The Spanish conquest of the Mexica state, which took place between 1519 and 1521, is one of the most thoroughly documented and most fiercely debated events in world history. The conquest was carried out by a small band of Spaniards, perhaps 600 at the height of the campaign, led by Hernán Cortés. The Spanish were able to defeat the Mexica state because of a combination of factors, including the superior military technology of the Spanish, the introduction of European diseases, the political divisions of the Mexica state, the strategic alliances that Cortés formed with the enemies of the Mexica, and the religious and political appeal of the Spanish to the subject peoples of the empire. The fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521 was the formal end of the Mexica state, but the conquest was followed by decades of indigenous resistance and by a demographic collapse of catastrophic proportions.
Hernán Cortés Before the Conquest
Hernán Cortés was born in 1485 in Medellín, in the province of Extremadura, Spain. He came from a family of minor nobility, and he studied law at the University of Salamanca for a time before dropping out to seek his fortune in the Americas. He arrived in the Americas in 1504, and he settled in the colony of Hispaniola, where he served as a notary and a farmer. In 1511, he participated in the conquest of Cuba, and he was given a large estate and a position in the colonial government.
Cortés was an ambitious and intelligent man, and he was determined to make his mark in the New World. He heard of the wealth of the Mexica state from various sources, and he was determined to lead an expedition to the mainland. He organized an expedition in 1518, and he was appointed as its commander by Diego Velázquez, the governor of Cuba. The expedition was supposed to be a trading mission, but Cortés had other plans. He was determined to conquer the Mexica state and to claim the wealth of the empire for himself.
Cortés set sail from Cuba in February 1519 with eleven ships, about 600 men, 16 horses, and a small number of cannons. He landed on the coast of Mexico near modern Veracruz in April 1519, and he founded a settlement, which he called Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. He then began his march to Tenochtitlan.
The March to Tenochtitlan
In August 1519, Cortés left the coast and began his march to Tenochtitlan. The march took him through the territory of the Tlaxcalans, a fiercely independent people who had resisted Mexica conquest and who were traditional enemies of the Mexica. The Tlaxcalans initially opposed the Spanish, and there were several fierce battles. Cortés, however, was able to negotiate a peace with the Tlaxcalans, and the Tlaxcalans became his most important allies in the conquest of the Mexica state. The Tlaxcalans provided thousands of warriors for the campaign against Tenochtitlan, and they were essential to the Spanish victory.
The march from Tlaxcala to Tenochtitlan took Cortés through the Valley of Mexico, where he was received by a series of peoples who were hostile to the Mexica, including the Otomi, the Totonacs, and the Acolhua of Texcoco. Cortés also made contact with the Mexica themselves, who sent increasingly elaborate delegations to greet him. The Mexica were divided about how to respond to the Spanish, with some counselors urging war and others urging peace. Moctezuma II himself was increasingly anxious, and he continued to receive the Spanish with elaborate ceremony and gifts.
Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan in November 1519. He was received by Moctezuma in a series of elaborate ceremonies, and the Spanish were housed in the palace of Axayacatl, the father of Moctezuma. The subsequent months were marked by a series of misunderstandings, provocations, and outbreaks of violence. Cortés took Moctezuma hostage in November 1519, an act that disrupted Mexica government and provoked resistance. The Spanish used Moctezuma as a puppet ruler, and they extracted from him a series of concessions, including the surrender of gold and the acknowledgment of the Spanish king as overlord.
The Noche Triste and the Retreat
The situation in Tenochtitlan deteriorated in the spring of 1520, when Cortés was forced to leave the city to deal with a Spanish expedition that had been sent from Cuba to arrest him. Cortés left Pedro de Alvarado in charge of the Spanish forces in Tenochtitlan. Impulsive and eager to act, Alvarado committed one of the great atrocities of the conquest when he ordered the massacre of Mexica nobles during the festival of Toxcatl in May 1520. The massacre provoked a Mexica uprising, and the Spanish were besieged in the palace of Axayacatl.
