The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Mexico (Spanish: Conquista española del Imperio azteca), was a pivotal event that took place during the Spanish colonization of the Americas (the broader European colonization of the Americas), marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire with its American Indian allies. Between 1519 and 1521, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his small army of European soldiers and the large allied army of Indian auxiliaries, overthrew the most powerful pre-Columbian empire to exist in Mesoamerica. Led by the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II, the Aztec Empire had established dominance over modern central Mexico through military conquest and intricate alliances. The Aztecs ruled hegemonically through local rulers, their power resting on the perception of unchallengeable Aztec military supremacy. This was an inherently unstable system vulnerable to a loss of prestige under even moderate challenges. The sudden downfall of the Aztec civilization was due to a combination of factors, including European superior weaponry, strategic alliances with oppressed and rebellious American Indian populations, and the impact of European diseases. In 1520, the first wave of smallpox killed 5–8 million people. The Spanish campaign against the Aztec Empire had its final victory on 13 August 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish Armed forces under Cortés and Tlaxcalan Indian warriors led by Indian commander Chichimecatecuhtli captured the Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc and the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. The fall of Tenochtitlan marks the establishment of New Spain, as part of the Spanish Empire, with its capital being Mexico City, built on the ruins of the former empire's capital. The conquest had profound impact, beginning Spanish rule in Mesoamerica, the wide expansion of Spanish culture, and the establishment of a new social hierarchy in Latin America dominated by the Spanish conquerors and their descendants.
== Significant events in the conquest of Mesoamerica == Following a 1518 expedition to Yucatán led by Juan de Grijalva, in 1519 Hernán Cortés set sail on an expedition (entrada) to what is today Mexico. Cortés made alliances with tributary city-states of the Aztec Empire (altepetl) as well as with their political rivals, particularly the Tlaxcaltecs and the Tetzcocans, a former partner in the Aztec Triple Alliance. Other city-states also joined, including Cempoala and Huejotzingo, as well as polities bordering Lake Texcoco, the inland lake system of the Valley of Mexico. Particularly important to the Spanish success was a multilingual Nahua Mayan- and Spanish-speaking woman enslaved by the Mayas, known to the Spanish conquistadors as Doña Marina, and later as La Malinche. Eight months of battles and negotiations overcame the resistance of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II (also spelled Motecuhzoma) to the entrance of the Spanish. Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan on 8 November 1519, where his men and Indigenous allies took up residence. When news reached Cortés of the death of several of his men during the Aztec attack on the Totonacs in Veracruz, Cortés claims that he took Moctezuma captive. Capturing the cacique or Indigenous ruler was a common tactic for the Spanish in their expansion in the Caribbean, but modern scholars are skeptical that Cortés took Moctezuma captive at this time. Despite his legal claims of capturing the ruler, critical analysis of Spanish personal writings suggest Moctezuma was not taken until later. At this time Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, Spanish governor of Cuba, tried to recall Cortés in favor of a new expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez. Cortés left Tenochtitlan to defend his own expedition, leaving Pedro de Alvarado in charge of Tenochtitlan. Cortés led a small army to the coast and attacked Narváez at night. After defeating Narváez's fleet, Cortés won over most of the crew to his side, promising them great riches. Upon returning to Tenochtitlan with his enlarged force, Cortés received news from Alvarado that "the Aztec had risen against the Spanish garrison" during a religious celebration, and Alvarado had ordered his army to massacre the unarmed crowd. Under heavy attack by the Aztecs, Cortés decided to escape. During the following Noche Triste (sorrowful night), about "400 Spaniards, 4000 native allies and many horses [were killed] before reaching the mainland". Moctezuma was killed, although sources disagree on who killed him. By one account, Moctezuma, now seen by his people as a puppet of the Spaniards, was killed by a hurled stone as he attempted to calm the outraged crowd. An Indigenous account says he was killed by the Spanish. The Spanish, Tlaxcalans and reinforcements returned a year later on 13 August 1521, to a civilization weakened by famine and smallpox, with little remaining ability to resist. The Spaniards' victory is attributed to their help from Indigenous allies and their more advanced technology. In the heat of battle, cavalry was the "arm of decision in the conquest" and "the key ingredient in the Spanish forces". However, the role of smallpox is often underestimated. According to Hassig, "It is true that cannons, guns, crossbows, steel blades, horses and war dogs were advanced on the Aztecs' weaponry. But the advantage these gave a few hundred Spanish soldiers was not overwhelming." In the words of Restall, "Spanish weapons were useful for breaking the offensive lines of waves of indigenous warriors, but this was no formula for conquest ... rather, it was a formula for survival, until Spanish and indigenous reinforcements arrived." The integration of the allies from Tlaxcala and Texcoco into the Spanish army played a crucial role in the conquest. These alliances not only expanded the Spanish ranks, but also provided essential guidance on local geography and effective tactics against Aztec defenses, informing the timing of the campaign and exploiting the beliefs of both groups. At the same time, the alienness of the Spaniards, their ignorance of the empire's power structure, made them unpredictable to their enemies: "A direct attack on a city as mighty as Tenochtitlan was unlikely and unexpected." The Aztecs never thought an attacking army would come unannounced. Many of those on the Cortés expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before, including Cortés. A whole generation of Spaniards later participated in expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme (Central America), learning strategy and tactics. Nevertheless, the Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents in earlier practices.
