who may have attacked out of fear (or greed) where no immediate threat existed. In any event, the population of the city rose en masse after the Spanish attack.
The Aztec troops besieged the palace housing the Spaniards and Moctezuma. The people of Tenochtitlan chose a new leader, Cuitláhuac
Cuitláhuac
Cuitláhuac or Cuitláhuac was the 10th tlatoani of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan for 80 days during the year Two Flint ....
. Cortés ordered Moctezuma to speak to his people from a palace balcony and persuade them to let the Spanish return to the coast in peace. Moctezuma was jeered and stones were thrown at him, injuring him badly. Moctezuma died a few days later (accounts as to who was actually guilty of his death do not agree; Aztec informants in later years insisted that Cortés had him killed.) After his death Cuitláhuac was elected as Huey Tlatoani (Emperor).
The Spaniards and their allies had to flee the city, as the population of Tenochtitlan had risen against them and the Spanish situation could only deteriorate. Because the Aztecs had removed the bridges over the gaps in the causeways that linked the city to the mainland, Cortés' men constructed a portable bridge with which to cross the openings. On the rainy night of 1 July 1520, the Spaniards and their allies set out for the mainland via the causeway to Tlacopan. They placed the bridge unit in the first gap, but at that moment their movement was detected and Aztec forces attacked, both along the causeway and by means of canoes on the lake. The Spanish were thus caught on a narrow road with water on two sides. The retreat quickly turned into chaos. The Spanish discovered that they could not remove their bridge unit from the first gap, and so had no choice but to leave it behind. The bulk of the Spanish infantry, left behind by Cortés and the other horsemen, had to cut their way through the masses of Aztec warriors opposing them. Many of the Spaniards, weighed down by their armor, drowned in the causeway gaps or were killed by the Aztecs. Much of the wealth the Spaniards had acquired in Tenochtitlan was lost in this manner. During the escape, Alvarado is alleged to have jumped across one of the narrower channels. The channel is now a street in Mexico City, called "Puente de Alvarado" (Alvarado's Bridge), because it seemed Alvarado escaped across an invisible bridge. Some say the Aztec Empire fell over some; not many.
In this retreat the Spaniards suffered heavy casualties, losing probably more than 600 of their own number and several thousand Tlaxcalan warriors. It is said that Cortés, upon reaching the mainland at Tlacopan, wept over their losses. This episode is called "La Noche Triste
La Noche Triste
La Noche Triste on June 30, 1520, was an important event during the Spanish conquest of Mexico, wherein Hernán Cortés and his army of Spanish conquistadors and native allies fought their way out of the Mexican capital at Tenochtitlan following the death of the Aztec king Montezuma, whom the...
" (The sad night), and the old tree ("El árbol de la noche triste") where Cortés allegedly cried is still a monument in Mexico.
Spaniards find refuge in Tlaxcala
The Aztecs pursued and harassed the Spanish, who, guided by their Tlaxcalan allies, moved around Lake Zumpango toward sanctuary in Tlaxcala. On 8 July 1520 the Aztecs attempted to destroy the Spanish for good at the battle of OtumbaBattle of Otumba
- Background :Around the end of March 1519, Hernán Cortés landed with a Spanish conquistador force at Potonchán on the coast of modern-day Mexico. Cortés had been commissioned by Governor Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar of Spanish-controlled Cuba to lead an expedition in the area, which was dominated by...
. Although hard-pressed, the Spanish infantry was able to hold off the overwhelming numbers of enemy warriors, while the Spanish cavalry under the leadership of Cortés charged through the enemy ranks again and again. When Cortés and his men killed one of the Aztec leaders, the Aztecs broke off the battle and left the field. The Spanish were able then to complete their escape to Tlaxcala. There they were given assistance and comfort, since almost all of them were wounded, and only 20 horses were left. The Aztecs sent emissaries and asked the Tlaxcalteca to turn over the Spaniards to them, but Tlaxcala refused.
