Summary:
The end of the movie Apocalypto shows the hero (from a Mayan tribe) and his family watching Spanish Conquistadors land on the beach while he departs for the forests inland after escaping from the Aztecs. Mel Gibson is known for depiction of the intersection of violence and religion at its gruesome best and this movie is no exception. His detailed portrayal of Aztec religious practices highlights them as mere tools of Aztec Kings while he paints the Conquistadors' religious practices as one of piety. As a result, the overarching narrative of the movie leaves the viewer with only a partly accurate picture of how Conquistadors came to rule the land of the Aztecs. This book details the progress of Conquistadors under Cortes towards their ultimate goal, that of relieving Aztecs of their gold while converting them to Catholicism at the same time. The book is a very good and pleasurable read.
In the 2 years from 1519 to 1521, Cortes used his guile, religious fervor, cunning and diplomacy to achieve total destruction of the Aztec civilization. He is assisted in his endeavor by other Aztec allies who have been suffering under Montezuma's rule. The battle for Tenochtitlan still stands as the longest and costliest continuous single battle in human history, costing over 200,000 lives. Montezuma comes across as someone who desperately wants to get to a peaceful resolution with Cortes. Cortes was very clear with Montezuma about the purpose of his fleet - Capturing lands for Spanish crown, Gold and God and even told Montezuma's ambassador when they met for the first time - 'I and my compatriots suffer from a disease of the heart which can be cured only with gold'. Montezuma's misreading of Cortes' motivations ends in the destruction of Aztec empire despite his successors' valiant efforts to resist Cortes' violent exertions. The unfamiliarity of Aztecs with guns and horses ensures their defeat at the hands of Conquistadors. When they do arrive at a coherent strategy of resistance as a means of resisting Cortes, the smallpox germs let loose by the Conquistadors' ships dooms their efforts. The approach taken by Cortes in his conquest of Aztec empire is reflected in the mestizo flavor of present day Mexico. The intermingling of Spanish and Aztec blood has been heavily weighted in Europeans's favor and that has made Mexico's efforts at a honest portrayal of its history all the more difficult.
Reading this book makes me thankful that Portuguese inflicted religious terror on India and not the Spanish. The thoroughness and ruthlessness of Portuguese was dwarfed by the Spanish. Western coast of India lost its pre-eminent position in trade to Portuguese but Aztecs lost their entire civilization at the hands of Spanish.
Analysis:
In the 1500's, the Aztec empire under Montezuma was at its peak. It was a complex and sophisticated civilization that followed elaborate and accurate calendars based on the Sun, had efficient irrigation systems, well designed boats and navigable canals, Zoos, floating gardens, planned cities, spectator sports and a strong military. The empire's capital was Tenochtitlan ('City of Dreams') in present day Mexico and ruled over a region up to present day Guatemala. Aztecs were polytheistic with gods being appeased, to achieve victory in wars, successful harvests and copious rain, with incense, flowers, birds and human sacrifices. They had gold deposits aplenty but considered Jade and artwork made of other metals to be more precious. Montezuma, who was born in 1480 and became the emperor of Aztecs in 1503, was a cruel and capricious ruler who used military force and violence to subjugate nearby tribes and exact tributes from them. He was the head of the Triple Alliance that included the cities of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tacuba.
Cortes was born in 1485 in Medellin, Spain. His first expedition was in 1503 to West Indies. After hearing fantastic tales of wealth in the New World (as Spanish referred to the Americas), he sailed in 1504 to Hispaniola. After an extended period of time, he was able to convince the Governor of Cuba at that time, Diego Velazquez to support an expedition under himself to look for gold. Cortes and Velazquez had an on again off again relationship that suffered rupture during Cortes campaign with Aztecs. Cortes sailed from Cuba and landed his fleet of 500 Spaniards including sailors and blacksmiths, armed with high quality artillery and horses,in Cozumel in 1519. The fleet also had a number of slaves for carrying goods and women from Cuba for cooking and stitching cloth. In the beginning, his desire to get allies over to his side led him to sometimes return goods his sailors had stolen from the local kingdoms.