=== Timeline === 1428 – Creation of the Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan 1492–93 – Columbus reaches the Caribbean; start of permanent Spanish settlements 1493–1515 – Spanish exploration, conquest, enslavement, and settlement in the Caribbean and the Spanish Main 1502 – Moctezuma II elected huey tlatoani, emperor [literally: "Great Speaker"] of the Aztec Triple Alliance 1503–09 – Moctezuma's coronation conquests 1504 – Hernan Cortés arrives in the Caribbean 1511– Spanish viceroy in the Caribbean appoints Diego Velázquez to conquer and govern Cuba 1515 – Texcocan monarch Nezahualpilli dies; Cacamatzin succeeds to the throne; the rebellion of Ixtlilxochitl 1517 – Expedition of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba to the Yucatán coast 1517- City of Cholollan secedes from Tlaxcalteca Alliance, becomes a tributary state of the Aztec Triple Alliance 1518 – Expedition of Juan de Grijalva to the Yucatán and Gulf coasts; appointment of Cortés to lead a third exploratory expedition 1519
10 February – Cortés expedition leaves Cuba, taking Hernández de Córdoba's route. In the process, Cortés ignores Velásquez's cancellation of the expedition Early 1519 – Gerónimo de Aguilar, shipwrecked Spaniard, bilingual in Yoko Ochoko, joins Cortés
24 March – Leaders of Potoncan sue Spaniards for peace and gift the Spaniards, 20 slave women. One of the enslaved Nahua woman (known as La Malinche, Doña Marina, Malintze, and Malintzin), is multilingual and will serve as one of the main translators for the expedition. 21 April – Expedition lands in the Gulf coast near San Juan de Ullúa Early June – Cortés establishes the colony of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz and relocates the company to a beach near the settlement of Quiahuiztlan. Afterward, the Spaniards travel to Cempoala and formalize an alliance with Xicomecoatl (also known as the Fat Chief and Cacique Gordo), the leader of Cempoala. At this time, Cempoala is the capital of the Totonac confederacy. July/August – Cortés' soldiers desecrate Cempoala 16 August – Spaniards and Totonac allies embark on march toward the Valley of Tenochtitlan, passing Citlatapetl and many other notable geographic landmarks like Cofre de Perote 31 August – Tlaxcalteca attack Spaniards after entering the territory of Tlaxcallan. They succeed in killing two horsemen. September – Tlaxcalteca assault the Spanish camp by day, and the Spanish respond by raiding unarmed Tlaxcalteca towns and villages by night. Tlaxcallan brokers a peace after 18 punishing days of war, by which point the Spaniards had lost half their cavalry and 1/5 their men. October – March to Cholula. Conquistadors massacre unarmed Cholulans, then Spanish-Tlaxcala combine forces to sack Cholollan, and replace Cholulan political leadership with Tlaxcallan-favoring nobles. The massacre broke out for disputed reasons, perhaps to quash an impending Cholulan attack or to fulfill a Tlaxcalteca plan to both exact revenge on Cholollan for its secession and to test their new Spanish allies. 8 November 1519 – Meeting of Cortés and Moctezuma 1520
April or May – Pánfilo de Narváez arrives on the Gulf coast, sent by Governor Velázquez to rein in Cortés Mid-May – Pedro de Alvarado massacres Aztec elites celebrating the Festival of Toxcatl Late May – Cortés forces attack Narvárez's forces at Cempoala; incorporation of those Spaniards into Cortés's forces 24 June – Spanish forces return to Tenochtitlan Late June – Uprising in Tenochtitlan; the death of Moctezuma in unclear circumstances, perhaps killed by the Spaniards, perhaps by his own people; deaths of other leaders of the Triple Alliance 30 June – "La Noche Triste" – Evacuation of Spanish-Tlaxcalteca allied forces from Tenochtitlan; deaths of perhaps 1,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Tlaxcalans 7 July – Battle of Otumba, Aztec forces attack the Spanish-Tlaxcalteca forces at Otumba 11 or 12 July – Retreat to Tlaxcala 1 August – Spanish punitive expedition in Tepeaca in reprisal for the murder of Spaniards by its inhabitants. Mid-September – Coronation of Cuitlahuac as Moctezuma's successor Mid-October to mid-December – Smallpox epidemic; death of Cuitlahuac on 4 December, perhaps of smallpox Late December – Spanish-Tlaxcaltec forces return to the Valley of Mexico; join with Texcoca forces of Ixtlilxochitl 1521
Late January – Cuauhtemoc elected huey tlatoani of Tenochtitlan February – Combined Spanish-Tlaxcalteca-Texcoca forces attack Xaltocan and Tlacopan; Texcoco becomes the base of operations for the campaign against Tenochtitlan Early April – Attacks against Yautepec and Cuernavaca, following by sacking Mid-April – Combined forces defeated by the Xochimilcans, Tenochtitlan's ally Late April – Construction of 13 shallow-bottomed brigantines by Tlaxcalteca laborers under Spanish supervision; mounted with cannon; launched into Lake Texcoco, allowing Spanish control of the inland sea 10 May – Start of the siege of Tenochtitlan; potable water from Chapultepec cut off 30 June – Defeat of Spanish-Tlaxcalteca forces on a causeway; capture and ritual sacrifice of the Spaniards and their horses in Tenochtitlan July – Spanish ships land at Veracruz with large numbers of Spaniards, munitions, and horses 20–25 July – Battle for Tenochtitlan 1 August – Spanish-Tlaxcalan-Texcocan forces enter the Plaza Mayor; last stand of the Aztec defenders 13 August – Surrender of Aztec defenders; capture of Cuauhtemoc 13–17 August – Wholesale sacking and violence against the survivors in Tenochtitlan 1522
October – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor names Cortés captain-general of New Spain, the Spanish name for central Mexico. November – Death of Cortés's wife, Catalina Suárez, in Coyoacan, where Cortés was resident while the new capital Mexico City was constructed on the ruins of Tenochtitlan Cortés's Second Letter to the crown is published in Seville, Spain 1524
Arrival of the first twelve Franciscan missionaries to Mexico, beginning of the "spiritual conquest" to convert the indigenous populations to Christianity Conqueror Cristóbal de Olid's expedition to Honduras; renounces Cortés' authority; Cortés expedition to Honduras with the captive Cuauhtemoc 1525
February – execution of the three rulers of the former Triple Alliance, including Cuauhtemoc Don Juan Velázquez Tlacotzin, former "viceroy" (cihuacoatl) appointed governor of the indigenous sector of Mexico City 1525–1530
Spanish conquest of Guatemala 1527–1547
Spanish conquest of Chiapas
Sources for the conquest of Mesoamerica
The conquest of Mexico, the initial destruction of the great pre-Columbian civilizations, is a significant event in world history. The conquest was well documented by a variety of sources with differing points of view, including indigenous accounts, by both allies and opponents. Accounts by the Spanish conquerors exist from the first landfall at Veracruz, Mexico (on Good Friday, 22 April 1519) to the final victory over the Mexica in Tenochtitlan on 13 August 1521. Notably, the accounts of the conquest, Spanish and indigenous alike, have biases and exaggerations. Some, though not all, Spanish accounts downplay the support of their indigenous allies. Conquerors' accounts exaggerate individual contributions to the Conquest at the expense of their comrades, while indigenous allies' accounts stress their loyalty and importance to victory for the Spanish. These accounts are similar to Spanish conquerors' accounts contained in petitions for rewards, known as benemérito petitions. Two lengthy accounts from the defeated indigenous viewpoint were created under the direction of Spanish friars, Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún and Dominican Diego Durán, using indigenous informants. Because Nahuatl did not have a full alphabet, the majority of extant indigenous sources are recollections of Nahuatl-speakers who were subsequently introduced to Latin characters after the arrival of the Spanish. Gingerish identifies the Annals of Tlatelolco (1524?–1528) as "One of the oldest recorded manuscripts in Nahuatl, written presumably by a native who must have learned the use of Latin characters and alphabet within three or four years of the conquest." Lockhart, however, argues for a later post-1540 date for this manuscript, and indeed the majority of indigenous source material was recorded a generation or more after the events through interaction with and under influence of Spanish priests. As noted in, "No 'pure' Nahuatl text exists – with the exception of a few pre- Cortesian pictographic codices. Every written Nahuatl text was recorded after 1521 either directly by a Christian priest, by students who worked directly under priestly supervision, or by former students who had studied in Christian schools long enough to understand the necessity of the new religion. The written language was a personal possession of the noble and priestly class." The first Spanish account of the conquest was written by lead conqueror Hernán Cortés, who sent a series of letters to the Spanish monarch Charles V, giving a contemporary account of the conquest from his point of view, in which he justified his actions. These were almost immediately published in Spain and later in other parts of Europe. Much later, Spanish conqueror Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a well-seasoned participant in the conquest of Central Mexico, wrote what he called The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, countering the account by Cortés's official biographer, Francisco López de Gómara. Bernal Díaz's account had begun as a benemérito petition for rewards but he expanded it to encompass a full history of his earlier expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme and the conquest of the Aztec. A number of lower rank Spanish conquerors wrote benemérito petitions to the Spanish Crown, requesting rewards for their services in the conquest, including Juan Díaz, Andrés de Tapia, García del Pilar, and Fray Francisco de Aguilar. Cortés's right-hand man, Pedro de Alvarado did not write at any length about his actions in the New World, and died as a man of action in the Mixtón War in 1541. Two letters to Cortés about Alvarado's campaigns in Guatemala are published in The Conquistadors. The chronicle of the so-called "Anonymous Conqueror" was written sometime in the sixteenth century, entitled in an early twentieth-century translation to English as Narrative of Some Things of New Spain and of the Great City of Temestitan (i.e. Tenochtitlan). Rather than it being a petition for rewards for services, as many Spanish accounts were, the Anonymous Conqueror made observations about the indigenous situation at the time of the conquest. The account was used by eighteenth-century Jesuit Francisco Javier Clavijero in his descriptions of the history of Mexico.
