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Smallpox Played in Favor of Spanish Colonizer to Overthrow the Aztec Empire
Carolina M. Robles González
Cindy Chávez
20 April 2014
Author’s note:
Carolina M. Robles Gonzáles is a third year Merced Community College student. Previously, she
attended to Centro de Bachillerato Tecnológico Agropecuario 107 in La Estancia de los López,
Nayarit where she focused on Communitarian Development. She did hands on work cultivating
and processing fruits and vegetables, creating graft in order to enhance fruit production to supply
the community demand and rising farm animals to recreate a self-sustaining community. She is
currently working on her general subjects at Merced Community College where she is
researching about the rising and ending of the Aztec Empire and the different views of
Euthanasia. In the future, she plans to transfer to California State University Stanislaus where she
is majoring in Liberal Studies with a minor on Child Development to become a preschool
teacher. Her passion for teaching enhances her interest in researching.
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Abstract:
This Literature Review focuses on how the pandemic disease smallpox largely
contributed on the Spanish conquest over the Aztec empire. Being a powerful and highly
advance civilization the Aztecs maintained an enormous army capable of marching and conquer
multiple villages or complete cities in one day. This civilization, showed advances in agriculture,
architecture and astronomy which ceased when Mexico was invaded by Spain. Somehow the
Aztecs managed to establish their capital Tenochtitlan in the middle of a salt water lake building
pyramids on the center and creating breaches to connect the city with the main land. Their
knowledge was enough to create a calendar based on their astronomic observation and to build
an aqueduct system to bring fresh water from a nearby hill. With the discovery of the New World
and the desire of the Spanish King to colonize and spread his faith, the Spanish explores brought
with them an agent that favored them in battle more than its weapons and horses: the smallpox
epidemic. This research demonstrated the process of destruction of the Aztec empire from the
arrival of the first Spaniards to the virtually complete extermination of Aztecs.
Key words:
Smallpox, Epidemic Disease, Explorers, Christopher Columbus, Hernán Cortés, Aztec Empire,
Moctezuma, Tenochtitlan, New World, Spanish Conquerors.
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Introduction:
The Aztec Empire was a very advanced civilization with an advanced government and an
enormous and powerful army (). They were established in the Valley of Mexico from about 1428
to 1521(Daniel, 189). The empire extended from the capital Tenochtitlan which is on present day
Mexico City to the Gulf of Mexico and to the Pacific shore gradually becoming the dominant
power over that region reaching south to what is now known as Guatemala (Hofstadter, 76). The
capital city Tenochtitlan was founded over an island on the salt water Lake Texcoco. Using their
vast knowledge in architecture they managed to build tall pyramids in the center of the city and a
wide amount of breaches that connected the city with the mainland.
After the Americas were discovered by Christopher Columbus, Europeans began
exploring this new land seeking new sources of gold and trade (Thomson). By the time that
Hernán Cortés arrived to Mexico in February 1519 the Aztec empire consisted of 25 million
people (Mee, 56). Three years later in August 1521, Cortés and his Indian allies had conquered
Tenochtitlan and its population had drastically decreased. Historians had attributed this reduction
to Spanish massacres against native Indians but recent researchers have found evidence that
probe that belief wrong. Researchers have proven that the main reason for the Aztec defeat was
their low resistance to new diseases brought by Spanish conquerors such as smallpox.
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Review of Literature
Migration of Smallpox
On his article “The Migration of Small and Its Indelible Footprints on Latin American
History” Mark Thomson describes how smallpox has been taken from continent to continent by
explorers alongside their search of new places to colonize, armies in search for conquest,
merchants involved in trade, religious movement attempting to spread their faith and immigrants
in search of new places to establish. No one knows for certain where Smallpox originated, but
there is evidence of its appearance in Egyptian mummies of northern Africa from 1570 to 1055
B.C., and Indian writings suggest existence of smallpox in 1500 B.C. Wherever it started, it is
believed that this epidemic spread through the old continent mostly among armies fighting, and
returning carrying along the disease. Christopher Columbus found the Americas in a search of
new land to colonize. Along with his ship crew, they brought new forms of ruling and European
plants and animals which were unknown to Native Americans. Grievously, they also brought
devastation by carrying with them the virus that causes smallpox.
