Essay: Cortes’s conquest of the Aztecs

The Aztecs were one of the most powerful and meaningful tribes that ever existed in Mexico. Their city named “Tenochtitlan” still lays in Mexico City. Their culture and customs still have great influence in Mexico. In 1519 Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes arrived in Mexico. Montezuma (the emperor of Mexico) welcomed the Spanish as gods, believing they were descendants of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. In 1519, Montezuma invited Cortes to his magnificent palace. Taking advantage of the situation, Cortés took Montezuma hostage and attempted to rule the Aztecs through him. The following year, in 1520, the Aztecs rebelled against the Spanish. Montezuma was killed in the resulting battle. Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish in 1521, signaling the decay of the Aztec empire. This event was of huge significance for Mexico’s history due to the fact that many of Mexico’s customs come from the Spanish. Even though the Aztecs were a very powerful tribe, Cortes knew how to found their weaknesses and took advantage of them. This paper will examine those characteristics and provide insight on Cortes’s methods.
Hernan Cortes was born in Medellin, Extremadura, in Spain year 1485 to a family of minor nobility. After studying for two years, he left school to fight in a military expedition in Italy but became ill and was forced to stay behind. Cortes later contributed to the conquest of Cuba with Diego Velazquez.
Cortes’s rival Montezuma was born in 1480 just five years after Cortes. In 1502 Montezuma became the ninth emperor of the Aztec empire in Mexico. In the Aztec society, warriors, priests, and the nobility were considered to be among the most respected in the Aztecan social hierarchy. Montezuma lived in an immense palace surrounded by his two wives, noblemen, and more than five hundred attendants. Because of the Aztecs’ emphasis on warfare, the warrior class was highly valued, and often warriors would volunteer for the most important Aztec sacrificial rituals. He was a warrior, fact that for the Aztecs attributed a lot of respect. Almost all the time at war, the Aztecs had a large, well functioning army.
The Aztecs were a cruel group that did not get along with any others. No one could understand how this tribe was able to stay isolated for so long. It was questioned as to whether or not they would ever be able to get along with any other tribe peacefully. Dating all the ways back to the first records of the Aztecs, priests say that they immigrated to Tenochtitlan from their home land of Aztlan. Aztlan was somewhere in north Mexico in the desert lands that didn’t have an exact destination. This area was somewhat under control of the Toltec empire. The Toltec ordered the Aztecs to farm vast sections of their land, leading the Aztecs to flee their homeland. From here they moved to Tizapan, which is in the center of present-day Mexico. The main tribe of this land was the Culhuacan tribe, who permitted the Aztecs to stay on their land as long as they became tributaries. Not too long after, a war broke out between the Aztecs and the Culhuacan, and the Aztecs lost. Fleeing once again, they were eventually able to settle in the land of the Tepanec and became King Tezozomoc’s servants. The land on which they were allowed to stay in was a group of islands in the center of Lake Texcoco. Rumor had it that on one of these islands the Aztecs founded the sacred city of Tenochtitlan and immediately after built a type of shrine to their patron god, Huitzilopochtli, the God of War. As the city grew larger, a small group isolated away from the Aztecs and settled on an island close by. This group found the city of Tlatelolco. These two cities, overtime, finally merged with Tlatelolco becoming the trading center and Tenochtitlan becoming the political and religious capital of these two areas. With a rising power from both of these cities, it was known that they were under the power of King Tezozomoc.
Cortes was chosen to make full contact with the Aztecs and gain riches for Spain, convert Indians for the Church, and fame for himself. Cortes accepted because he was waiting for a time to prove himself in an independent adventure. A few Cuban women were brought along to cook meals for the expedition. Fourteen cannons were brought along, as well as sixteen horses. Velazquez tried to stop the mission. Velazquez was afraid that Cortes would become too powerful or betray him. Cortes then left for the coast of Yucatan against the orders of Velazquez. When Cortez arrived, Montezuma was still unsure whether the visitors were divine or
mortal. The Aztecs sent magnificent gifts of gold and silver back to the
Captain-General but at the same time withheld the Spaniards from
approaching Tenochtitlan. In the meantime, messengers from the Totonac nation, who had been
recently conquered by the Aztecs, urged Cortes to ally with them
against the Aztecs. There was tension among the troops
between those loyal to Cortes and those loyal to Velazquez. Some
wanted to strike the center of the empire immediately and take
control of the land for themselves, but others thought it would be
more prudent to return to Cuba and report their findings to the
governor. Hearing of a plot by some soldiers to take a ship and sail back to
Cuba, Cortes gave a
dramatic speech to his soldiers by which he won back most of their
support. The army left the Totonac capital on August 16, 1519, 
with 400 soldiers, fifteen horses, seven artillery pieces, 1,300
Totonac warriors, and 1,000 porters. Cortes’s army then descended into the Valley of Mexico, for the
first time witnessing in the distance the splendor of
Tenochtitlan. On the road to the capital, the army passed through
hamlets where they were offered generous bribes from Montezuma’s
emissaries to turn back. When Cortes failed to accept the bribes, 
Montezuma sent his nephew to welcome the Spaniards and their
entourage of 7,000 Mexican soldiers to Tenochtitlan.
Montezuma arrived at the gates and welcomed Cortes when he arrived to Tenochtitlan. The army was given the palaces of his father, Axayacatl, to be used as barracks. To then prevent the Aztecs from attacking the Spaniards in the position of the less advantage, Cortes took Montezuma as his hostage. He was then able to persuade Montezuma to send out messengers to the nearby communities to collect gold and silver. Part of this was sent to the Spanish monarch in the name of Montezuma and part was divided amongst Cortes’ army.