On the indigenous side, the allies of Cortés, particularly the Tlaxcalans, wrote extensively about their services to the Spanish Crown in the conquest, arguing for special privileges for themselves. The most important of these are the pictorial Lienzo de Tlaxcala (1585) and the Historia de Tlaxcala by Diego Muñoz Camargo. Less successfully, the Nahua allies from Huexotzinco (or Huejotzinco) near Tlaxcala argued that their contributions had been overlooked by the Spanish. In a letter in Nahuatl to the Spanish Crown, the indigenous lords of Huexotzinco lay out their case in for their valorous service. The letter has been published in Nahuatl and English translation by James Lockhart in We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico in 1991. Texcoco patriot and member of a noble family there, Fernando Alva Ixtlilxochitl, likewise petitioned the Spanish Crown, in Spanish, saying that Texcoco had not received sufficient rewards for their support of the conquistadors, particularly after the Spanish were forced out of Tenochtitlan. The best-known indigenous account of the conquest is Book 12 of Bernardino de Sahagún's General History of the Things of New Spain and published as the Florentine Codex, in parallel columns of Nahuatl and Spanish, with pictorials. Less well-known is Sahagún's 1585 revision of the conquest account, which shifts from the indigenous viewpoint entirely and inserts at crucial junctures passages lauding the Spanish and in particular Hernán Cortés. Another indigenous account compiled by a Spanish friar is Dominican Diego Durán's The History of the Indies of New Spain, from 1581, with many color illustrations. A text from the Nahua point of view, the Anales de Tlatelolco, an early indigenous account in Nahuatl, perhaps from 1540, remained in indigenous hands until it was published. An extract of this important manuscript was published in 1991 by James Lockhart in Nahuatl transcription and English translation. A popular anthology in English for classroom use is Miguel León-Portilla's, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico from 1992. Not surprisingly, many publications and republications of sixteenth-century accounts of the conquest of Mexico appeared around 1992, the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first voyage, when scholarly and popular interest in first encounters surged. A popular and enduring narrative of the Spanish campaign in central Mexico is by New England-born nineteenth-century historian William Hickling Prescott. His History of the Conquest of Mexico, first published in 1843, remains an important unified narrative synthesis of the conquest. Prescott read and used all the formal writings from the sixteenth century, although few had been published by the mid-nineteenth century when he was writing. It is likely that a 1585 revision of Bernardino de Sahagún's account of the conquest survives today only in the form of a copy because it was made in Spain for Prescott's project from a now-lost original. Although scholars of the modern era point out its biases and shortcomings, "there is nowhere they can get as good a unified narrative of the main events, crises, and course of the Mexican conquest as Prescott's version."
Aztec omens for the conquest
In the sources recorded by Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún and Dominican Diego Durán in the mid to late sixteenth century, there are accounts of events that were interpreted as supernatural omens of the conquest. These two accounts are full-blown narratives from the viewpoint of the Spanish opponents. Most first-hand accounts about the conquest of the Aztec Empire were written by Spaniards: Hernán Cortés' letters to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and the first-person narrative of Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain. The primary sources from the native people affected as a result of the conquest are seldom used, because they tend to reflect the views of a particular native group, such as the Tlaxcalans. Indigenous accounts were written in pictographs as early as 1525. Later accounts were written in the native tongue of the Aztec and other native peoples of central Mexico, Nahuatl. The native texts of the defeated Mexica narrating their version of the conquest describe eight omens that were believed to have occurred nine years prior to the arrival of the Spanish from the Gulf of Mexico. In 1510, Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II was visited by Nezahualpilli, who had a reputation as a great seer, as well as being the tlatoani of Texcoco. Nezahualpilli warned Moctezuma that he must be on guard, for in a few years Aztec cities would be destroyed. Before leaving, he said that there would be omens for Moctezuma to know that what he has been told is true. Over the years, and especially after Nezhualpilli's death in 1515, several supernatural omens appeared. The eight bad omens or wonders:
A column of fire that appeared from midnight until dawn, and seemed to rain fire in the year 1517 (12-House) Fire consuming the temple of Huitzilopochtli A lightning bolt destroying the straw temple of Xiuhtecuhtli The appearance of fire, or comets, streaming across the sky in threes during the day The "boiling deep", and water flooding, of a lake nearby Tenochtitlan A woman, Cihuatcoatl, weeping in the middle of the night for them (the Aztecs) to "flee far away from this city" Montezuma II saw the stars of mamalhuaztli, and images of fighting men riding "on the backs of animals resembling deer", in a mirror on the crown of a bird caught by fishermen A two headed man, tlacantzolli, running through the streets Additionally, the Tlaxcala saw a "radiance that shone in the east every morning three hours before sunrise", and a "whirlwind of dust" from the volcano Matlalcueye. According to Diaz, "These Caciques also told us of a tradition they had heard from their ancestors, that one of the idols which they particularly worshipped had prophesied the coming of men from distant lands in the direction of the sunrise, who would conquer them and rule them." Some accounts would claim that this idol or deity was Quetzalcoatl, and that the Aztecs were defeated because they believed the Spanish were supernatural and did not know how to react, although whether or not the Aztecs really believed that is debatable. Omens were extremely important to the Aztecs, who believed that history repeated itself. A number of modern scholars cast doubt on whether such omens occurred or whether they were ex post facto (retrospective) creations to help the Mexica explain their defeat. Some scholars contend that "the most likely interpretation of the story of these portents is that some, if not all, had occurred" but concede that it is very likely that "clever Mexicans and friars, writing later of the Mexican empire, were happy to link those memories with what they know occurred in Europe. Many sources depicting omens and the return of old Aztec gods, including those supervised by Spanish priests, were written after the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521. Spanish accounts tended to incorporate omens to emphasize what they saw as the preordained nature of the conquest and their success as Spanish destiny. This influenced some natives writing under the tutelage of the Franciscan friars. Other explanations include a desire to please the Spaniards or resentment toward the failure of Montezuma and Tenochtitlan warriors."
==== Cortés and Quetzalcoatl ==== Hugh Thomas writes that Moctezuma was debating whether Cortés was a god or the ambassador of a great king in another land. Because the Spaniards arrived in 1519, Moctezuma knew this was the year of Ce Acatl, which is the year Quetzalcoatl was promised to return. Previously, during Juan de Grijalva's expedition, Moctezuma believed that those men were heralds of Quetzalcoatl, as Moctezuma, as well as everyone else in the Aztec Empire, were to believe that eventually, Quetzalcoatl will return. Moctezuma even had glass beads that were left behind by Grijalva brought to Tenochtitlan and they were regarded as sacred religious relics. On the other hand, some ethnohistorians say the Aztec leaders did not view the Spaniards as supernatural in any sense but rather as simply another group of powerful outsiders. They believe that Moctezuma responded rationally to the Spanish invasion and did not think the Spanish were supernatural. In his own letters written on the spot, Cortés never claimed that he was perceived as a god. The idea appears to emerge only in the 1540s, in writings by Europeans. Nonetheless, it was repeated in many sources, even among Indians, especially those who had become students of the Franciscan friars and were searching for an explanation for how the Aztecs had fallen. This was complicated by the word teules that the Nahuas used to refer to the Spaniards, who claimed to represent their Christian god and originated from a land unknown to the natives. "Teules" is derived from the Nahuatl word teotl for god but with its meaning changed to representative of god, sometimes implying mysterious and supernatural power.
== Spanish expeditions == The Spanish had established a permanent settlement on the island of Hispaniola in 1493 on the second voyage of Christopher Columbus. There were further Spanish explorations and settlements in the Caribbean and the Spanish Main, seeking wealth in the form of gold and access to indigenous labor to mine gold and other manual labor. Twenty-five years after the first Spanish settlement in the New World, expeditions of exploration were sent to the coast of Mexico.
Early Spanish expeditions to Yucatán
In 1517, Cuban governor Diego Velázquez 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 Spanish to land, and the conquistadors read the Requirement of 1513 to them, which offered the natives the protection of the King of Spain, if they would submit to him. Córdoba took two prisoners, who adopted the baptized names of Melchor and Julián and became interpreters. Later, the two prisoners, being misled or misinterpreting the language gave information to the Spanish conquistadors that there was plenty of gold up for grabs. On the western side of the Yucatán Peninsula, the Spanish were attacked at night by Maya chief Mochcouoh, a battle in which 50 men were killed. Córdoba was mortally wounded and only a remnant of his crew returned to Cuba. At that time, Yucatán was briefly explored by the conquistadors, but the Spanish conquest of Yucatán with its many independent city-state polities of the Late Postclassic Maya civilization came many years after the Spaniards' and their loyal indigenous allies' rapid conquest of Central Mexico (1519–1521). 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.