While the flower war
Flower war
A flower war or flowery war is the name given to the battles fought between the Aztec Triple Alliance and some of their enemies: most notably the city-states of Tlaxcala, Huejotzingo, Atlixco and Cholula.-Sources:...
s had started as a mutual agreement, the Tlaxcala and the Aztecs had become entangled in a true war. The Aztecs had conquered almost all the territories around Tlaxcala, closing off all commerce with them. The Tlaxcalteca knew it was just a matter of time before the Aztecs tried to conquer Tlaxcala itself. Therefore, most of the Tlaxcalan leaders were receptive when Cortés, once his men had the chance to recuperate, proposed an alliance to conquer Tenochtitlan. Xicotencatl the Younger, however, opposed the idea, and instead connived with the Aztec ambassadors in an attempt to form a new alliance with the Mexicans, since the Tlaxcalans and the Aztecs shared the same language and religion. Finally the elders of Tlaxcala accepted Cortés' offer under stringent conditions: they would not be required to pay any form of tribute to the Spaniards, they should receive the city of Cholula in return, they would have the right to build a fortress in Tenochtitlan, so they could have control of the city, and they would receive a share of the spoils of war.
Cortés knew that without tributes as any of the other indigenous cultures the capital would be forced to capitulate.
Siege of Tenochtitlan
The joint forces of Tlaxcala and Cortés proved to be formidable. One by one they took over most of the cities under Mexica control, some in battle, others by diplomacy. At the end, only Tenochtitlan and the neighboring city of Tlatelolco remained unconquered.Cortés returned to Tenochtitlan and mounted a siege of the city that relied on cutting the causeways from the mainland, while controlling the lake with armed brigantine
Brigantine
In sailing, a brigantine or hermaphrodite brig is a vessel with two masts, only the forward of which is square rigged.-Origins of the term:...
s constructed by the Spanish. The siege of Tenochtitlan
Siege of Tenochtitlan
The siege of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, came about in 1521 through the manipulation of local factions and divisions by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés...
lasted eight months. The besiegers cut off the supply of food and destroyed the aqueduct carrying water to the city. Even worse, many of the inhabitants of the city were also being ravaged by the effects of smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
, which spread rapidly across most of Central Mexico (and beyond), killing hundreds of thousands. In fact, a third of the inhabitants of the entire valley died in less than six months from the new disease brought from Europe. Despite the resistance (during which the defenders cut the beating hearts from 70 Spanish prisoners-of-war at the altar to Huichilobos), Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco fell on 13 August 1521 when the last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc
Cuauhtémoc
Cuauhtémoc was the Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521...
, surrendered to Cortés. Cortés then ordered the Aztec gods in the temples taken down and replaced with icons of Christianity. He also announced that the temple would never again be used for human sacrifice.
The city had been almost totally destroyed by fire and cannon shot during the siege, and once it finally fell the Spanish continued its dismantlement, as they soon began to establish the foundations of what would become Mexico City on the site. Meanwhile the surviving Aztec people were forbidden to live in Tenochtitlan and the surrounding isles. The survivors went to live in Tlatelolco.
Integration into the Spanish Empire
The Council of the Indies was constituted in 1524 and the first Audiencia in 1527. In 1535, the Holy Roman EmperorHoly Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
and Spanish King Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
named Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco, Marquis of Mondéjar, Count of Tendilla , was the first viceroy of New Spain, serving from April 17, 1535 to November 25, 1550, and the second viceroy of Peru, from September 23, 1551 to July 21, 1552...
the first viceroy of New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
. The name "New Spain" had been suggested by Cortés and was later confirmed officially by Mendoza.
Chichimeca Wars
The fall of TenochtitlanSiege of Tenochtitlan
The siege of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, came about in 1521 through the manipulation of local factions and divisions by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés...
usually is referred to as the main episode in the process of the conquest of Mesoamerica. However, this process was much more complex and took longer than the three years that it took Cortés to conquer Tenochtitlan. It took almost 60 years of wars for the Spaniards to suppress the resistance of the Indian population of Mesoamerica.
After the Spanish conquest of central Mexico, expeditions were sent further northward in Mesoamerica, to the region known as La Gran Chichimeca
La Gran Chichimeca
La Gran Chichimeca was a term used by the Spanish conquistadores of the 16th century to refer to an area of the northern central Mexican altiplano , a territory which today is encompassed by the modern Mexican states of Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Nayarit, Guanajuato and Zacatecas...