Cortés returned to Tenochtitlan in June 1520, and he found the situation desperate. The Spanish were exhausted and short of supplies, and the Mexica were resisting fiercely. Cortés tried to use Moctezuma to calm the situation, but Moctezuma was killed in the fighting, either by the Spanish or by the Mexica. On the night of June 30, 1520, the Spanish attempted to break out of the city, an event known as La Noche Triste. Spanish losses were staggering, and the gold and silver they had gathered were lost beneath the waters of Lake Texcoco.
The Siege of Tenochtitlan
After the disaster of La Noche Triste, Cortés fell back to Tlaxcala to rebuild his expedition. New recruits arrived from Cuba and from Spain, and at Tlaxcala the brigantines he had ordered built on the coast were dragged over the mountains in pieces and reassembled on the lake. From the deck of a brigantine the Spanish would at last be able to challenge the canoes that had so far controlled the waters around Tenochtitlan. Cortés returned to the siege of Tenochtitlan in May 1521. The siege lasted for several months and was marked by house-to-house fighting, starvation, and a devastating smallpox epidemic that killed much of the Mexica leadership — including the emperor Cuitláhuac, who had replaced Moctezuma after his death in 1520.
The young emperor Cuauhtémoc, raised to the throne after Cuitláhuac’s death from smallpox, refused to surrender even as the city fell around him. Captured in August 1521 while trying to escape by canoe, he was brought before Cortés, who treated him with respect but kept him in captivity. The Mexica hoped for some years that Cuauhtémoc would be allowed to return and rule as a Spanish vassal, but in 1525 Cortés had him hanged on charges of conspiracy, putting an end to the line of independent Mexica tlatoque.
The Importance of Indigenous Allies
The Spanish conquest of the Mexica state is often portrayed as a Spanish triumph, but it was in fact a multi-ethnic campaign in which the indigenous allies played a crucial role. The Tlaxcalans, in particular, provided thousands of warriors for the campaign, and they were essential to the Spanish victory. The Tlaxcalans had a long history of conflict with the Mexica, and they were determined to see the Mexica state destroyed. The Tlaxcalans provided the bulk of the infantry in the siege of Tenochtitlan, and they were the principal force in the house-to-house fighting.
The Totonacs, the Tlascalans, and other peoples also provided important support for the campaign. The Totonacs, who had been recently conquered by the Mexica, provided food and logistical support for the Spanish. The Otomi, who had been at the margin of the Mexica empire, provided important intelligence about the Mexica state. The peoples of the southern Valley of Mexico, including the Xochimilcans, joined the campaign against Tenochtitlan and provided important naval support for the siege.
The role of the indigenous allies has been a major focus of modern scholarship on the conquest, and it has led to a revision of the traditional Spanish narrative. The conquest is now seen as a multi-causal event, in which the military, the biological, the political, and the cultural factors all played a role. The role of the indigenous allies has also been emphasized, and the conquest is now seen as much as an indigenous civil war as a Spanish conquest.
The Significance of the Conquest
The Spanish conquest of the Mexica state was one of the most consequential events in world history. The conquest brought to an end the last independent state of Mesoamerica, and it inaugurated three centuries of Spanish colonial rule in Mexico. The conquest also had a devastating impact on the indigenous population, and the demographic collapse that followed was one of the great catastrophes of world history. The conquest also marked the beginning of the global exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and ideas that is known as the Columbian Exchange, and it shaped the history of the modern world in countless ways.
The conquest is also one of the most fiercely debated events in world history, and the debate continues to this day. The Spanish chroniclers portrayed the conquest as a heroic and righteous campaign, in which a small band of Christians overcame a vast pagan empire. The indigenous chroniclers, working in the colonial period, offered a more complex view, in which the conquest was a tragedy that brought disaster to the indigenous peoples. Modern scholars, working with both Spanish and indigenous sources, have produced a more nuanced view, in which the conquest is seen as a multi-causal event with complex causes and consequences.
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See also:
- Who was Hernán Cortés before the conquest? — the man behind the conquest
- What was the route of Cortés to Tenochtitlan? — the march
- What happened during the Noche Triste? — the retreat
- Spanish Conquest and Fall of the Aztec Empire — the broader context
- Indigenous Resistance After the Fall of Tenochtitlan — the aftermath
- Aztec Warfare and Conquest — the broader context