The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was a pivotal event in the history of the Americas, marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire, ultimately reshaping the course of human history. Taking place between 1519 and 1521, this event saw the Spanish conquistador Hernn Corts, and his small army of soldiers and indigenous allies, overthrowing one of the most powerful empires in Mesoamerica.

Led by the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II, the Aztec Empire had established dominance over central Mexico through military conquest and intricate political alliances. A combination of factors including superior weaponry, strategic alliances with rival indigenous groups, and the impact of European diseases contributed to the downfall of the Aztec civilization.

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The conquest of Tenochtitln, the capital of the Aztec Empire, marked the beginning of Spanish dominance in the region and the establishment of the colony of New Spain. This conquest had profound consequences, as it led to the cultural assimilation, subjugation, and decline of indigenous civilizations in the Americas, while also paving the way for the emergence of a new social hierarchy dominated by Spanish conquerors and their descendants.

Following an earlier expedition to Yucatn led by Juan de Grijalva in 1518, Spanish conquistador Hernndo Corts led an expedition (entrada) to Mexico. The next year, Corts and his retinue set sail for Mexico.[7] The Spanish campaign against the Aztec Empire had its final victory on 13 August 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Corts and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor Cuauhtmoc and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. The fall of Tenochtitlan marks the beginning of Spanish rule in central Mexico, and they established their capital of Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan.

Corts made alliances with tributary city-states (altepetl) of the Aztec Empire as well as their political rivals, particularly the Tlaxcaltecs and Tetzcocans, a former partner in the Aztec Triple Alliance. Other city-states also joined, including Cempoala and Huejotzingo and polities bordering Lake Texcoco, the inland lake system of the Valley of Mexico. Particularly important to the Spanish success was a multilingual (Nahuatl, a Maya dialect, and Spanish) Nahua-speaking woman enslaved by the Mayas, known to the Spanish conquistadors as Doa Marina, and later as La Malinche. After eight months of battles and negotiations, which overcame the diplomatic resistance of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II to his visit, Corts arrived in Tenochtitlan on 8 November 1519, where he took up residence with fellow Spaniards and their indigenous allies. When news reached Corts of the death of several of his men during the Aztec attack on the Totonacs in Veracruz, Corts claims that he took Motecuhzoma captive. Capturing the cacique or indigenous ruler was a standard operating procedure for Spaniards in their expansion in the Caribbean, so capturing Motecuhzoma had considerable precedent but modern scholars are skeptical that Corts and his countrymen took Motecuhzoma captive at this time. They had great incentive to claim they did, owing to the laws of Spain at this time, but critical analysis of their personal writings suggest Motecuhzoma was not taken captive until a much later date.[8]

When Corts left Tenochtitlan to return to the coast and deal with the threat of the expedition of Pnfilo de Narvez, Corts left Pedro de Alvarado in charge of Tenochtitlan. Corts left with a small army to the coast with the plan of attacking during the night. After defeating Narvez's fleet, Corts convinced most of his enemy's crew to go with him by promising great riches. Upon reaching Tenochtitlan, Corts and the new enlarged force received the message that "the Aztec had risen against the Spanish garrison" during a religious celebration.[9] Alvarado ordered his army to attack the unarmed crowd; he later claims that the Aztecs had used the celebration to cover up a counterattack. Corts realized that the defeat was imminent and decided to escape yet, the Aztecs attacked. The Massacre is most known as La Noche Triste (the sorrowful night) about "400 Spaniards, 4000 native allies and many horses [were killed] before reaching the mainland".[9] Moctezuma was killed, although the sources do not agree on who killed him.[10] According to one account, when Moctezuma, now seen by the population as a mere puppet of the invading Spaniards, attempted to calm the outraged populace, he was killed by a projectile.[11] According to an indigenous account, the Spanish killed Moctezuma.[12]