Cortés's expedition
Commissioning the expedition
Even before Juan de Grijalva returned to Spain, Velázquez decided to send a third and even larger expedition to explore the Mexican coast. Hernán Cortés, then one of Velázquez's favorites and brother-in-law, was named as the commander, which created envy and resentment among the Spanish contingent in the Spanish colony. Licenses for expeditions allowed the Crown to retain sovereignty over newly conquered lands while not risking its own assets in the enterprise. Anyone willing to make a financial contribution could potentially gain even more wealth and power. Men who brought horses, caballeros, received two shares of the spoils, one for military service, another because of the horse. Cortés invested a considerable part of his personal fortune and probably went into debt to borrow additional funds. Velázquez may have personally contributed nearly half the cost of the expedition. In an agreement signed on 23 October 1518, Governor Velázquez restricted the expedition led by Cortés to exploration and trade, so that conquest and settlement of the mainland might occur under his own command, once he had received the permission necessary to do so which he had already requested from the Crown. In this way, Velázquez sought to ensure title to the riches and laborers discovered. However, armed with the knowledge of Castilian law that he had likely gained as a notary in Valladolid, Cortés managed to free himself of Velázquez's authority by presenting Velázquez as a tyrant acting in his own self-interest, and not in the interest of the Crown. The men under Cortés also named him military leader and chief magistrate (judge) of the expedition.
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's control. Velázquez sent Luis de Medina with orders to replace Cortés. However, Cortés's brother-in-law allegedly 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. Correspondence between the monarchs and the conquistadors was a lengthy process, with the most efficient messages taking at least a year to travel across the ocean. This gave the Spaniards in Mexico relative autonomy because they were often forced to make decisions without the specified consent of the Crown. Cortés took advantage of the ambiguity of local power when he defied Governor Velázquez's orders, later writing directly to the king to defend his actions. In response, Governor Velázquez would send Pánfilo de Narváez to arrest Cortés, as made evident in letters written between Velázquez and Bishop Fonseca in Spain. Velázquez arrived at the dock in Santiago de Cuba in person, "he and Cortés again embraced, with a great exchange of compliments", before Cortés set sail for Trinidad, Cuba. Velázquez then sent orders for the fleet to be held and Cortés taken prisoner. Nevertheless, Cortés set sail, beginning his expedition with the legal status of a mutineer. Cortés's contingent consisted of 11 ships carrying about 630 men (including 30 crossbowmen and 12 arquebusiers, an early form of firearm), a doctor, several carpenters, at least eight women, a few hundred Arawaks from Cuba and some Africans, both freedmen and slaves. Although modern usage often calls the European participants "soldiers", the term was never used by these men themselves in any context, something that James Lockhart realized when analyzing sixteenth-century legal records from conquest-era Peru.
==== Cortés gains two translators ==== Cortés spent some time at the island of Cozumel, on the east coast of Yucatán, trying to convert the locals to Christianity, something that provided mixed results. While at Cozumel, Cortés heard reports of other white men living in the Yucatán. Cortés sent messengers to these reported Spaniards, 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 to join his former countrymen, and he was released and made his way to Cortés's ships. Now quite fluent in 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 result of Cortés's expedition. According to Bernal Díaz, Aguilar relayed that before coming, he had 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 state 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.
After leaving Cozumel, Cortés continued round the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula and landed at Potonchán, where there was little gold. After defeating the local natives in two battles, he discovered a far more valuable asset in the form of a woman whom Cortés would have christened Marina. She is often known as La Malinche and also sometimes called "Malintzin" or Malinalli. Later, the Aztecs would come to call Cortés "Malintzin" or La Malinche by dint of his close association with her. Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote in his account The True History of the Conquest of New Spain that Marina was "truly a great princess". Later, the honorific Spanish title of doña would be added to her baptized name. 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 Marina. She would then translate from Mayan to Nahuatl. With this pair of translators, Cortés could now communicate to the Aztecs. How effectively is still a matter of speculation, since Marina did not speak the dialect of the Aztecs, nor was she familiar with the protocols of the Aztec nobility, who were renowned for their flowery, flattering talk. Doña Marina quickly learned Spanish, and became Cortés's primary interpreter, confidant, consort, cultural translator, and the mother of his first son, Martin. Until Cortés's marriage to his second wife, a union which produced a legitimate son whom he also named Martin, Cortés's natural son with Marina was the heir of his envisaged fortunes. Native speakers of the Nahuatl community would call her "Malintzin", making her name a part of their own language, trying their best to make it similar to the Spanish "Marina". Over time, "La Malinche" (the modern Spanish cognate of Malintzin) became a term for 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. It would not be until the late 20th century that a few feminist writers and academics in Mexico would attempt to rehabilitate La Malinche as a woman who made the best of her situation and became, in many respects, a powerful woman.
