The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was a pivotal event that took place during the Spanish colonization of the Americas (the broader European colonization of the Americas), marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire with a coalition of Native Indigenous allies. Between 1519 and 1521, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, his small army of European soldiers and the large allied army of Indian auxiliaries, overthrew the most powerful pre-Columbian empire to exist in Mesoamerica.
Led by the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II, the Aztec Empire had established dominance over modern central Mexico through military conquest and intricate alliances. The Aztecs ruled hegemonically through local rulers, their power resting on the perception of unchallengeable Aztec military supremacy. This was an inherently unstable system vulnerable to a loss of prestige under even moderate challenges. The sudden downfall of the Aztec civilization was due to a combination of factors, including European superior weaponry, strategic alliances with oppressed and rebellious American Indian populations, and the impact of European diseases. In 1520, the first wave of smallpox killed 5–8 million people.
The Spanish campaign against the Aztec Empire had its final victory on 13 August 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish Armed forces under Cortés and Tlaxcalan Indian warriors led by Indian commander Chichimecatecuhtli captured the Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc and the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. The fall of Tenochtitlan marks the establishment of New Spain, as part of the Spanish Empire, with its capital being Mexico City, built on the ruins of the former empire's capital.
The conquest had profound impact, beginning Spanish rule in Mesoamerica, the wide expansion of Spanish culture, and the establishment of a new social hierarchy in Latin America dominated by the Spanish conquerors and their descendants.
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was a pivotal event that took place during the Spanish colonization of the Americas (the broader European colonization of the Americas), marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire with a coalition of Native Indigenous allies. Between 1519 and 1521, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, his small army of European soldiers and the large allied army of Indian auxiliaries, overthrew the most powerful pre-Columbian empire to exist in Mesoamerica.
Led by the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II, the Aztec Empire had established dominance over modern central Mexico through military conquest and intricate alliances. The Aztecs ruled hegemonically through local rulers, their power resting on the perception of unchallengeable Aztec military supremacy. This was an inherently unstable system vulnerable to a loss of prestige under even moderate challenges. The sudden downfall of the Aztec civilization was due to a combination of factors, including European superior weaponry, strategic alliances with oppressed and rebellious American Indian populations, and the impact of European diseases. In 1520, the first wave of smallpox killed 5–8 million people.
The Spanish campaign against the Aztec Empire had its final victory on 13 August 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish Armed forces under Cortés and Tlaxcalan Indian warriors led by Indian commander Chichimecatecuhtli captured the Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc and the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. The fall of Tenochtitlan marks the establishment of New Spain, as part of the Spanish Empire, with its capital being Mexico City, built on the ruins of the former empire's capital.
The conquest had profound impact, beginning Spanish rule in Mesoamerica, the wide expansion of Spanish culture, and the establishment of a new social hierarchy in Latin America dominated by the Spanish conquerors and their descendants.
Significant events in the conquest of Mesoamerica
Following a 1518 expedition to Yucatán led by Juan de Grijalva, in 1519 Hernán Cortés set sail on an expedition (entrada) to what is today Mexico. Cortés made alliances with tributary city-states of the Aztec Empire (altepetl) as well as with their political rivals, particularly the Tlaxcaltecs and the Tetzcocans, a former partner in the Aztec Triple Alliance. Other city-states also joined, including Cempoala and Huejotzingo, as well as polities bordering Lake Texcoco, the inland lake system of the Valley of Mexico. Particularly important to the Spanish success was a multilingual Nahua Mayan- and Spanish-speaking woman enslaved by the Mayas, known to the Spanish conquistadors as Doña Marina, and later as La Malinche.
Eight months of battles and negotiations overcame the resistance of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II (also spelled Motecuhzoma) to the entrance of the Spanish. Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan on 8 November 1519, where his men and Indigenous allies took up residence. When news reached Cortés of the death of several of his men during the Aztec attack on the Totonacs in Veracruz, Cortés claims that he took Moctezuma captive. Capturing the cacique or Indigenous ruler was a common tactic for the Spanish in their expansion in the Caribbean, but modern scholars are skeptical that Cortés took Moctezuma captive at this time. Despite his legal claims of capturing the ruler, critical analysis of Spanish personal writings suggest Moctezuma was not taken until later.