The smell of human sacrifice at the temples across Aztec empire made Cortes determined to convert the local inhabitants to Catholicism, whether they were willing or not. Even in kingdoms where the local chiefs welcomed the Conquistadors, with open arms, he smashed the temples and had them cleaned and whitewashed and converted to churches. Because of the impressive artillery of the Conquistadors, the Aztecs kept mum. In his earlier forays, Cortes was assisted by Jeronimo De Aguilar, a priest who had been captured by Aztecs in 1511 as part of an earlier expedition and had worked his way out of bondage. He was able to provide Cortes with information on Aztec culture and practices. In hostile kingdoms, Cortes usually prevailed. He would announce that he had come under the Spanish Crown in peace and demand they convert to Christianity. That approach enabled him to obfuscate his real reason of hunting for gold. In fights with Conquistadors, Aztecs were terrified of artillery and horses since horses were not native to their land. Aztecs attacked en masse which allowed Cortes to aim his artillery with devastating effect. In places where his artillery was ineffective, he resorted to using horses as the sight of them terrified Aztec warriors. With his victory at the battle of Pontonchan, he acquired a slave girl, Malinche who would become his inseparable companion on all his military expeditions and later, his mistress. With Malinche at his side, his conversations with local Aztec chiefs became easier even though he still trusted his artillery
and horses to blast any opposition. It was especially helpful in making successful overtures to Aztec chiefs who hated Montezuma and were looking for relief from the oppression of the Triple Alliance.
Upon hearing of Cortes' military victories, Montezuma offered him 200 servants who would construct huts and shelters for the Spaniards. He also provided a large amount of gold to Cortes in the hope Conquistadors would be satisfied with it and go back home. When Cortes did not leave, Montezuma withdrew the 200 servants but the prospect for more gold made Cortes even more determined to dethrone Montezuma. To that end, Cortes also decided to keep his patron Velazquez in the dark about his operations. In his deliberations with priests and advisers, Montezuma thought of Cortes as one of the Aztec gods who had come down to Earth to punish Aztecs for their sins. As a result, he held back the use of force against Cortes and that decision would seal his fate. Through a sleight of hand, Cortes resigned his commission under Velazquez and set up a town, Villa Rica De La Vera Cruz under his own authority. When Velazquez came to know of Cortes' treachery, he had the Spanish crown send a letter through one of the supply ships under his command. Cortes outmaneuvered Velazquez by sending a ship full of Aztec gold directly to the Spanish Crown under his trusted lieutenants, hoping the impressive haul of gold would serve as a bribe and an insurance for the Spanish Crown to side with him against Velazquez. Cortes used his cunning to to lull Montezuma, even as he was instigating rebellions on his way to attack Tenochtitlan and Montezuma. Some of the kingdoms Cortes defeated provided significant manpower that swelled Cortes' army. When the kingdom of Cholula's plans to ambush Cortes and the Conquistadors was revealed, he invited all the nobles of Cholula to their revered temple for Quetzalcoatl (their primary god) and locked them inside the complex and proceeded to slaughter men, women and children inside. After it was done, he let the Cholulas' local enemies plunder the town to their hearts' content.
