The Battle of Tenochtitlan

The Battle of Tenochtitlan, fought from May to August 1521, was a pivotal conflict during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Led by Hernan Cortes and supported by indigenous allies, the Spanish forces besieged and ultimately captured Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. The battle marked the fall of one of the most powerful civilizations in Mesoamerica and the beginning of Spanish dominance in the region. The victory was characterized by intense warfare, strategic alliances, and devastating consequences for the native population, leading to the establishment of New Spain.

Tenochtitlan—Aztecs vs. Conquistadors

Historical EventThe Battle of Tenochtitlan
DateMay 22–August 13, 1521
LocationTenochtitlan (modern-day Mexico City)
CombatantsAztec Empire vs. Spanish conquistadors and their Indigenous allies
Aztec LeadersEmperor Cuauhtemoc
Spanish LeadersHernan Cortes
Allies of the SpanishTlaxcalans and other Indigenous groups
OutcomeSpanish victory; fall of the Aztec Empire
SignificanceMarked the end of the Aztec Empire and the beginning of Spanish colonization of Mexico
CasualtiesTens of thousands of Aztec warriors and civilians; significant losses among the Spanish and their allies as well
The Battle of Tenochtitlan

Introduction

The conquests of Mesoamerica and South America are among the most astonishing military stories of all time. For example, in one battle fought at the Inca capital of Cuzco, 190 Spaniards defeated an army of 40,000 Inca warriors with a loss of only one man. Similarly, in two years, Cortes, with fewer than 1,000 Spaniards, utterly destroyed the Aztec Empire. The subjugation of the Americas by Europe is one of the more controversial episodes in history. The conquistadors have alternately been lauded as brave men succeeding against all odds and condemned as rapacious invaders responsible for an appalling genocide. On the surface, these episodes seem to be dramatic demonstrations of European military superiority. How could these unlikely victories have transpired?

The Aztecs

  • (1) In 1500, the Aztecs were at the height of their power, yet only a few hundred years earlier, they had been a wandering tribe with no homeland, looked down on by nearly all other groups. In 1325, they settled on a swampy island in the middle of Lake Texcoco because of a divine prophecy that instructed them to make their home where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus eating a snake. The Nahuatl name for the nopal cactus was tenocha, and the city was dubbed Tenochtitlan.
  • (2) The Aztec society was both militant and theocratic, with priests and religion playing central roles. The Aztec pantheon of gods was a frightening collection, most of whom demanded regular human sacrifice. In Aztec belief, the world had been created by the gods using their own blood, and only regular offerings of human blood would enable it to continue.
  • (3) To meet the gods’ insatiable demand for blood, Aztec warfare eventually became focused not so much on killing enemies in battle as on trying to immobilize and capture them so that they might later be ritually sacrificed.
  • (4) Not surprisingly, the Aztecs were not loved by their subjects, and they maintained their hold on power through fear and military might. The Aztec army was large and well-organized. The elite soldiers were members of warrior fraternities who had repeatedly proven themselves in battle.
  • (5) Their main hand-to-hand weapon was a wooden club, lined on both sides with razor-sharp pieces of obsidian. The knights also carried small wooden shields, and their armor consisted of wooden helmets and quilted cotton body armor. Their helmets and armor were often coated in bright feathers or animal skins.
  • (6) These elite warriors were supplemented by ranks of less proven soldiers, similarly armed but without elaborate adornment, and by large levies of less trained troops: archers with bows and arrows, slingers who threw stones with great accuracy, and men equipped with the atlatl, or dart thrower.