. The expeditions under Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán
Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán
Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán or sometimes Nuño de Guzmán was a Spanish conquistador and colonial administrator in New Spain. He was Governor of the province of Pánuco from 1525–1533, and of Nueva Galicia from 1529–1534, President of the first Audiencia from 1528-30. He founded several cities in...
were particularly harsh on the Chichimeca
Chichimeca
Chichimeca was the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to a wide range of semi-nomadic peoples who inhabited the north of modern-day Mexico and southwestern United States, and carried the same sense as the European term "barbarian"...
population, causing them to rebel under the leadership of Tenamaxtli
Tenamaxtli
Francisco Tenamaztle was a leader of the Caxcan Indians in Mexico during the Mixton War of 1540-1542. He was later put on trial in Spain...
and thus launch the Mixton War.
In 1540, the Chichimecas fortified Mixtón, Nochistlán
Nochistlan
Nochistlán is a town in the Mexican state of Zacatecas. Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, on December 3, 1531, hired Juan de Oñate to establish a village in Nochistlán; the village would be named Guadalajara to honor Guzmán for having been born in Guadalajara....
, and other mountain towns then besieged the Spanish settlement in Guadalajara
Guadalajara
Guadalajara may refer to:In Mexico:*Guadalajara, Jalisco, the capital of the state of Jalisco and second largest city in Mexico**Guadalajara Metropolitan Area*University of Guadalajara, a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco...
. The famous conquistador Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of Mexico led by Hernan Cortes...
, coming to the aid of acting governor Cristóbal de Oñate
Cristóbal de Oñate
Cristóbal de Oñate was a Spanish Basque explorer, conquistador and colonial official in New Spain. He is considered the founder of the contemporary city of Guadalajara in 1531, as well as other places in Nueva Galicia .-Background:Oñate was born in 1552 in Vitoria or Oñate, in the Basque country...
, led an attack on Nochistlán. However, the Chichimecas counter-attacked and Alvarado's forces were routed. Under the leadership of Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco, Marquis of Mondéjar, Count of Tendilla , was the first viceroy of New Spain, serving from April 17, 1535 to November 25, 1550, and the second viceroy of Peru, from September 23, 1551 to July 21, 1552...
, the Spanish forces and their Indian allies ultimately succeeded in recapturing the towns and suppressing resistance. However, fighting did not completely come to a halt in the ensuing years.
In 1546, Spanish authorities discovered silver in the Zacatecas
Zacatecas
Zacatecas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Zacatecas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas....
region and established mining settlements in Chichimeca territory which altered the terrain and the Chichimeca traditional way of life. The Chichimeca resisted the intrusions on their ancestral lands by attacking travellers and merchants along the "silver roads." The ensuing Chichimeca War
Chichimeca War
The Chichimeca War was a military conflict waged between Spanish colonizers and their Indian allies against a confederation of Chichimeca Indians. It was the longest and most expensive conflict between Spaniards and the indigenous peoples of New Spain in the history of the colony.The Chichimeca...
(1550–1590) would become the longest and costliest conflict between Spanish forces and indigenous peoples in the Americas. The attacks intensified with each passing year. In 1554, the Chichimecas inflicted a great loss upon the Spanish when they attacked a train of sixty wagons and captured more than 30,000 pesos worth of valuables. By the 1580s, thousands had died and Spanish mining settlements in Chichimeca territory were continually under threat. In 1585, Alonso Manrique de Zuñiga, was appointed viceroy. The viceroy was infuriated when he learned that some Spanish soldiers had begun supplementing their incomes by raiding the villages of peaceful Indians in order to sell them into slavery. With no militaristic end to the conflict in sight, he was determined to restore peace to that region and launched a full-scale peace offensive by negotiating with Chichimeca leaders and providing them with lands, agricultural supplies, and other goods. This policy of "peace by purchase" finally brought an end to the Chichimeca War.