On November 8, 1519, Cortes met Montezuma. Montezuma addressed Cortes with courtesy which was not returned by Cortes. In his reply, Cortes proceeded to berate Montezuma for following demonic and false gods. In a tactical mistake, Montezuma provided Cortes and his men spacious living quarters inside his own complex which allowed Cortes to install a Chapel there. The conquistadors were stunned at the scale of commercial marketplaces (that dwarfed anything they had come across in Europe at that time) and workmanship of Aztec metal workers. When an ally of Montezuma killed some Conquistadors in a fight, Cortes invented a conspiracy where there was none and placed Montezuma under arrest in his own palace. He then convinced Montezuma to invite his ally to Tenochtitlan where Cortes proceeded to burn him at stake in full view of a chained Montezuma and his nobles. During the installation of Chapel, Cortes and his men had come across vast stores of gold hidden behind false doors. Cortes convinced his men not to raid them immediately and wait for complete subjugation of the Aztecs. With Montezuma under his custody, Cortes badgered him for information on location of gold mines. In his desperation to save himself, Montezuma offered to provide guides to the gold mines so Conquistadors could mine the gold. The other 2 chiefs of the Triple Alliance opposed Montezuma's accommodations towards Cortes but their attempts to defeat the Conquistadors failed and they were taken prisoners and put in chains. Montezuma officially pledged his (and Aztecs) allegiance to the Spanish Crown after acknowledging Cortes and the Conquistadors were the gods prophesied in Aztec mythology. Once he had Montezuma's pledge in writing, Cortes moved quickly and melted all available gold in Tenochtitlan into bars and shipped them to Spain. Sending it to Spanish Crown would ensure Cortes received a fifth of the gold for his efforts (with the Spanish Crown receiving another fifth), leaving the rest for other Conquistadors. With the gold business out of the way, Cortes and his Conquistadors proceeded to smash the temples in the main complex, clean and whitewash them and replace the gods of Aztecs with idols of Jesus and Virgin Mary. When Velazquez learnt about the gold Cortes had sent to Spanish Crown, he arranged a fleet to defeat Cortes. Cortes easily defeated them with bribes and cunning.
When Cortes went to deal with Velazquez, he placed one of his trusted commanders, Alvarado in Tenochtitlan in his stead. Aztecs were preparing to celebrate the most important festival on their calendar, Toxcatl. They obtained permission from Alvarado and remaining Conquistadors to continue with their preparations. In the guise of celebrating the festival, they were also preparing to fall on the Conquistadors and liberate Tenochtitlan. In the fight that followed, Conquistadors were in a precarious position when Alvarado trotted out Montezuma in chains and put a knife to his throat and demanded he pacify the Aztec populace. Montezuma did as he was told even though the Aztec populace had long since lost faith in him. When Cortes came back, he reproached Alvarado and Montezuma for letting matters get out of hand. He had Montezuma pick out his successor and Montezuma picked his brother Cuitlahuac to succeed him. Cuitlahuac immediately moved to consolidate his power among the nobles who made him the emperor, annulling Montezuma's powers. He attacked Cortes and Conquistadors inside the complex. When Cortes had difficulty fending off the Aztec counter attacks, he ordered Montezuma to pacify his people. Montezuma refused this time around at which point, Cortes dragged him to the edge of the roof of the complex. Aztecs threw stones at Montezuma and he died from those injuries. Cuitlahuac put in place a strategy of attacking Conquistadors whenever and wherever he could find them but the mistakes of Montezuma had weakened Aztec position. Tenochtitlan was set up in the middle of a body of water and Cuitlahuac dismantled the entrance ways into Tenochtitlan leaving only one way out for Cortes and his men.
Cortes allowed Conquistadors to plunder as much gold as they could carry on their person (which was not much but Cortes' portion of gold haul was already assured through the amounts he had sent to Spanish Crown) and decided to withdraw in dense fog in early morning hours out of Tenochtitlan. Aztecs were laying in wait for Conquistadors to come out through the open entrance way and succeeded in inflicting heavy losses on the Spanish. However, once Conquistadors started retreating, Aztecs stopped to celebrate their victory without completely destroying them. That allowed Cortes to escape and gather his men for a subsequent attack. Bands of Aztecs would harass Cortes and his Conquistadors on their retreat but the superior fighting techniques, artillery and horses allowed Cortes to defeat Aztecs repeatedly. Cortes attacked Aztec kingdoms allied with the Triple Alliance and when he defeated them, he had the captured men, women and children branded with letter 'g' (for guerra or war) on their faces using branding irons. In addition, his Conquistadors massacred 2,000 unarmed civilians while their families watched after which he branded those families. He received reinforcements from Spain for his campaign that bolstered his material supplies and men but also reduced the proportion of gold available to each Conquistadors at the end of the campaign. As Cortes rested, smallpox raged among Aztecs killing scores of them and disfiguring the others, having been carried by an African slave aboard one of the Conquistadors ships. The psychological effect of the disease was immense - Cortes and other Conquistadors had been exposed to smallpox in Europe and were immune to it whereas Aztecs had never been exposed to it and died in large numbers. When they saw smallpox not having any effect on Conquistadors, it demoralized the Aztec populace.
