In 1519 Hernando Cortés (1485-1574) arrived from Cuba with 11 ships, 600 fighting men, 200 servants, 16 horses, 32 crossbows, 13 muskets, and 14 mobile cannons. Whether this was Montezuma’s true belief or not, the legend probably added to the widespread resentment already verging on rebellion. Montezuma II, the Aztec emperor, professed a fear that the Spaniards were followers of the white-skinned and bearded Teotihuacán god, Quetzalcoatl, who had been exiled by the Toltecs because he forbade human sacrifice and had promised a return from across the sea to enforce his law. In the early 1500s unrest ran rampant among many recently subdued tribes, who were forced to pay tribute and furnish sacrificial victims for their Aztec overlords. In Mexico the Spaniards profited from internal problems within the Aztec Empire. Native allies also provided Spanish forces with logistical support and secure bases in friendly territory.īrummett, Edgar, Hackett, Jewsbury, Taylor, Bailkey, Lewis, and Wallbank, Civilization: Past and Present, vol.
With the aid of Doña Marina, the conquistadors forged alliances with peoples who resented domination by the Mexicas, the leaders of the Aztec empire, and who reinforced the small Spanish army with thousands of veteran warriors. Quite apart from military technology, Cortés ’s expedition benefited from divisions among the indigenous peoples of Mexico. Yet weaponry alone clearly would not enable Cortés’s tiny force to overcome a large, densely populated society of about twenty-one million.
Steel swords, muskets, cannons, and horses offered Cortés and his men some advantage over the forces they met and help to account for the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire.
Aztec forces soon drove the conquistadors from the capital, but Cortés built a small fleet of ships, placed Tenochtitlan under siege, and in 1521 starved the city into surrender. They seized the emperor Motecuzoma II, who died in 1520 during a skirmish between Spanish forces and residents of Tenochtitlan. In 1519 Cortés led about 450 men to Mexico and made his way from Veracruz on the Gulf Coast to the island city of Tenochtitlan, the stunningly beautiful Aztec capital situated in Lake Texcoco. The conquest of Mexico began with an expedition to search for gold on the American mainland. These conquests laid the foundations for colonial regimes that would transform the Americas. Between 15 Hernán Cortés and a small band of men brought down the Aztec empire in Mexico, and between 15 Francisco Pizarro and his followers toppled the Inca empire in Peru. During the early sixteenth century, Spanish conquistadors (“conquerors“) pressed beyond the Caribbean islands, moving west into Mexico and south into Panama and Peru. Spanish interest soon shifted from the Caribbean to the American mainland, where settlers hoped to find more resources to exploit. Note: All of the passages below are quoted verbatim.īentley and Ziegler, Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past, vol. Do you still agree with what you thought after reading the primary sources? How do the primary sources included here on-line help you to decide which interpretation you think is best? Make a note of which interpretation you think is best before starting the project. Note where they disagree with each other. Make a list of what these authors agree upon. To begin to develop a sense of how complicated the history of the conquest of Mexico is, look at some of what some popular textbooks have to say.