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La Noche Triste ("the sad night") was an episode in the Spanish conquest of Mexico where Hernan Cortes' expedition was nearly annihilated in the Aztec capital, and barely succeeded in escaping the Aztecs by night.
Prologue
The Cortés expedition arrived at Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, on November 8, 1519 and shortly thereafter had taken Moctezuma II, the Aztec Hueyi Tlatoani, captive. During the following six months, Cortés and his native allies, the Tlaxcalans were increasingly unwelcome guests in the capital.
In June, news from the Gulf coast reached Cortés that a much larger party of Spaniards had been sent by Governor Velázquez of Cuba to arrest Cortés for insubordination. Leaving Tenochtitlán in the care of his trusted lieutenant, Pedro de Alvarado, Cortés marched to the coast, and defeated the Cuban expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez. When Cortés told the defeated soldiers about the city of gold, Tenochtitlán, they agreed to join him.
During his absence, Alvarado led an unprovoked attack against many of the Aztec nobles in the main temple, slaughtering dozens or hundreds of them. (See The massacre in the Main Temple, Tenochtitlán.)
Upon his return in late June, Cortés found the Aztecs had elected a new Hueyi Tlatoani, Cuitláhuac. Shortly thereafter, the Aztecs besieged the palace housing the Spaniards and Moctezuma. Cortés ordered Moctezuma to speak to his people from a palace balcony and persuade them to let the Spanish return to the coast in peace. Moctezuma was jeered and stones and darts were thrown at him. He fell with what was reported as a concussion. Moctezuma died a few days later, whether from his injuries or a victim of the Spaniards, it is not known.
La Noche Triste
Under attack, with food and water in short supply, Cortés decided to break out of the city. Bridges on four of the eight causeways into the city had been removed, so a portable bridge was devised. The gold and other booty gained from the Aztecs were packed; many of the Spaniards had loaded themselves down with as much gold as they could carry. Horses' hooves were muffled.
On the night of July 1, 1520,Various sources give dates ranging from June 30 to July 4, a problem further confounded by the use of the Julian calendar in Europe at this time, which had diverged from the true (solar) date by almost 12 days. his small army left their compound and headed west, toward the Tlacopan causeway. Apparently unguarded — perhaps due to the rain or carelessness or the inability of the Aztecs to anticipate night warfare — the Spaniards made their way out of their complex unnoticed, and wound their way through the sleeping city. Before reaching the causeway, they were noticed by Aztec warriors, who sounded the alarm.Again, sources diverge here, with some stating that a woman filling water jugs sounded the alarm.
The fighting was ferocious. As the Spaniards and allies reached the causeway, hundreds of canoes appeared in the waters alongside to harry the troops. The Spaniards and their native allies fought their way across the causeway in the rain, sometimes using the portable bridge to cover the gaps, although as the battle progressed some gaps had become so filled with wreackage and bodies that the fugitives were able to walk across. In some cases, the gold and equipment so weighted down the conquistadores that they drowned.
Cortes claimed only 150 Spaniards were lost along with 2,000 native allies. Thoan Cano, anther primary source, gives 1150 Spaniards dead (probably more than the total number of Spaniards) while Francisco López de Gómara, Cortes' chaplain, estimated 450 Spaniards and 4,000 allies had died.Prescott, Book 5, Chapter 3 Sources report that no man was left unwounded. Cortés, Alvarado and the most skilled of the men managed to fight their way out of Tenochtitlán and escape. The women survivors included La Malinche, Alvarado's mistress, and two of Moctezuma's daughters in Cortés's harem. (A third died, apparently leaving behind her infant by Cortés, the mysterious second "María" named in his will.)
Aftermath
Further battles awaited the Spaniards and their allies as they fought their way around the north end of Lake Zumpango. Two weeks later, at the Battle of Otumba, not far from Teotihuacan, they turned to fight the pursuing Aztecs, convincingly defeating them —— according to Cortes because he slew the Aztec commander —— and giving the Spaniards a small respite that allowed them to reach Tlaxcala.
It was there in Tlaxcala that Cortes plotted the siege of Tenochtitlan and the eventual destruction of the Aztec empire.
Footnotes
References
Primary sources
- Hernan Cortés, Letters – available as Letters from Mexico translated by Anthony Pagden (1986) ISBN 0300090943
- Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain – available as The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico: 1517-1521 ISBN 030681319X
- The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico by Miguel Leon-Portilla ISBN 0807055018
Secondary sources
- Conquest: Cortés, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico by Hugh Thomas (1993) ISBN 0671511041
- Cortés and the Downfall of the Aztec Empire by Jon Manchip White (1971) ISBN 0786702710
- History of the Conquest of Mexico. by William H. Prescott ISBN 0375758038
- The Rain God cries over Mexico by László Passuth
- Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest by Matthew Restall, Oxford University Press (2003) ISBN 0195160770
- The Conquest of America by Tzvetan Todorov (1996) ISBN 0061320951
See also
External links
- Hernando Cortes on the Web – web directory with thumbnail galleries
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1911)
- Conquistadors, with Michael Wood – website for 2001 PBS documentary
- Ibero-American Electronic Text Series presented online by the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center.
"La Noche Triste"