The Spaniards

  • (1) Between 1506 and 1518, some 200 Spanish ships traversed the Atlantic. They initially settled on the islands of the Caribbean and were headquartered in Cuba, but, 20 years after Columbus, they had still not ventured in force onto the mainland.
  • (2) In 1518, the governor of New Spain selected a minor nobleman named Hernán Cortés to lead an expedition to conquer Mexico. Cortes landed in Mexico in early 1519 with approximately 500 men. His soldiers were an unruly lot motivated by varying degrees of greed and piety. The majority were Castilian Spaniards, and most were already well-trained and experienced.
  • (3) All were equipped with high-quality Spanish steel swords and steel helmets that gave good protection to their heads. Many also had high-quality steel body armor, consisting of either solid breastplates or chain mail. Cortés also had some crossbowmen, whose weapons could accurately propel a deadly dart more than 200 meters, and a number of Spanish-Arabian war horses; the men who rode them were highly experienced and would play a key role in the battles to come.
  • (4) The army of Cortes also included some soldiers equipped with technologically advanced weapons: the arquebusiers, who carried an early type of gun; though heavy, awkward, and slow, this weapon could fire a powerful bullet. Cortes also had several light cannons. These were crude and small but still had a sizable shock value against those who had not previously encountered such weapons.
  • (5) Finally, Cortes had a pack of large, vicious, trained war dogs. They do not feature much in Spanish accounts of the expedition, but depictions of them leaping upon victims and rending their flesh are vividly drawn in the codices of the Aztecs, suggesting that they may have constituted a significant military asset for the conquistadors.

The Invasion of Mexico

  • (1) Cortes landed at Veracruz and began marching inland to Tenochtitlan. Because he had to leave some men to secure the ships and the coast, the force he led to conquer the Aztecs consisted of merely 300 soldiers. Of these, 40 had crossbows, 20 had arquebuses, and 15 were mounted on horses. In addition, he had three cannons and a pack of war dogs.
  • (2) Cortes fought and won several battles against the Tlaxcalan, the one major group in central Mexico who had not yet been conquered by the Aztecs. Eventually, they made peace and a formal military alliance, gaining Cortés tens of thousands of native troops.
  • (3) These initial battles showed that the steel armor of the conquistadors was virtually impenetrable by any of the native weapons. On the other hand, the Spanish swords easily sliced through the cotton and wood armor of the natives. Their crossbows and arquebuses were devastating, both from a distance and in crowds.
  • (4) The horses terrified the natives, who initially believed the horse and rider to be some kind of monster. Cavalry charges were devastating to formations of native troops, who had no counter to the assaults. Even the war dogs wreaked havoc.
  • (5) The Aztec emperor at the time, Moctezuma, seemed uncertain how to react and may even have believed that the appearance of the Spaniards marked the fulfillment of a prophecy. It was the height of the harvest season, when the Aztecs normally did not wage war; thus, Moctezuma invited Cortes to visit him at Tenochtitlan.
  • (6) On November 8, 1519, Cortes and his 300 companions entered Tenochtitlan; they were housed in a palace and treated as honored guests. After several days of sightseeing, Cortés kidnapped Moctezuma, taking him to the Spaniards’ enclosure. The Aztecs did not know what to do; a tense stand-off ensued, during which Moctezuma was the “guest” of the Spanish.
  • (7) Now Cortes learned that 900 Spaniards had landed on the coast and that their commander, Narvarez, had orders to arrest Cortes and take over the expedition. Leaving only 80 men in Tenochtitlan under the command of Pedro de Alvarado, Cortes rushed back to the coast and rounded up some of the men he had left behind, amassing a force of 350.
  • (8) He entered into negotiations with Narvarez while secretly communicating with friends within Narvarez’s forces and spreading bribes among Narvarez’s troops. Cortés then launched a surprise night attack on Narvarez’s headquarters. Narvarez and his lieutenants were captured, and through a mixture of bribery and skilled oratory, Cortés persuaded the rest of the soldiers to join him.
  • (9) Meanwhile, in Tenochtitlán, Alvarado had been invited to attend a religious festival at which many high-ranking Aztecs were present. Perhaps seeing this as an opportunity to paralyze more of the Aztec leadership, Alvarado had broken the sacred peace and attacked the unarmed worshippers, slaughtering many of the Aztec aristocracy. Alvarado was now besieged in the palace by mobs of furious Aztec warriors.
  • (10) Cortes, to impress upon his troops the message that they had to succeed or die trying, ordered that the ships be destroyed. There would now literally be no turning back. Cortés managed to break through to Alvarado and join his forces, but the Spaniards were surrounded and besieged in the palace.
  • (11) The captive Moctezuma, who all along seemed to have favored a conciliatory policy, agreed to urge the Aztecs to be calm. When he appeared, they stoned him, fatally wounding him. The new emperor, Cuauhtemoc, viewed the Spaniards solely as enemies to be exterminated and launched an all-out attack.
  • (12) On the night of July 1, 1520, Cortes and his army tried to flee across one of the causeways. Many of the conquistadors, in addition to their weapons, could not resist burdening themselves with the gold treasure, and as they tried to swim across the gaps in the causeways, hundreds drowned.
  • (13) Cortes escaped but lost half his army. As they marched away, the bedraggled survivors had to suffer the additional horror of watching their captured friends and comrades being dragged to the top of the main temple to have their hearts ripped out by priests and their bodies flung down the steps. This disaster became known as La Noche Triste, “the Sad Night.”
  • (14) Cortes retreated to the territory of his Tlaxcalan allies and began planning the final assault on Tenochtitlan. It was during this gap that a new factor made its presence known: A smallpox epidemic broke out and swept through both the Aztecs and their allies.
  • (15) In 1521, Cortes returned to Lake Texcoco and began systematically capturing all the cities around its shore. He then constructed a fleet of 13 small ships, each equipped with a light cannon. These were used to seize control of the lake and cut off the causeways, thus preventing food and reinforcements from reaching the city.
  • (16) The Aztecs were driven back into Tenochtitlan, and Cortes and his allies laid siege. Under the leadership of Cuauhtemoc, the Aztecs refused to surrender, and Cortés had to invade. After months of bitter street fighting, by August 1521, the smoking ruins were finally in Spanish hands, and the Aztecs had been virtually exterminated.