From his experience defending Tenochtitlan, Cortes realized attacking it on land was difficult. So, he drew up an audacious plan to build brigantines, ships forty to fifty feet in length, assemble them, test them for their seaworthiness, then disassemble them, carry them over the mountains of present day Mexico, reassemble these ships in Texcoco and use them to attack Tenochtitlan from water. For the plan to succeed, he needed to build a mile long canal 10 feet deep and 15 feet wide so that the reassembling could be carried out of the range of Tenochtitlan warriors. Aztecs tried to slow down Cortes in this endeavor but he was able to successfully put the brigantines into action. By that time, Cuitlahuac had died from smallpox and he was replaced by Cuauhtemoc, a nephew of Montezuma and Cuitlahuac. He would lead Aztec empire's final resistance till his capture by Cortes. As his first order of business, he set about repairing and shoring up defenses around Tenochtitlan. Cuauhtemoc had learned that small packs of Aztec warriors were more effective and he constantly harassed the Conquistadors as they prepared for their siege of Tenochtitlan. Cortes now had 900 Conquistadors and 200,000 - 500,000 warriors from allied Aztec kingdoms for his siege of Tenochtitlan. Cortes was lucky to escape from death and capture during some of these attacks and had his Aztec allies to thank for escaping to higher ground as Cuauhtemoc opened a saltwater dam flooding the plain where Cortes army was resting. Both sides knew that Tenochtitlan water supply depended on a single aqueduct, the Chapultepec. In the face of Aztec resistance, Conquistadors damaged the aqueduct, severing fresh water supply to Tenochtitlan. The brigantines allowed Cortes to both fire off artillery inside Tenochtitlan from water and also ram any Aztec boats that came near it. On August 13, 1521, Conquistadors captured Cuauhtemoc. Cortes's immediate question to Cuauhtemoc was about the gold stores and not the famine and disease ravaging the Aztecs. Cuauhtemoc refused to tell him and Cortes proceeded to torture him by tying him to a pole, pouring oil on his feet and setting them on fire. Cuauhtemoc would be hanged by Cortes sometime later for his alleged participation in a rebellion. At the end of the campaign, the Conquistadors ended up with 160 pesos per man for their efforts while Cortes and the Spanish Crown became fabulously wealthy. The last ship loaded with Aztec gold was waylaid by French pirates and its booty stolen (which is the gold referred to, in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie). In line with their stated purpose, Cortes and the Conquistadors built churches in place of the temples after smashing the idols.
Cortes had a son, Martin with Malinche. His first wife from Spain, Catalina also arrived and was found dead after a public fight with Cortes. Cortes became the Captain General of Mexico. He proceeded to discover Baja California in 1536 followed by an exploration in the Gulf of California (also called Sea of Cortes). His later expeditions to capture Honduras, Guatemala and Algiers ended in failure but his earlier campaigns had made him immensely wealthy when he died on December 2, 1547.
There have been books written by Western authors expounding on the societal advantages (disease, artillery) enjoyed by the West when they came into contact with non-European societies, that allowed them to emerge triumphant. Cortes serves as an illustrious exhibit of Great Man theory that considers men of great abilities to be instrumental in bending the arc of history. While both theories have their advantages and disadvantages in explaining the success of Cortes and the abject failure of Montezuma, they serve to provide some respectability to the primary strategy of Cortes - Europeans were willing to lie, cheat and murder in the name of religion and money. What was a shiny object to Europeans (gold) was valued much less by Aztecs. The wealth of Aztecs also made them complacent in the face of an existential threat that Europeans represented. It made the difference in Europeans soaring to ever great heights and Aztecs losing their entire civilization.