Foundation of Veracruz
Cortés landed his expedition force on the coast of the modern day state of Veracruz in April 1519. During this same period, soon after he arrived, Cortés was welcomed by representatives of the Aztec Emperor, Moctezuma II. Gifts were exchanged, and Cortés attempted to frighten the Aztec delegation with a display of his firepower. It is speculated that Cortés faced imprisonment or death for defying the governor. This was a potential motivation for his migration and the establishment of Vera Cruz. The settlement was named La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, or "Rich Town of the True Cross", in honor of Holy Week: the Spaniards arrived on Maundy Thursday and landed on Good Friday. The legally constituted "town council of Villa Rica" then promptly offered Cortés the position of adelantado, or Chief Justice and Captain-General. This strategy was not unique. Velázquez 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 Velázquez's authority and continue his expedition. To ensure the legality of this action, several members of his expedition, including Francisco Montejo and Alonso Hernandez Puertocarrero, returned to Spain to seek acceptance of the cabildo's declaration with King Charles. Cortés 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 chiefs to rebel against the Aztecs, taking prisoner five of Moctezuma's tax collectors. The Totonacs also helped Cortés build the town of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, which was the starting point for his attempt to conquer the Aztec Empire. Hearing of the rebellion, more ambassadors from the Aztec Emperor returned to see Cortés, bearing gifts of "gold and cloth" in thankfulness for Cortés freeing his tax collectors. Moctezuma also told Cortés he was certain the Spanish were of "his own race" and had arrived as "his ancestors had foretold." Cortés then told his men, the natives "think of us as gods, or godlike beings." This interpretation was later accepted by historians, although recent scholars, such as Camilla Townsend, suggest that the perception by Natives that the Spanish were "godlike" was a fallacy made up by the Spaniards. Although Moctezuma's ambassadors attempted to dissuade Cortés from visiting Tenochtitlan, their lavish gifts and polite, welcoming remarks only encouraged El Caudillo to continue his march towards the imperial capital.
Scuttling the fleet and aftermath
While in Vera Cruz, men still loyal to the governor of Cuba planned to seize a ship and escape to Cuba, but Cortés moved swiftly to squash their plans. Two leaders were condemned to be hanged; two were lashed, and one had his foot mutilated. To make sure such a mutiny did not happen again, he decided to scuttle his ships. There is a popular misconception that the ships were burned rather than sunk. This misconception has been attributed to the reference made by Cervantes de Salazár 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, Cortés effectively stranded the expedition in central Mexico. Additionally, this was done in an effort to eliminate any possible chance to retreat, forcing Cortés' men to commit to further explore inland. However, it did not completely end the aspirations of those members of his company who remained loyal to the governor of Cuba. Cortés then led his band inland towards Tenochtitlan. In addition to the Spaniards, Cortés' force now included 40 Cempoalan warrior chiefs and at least 200 other natives whose task was to drag the cannon and carry 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 soon arrived at Tlaxcala, a confederacy of about 200 towns and different tribes, but without central government. The Otomi initially, and then the Tlaxcalans, fought the Spanish in a series of three battles from 2 to 5 September 1519, and at one point Diaz remarked, "they surrounded us on every side". After Cortés continued to release prisoners with messages of peace, and realizing the Spanish were enemies of Moctezuma, Xicotencatl the Elder and Maxixcatzin persuaded the Tlaxcalan warleader, Xicotencatl the Younger, that it would be better to ally with the newcomers than to kill them. The Tlaxcalans' main city was Tlaxcala. After almost a century of fighting the Flower Wars, a great deal of hatred and bitterness had developed between the Tlaxcalans and the Aztecs. The Aztecs had already conquered most of the territory around Tlaxcala, and waged war on them every year. It has been suggested that the Aztecs left Tlaxcala independent so that they would have a constant supply of war captives to sacrifice to their gods. On 23 September 1519, Cortés arrived in Tlaxcala and was greeted with joy by the rulers, who saw the Spanish as an ally against the Aztecs. Due to a commercial blockade by the Aztecs, Tlaxcala was poor, lacking, among other things, salt and cotton cloths, so they could only offer Cortés and his men food and slaves. Cortés stayed twenty days in Tlaxcala, giving his men time to recover from their wounds from the battles. Cortés seems to have won the true friendship and loyalty of the senior 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 reportedly took only the things that were offered to them freely. As before with other native groups, Cortés preached to the Tlaxcalan leaders about the benefits of Christianity. The Caciques gave Cortés "the most beautiful of their daughters and nieces". Xicotencatl the Elder's daughter was baptized as Doña Luisa, and Maxixcatzin's daughter as Doña Elvira. They were given by Cortés to Pedro de Alvarado and Juan Velázquez de León respectively. 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 is impossible to know if these leaders understood the Catholic faith. In any case, they apparently had no problems in adding the Christian "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 highly significant and effective alliance between Cortés and Tlaxcala.
