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The siege of Tenochtitlan was the final, decisive battle that led to the downfall of the Aztec civilization and marked the end of the first phase of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The conquest of Mexico was part of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

Early events

Hernán Cortés landed on the coast of Mexico in 1519 with 550 men and 16 horses, after hearing rumor of a great empire somewhere to the far west of his base in Cuba. He soon came into contact with a number of tribes who resented the Aztec rule; Cortés skirmished with some of these natives, defeating them easily and earning an alliance with them against the Aztecs. In particular, his horses, firearms and iron armor made Cortés and the Spaniards seem otherworldly enough to be mistaken for the god Quetzalcoatl, who was prophesied to return. When Cortés was informed by the Tlaxcalans of an ambush by the Aztec emperor Moctezuma, and was thus able to avoid it, this solidified the emperor's belief that Cortés was a god. Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519.

Hearing that some Spaniards at Vera Cruz (his landing point) were killed by Aztecs, Cortés seized Moctezuma and began to rule the Aztecs with Moctezuma as a puppet ruler. Since the people had no other ruler but Moctezuma, there was little rebellion or dissent until Cortés outlawed the native religion and tried to impose Christianity upon the Aztecs.

At the same time, Cortés learned of another Spanish landing force, under Pánfilo de Narváez, and gained their allegiance with promises of the vast wealth of Tenochtitlan. He then led a small contingent of men to battle Narváez, and assimilated Narváez' army into his own force.

The massacre at the festival of Tóxcatl

Cortés left Pedro de Alvarado in command of Tenochtitlan when he left to fight Narváez. At this time, the Mexica began an Aztec ceremony, for which they had asked permission. Alvarado agreed but only if they guaranteed they were unarmed. It is dificult to determine what happened. An account of the situation by the Spanish relates that they attempted to prevent a human sacrifice, while an Aztec version says the Spaniards craved for the gold of the people. Alvarado ordered to close the door on the recint and ordered an attack on the people, most of them belonging to the upper classes, which would be known as The Massacre in the Main Temple, and as the Spanish attacked, the Aztec warriors came.

The Aztec revolt

The attack at the festival of Tóxcatl incited a revolt and, outnumbered, Alvarado and the Spanish were soon overwhelmed and lost the control of the city. Cortés returned with his 1100 Spanish soldiers to aid in the battle, but his forces were pushed into the palace. Cortés freed Cuitláhuac, hoping that his release would end the revolt. However, as soon as Cuitláhuac was released, he was elected Emperor. The Aztecs then began to surround the palace, and Moctezuma was sent to order his people to cease fighting. He was later killed as a result (whether or not he did as the Spanish ordered him to is uncertain).

In June 1520, Cuitláhuac mounted a determined resistance to the Spaniards. The Aztecs began to attack Cortés' men, launching arrows and javelins. Spanish cannon and arquebuses killed many of the attacking Aztecs, but their numbers were so overwhelming that the Aztec could not be stopped from breaking through the palace walls. The city was laced with canals, and the Aztecs had far superior numbers, as well as control of the bridges over the canals, so attempts on the Spaniards' part to fight back were hopeless. Every Spaniard not killed was wounded.

La Noche Triste

This major Aztec victory is still remembered as "La Noche Triste", the Sad Night. Popular tales say that Cortés wept under a tree the night of his defeat at the hands of the Aztecs. By the end of it, 869 Spaniards lay dead and some 1,200-2,000 Tlaxcalan allies with them, only 20 horses survived (all wounded).

In that “Sad Night” July 1, 1520, the Spaniards attempted to sneak out of the city with as much treasure as possible. Before the Spaniards left, they climbed the steps of the temple to see if the image and the cross were still there. Díaz del Castillo claims they were not, that Moctezuma had rescued them, but is more likely that the Mexicas destroyed them. Before they left, the Spaniards set fire to the temple. *

Cortés had hoped to break out by muffling the horses' hooves and carrying boards to fill in one of the causeways (which had been opened to prevent escape), one account says a woman fetching water saw them and alerted the city, another says it was a sentry. The fighting was ferocious, and many of the Spaniards were hindered by having loaded themselves down with as much gold as they could carry.

Cortés and his troops fled from Tenochtitlan chased to death by the Aztecs. Only 440 Spaniards escaped the killing along with a few thousand of the allied Indians. 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, ten conquistadors, Alvarado's lover 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.) The gap in the causeway, removed to prevent their escape, was so filled with bodies that the fugitives just ran across.