The end of the movie Apocalypto shows the hero (from a Mayan tribe) and his family watching Spanish Conquistadors land on the beach while he departs for the forests inland after escaping from the Aztecs. Mel Gibson is known for depiction of the intersection of violence and religion at its gruesome best and this movie is no exception. His detailed portrayal of Aztec religious practices highlights them as mere tools of Aztec Kings while he paints the Conquistadors' religious practices as one of piety. As a result, the overarching narrative of the movie leaves the viewer with only a partly accurate picture of how Conquistadors came to rule the land of the Aztecs. This book details the progress of Conquistadors under Cortes towards their ultimate goal, that of relieving Aztecs of their gold while converting them to Catholicism at the same time. The book is a very good and pleasurable read.
In the 2 years from 1519 to 1521, Cortes used his guile, religious fervor, cunning and diplomacy to achieve total destruction of the Aztec civilization. He is assisted in his endeavor by other Aztec allies who have been suffering under Montezuma's rule. The battle for Tenochtitlan still stands as the longest and costliest continuous single battle in human history, costing over 200,000 lives. Montezuma comes across as someone who desperately wants to get to a peaceful resolution with Cortes. Cortes was very clear with Montezuma about the purpose of his fleet - Capturing lands for Spanish crown, Gold and God and even told Montezuma's ambassador when they met for the first time - 'I and my compatriots suffer from a disease of the heart which can be cured only with gold'. Montezuma's misreading of Cortes' motivations ends in the destruction of Aztec empire despite his successors' valiant efforts to resist Cortes' violent exertions. The unfamiliarity of Aztecs with guns and horses ensures their defeat at the hands of Conquistadors. When they do arrive at a coherent strategy of resistance as a means of resisting Cortes, the smallpox germs let loose by the Conquistadors' ships dooms their efforts. The approach taken by Cortes in his conquest of Aztec empire is reflected in the mestizo flavor of present day Mexico. The intermingling of Spanish and Aztec blood has been heavily weighted in Europeans's favor and that has made Mexico's efforts at a honest portrayal of its history all the more difficult.
Reading this book makes me thankful that Portuguese inflicted religious terror on India and not the Spanish. The thoroughness and ruthlessness of Portuguese was dwarfed by the Spanish. Western coast of India lost its pre-eminent position in trade to Portuguese but Aztecs lost their entire civilization at the hands of Spanish.
Analysis:
In the 1500's, the Aztec empire under Montezuma was at its peak. It was a complex and sophisticated civilization that followed elaborate and accurate calendars based on the Sun, had efficient irrigation systems, well designed boats and navigable canals, Zoos, floating gardens, planned cities, spectator sports and a strong military. The empire's capital was Tenochtitlan ('City of Dreams') in present day Mexico and ruled over a region up to present day Guatemala. Aztecs were polytheistic with gods being appeased, to achieve victory in wars, successful harvests and copious rain, with incense, flowers, birds and human sacrifices. They had gold deposits aplenty but considered Jade and artwork made of other metals to be more precious. Montezuma, who was born in 1480 and became the emperor of Aztecs in 1503, was a cruel and capricious ruler who used military force and violence to subjugate nearby tribes and exact tributes from them. He was the head of the Triple Alliance that included the cities of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tacuba.
Cortes was born in 1485 in Medellin, Spain. His first expedition was in 1503 to West Indies. After hearing fantastic tales of wealth in the New World (as Spanish referred to the Americas), he sailed in 1504 to Hispaniola. After an extended period of time, he was able to convince the Governor of Cuba at that time, Diego Velazquez to support an expedition under himself to look for gold. Cortes and Velazquez had an on again off again relationship that suffered rupture during Cortes campaign with Aztecs. Cortes sailed from Cuba and landed his fleet of 500 Spaniards including sailors and blacksmiths, armed with high quality artillery and horses,in Cozumel in 1519. The fleet also had a number of slaves for carrying goods and women from Cuba for cooking and stitching cloth. In the beginning, his desire to get allies over to his side led him to sometimes return goods his sailors had stolen from the local kingdoms.