Yucatán peninsula
The Spanish conquest of YucatánSpanish conquest of Yucatán
The Spanish conquest of Yucatán was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities, particularly in the northern and central Yucatán Peninsula but also involving the Maya polities of the Guatemalan highlands region...
took almost 170 years. The whole process could have taken longer were it not for three separate epidemics that took a heavy toll on the Native Americans, killing almost 75% of the population and causing the collapse of Mesoamerican cultures. Some believe that Old World
Old World
The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....
diseases like smallpox caused the death of 90 to 95 percent of the native population of the New World
Population history of American indigenous peoples
The population figures for Indigenous peoples in the Americas before the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus have proven difficult to establish and rely on archaeological data and written records from European settlers...
.
The Aztec empire under Spanish rule
It seems that Cortés' intention was to maintain the basic structure of the Aztec empire under his leadership, and at first it seemed the Aztec empire could survive. The upper Aztec classes, at first, were considered as noblemen (to this day, the title of Duke of Moctezuma is held by a Spanish noble family). The upper classes learned Spanish, and several learned to write in European characters. Some of their surviving writings are crucial in our knowledge of the Aztecs. As well, the first missionaries tried to learn Nahuatl and some (somewhat), like Bernardino de Sahagún, decided to learn as much as they could of the Aztec culture. Sahagún, in his studies of the Meixica and the nobility of Tlatelolco, compiled a 12 volume reference, entitled the Florentine CodexFlorentine Codex
The Florentine Codex is the common name given to a 16th century ethnographic research project in Mesoamerica by Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún. Bernardino originally titled it: La Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana...
, of the life and culture of the Mexica and the Aztec Empire before the arrival of the Spanish. The Florentine Codex were subsequently banned in the New World because they contained religious tradition of the Mexica. Cortés banned all human sacrifice
Human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...
in Mesoamerica.
But soon all that changed. To reward the Spanish army that captured what is now contemporary Mexico, the soldiers and officers were granted large areas of land and native labor under the Spanish land management system of Encomienda
Encomienda
The encomienda was a system that was employed mainly by the Spanish crown during the colonization of the Americas to regulate Native American labor....
. Although officially the natives were not to become slaves, the system became one of oppression and exploitation of natives, although its originators may not have set out with such intent.
In short order, the upper echelons of patrons and priests in the society lived off the work of the lower classes. Due to some horrifying instances of abuse against the indigenous peoples, Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas
Bartolomé de Las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas O.P. was a 16th-century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. He became the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians"...
suggested importing black slaves to replace them. Bartolomé later repented when he saw the even worse treatment given to the black slaves.
The other discovery that perpetuated this system was extensive silver mines discovered at Potosi
Potosí
Potosí is a city and the capital of the department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world by elevation at a nominal . and it was the location of the Spanish colonial mint, now the National Mint of Bolivia...
, in Peru and other places that were worked for hundreds of years by forced native labor and contributed most of the wealth that flowed to Spain. Spain spent enormous amounts of this wealth hiring mercenaries to fight the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
and to halt the Turkish invasions of Europe. The silver was used to purchase goods, as European manufactured goods were not in demand in Asia and the Middle East. The Manila Galleon
Manila Galleon
The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from...
brought in far more silver direct from South American mines to China than the overland Silk Road, or even European trade routes in the Indian oceans could.
The Aztec education system was abolished and replaced by a very limited church education. Even some foods associated with Mesoamerican religious practice, such as amaranto, were forbidden.
In the 16th century, perhaps 240,000 Spaniards entered American ports. They were joined by 450,000 in the next century. Unlike the English-speaking colonists of North America, the majority of the Spanish colonists were single men who married or made concubines of the natives, and were even encouraged to do so by Queen Isabella during the earliest days of colonization. As a result of these unions, as well as concubinage and secret mistresses, a vast class of people known as "Mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
s" and mulattoes came into being.
Cultural depictions
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire is the subject of an operaOpera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, La conquista (2005) and of a set of six symphonic poem
Symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...
s, La nueva España (1992–99) by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero
Lorenzo Ferrero
Lorenzo Ferrero is a contemporary Italian composer with a predilection for opera, a librettist, author, and book editor. He started composing at an early age and wrote over a hundred compositions thus far, including twelve operas, three ballets, and numerous orchestral, chamber music, solo...