Outcomes of the Battle

  • (1) The city was almost entirely destroyed during the siege, with large parts of it razed and many of its inhabitants killed.
  • (2) The defeat of the Aztecs led to the collapse of their empire. The last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtemoc, was captured by the Spanish, symbolizing the end of Aztec resistance.
  • (3) Following the victory, the Spanish established Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, which became the center of Spanish colonial rule in the region.
  • (4) The siege resulted in a massive loss of life, with thousands of Aztec warriors and civilians dying from battle, starvation, and disease. The Spanish and their allies also suffered casualties, but their superior technology and tactics ultimately led to their victory.
  • (5) The fall of Tenochtitlan led to the imposition of Spanish culture, religion, and governance over the indigenous peoples of the region, fundamentally altering the social and political landscape of Mesoamerica.

Conclusion

The conquest of Mexico was a pivotal event: it opened up the Americas to European exploitation, with vast economic, cultural, and religious consequences, and it set the model for the era of European colonization that transformed the world.

FAQ about the Battle of Tenochtitlan?

1. What led to the Battle of Tenochtitlan?

The battle was the culmination of Hernán Cortés’s campaign to conquer the Aztec Empire. Tensions between the Aztecs and the Spanish, exacerbated by cultural misunderstandings and conflicts, led to open warfare.

2. How long did the battle last?

The siege of Tenochtitlan lasted for nearly three months, from May 22 to August 13, 1521.

3. Who were the main combatants in the battle?

The battle was primarily fought between the Aztec forces led by Emperor Cuauhtémoc and the Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés. The Spanish were heavily supported by Indigenous allies, particularly the Tlaxcalans.

4. What strategies did the Spanish use to win the battle?

The Spanish used a combination of siege tactics, cutting off the city’s supply lines, and utilizing superior weaponry such as cannons and firearms. They also received crucial support from their Indigenous allies.

5. What was the outcome of the battle?

The Spanish forces emerged victorious, leading to the fall of Tenochtitlan and the collapse of the Aztec Empire. The city was largely destroyed in the process.

6. What happened to the Aztec Emperor Cuauhtemoc?

After the fall of Tenochtitlan, Cuauhtemoc was captured by the Spanish. He was later executed by Cortes in 1525, accused of plotting a rebellion.

7. How did the battle affect the Indigenous population?

The battle and subsequent Spanish conquest led to widespread devastation among the Indigenous population, both through warfare and the spread of diseases such as smallpox. It marked the beginning of Spanish rule and significant cultural and demographic changes in the region.

8. What is the historical significance of the Battle of Tenochtitlan?

The battle is considered one of the most significant events in the history of the Americas. It marked the end of the powerful Aztec civilization and the beginning of Spanish colonization, which had lasting effects on the cultural and social landscape of Mexico.

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