The Aztecs insisted in chasing Cortés in his retreat as to destroy the weak remnants of his army. But, a few days later, Cortés, went suddenly back to confront the Aztecs with the scanty rest of his troops, and smashed them in the Otumba Valley (Otampan), where (probably) more than 20,000 Aztecs were killed and the rest of their army was disbanded. After this, Cortés returned to his base in Tlaxcala to build up the “Final Battle to Tenochtitlan”.

It has been speculated that Cortés only survived because the Mexica-Aztecs wanted him alive to sacrifice to their god of war. Surely the offering of the heart of such a warrior would win back their god of war, Huitzilopochtli.

Battle of Otumba

Even outside the city, the Spaniards faced fierce struggles and lost many more men before they found refuge near Tlaxcalan territory, where they were given assistance and comfort.

Although the Spanish would have been easily destroyed had the Aztecs mounted a rapid pursuit, Cuitláhuac ordered his men to hold back because he desired a proper battle (despite the fact that he had only a small portion of the Aztec military in fighting condition). He set in motion a plan to defend the Aztec empire in a succession of massive battles all across the Mexico basin.

A week after La Noche Triste, the Spaniards passed practically in the shadow of the pyramids at Teotihuacan and then, on the plain of Otumba, they met a vast Aztec army intent on their destruction. The Aztecs had underestimated the shock value of the Spanish cavalry because all they had seen was the horses traveling on the wet paved streets of Tenochtitlan. They had never seen them used in battle. Cortés saw an opening to an important-looking general (Cihaucu), made for him instantly with several of his horsemen, captured the general and turned the tide of the battle. The Aztecs retreated, leaving the path to Tlaxcala clear for the Spaniards.

The Tlaxcalteca remain loyal to Cortés

The Tlaxcalteca could have crushed the Spaniards at this point. In fact, the Aztecs sent emissaries promising peace and prosperity if they would do just that. The Tlaxcalteca leaders rebuffed the overtures of the Aztec emissaries, deciding to continue their friendship with Cortés.

Cortés managed to negotiate an alliance with the Tlaxcalteca, but on heavy terms: they expected to have the city of Cholula, a part of any spoillage they could get, the right to build a citadel in Tenochtitlan (for more control of the city) and finally, to be exempted from any future tribute. Cortés was willing to promise anything and in the name of King Charles of Spain, he agreed. The Spanish authorities later disowned this treaty.

The Spaniards complained about having to pay for their food and water with their gold and other jewels that they had escaped with. *

Most of the Spanish survivors of La Noche Triste wanted nothing more than to go home, or at the very least back to Vera Cruz to wait for reinforcements.

Cortés saw it differently. Not only had he staked everything he had or could borrow on the enterprise, but he had completely compromised himself by defying Velazquez. He knew that in defeat he would be considered a traitor to Spain, but that in success he would be its hero. And his Tlaxcalan allies were still loyal. So he argued, cajoled, bullied and coerced his troops, and they began preparing for the siege of Mexico. By happy coincidence, reinforcements and supplies were beginning to trickle into Villa Rica and from there to the interior.

More Spaniards came to replenish the depleted resources of the defeated soldiers, bringing 200 more men, 80 horses, ammunition and guns, 13 brigantines they had built for a naval assault on the capital.

The joint forces of Spain and Tlaxcala, began to take the Aztec cities, one by one.

Siege of Tenochtitlan

This time, Cortés used a complex strategy to lay siege to the city. He divided his force into four groups, the first three attacking towns around the shore and securing the causeways leading out of the city. The fourth group, led by Cortés, consisted of the thirteen brigantines, which he sailed on the lake and used to eliminate any effective Aztec canoe counter attack. After some initial quarelling amongst his commanders, and the defection of one Tlaxcalan leader who was Xicotencatl the young, Cortés was ready to attack.

Naval blockade

Cortés ordered his master shipwright, Martín López, a Basque who was arguably his most critical survivor, to build 12 brigantines for a siege of the city. Indian porters brought all the supplies stripped from the original fleet over the mountains from the coast, while Cortés and his allies secured all the towns around the Tenochtitlán lake system.

Still, this phase of the campaign was arduous and brutal. Spanish foot soldiers helped kill Indians for their allies to "dress out", but also rescued many of the women Cortés planned to brand on the face as slaves. They hid the pretty ones in the bushes, sleeping with them during the night, and setting them free in the morning (or marrying them, now that their husbands had been devoured).