At this time Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, Spanish governor of Cuba, tried to recall Cortés in favor of a new expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez. Cortés left Tenochtitlan to defend his own expedition, leaving Pedro de Alvarado in charge of Tenochtitlan. Cortés led a small army to the coast and attacked Narváez at night. After defeating Narváez's fleet, Cortés won over most of the crew to his side, promising them great riches. Upon returning to Tenochtitlan with his enlarged force, Cortés received news from Alvarado that "the Aztec had risen against the Spanish garrison" during a religious celebration, and Alvarado had ordered his army to massacre the unarmed crowd. Under heavy attack by the Aztecs, Cortés decided to escape. During the following Noche Triste (sorrowful night), about "400 Spaniards, 4000 native allies and many horses [were killed] before reaching the mainland". Moctezuma was killed, although sources disagree on who killed him. By one account, Moctezuma, now seen by his people as a puppet of the Spaniards, was killed by a hurled stone as he attempted to calm the outraged crowd. An Indigenous account says he was killed by the Spanish.
The Spanish, Tlaxcalans and reinforcements returned a year later on 13 August 1521, to a civilization weakened by famine and smallpox, with little remaining ability to resist. The Spaniards' victory is attributed to their help from Indigenous allies and their more advanced technology. In the heat of battle, cavalry was the "arm of decision in the conquest" and "the key ingredient in the Spanish forces".
However, the role of smallpox is often underestimated. 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." 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."
The integration of the allies from Tlaxcala and Texcoco into the Spanish army played a crucial role in the conquest. These alliances not only expanded the Spanish ranks, but also provided essential guidance on local geography and effective tactics against Aztec defenses, informing the timing of the campaign and exploiting the beliefs of both groups. At the same time, the alienness of the Spaniards, their ignorance of the empire's power structure, made them unpredictable to their enemies: "A direct attack on a city as mighty as Tenochtitlan was unlikely and unexpected." The Aztecs never thought an attacking army would come unannounced.
Many of those on the Cortés expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before, including Cortés. A whole generation of Spaniards later participated in expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme (Central America), learning strategy and tactics. Nevertheless, the Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents in earlier practices.
Timeline
1428 – Creation of the Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan
1492–93 – Columbus reaches the Caribbean; start of permanent Spanish settlements
1493–1515 – Spanish exploration, conquest, enslavement, and settlement in the Caribbean and the Spanish Main
1502 – Moctezuma II elected huey tlatoani, emperor [literally: "Great Speaker"] of the Aztec Triple Alliance
1503–09 – Moctezuma's coronation conquests
1504 – Hernan Cortés arrives in the Caribbean
1511– Spanish viceroy in the Caribbean appoints Diego Velázquez to conquer and govern Cuba
1515 – Texcocan monarch Nezahualpilli dies; Cacamatzin succeeds to the throne; the rebellion of Ixtlilxochitl
1517- City of Cholollan secedes from Tlaxcalteca Alliance, becomes a tributary state of the Aztec Triple Alliance
1518 – Expedition of Juan de Grijalva to the Yucatán and Gulf coasts; appointment of Cortés to lead a third exploratory expedition
1519
10 February – Cortés expedition leaves Cuba, taking Hernández de Córdoba's route. In the process, Cortés ignores Velásquez's cancellation of the expedition
Early 1519 – Gerónimo de Aguilar, shipwrecked Spaniard, bilingual in Yoko Ochoko, joins Cortés
24 March – Leaders of Potoncan sue Spaniards for peace and gift the Spaniards, 20 slave women. One of the enslaved Nahua woman (known as La Malinche, Doña Marina, Malintze, and Malintzin), is multilingual and will serve as one of the main translators for the expedition.
21 April – Expedition lands in the Gulf coast near San Juan de Ullúa
Early June – Cortés establishes the colony of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz and relocates the company to a beach near the settlement of Quiahuiztlan. Afterward, the Spaniards travel to Cempoala and formalize an alliance with Xicomecoatl (also known as the Fat Chief and Cacique Gordo), the leader of Cempoala. At this time, Cempoala is the capital of the Totonac confederacy.