The smell of human sacrifice at the temples across Aztec empire made Cortes determined to convert the local inhabitants to Catholicism, whether they were willing or not. Even in kingdoms where the local chiefs welcomed the Conquistadors, with open arms, he smashed the temples and had them cleaned and whitewashed and converted to churches. Because of the impressive artillery of the Conquistadors, the Aztecs kept mum. In his earlier forays, Cortes was assisted by Jeronimo De Aguilar, a priest who had been captured by Aztecs in 1511 as part of an earlier expedition and had worked his way out of bondage. He was able to provide Cortes with information on Aztec culture and practices. In hostile kingdoms, Cortes usually prevailed. He would announce that he had come under the Spanish Crown in peace and demand they convert to Christianity. That approach enabled him to obfuscate his real reason of hunting for gold. In fights with Conquistadors, Aztecs were terrified of artillery and horses since horses were not native to their land. Aztecs attacked en masse which allowed Cortes to aim his artillery with devastating effect. In places where his artillery was ineffective, he resorted to using horses as the sight of them terrified Aztec warriors. With his victory at the battle of Pontonchan, he acquired a slave girl, Malinche who would become his inseparable companion on all his military expeditions and later, his mistress. With Malinche at his side, his conversations with local Aztec chiefs became easier even though he still trusted his artillery
and horses to blast any opposition. It was especially helpful in making successful overtures to Aztec chiefs who hated Montezuma and were looking for relief from the oppression of the Triple Alliance.
Upon hearing of Cortes' military victories, Montezuma offered him 200 servants who would construct huts and shelters for the Spaniards. He also provided a large amount of gold to Cortes in the hope Conquistadors would be satisfied with it and go back home. When Cortes did not leave, Montezuma withdrew the 200 servants but the prospect for more gold made Cortes even more determined to dethrone Montezuma. To that end, Cortes also decided to keep his patron Velazquez in the dark about his operations. In his deliberations with priests and advisers, Montezuma thought of Cortes as one of the Aztec gods who had come down to Earth to punish Aztecs for their sins. As a result, he held back the use of force against Cortes and that decision would seal his fate. Through a sleight of hand, Cortes resigned his commission under Velazquez and set up a town, Villa Rica De La Vera Cruz under his own authority. When Velazquez came to know of Cortes' treachery, he had the Spanish crown send a letter through one of the supply ships under his command. Cortes outmaneuvered Velazquez by sending a ship full of Aztec gold directly to the Spanish Crown under his trusted lieutenants, hoping the impressive haul of gold would serve as a bribe and an insurance for the Spanish Crown to side with him against Velazquez. Cortes used his cunning to to lull Montezuma, even as he was instigating rebellions on his way to attack Tenochtitlan and Montezuma. Some of the kingdoms Cortes defeated provided significant manpower that swelled Cortes' army. When the kingdom of Cholula's plans to ambush Cortes and the Conquistadors was revealed, he invited all the nobles of Cholula to their revered temple for Quetzalcoatl (their primary god) and locked them inside the complex and proceeded to slaughter men, women and children inside. After it was done, he let the Cholulas' local enemies plunder the town to their hearts' content.