Slave trade played a big role in the spreading of smallpox on the New World. Smallpox
was already an epidemic in Europe when Spanish Colonizers brought African slaves to work on
the mines of Hispaniola which is now Haiti and Dominican Republic. African slaves were
transported in ships that promoted the perfect condition for the virus to flourish since they
carried big amounts of slaves among which there were some already infected. Since they had
poor conditions and bad hygiene, it was easy to transmit the virus to other slaves who landed on
Hispaniola carrying the contagious virus with them. It is believed that at the time of Columbus
arrival to Hispaniola in 1492, there were about 3 million inhabitants called Tainos. By 1542,
there were only 200 natives, but within two decades, Tainos were all extinct. As Spanish
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explorers penetrated into mainland smallpox reached the Aztec civilization devastating its
population. This was a new epidemic for Native Indians, consecuently, they had not yet
developed immunity as European adults who were exposed to smallpox as children. This is why
smallpox struck the Aztec Empire on a larger scale than previous smallpox pandemics around the
world. It is well noted how smallpox played a big role in the defeat of the Aztec Empire.
Contradictory Civilization
Dan Hofstadter on his article “The Aztecs: Blood and Glory,” brings to attention the
contradictions of the Aztecs arguing that the Aztecs were an advanced civilization but yet
practiced human sacrifice. The Aztecs settled in the central highlands of what is now Mexico,
lasted only from about 1428 to 1521. They founded Tenochtitlan the capital city in the early 14th
century. By the end of the 15th century they had built one of the most stunning civilizations in
history. Tenochtitlan could be called the “Venice of the New World” where were found
pyramids and could be crossed only by a network of canals with wide bridges through the city.
Tenochtitlan was the center of the empire that spanned from central Mexico to what is now
Guatemala. The City was politically, socially artistically and architecturally impressive. It had a
system of law to provide structure to the empire by strictly defining behavior and responsibilities
of citizens. They developed precise astronomic knowledge upon which elaborated calendars.
Women were allowed to divorce in case of spousal abuse and mothers received custody of their
children. Women were considered warriors when giving birth to a child and in case of death
during labor, mothers would receive honors as a warrior. The city was built on an island in the
middle of a saltwater lake with long causeways connecting the city to the mainland and a system
of aqueducts brought fresh water from a nearby mountain. They practiced music, dance, poetry
and oratory, made refine jewelry and sculptures but yet, the Aztecs also practiced human
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sacrifice. Some calculations show that emperor Ahuitzotl ordered 20,000 executions during one
single ceremony. This contrast is very strange that is hard for some of us to visualize this
beautiful, but at the same time terrifying civilization.
The Aztec dominion appeared invincible but in February 1519, eleven ships led by the
Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés landed on the coast of Yucatán during the reign of
Motecuhzoma II who is best known as Moctezuma. It is believed that Tenochtitlan was inhabited
by about 250,000 people when Cortés arrived to this city. The clash of this two highly developed
civilization brought catastrophic consequences for the Aztecs. By 1600 the population had
declined to around one million due to war between Aztecs and Cortés army and his Indian allies.
Not only had the brutality of the Spaniard influenced the decline in population but also the low
resistance of the natives to diseases such as smallpox and measles transmitted by the Spanish
conquerors. No doubt that smallpox favored the Spanish conquest over the Aztec empire.
Hernán Cortés victory over Moctezuma
On his article "That Fateful Moment When Two Civilizations Came Face To Face"
Charles L. Mee gives a detailed drafting of what is believed that happened during the Spanish
conquest of the Aztec Empire according to Fray Bernardino de Sahagun and Bernal Díaz.
Sahagun was a missionary who recaptured the events told by Aztec survivors while Díaz was a
soldier from the army of Cortés who chronicled some events years after the conquest. This war
between Spaniards and Aztecs started when Hernán Cortés learned that the Aztec Empire was
highly fragile. The empire consisted of a central government with a weak organization of
villages and cities or states with more than twenty languages and hundreds of different dialects
spoken. The reign was based on conquest and subjugation. This oppression took some of the
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populations under Aztec reign to willingly join Cortes in battle against the Aztec emperor
Moctezuma. Even though Aztecs army greatly outnumbered Spanish army, Mee suggests that
there were multiple factors for the Aztecs not to attack the Spanish in the first place. First, the
Spaniards must have impressed the Indians with their gunpowder, glistening armors and white
horses which made them vulnerable. Many historians have written that Indians were amazed for
watching men riding white horses believing they were gods. Another reason was the tendency of
Aztecs to not kill their enemies but capture them in order to use them as sacrifices for their gods.
