Spanish conquest of Mexico: A Visual History

The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519-1521) began when Hernan Cortes landed on the Gulf coast with about 500 men, 16 horses and a few cannon, defied his governor, and marched inland. Allying with the Totonacs and, after hard fighting, the Tlaxcalans, he entered Tenochtitlan on 8 November 1519 and seized Moctezuma II. Expelled with heavy losses in the Night of Sorrows (June 1520), the Spaniards regrouped at Tlaxcala while smallpox ravaged the city; in 1521 Cortes returned with brigantines and up to 100,000 native allies, besieged Tenochtitlan for 93 days and captured Cuauhtemoc on 13 August. New Spain was built on the ruins.

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Approximate forces at the siege of Tenochtitlan, 1521

Timeline of the Spanish conquest of Mexico

1. 1519
   Cortes lands; alliance with Tlaxcala; enters TenochtitlanNovember: Moctezuma seized.
2. 1520
   Alvarado's massacre; Night of Sorrows; smallpox
3. 1521
   Siege of TenochtitlanCity falls 13 August.
4. 1522
   Cortes governor of New Spain
5. 1525
   Cuauhtemoc executed

The march inland

Cortes founded Veracruz to legalise his expedition, scuttled his ships to prevent retreat, and marched with the interpreter Malinche and Totonac allies. The Tlaxcalans, old enemies of the Aztecs, fought him for weeks and then allied. At Cholula the Spaniards massacred thousands of nobles, claiming a plot. On 8 November 1519 Moctezuma met Cortes on the causeway; within a week the Spaniards had taken the emperor hostage in his own city.

The Night of Sorrows

Cortes left to defeat a force sent to arrest him and returned to find that Pedro de Alvarado had massacred nobles at a festival and the city had risen. Moctezuma died, stoned by his own people or killed by the Spaniards. On the night of 30 June to 1 July 1520 the Spaniards fled along the western causeway and lost hundreds of men and most of their gold. They won a desperate battle at Otumba and reached Tlaxcala. Smallpox, brought by a soldier, then killed perhaps 40 percent of the Aztec population, including Moctezuma's successor Cuitlahuac.

The siege

Cortes had 13 brigantines built at Tlaxcala and carried in pieces to the lake, gathered Spanish reinforcements and a vast native army, and cut the aqueduct and causeways in May 1521. Fighting street by street, the Spaniards and allies demolished the city as they advanced; famine and disease did the rest. Cuauhtemoc was captured trying to escape by canoe on 13 August. Cortes tortured him for gold and later hanged him in 1525. Mexico City rose on the site and Tlaxcala received privileges for its help.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Aztec Empire (1428 to 1521)
• Spanish Empire (1492 to 1976)
• Tarascan Empire (1300 to 1530)

Wars of the same era and region

• Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire (1532 to 1572)
• Spanish conquest of New Granada (1525 to 1540)
• Mexican War of Independence (1810 to 1821)

8 surprising things about the Spanish conquest of Mexico

1. Cortes had no royal authority; he was in mutiny against the governor of Cuba throughout the conquest.
2. The Tlaxcalans and other native peoples made up perhaps 99 percent of the army that took Tenochtitlan.
3. Malinche (Dona Marina), Cortes's interpreter and mistress, spoke Nahuatl and Maya and is both reviled and honoured in Mexico.
4. The Spaniards mistook Tenochtitlan's causeways and canals for Venice; Bernal Diaz called it an enchanted vision.
5. Smallpox killed the Aztec emperor Cuitlahuac after 80 days on the throne.
6. The story that the Aztecs took Cortes for the god Quetzalcoatl was largely a later Spanish and native invention.
7. The 13 brigantines built for the siege were the first European ships assembled in the Americas.
8. The Aztec Templo Mayor was found under Mexico City's centre in 1978 by electricity workers.

Sources

• Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire Wikipedia
• Hernan Cortes Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Cortes and the Fall of the Aztec Empire World History Encyclopedia
• Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest (2003) Oxford University Press

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