On November 8, 1519, Cortes met Montezuma. Montezuma addressed Cortes with courtesy which was not returned by Cortes. In his reply, Cortes proceeded to berate Montezuma for following demonic and false gods. In a tactical mistake, Montezuma provided Cortes and his men spacious living quarters inside his own complex which allowed Cortes to install a Chapel there. The conquistadors were stunned at the scale of commercial marketplaces (that dwarfed anything they had come across in Europe at that time) and workmanship of Aztec metal workers. When an ally of Montezuma killed some Conquistadors in a fight, Cortes invented a conspiracy where there was none and placed Montezuma under arrest in his own palace. He then convinced Montezuma to invite his ally to Tenochtitlan where Cortes proceeded to burn him at stake in full view of a chained Montezuma and his nobles. During the installation of Chapel, Cortes and his men had come across vast stores of gold hidden behind false doors. Cortes convinced his men not to raid them immediately and wait for complete subjugation of the Aztecs. With Montezuma under his custody, Cortes badgered him for information on location of gold mines. In his desperation to save himself, Montezuma offered to provide guides to the gold mines so Conquistadors could mine the gold. The other 2 chiefs of the Triple Alliance opposed Montezuma's accommodations towards Cortes but their attempts to defeat the Conquistadors failed and they were taken prisoners and put in chains. Montezuma officially pledged his (and Aztecs) allegiance to the Spanish Crown after acknowledging Cortes and the Conquistadors were the gods prophesied in Aztec mythology. Once he had Montezuma's pledge in writing, Cortes moved quickly and melted all available gold in Tenochtitlan into bars and shipped them to Spain. Sending it to Spanish Crown would ensure Cortes received a fifth of the gold for his efforts (with the Spanish Crown receiving another fifth), leaving the rest for other Conquistadors. With the gold business out of the way, Cortes and his Conquistadors proceeded to smash the temples in the main complex, clean and whitewash them and replace the gods of Aztecs with idols of Jesus and Virgin Mary. When Velazquez learnt about the gold Cortes had sent to Spanish Crown, he arranged a fleet to defeat Cortes. Cortes easily defeated them with bribes and cunning.
When Cortes went to deal with Velazquez, he placed one of his trusted commanders, Alvarado in Tenochtitlan in his stead. Aztecs were preparing to celebrate the most important festival on their calendar, Toxcatl. They obtained permission from Alvarado and remaining Conquistadors to continue with their preparations. In the guise of celebrating the festival, they were also preparing to fall on the Conquistadors and liberate Tenochtitlan. In the fight that followed, Conquistadors were in a precarious position when Alvarado trotted out Montezuma in chains and put a knife to his throat and demanded he pacify the Aztec populace. Montezuma did as he was told even though the Aztec populace had long since lost faith in him. When Cortes came back, he reproached Alvarado and Montezuma for letting matters get out of hand. He had Montezuma pick out his successor and Montezuma picked his brother Cuitlahuac to succeed him. Cuitlahuac immediately moved to consolidate his power among the nobles who made him the emperor, annulling Montezuma's powers. He attacked Cortes and Conquistadors inside the complex. When Cortes had difficulty fending off the Aztec counter attacks, he ordered Montezuma to pacify his people. Montezuma refused this time around at which point, Cortes dragged him to the edge of the roof of the complex. Aztecs threw stones at Montezuma and he died from those injuries. Cuitlahuac put in place a strategy of attacking Conquistadors whenever and wherever he could find them but the mistakes of Montezuma had weakened Aztec position. Tenochtitlan was set up in the middle of a body of water and Cuitlahuac dismantled the entrance ways into Tenochtitlan leaving only one way out for Cortes and his men.
Cortes allowed Conquistadors to plunder as much gold as they could carry on their person (which was not much but Cortes' portion of gold haul was already assured through the amounts he had sent to Spanish Crown) and decided to withdraw in dense fog in early morning hours out of Tenochtitlan. Aztecs were laying in wait for Conquistadors to come out through the open entrance way and succeeded in inflicting heavy losses on the Spanish. However, once Conquistadors started retreating, Aztecs stopped to celebrate their victory without completely destroying them. That allowed Cortes to escape and gather his men for a subsequent attack. Bands of Aztecs would harass Cortes and his Conquistadors on their retreat but the superior fighting techniques, artillery and horses allowed Cortes to defeat Aztecs repeatedly. Cortes attacked Aztec kingdoms allied with the Triple Alliance and when he defeated them, he had the captured men, women and children branded with letter 'g' (for guerra or war) on their faces using branding irons. In addition, his Conquistadors massacred 2,000 unarmed civilians while their families watched after which he branded those families. He received reinforcements from Spain for his campaign that bolstered his material supplies and men but also reduced the proportion of gold available to each Conquistadors at the end of the campaign. As Cortes rested, smallpox raged among Aztecs killing scores of them and disfiguring the others, having been carried by an African slave aboard one of the Conquistadors ships. The psychological effect of the disease was immense - Cortes and other Conquistadors had been exposed to smallpox in Europe and were immune to it whereas Aztecs had never been exposed to it and died in large numbers. When they saw smallpox not having any effect on Conquistadors, it demoralized the Aztec populace.