They also stopped fighting during the battle to remove their dead and wounded warriors from the
battlefield. Finally, the Spaniards had swords, gunpowder and cannons which were better and
more efficient weapons than obsidian lances that Aztecs used.
On May 1520, the message of another Spanish fleet arriving at San Juan de Ulúa came to
Moctezuma. The fleet captained by Panfilo de Narvaez consisted of 18 ships, 80 horses and 900
soldiers. Most of the Narvaez army joined Cortés including a Negro who was sick with smallpox
which turned to be a very significant part of the Aztec tragedy. The population of the Americas
had no resistance to the virus that caused smallpox, for that reason many died of the disease
along with the warriors that were in combat. The mortality rate in Mexico increased greatly to
the point where people alive could not manage to bury the dead. Smallpox became a silent allied
of Spanish to conquer the Aztec Empire.
A Pestilential Disease Stronger Than an Army
The article “The control of Smallpox in New Spain’s Northern Borderlands” by Thomas
L. Pearcy indicates that recent scientific studies show that this pestilential disease was the
primary factor to eliminate native resistance to Spanish domination. Recent scholarly
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investigation is challenging the belief that Spanish war against the native population is the basis
for the decreased of entire civilizations. It recognizes recurring waves of pestilential death as the
primary mean of depopulation. The article explains how both Natives and Spanish were exposed
to the virus and both populations had human losses. However, Spanish doctors used advanced
technology obtained from previous epidemics on the mother country influenced by the
Enlightenment, while Aztecs suffered disproportionately, trying to cure smallpox using primitive
methods that only favored the virus instead of healing the people. In an effort to control smallpox
Spanish used Variolation.
Variolation consisted in breaking the blisters of a person infected with smallpox one by
one on the eight day of transmission. The purpose was to remove pus from the blisters and place
it on the arms and hands of uninfected people to produce a mild infection creating immunity
against the virus. The problem with Variolation was, that many times it actually produced a
strong infection in others resulting in death. Variolation was introduced to America in the 1720s .
This method is no longer used since it was replaced by the cowpox vaccine introd uced and
financed by King Carlos IV allowing the Spaniards to survive while Natives were deceasing.
which is a safer alternative. Who could imagine that this virus would favor the smallest army in
number to eradicate the greater Aztec Empire?
Conclusion
By reading the different articles discussed on this review of literature, it can be well settle
that smallpox, became an important agent for the Spanish conquest over the Aztec empire.
Smallpox was a pandemic disease introduced to the Aztecs by the Spanish colonizer. Being a
great and powerful civilization, the Aztecs were defenseless against such epidemic to which they
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had not being in contact thus, they had not developed antibodies against it. Definitely Spanish
such as Hernán Cortés doubt not in taking advantage of this situation to gain territory and take
over the capital city Tenochtitlan with the Emperor Moctezuma. Researches prove that Aztec
army greatly surpassed the Spanish army, for that reason is hard to believe that Spanish attacks
by themselves were the only mean of conquest.
Both civilizations were highly advanced and both wanted to rule, unfortunately for
Aztecs, a virus prove to be more dangerous than a complete army with 10 large bronze cannons,
explosive powder and shots. Even when the shields of the Aztecs warriors were much simpler
than the ones of the Spanish army, it is concluded that not only the war devastated the Aztec
population. It was an addition of many factors in which are included the Spanish attacks against
the Aztecs, religious believes, and lack of defense against epidemic diseases such as smallpox.
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Works Cited:
Hofstadter, Dan. "The Aztecs: Blood and Glory." Smithsonian 35.10 (2005): 76-85. MasterFILE
Premier. Web. 26 March 2014.
Mee, Charles L. "That Fateful Moment When Two Civilizations Came Face To Face."
Smithsonian 23. (1992): 56. Biography Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson). Web. 15 April
2014.
Pearcy, Thomas L. "The Control of Smallpox in New Spain's Northern Borderlands." Journal of
The West 29.3 (1990): 90-98. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 April 2014.
Thomson, Mark. “The Migration of Small and Its Indelible Footprints on Latin American
History.” History Teacher 32.1 (1998): 117-131. OmniFile Full Text Select (H.W.
Wilson). Web. 8 April 2014.