July/August – Cortés' soldiers desecrate Cempoala
16 August – Spaniards and Totonac allies embark on march toward the Valley of Tenochtitlan, passing Citlatapetl and many other notable geographic landmarks like Cofre de Perote
31 August – Tlaxcalteca attack Spaniards after entering the territory of Tlaxcallan. They succeed in killing two horsemen.
September – Tlaxcalteca assault the Spanish camp by day, and the Spanish respond by raiding unarmed Tlaxcalteca towns and villages by night. Tlaxcallan brokers a peace after 18 punishing days of war, by which point the Spaniards had lost half their cavalry and 1/5 their men.
October – March to Cholula. Conquistadors massacre unarmed Cholulans, then Spanish-Tlaxcala combine forces to sack Cholollan, and replace Cholulan political leadership with Tlaxcallan-favoring nobles. The massacre broke out for disputed reasons, perhaps to quash an impending Cholulan attack or to fulfill a Tlaxcalteca plan to both exact revenge on Cholollan for its secession and to test their new Spanish allies.
8 November 1519 – Meeting of Cortés and Moctezuma
1520
April or May – Pánfilo de Narváez arrives on the Gulf coast, sent by Governor Velázquez to rein in Cortés
Late May – Cortés forces attack Narvárez's forces at Cempoala; incorporation of those Spaniards into Cortés's forces
24 June – Spanish forces return to Tenochtitlan
Late June – Uprising in Tenochtitlan; the death of Moctezuma in unclear circumstances, perhaps killed by the Spaniards, perhaps by his own people; deaths of other leaders of the Triple Alliance
30 June – "La Noche Triste" – Evacuation of Spanish-Tlaxcalteca allied forces from Tenochtitlan; deaths of perhaps 1,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Tlaxcalans
7 July – Battle of Otumba, Aztec forces attack the Spanish-Tlaxcalteca forces at Otumba
11 or 12 July – Retreat to Tlaxcala
1 August – Spanish punitive expedition in Tepeaca in reprisal for the murder of Spaniards by its inhabitants.
Mid-September – Coronation of Cuitlahuac as Moctezuma's successor
Mid-October to mid-December – Smallpox epidemic; death of Cuitlahuac on 4 December, perhaps of smallpox
Late December – Spanish-Tlaxcaltec forces return to the Valley of Mexico; join with Texcoca forces of Ixtlilxochitl
1521
Late January – Cuauhtemoc elected huey tlatoani of Tenochtitlan
February – Combined Spanish-Tlaxcalteca-Texcoca forces attack Xaltocan and Tlacopan; Texcoco becomes the base of operations for the campaign against Tenochtitlan
Early April – Attacks against Yautepec and Cuernavaca, following by sacking
Mid-April – Combined forces defeated by the Xochimilcans, Tenochtitlan's ally
Late April – Construction of 13 shallow-bottomed brigantines by Tlaxcalteca laborers under Spanish supervision; mounted with cannon; launched into Lake Texcoco, allowing Spanish control of the inland sea
10 May – Start of the siege of Tenochtitlan; potable water from Chapultepec cut off
30 June – Defeat of Spanish-Tlaxcalteca forces on a causeway; capture and ritual sacrifice of the Spaniards and their horses in Tenochtitlan
July – Spanish ships land at Veracruz with large numbers of Spaniards, munitions, and horses
20–25 July – Battle for Tenochtitlan
1 August – Spanish-Tlaxcalan-Texcocan forces enter the Plaza Mayor; last stand of the Aztec defenders
13 August – Surrender of Aztec defenders; capture of Cuauhtemoc
13–17 August – Wholesale sacking and violence against the survivors in Tenochtitlan
November – Death of Cortés's wife, Catalina Suárez, in Coyoacan, where Cortés was resident while the new capital Mexico City was constructed on the ruins of Tenochtitlan
Cortés's Second Letter to the crown is published in Seville, Spain
1524
Arrival of the first twelve Franciscan missionaries to Mexico, beginning of the "spiritual conquest" to convert the indigenous populations to Christianity
Conqueror Cristóbal de Olid's expedition to Honduras; renounces Cortés' authority; Cortés expedition to Honduras with the captive Cuauhtemoc
1525
February – execution of the three rulers of the former Triple Alliance, including Cuauhtemoc
Don Juan Velázquez Tlacotzin, former "viceroy" (cihuacoatl) appointed governor of the indigenous sector of Mexico City