Battle Of Tacuba

In March of 1521 Cortes assembled his allies. Under Spanish command were around 80,000 men (less than 600 of them were Spaniards and only 40 were cavalry), the plan being to gain control of communities near Tenochtitlan as a springboard for the final attack. As they reached the city of Tacuba, he was met by a massive army, led by the new Emperor Cuauhtemoc (Cuitláhuac died of smallpox only about 40 days into his rule). Though bloody, and long, Cuauhtemoc managed to defeat the Spanish and halt the march to the capital in a brilliant land and naval attack. This one battle significantly pushed back the Spanish-Native confederacy and they subsequently lost control of the area. Though a major defeat, the battle would serve a major strategic gain for them. Cortés was able to cut off the water supply to Tenochtitlan from Chapultepec, which would later ravage the city and lead to an earlier defeat in the siege. Another important note of the battle was that the Mexica had grown accustomed to the Spanish tactics, and had in this battle used their knowledge to large effect, which would make the factor of guns nearly obsolete (though many of these guns were out of date and clumsy in the close-combat situation the Spanish found themselves in).

Smallpox decimates the Aztecs

Aztec resistance was almost entirely wiped out at this point from contracting diseases at battles. The siege of Tenochtitlán began at a time when smallpox struck with a vengeance. Cortés's Indian allies suffered as well, with an estimated 40% mortality, but the effect on morale in Tenochtitlán, as they began to starve as well, must have been horrendous.

By the time Cortés arrived at the shores of Tenochtitlan, the population of the city had been ravaged by smallpox, which had been brought by a Spanish slave who had been abandoned in the capital during La Noche Triste.

With the Spaniards controlling the causeways, Tenochtitlan was now cut off from external food supplies. By the end of May, the aqueduct providing water to the city from Chapultepec was destroyed, as was the canoe fleet. However, gaps created in the causeways made invasion on foot all but impossible.

The final battle went on for ten weeks. One of the brigantines fired into the city, and served to transport soldiers who enjoyed some early successes but were driven back by the overwhelming numbers of Aztecs. The Spaniards and their allies fought their way across the causeways, were driven back and advanced again.

Fall of Tenochtitlan

The Spaniards slowly, gradually made their way into the city. When they got into the city, every rooftop was an enemy stronghold.

Most of the population took refuge in the city of Tlatelolco. Tlatelolco was almost adjacent to Tenochtitlan. Cortéz sent Indian emisaries from a conquered Aztec city to have the Tlatelolcas join his side and surrender the Mexica refugees, but the Tlatelolca remained loyal to the Mexica. In the cronicles of Tlatelolco, they told they took the last burden of the battle, and at the end the women cut their hair and joined the battle.

Most of the city was destroyed, because the only way for Cortés to hold a sector was to raze it. Some have conjectured that Cortés genuinely wanted to spare the beautiful city, and with so many Mexica attacking from the roofs it seems plausible to some that the invading forces pulled houses down street by street out of expediency, thus finding it necessary to destroy the whole city. Yet in the end, with a majority of the city destroyed, the Spanish destroyed everything that remained.

Smallpox and the lack of fresh water and food eventually took their toll upon the Aztecs. Still, the Aztecs refused to give up. By August, they were confined to the formerly great market precinct of Tlatelolco.

With Cortés closing in, Cuauhtémoc considered escaping to the mainland where he planned to keep up the struggle in guerrilla fashion. However, he decided instead to surrender to Cortés in order to allow some of his people to escape. Before he surrendered he gave the people his last Mandate, telling the people to take the teachings into their homes in secret until the day the sun shines upon the Aztecs once again. Cuauhtémoc's surrender effectively ended the Aztec resistance.

On August 13, Cortés finally entered the now-empty city once again, officially conquering it.

Sources

Primary sources

  • Hernán Cortés, Letters – available as Letters from Mexico translated by Anthony Pagden (1986) ISBN 0300090943
  • Francisco López de Gómara, Hispania Victrix; First and Second Parts of the General History of the Indies, with the whole discovery and notable things that have happened since they were acquired until the year 1551, with the conquest of Mexico and New Spain
  • 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
  • "Hernando Cortés" by Fisher, M. & Richardson K.
  • "Hernando Cortés" Crossroads Resource Online.
  • "Hernando Cortés" by Jacobs, W.J., New York, N.Y.:Franklin Watts, Inc. 1974.
  • "The World’s Greatest Explorers: Hernando Cortés." Chicago, by Stein, R.C., Illinois: Chicago Press Inc. 1991.
  • Davis, Paul K. (2003). "Besieged: 100 Great Sieges from Jericho to Sarajevo." Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • History of the Conquest of Mexico, with a Preliminary View of Ancient Mexican Civilization, and the Life of the Conqueror, Hernando Cortes By William H. Prescott *

See also

External links

1521 | Sieges | Battles of Spain | Battles of the Aztec Empire | Spanish colonization of the Americas | Aztec history

Noche Triste | Noche Triste | La Noche Triste

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Siege of Tenochtitlan".

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