Cortez and the Aztecs
Name___________________________________________________Date____________
Hernando Cortes
In the decade before the Spanish arrived in Mexico, Aztec Emperor Montezuma II and his people were
filled with a sense of foreboding. A series of evil omens had foretold of calamities to come. A fiery comet
crossed the sky. The temple of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, burst into flames. The Lake of Mexico
boiled and rose, flooding into houses. A weeping woman passed by in the middle of the night, crying "My
children, we must flee far away from this city!" Fishermen discovered a bird that wore a strange mirror in
the crown of its head. Montezuma looked into the mirror and saw a distant plain, with people making war
against each other and riding on the backs of animals resembling deer.
An agitated Montezuma demanded that his soothsayers explain the meaning of these dire signs
and was told that they prophesied the destruction of his kingdom. In fact, Montezuma had reason
to be fearful - the Spanish had settled in Hispaniola and Cuba and were making their way toward
his empire.
The Spanish had made several expeditions to the nearby Yucatan in 1517 and had returned with
wonderous tales of a high-cultured Mayan civilization and gold riches. The news of these
discoveries made an electrifying impression on the Spanish colonists in Cuba. Among these was
Hernán Cortés, Chief Magistrate of Santiago. The Spanish governor of Cuba, Diego de
Velásquez, told Cortés that he would provide two or three ships if Cortés would find the rest of the
money, and lead the army. Cortés agreed and on October 23, 1518, Velásquez appointed him
"captain-general" of a new expedition to the Yucatan.
A fragile state
The Spaniards were advancing on an Aztec empire in a fragile state, striken with military failures,
economic trouble, and social unrest. Aztec military virtues and the rigid class structure had
loosened. No innovator, Montezuma had attempted to centralize power and maintain the overextended empire bequeathed to him. This domain, which had rapidly expanded over the Valley of
Mexico, and into Central America during the fifteenth century, was an extortionist regime that
relied on force to extract prisoners, tribute, and food levies from neighboring peoples. There was
no idea of consolidation, nothing in it for the subject peoples. As the Aztec state weakened, its
rulers and priests continued to demand human sacrifice to feed its gods. By 1519, the Aztec
Empire was not only weak within, but despised and feared from without. When hostilities with the
Spanish began, the Aztecs had few allies.
The conquest
"A ball of stone comes out shooting sparks and raining fire. It makes smoke that smells of rotten mud.
When the ball of stone hits a tree, the trunk splits into splinters, as if it has exploded from the inside. They
cover their heads and bodies with metal. Their swords are metal, their bows are metal, their shields and
spears are metal. Their deer carry them on their backs, making them as tall as the roof of a house…We are
powerless against him. We are nothing compared to these strangers." – Anonymous Aztec Eyewitness
Imagine what Montezuma must have felt like when he heard this news from his spies. Though the Aztec
priests cursed the Spaniards with magic spells, this did not make them turn back. So Montezuma sent gifts
to the beings who had dared to enter his kingdom, and he waited. Little did he know that the Conquest of
his empire was beginning.
Cortes and his expedition set off to meet Montezuma. The expedition marched over 400 miles
inland. They scaled two mountain ranges and crossed a plain with stagnant water. Constantly threatened by
native people who vowed to kill them and eat their flesh with chili peppers, the Spanish soldiers begged
Cortes to turn back.
Early Victories
Cortes' expedition entered the Tlaxcalan region. Over 50,000 Tlaxcalans fought the 400
Spaniards and were defeated as a result of the superior Spanish weapons and horses. Cortes
rewarded the Tlaxcalans, who offered to provide Cortes with 10,000 warriors for his march on
Tenochtitlan.
The First Occupation of Tenochtitlan
On the Aztec Day of 1 Wind, the Spanish entered the city of Tenochtitlan to meet Montezuma.
Coincidentally, 1 Wind is Quetzalcoatl's Day, attributed to the whirlwind when robbers and
wizards are supposed to do their worst, robbing and violating. Montezuma greeted the Spanish
with an elaborate ceremony and thousands of attendants. "This is what our kings and those
who ruled this city told us: that you would come to assume your rightful place. Welcome to
your kingdom, lords!" Montezuma said on first meeting Cortes.