.
The conquest was also depicted in an episode titled 'Cortes' in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
series Heroes and Villains
Heroes and Villains (TV series)
Heroes and Villains was a 2007-2008 BBC Television docudrama series looking at key moments in the lives and reputations of some of the greatest warriors of history. Each hour long episode featured a different historical figure, including Napoleon I of France, Attila the Hun, Spartacus, Hernán...
, with Cortes being portrayed by Brian McCardie
Brian McCardie
Brian McCardie is a Scottish actor. He has appeared in several movies, including Speed 2: Cruise Control , playing the role as Merced. He also appeared in the mini series of Titanic.-Early life:...
.
See also
- Aztec influence in SpainAztec influence in SpainAztec influence in Spain can be seen in both the cuisine of Spain and in its architecture.-Food:Guacamole, an avocado-based dip that was popular in Aztec cuisine as early as the 16th century, was brought back to Spain by the Conquistadors...
- Spanish conquest of the Inca EmpireSpanish conquest of the Inca EmpireThe Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. This historic process of military conquest was made by Spanish conquistadores and their native allies....
- Spanish EmpireSpanish EmpireThe Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
- Heroes and Villains
Primary sources
- Hernán Cortés, Letters – available as Letters from Mexico translated by Anthony PagdenAnthony PagdenAnthony Robin Dermer Pagden is an author and distinguished professor of political science and history at the University of California, Los Angeles.-Biography:...
(1986) ISBN 0-300-09094-3 - Francisco López de Gómara, Hispania Victrix; First and Second Parts of the General History of the Indies, with the whole discovery and notable things that have happened since they were acquired until the year 1551, with the conquest of Mexico and New Spain
- Bernal Díaz del CastilloBernal Díaz del CastilloBernal Díaz del Castillo was a conquistador, who wrote an eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards for Hernán Cortés, himself serving as a rodelero under Cortés.-Early life:...
, The Conquest of New Spain – available as The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico: 1517-1521 ISBN 0-306-81319-X
Secondary sources
- History of the Conquest of Mexico, with a Preliminary View of Ancient Mexican Civilization, and the Life of the Conqueror, Hernando Cortes By William H. PrescottWilliam H. PrescottWilliam Hickling Prescott was an American historian and Hispanist, who is widely recognized by historiographers to have been the first American scientific historian...
ISBN 0-375-75803-8 - Conquest: Cortés, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico by Hugh ThomasHugh ThomasHugh Thomas , is a British historian and life peer.Hugh Thomas may also refer to:* Hugh Thomas , American choral conductor, pianist and educator* Hugh Thomas , Australian rules football coach...
(1993) ISBN 0-671-51104-1 - Cortés and the Downfall of the Aztec Empire by Jon Manchip WhiteJon Manchip WhiteJon Manchip White is the Welsh American author of more than thirty books of non-fiction and fiction, including Mask of Dust, Nightclimber, Death By Dreaming, Solo Goya, and his latest novel, Rawlins White: Patriot to Heaven, to be published in the second half of 2011...
(1971) ISBN 0-7867-0271-0 - The Rain God cries over Mexico by László Passuth
- Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest by Matthew Restall, Oxford University Press (2003) ISBN 0-19-516077-0
- The Conquest of America by Tzvetan TodorovTzvetan TodorovTzvetan Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher. He has lived in France since 1963 with his wife Nancy Huston and their two children, writing books and essays about literary theory, thought history and culture theory....
(1996) ISBN 0-06-132095-1 - Time, History, and Belief in Aztec and Colonial Mexico by Ross Hassig, Texas University Press (2001) ISBN 0-292-73139-6
- The Aztecs of Central Mexico: An Imperial Society by Frances F. Berdan, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, (1982) ISBN 0-03-055736-4
External links
- Hernán Cortés on the Web – web directory with thumbnail galleries
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1911)
- Conquistadors, with Michael Wood – website for 2001 PBS documentary
- Ibero-American Electronic Text Series presented online by the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center
- La Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España