From his experience defending Tenochtitlan, Cortes realized attacking it on land was difficult. So, he drew up an audacious plan to build brigantines, ships forty to fifty feet in length, assemble them, test them for their seaworthiness, then disassemble them, carry them over the mountains of present day Mexico, reassemble these ships in Texcoco and use them to attack Tenochtitlan from water. For the plan to succeed, he needed to build a mile long canal 10 feet deep and 15 feet wide so that the reassembling could be carried out of the range of Tenochtitlan warriors. Aztecs tried to slow down Cortes in this endeavor but he was able to successfully put the brigantines into action. By that time, Cuitlahuac had died from smallpox and he was replaced by Cuauhtemoc, a nephew of Montezuma and Cuitlahuac. He would lead Aztec empire's final resistance till his capture by Cortes. As his first order of business, he set about repairing and shoring up defenses around Tenochtitlan. Cuauhtemoc had learned that small packs of Aztec warriors were more effective and he constantly harassed the Conquistadors as they prepared for their siege of Tenochtitlan. Cortes now had 900 Conquistadors and 200,000 - 500,000 warriors from allied Aztec kingdoms for his siege of Tenochtitlan. Cortes was lucky to escape from death and capture during some of these attacks and had his Aztec allies to thank for escaping to higher ground as Cuauhtemoc opened a saltwater dam flooding the plain where Cortes army was resting. Both sides knew that Tenochtitlan water supply depended on a single aqueduct, the Chapultepec. In the face of Aztec resistance, Conquistadors damaged the aqueduct, severing fresh water supply to Tenochtitlan. The brigantines allowed Cortes to both fire off artillery inside Tenochtitlan from water and also ram any Aztec boats that came near it. On August 13, 1521, Conquistadors captured Cuauhtemoc. Cortes's immediate question to Cuauhtemoc was about the gold stores and not the famine and disease ravaging the Aztecs. Cuauhtemoc refused to tell him and Cortes proceeded to torture him by tying him to a pole, pouring oil on his feet and setting them on fire. Cuauhtemoc would be hanged by Cortes sometime later for his alleged participation in a rebellion. At the end of the campaign, the Conquistadors ended up with 160 pesos per man for their efforts while Cortes and the Spanish Crown became fabulously wealthy. The last ship loaded with Aztec gold was waylaid by French pirates and its booty stolen (which is the gold referred to, in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie). In line with their stated purpose, Cortes and the Conquistadors built churches in place of the temples after smashing the idols.
Cortes had a son, Martin with Malinche. His first wife from Spain, Catalina also arrived and was found dead after a public fight with Cortes. Cortes became the Captain General of Mexico. He proceeded to discover Baja California in 1536 followed by an exploration in the Gulf of California (also called Sea of Cortes). His later expeditions to capture Honduras, Guatemala and Algiers ended in failure but his earlier campaigns had made him immensely wealthy when he died on December 2, 1547.
There have been books written by Western authors expounding on the societal advantages (disease, artillery) enjoyed by the West when they came into contact with non-European societies, that allowed them to emerge triumphant. Cortes serves as an illustrious exhibit of Great Man theory that considers men of great abilities to be instrumental in bending the arc of history. While both theories have their advantages and disadvantages in explaining the success of Cortes and the abject failure of Montezuma, they serve to provide some respectability to the primary strategy of Cortes - Europeans were willing to lie, cheat and murder in the name of religion and money. What was a shiny object to Europeans (gold) was valued much less by Aztecs. The wealth of Aztecs also made them complacent in the face of an existential threat that Europeans represented. It made the difference in Europeans soaring to ever great heights and Aztecs losing their entire civilization.
No comments:
Post a Comment