The Aztecs housed the Spanish in a wondrous palace. When Montezuma asked Cortes what it
would take to make the Spanish leave his empire, Cortes replied, "We Spanish suffer from a
disease of the heart, which can be cured only by gold." Cortes decided to take Montezuma
hostage, falsely claiming that the emperor had ordered an attack on his forces on the coast.
When Governor Velazquez of Cuba realized that Cortes was no longer following his orders, he
sent a large army to arrest him. Cortes took 100 of his men and returned to the coast, where
he easily defeated Velazquez's army, ensuring his free reign in Mexico.
Back in Tenochtitlan, Cortes' captain, Pedro de Alvarado, gave permission for the Aztecs to
celebrate a festival. As the unarmed worshippers danced and sang, the Spaniards suddenly
attacked the Aztecs. Alvarado later explained the attack by stating that he thought the Aztecs
were going to try to free Montezuma.
The Aztecs Fight Back
The Aztecs quickly cut off supplies of food from the Spanish and attacked the palace where
they were holding Montezuma. When Cortes received news that the Aztecs had attacked and
imprisoned his soldiers, he returned from the coast to Tenochtitlan. Wave after wave of Aztec
warriors charged the Spanish palace. Many Spaniards tried to escape along the causeway, but
Cortes and some of his men escaped to the Great Pyramid and set fire to the idols in the
temples. The next day, Cortes took Montezuma to the palace roof to try to negotiate with the
Aztec soldiers, who attacked them with stones, injuring Montezuma.
In a desperate move, the Spanish and their Tlaxcalan allies decided to take advantage of a
dark, rainy night to escape from Tenochtitlan. Cortes loaded seven horses and 80 Tlaxcalan
porters with gold from the treasure house and gave the rest of the heavy gold to his soldiers.
A woman getting water from the lake spotted the escaping Spaniards and the Aztecs quickly
launched a surprise attack. To prevent the Spaniards from escaping, the Aztecs removed the
drawbridges on the causeway, but Cortes' carpenters had built portable bridges.
Cortes' Return to Tenochtitlan
Cortes retreated to Tlaxcala, where he gained new troops and supplies from Cuba, trained new
Tlaxcalan allies, and planned an attack by water on Tenochtitlan. Cortes gained control of the
towns around the lakeshore. After Christmas 1520, Cortes led an army of 16,000 men back to
Tenochtitlan.
The Aztecs, under their new leader Cuauhtemoc, were ready and had built barricades of rubble
and removed the bridges in the causeways. They had also put sharpened stakes underwater in
the canals. As the Aztecs prepared for war, smallpox continued to devastate the native
population of Tenochtitlan.
Cortes attacked Tenochtitlan from three directions at once with 13 new ships. The Aztecs had
more than 200,000 canoes. It took Cortes three months to reach the sacred center of
Tenochtitlan. The fighting was so fierce that the lake water turned red with blood. Aztec
soldiers sacrificed Spanish soldiers and rolled their heads along the causeways. The Spanish
could not move "without treading on the bodies and heads of dead Indians."
In the final all-out attack on the center of the city, 15,000 Aztecs died that day alone. Emperor
Cuauhtemoc and his last few supporters tried to escape in a canoe, but were captured by the
Spaniards. The siege of Tenochtitlan was over. In the Aztec calendar, this was the first day of
the Great Feast of the Dead, a month of traditional lamentation and remembrance.
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Why was Aztec emperor Montezuma II
filled with a sense of foreboding?
Write down two of the evil omens that
happened.
Why did Montezuma have reason to be
fearful?
Who was Hernan Cortes?
Write down three problems the Aztec
empire had.
How were the Spanish described by the
anonymous Aztec eyewitness?
What was the initial response of the Aztecs
to the Spanish?
Why did the Spanish beg Cortes to turn
back?
Why did the Spanish beat the Tlaxacans?
How did they help Cortes?
How did Montezuma react to Cortes?
What “disease” did the Spanish have?
How did Cortes and his men get away?
What was Cortes plan for his second attack?
What was the fighting like in the battle?
How many Aztecs died in the final day of
battle?