The Spanish, Tlaxcalans and reinforcements returned a year later on 13 August 1521 to a civilization that had been weakened by famine and smallpox. This made it easier to conquer the remaining Aztecs.[13] The Spaniards' victory is attributed to their help from indigenous allies, technology, and the Aztec empire's vulnerability due to the smallpox spread. As a result, the Aztec's tactics countering the Spaniard's advanced technology is understated. According to Hassig, "It is true that cannons, guns, crossbows, steel blades, horses and war dogs were advanced on the Aztecs' weaponry. But the advantage these gave a few hundred Spanish soldiers was not overwhelming."[14] In the words of Restall, "Spanish weapons were useful for breaking the offensive lines of waves of indigenous warriors, but this was no formula for conquest ... rather, it was a formula for survival, until Spanish and indigenous reinforcements arrived."[15]The integration of the indigenous allies, essentially, those from Tlaxcala and Texcoco, into the Spanish army played a crucial role in the conquest, yet other factors paved the path for the Spaniards' success. For instance, the Spaniards' timing of entry, the compelling ideologies of both groups, and the Spanish unfamiliarity with the Aztec Empire. Therefore, the Spaniards lacked a sense of danger and power structure within the empire. "A direct attack on a city as mighty as Tenochtitlan was unlikely and unexpected" from the enemy empires. As well, it was very uncommon that an attacking army would come unannounced.[14] In addition, aside from the infantry and the allies' role in the Spanish conquest, cavalry was the "arm of decision in the conquest" and "the key ingredient in the Spanish forces".[16]

Many of those on the Corts expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before, including Corts. A whole generation of Spaniards later participated in expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme (Central America), learning strategy and tactics of successful enterprises. The Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents with established practices.[17]

The conquest of Mexico, the initial destruction of the great pre-Columbian civilizations, is a significant event in world history. The conquest was well documented by a variety of sources with differing points of view, including indigenous accounts, by both allies and opponents. Accounts by the Spanish conquerors exist from the first landfall at Veracruz, Mexico (on Good Friday, 22 April 1519) to the final victory over the Mexica in Tenochtitlan on 13 August 1521. Notably, the accounts of the conquest, Spanish and indigenous alike, have biases and exaggerations. Some, though not all, Spanish accounts downplay the support of their indigenous allies. Conquerors' accounts exaggerate individual contributions to the Conquest at the expense of their comrades, while indigenous allies' accounts stress their loyalty and importance to victory for the Spanish. These accounts are similar to Spanish conquerors' accounts contained in petitions for rewards, known as benemrito petitions.[30]

Two lengthy accounts from the defeated indigenous viewpoint were created under the direction of Spanish friars, Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagn and Dominican Diego Durn, using indigenous informants.[31]

The first Spanish account of the conquest was written by lead conqueror Hernn Corts, who sent a series of letters to the Spanish monarch Charles V, giving a contemporary account of the conquest from his point of view, in which he justified his actions. These were almost immediately published in Spain and later in other parts of Europe. Much later, Spanish conqueror Bernal Daz del Castillo, a well-seasoned participant in the conquest of Central Mexico, wrote what he called The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, countering the account by Corts's official biographer, Francisco Lpez de Gmara. Bernal Daz's account had begun as a benemrito petition for rewards but he expanded it to encompass a full history of his earlier expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme and the conquest of the Aztec. A number of lower rank Spanish conquerors wrote benemrito petitions to the Spanish Crown, requesting rewards for their services in the conquest, including Juan Daz, Andrs de Tapia, Garca del Pilar, and Fray Francisco de Aguilar.[34] Corts's right-hand man, Pedro de Alvarado did not write at any length about his actions in the New World, and died as a man of action in the Mixtn War in 1542. Two letters to Corts about Alvarado's campaigns in Guatemala are published in The Conquistadors.[35]

The chronicle of the so-called "Anonymous Conqueror" was written sometime in the sixteenth century, entitled in an early twentieth-century translation to English as Narrative of Some Things of New Spain and of the Great City of Temestitan (i.e. Tenochtitlan). Rather than it being a petition for rewards for services, as many Spanish accounts were, the Anonymous Conqueror made observations about the indigenous situation at the time of the conquest. The account was used by eighteenth-century Jesuit Francisco Javier Clavijero in his descriptions of the history of Mexico.[36]

On the indigenous side, the allies of Corts, particularly the Tlaxcalans, wrote extensively about their services to the Spanish Crown in the conquest, arguing for special privileges for themselves. The most important of these are the pictorial Lienzo de Tlaxcala(1585) and the Historia de Tlaxcala by Diego Muoz Camargo. Less successfully, the Nahua allies from Huexotzinco (or Huejotzinco) near Tlaxcala argued that their contributions had been overlooked by the Spanish. In a letter in Nahuatl to the Spanish Crown, the indigenous lords of Huexotzinco lay out their case in for their valorous service. The letter has been published in Nahuatl and English translation by James Lockhart in We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico in 1991.[37] Texcoco patriot and member of a noble family there, Fernando Alva Ixtlilxochitl, likewise petitioned the Spanish Crown, in Spanish, saying that Texcoco had not received sufficient rewards for their support of the conquistadors, particularly after the Spanish were forced out of Tenochtitlan.[38] 152ee80cbc

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