==== Cortés marches to Cholula ==== Meanwhile, Moctezuma's ambassadors, who had been in the Spanish camp after the battles with the Tlaxcalans, continued to press Cortés to take the road to Mexico via Cholula, which was under Aztec control, rather than over Huexotzinco, which was an ally of Tlaxcala. They were surprised Cortés had stayed in Tlaxcala so long "among a poor and ill-bred people". Cholula was one of the most important cities of Mesoamerica, the second largest, and probably the most sacred. Its huge pyramid (larger in volume than the great pyramids of Egypt) made it one of the most prestigious places of the Aztec religion. However, it appears that Cortés perceived Cholula more as a military threat to his rear guard than a religious center, as he marched to Tenochtitlan. He sent emissaries ahead to try a diplomatic solution to enter the city. Cortés, who had not yet decided to start a war with the Aztec Empire, decided to offer a compromise. He accepted the gifts of the Aztec ambassadors, and at the same time accepted the offer of the Tlaxcalan allies to provide porters and 1,000 warriors on his march to Cholula. He also sent two men, Pedro de Alvarado and Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia, directly to Tenochtitlan, as ambassadors and to scout for an appropriate route.
Massacre of Cholula
The attack on Cholula is one of the most documented events in the history of Spanish conquest. Over ten accounts have been preserved, including, most famously, Indigenous illustrations, letters by Cortés, and a memoir written by the soldier Bernal Díaz del Castillo. The accounts provide contradictory reports about what occurred at Cholula, including what incited the Spaniards' massacre of thousands of Natives. Cortés, in his letter to King Charles, claimed that he had found evidence that the Cholulans had planned to ambush the Spaniards. According to Bernal Díaz, Moctezuma had ordered the leaders of Cholula to try to stop the Spanish. Tlaxcalan sources claim that the Tlaxcalan ambassador, Patlahuatzin, was sent to Cholula and had been tortured by the Cholulans. Thus, Cortés was avenging him by attacking Cholula.(Historia de Tlaxcala, por Diego Muñoz Camargo, lib. II cap. V. 1550). The Mexica version puts the blame on the Tlaxcalans, claiming that they resented Cortés going to Cholula instead of Huexotzingo. Instead of the revenge narrative depicted by Díaz, Mexica chroniclers portray the Tlaxcalans as manipulative, having persuaded the Spaniards to target Cholula for their own political reasons.: 40 Although one of the largest cities in Mexico, Cholula had a very small army due to its function as a sacred city. Cholulan leaders relied on protection from the city's prestige and their gods. As seen in the chronicles of the Tlaxcalteca, the priests of Cholula expected to use the power of Quetzalcoatl, their primary god, against the invaders. According to Spanish accounts, Cortés and his men entered Cholula without active resistance. However, they were not met by the city leaders and were not given food and drink on the third day. Cempoalans reported that fortifications were being constructed around the city and the Tlaxcalans were warning the Spaniards. Finally, La Malinche informed Cortés, after talking to the wife of one of the lords of Cholula, that the locals planned to murder the Spanish in their sleep. Although he did not know if the rumor was true or not, Cortés ordered a pre-emptive strike, urged by the Tlaxcalans, the enemies of the Cholulans. Cortés confronted the city leaders in the main temple alleging that they were planning to attack his men. They admitted that they had been ordered to resist by Moctezuma, but they claimed they had not followed his orders. Regardless, on command, the Spaniards seized and killed many of the local nobles to serve as a lesson. The Spanish, in their own telling, captured the Cholulan leaders Tlaquiach and Tlalchiac and then ordered the city to be set on fire. The troops started in the palace of Xacayatzin, and then on to Chialinco and Yetzcoloc. In letters to his King, Cortés claimed that in three hours time his troops (helped by the Tlaxcalans) killed 3,000 people and had burned the city. Another witness, Vázquez de Tapia, claimed the death toll was as high as 30,000. However, since the women and children, and many men, had already fled the city, it is unlikely that so many were killed. Regardless, the massacre of the nobility of Cholula was a notorious chapter in the conquest of Mexico. The massacre had a chilling effect on the other city states and groups affiliated with the Aztecs, as well as the Aztecs themselves. Tales of the massacre convinced the other cities in the Aztec Empire to entertain seriously Cortés' proposals rather than risk the same fate. After the massacre, Cortés sent emissaries to Moctezuma with the message that the people of Cholula had treated him with trickery and had therefore been punished.According to Spanish sources, Moctezuma blamed the commanders of the local Aztec garrison for the resistance in Cholula. Recognizing that his long-standing attempts to dissuade Cortés from coming to Tenochtitlan had failed and that nothing else could be done, Moctezuma finally invited the conquistadors to visit his capital city.
Entry into Tenochtitlan
On 8 November 1519, after the fall of Cholula, Cortés and his forces entered 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, and the largest in the Americas up to that point. The most common estimates put the population at around 60,000 to over 300,000 people. If the population of Tenochtitlan was 250,000 in 1519, then Tenochtitlan would have been larger than every city in Europe (the two largest cities in Europe, Paris and Naples, had 225,000 and 125,000 inhabitants respectively in the early 16th century), and more than five times the size of Seville (45,000 inhabitants in the early 16th century). To the Aztecs, Tenochtitlan was the "altar" for the Empire, as well as being the city that Quetzalcoatl would eventually return to.
