The logo is Hernán Cortés

Lesson 6 Text: The Conquest of Mexico

I. The Conquest

The Spanish conquest of their American empires was carried out primarily by individuals who organized and financed their own expeditions after having obtained the permission and authorization of the King by means of a formal contract. The first set of conquerors who agreed to these terms were called "adelantados" (the King's advance men), and it was up to them to persuade the other members of their party to join them, with promises of land, adventure and booty as their reward. This type of enterprise was derived from the patterns which were used in the Reconquest against the Moors, which was generally carried out by small groups of armed men under the authority of one of many kings or princes. They fought for the religious purpose of expelling the Moors, but they were also motivated by the desire to take over the lands and serfs held by their enemies. Thus, it was easy for the Spanish, who saw the conquest of America as an extension or a continuation of their Reconquest battles against the Arabs, to use the same methods.

Fig. 6-1: The Conquest

In the Indies (the term the Spanish preferred for their colonies) the motivation could be described as "God, glory and gold", with the religious factor of converting heathens and the personal or royal glory of conquest taking a back seat to the more powerful motive of wealth. The men who carried it out were a mix of nobles (generally the leaders of the expeditions), professional soldiers, young men seeking adventure, and more than a few who were escaping past misdeeds in the Peninsula.

Whatever we may think today of the destruction and changes wrought by the conquistadores, we must acknowledge that the handful of men who crossed the ocean to carry out the conquest performed historically epic deeds as they faced disease, hunger, hardship and hostile terrain to battle large numbers of warriors from two major empires. How were they able to accomplish this in such a short period of time? One explanation lies in the military superiority of the Spanish, both in weapons (steel, armor, gunpowder, the horse, the fighting dog), as well as in tactics (the Spanish had the experience of fierce fighting with the Moors, while to many of the Indigenous Americans warfare was something ritualistic and religious, such as the Aztecs' "war of the flowers"). Psychological factors helped as well, since many of the Indigenous empires held the belief of a returning god, such as Quetzalcoatl, coming from the east to reclaim his rightful kingdom on earth. Then there was the factor of biological warfare in the form of diseases brought by the Europeans (measles, smallpox) for which the Indigenous had no immunity. Finally, there was the factor of political divisions and fragmentation between the various groups the Spanish found. A prime example was in the conquest of Mexico, where the Aztec's brutal exploitation of other tribes made it easy for the Spanish to find allies in their fight against the Aztecs.

Fig. 6-2: Conquistador

B. Art of the Conquest

Art in the early years of the conquest had an important function: to communicate back to the Old World, and especially to the financial backers and the Court, the wonders that were being found in the Americas. Drawings and sketches, accompanied by sometimes exaggerated descriptions in written reports and chronicles, were the only way to show those who stayed behind how valuable the new territories were. Besides illustrating the riches of the New World, art was also used to provide graphic representations of new creatures, foods and flora. This was sometimes done with a reasonable degree of accuracy, but often considerable liberties were taken with reality.

The sometimes very different customs of the Indigenous were also the subject of drawings and sketches, which were frequently done by the conquered ones themselves, with notations and marginal comments provided by the expeditions' leaders, scribes, or priests who accompanied them. This was especially significant in the conquest of the Aztecs, since many of the customs considered sinful by the priests, such as human sacrifice and cannibalism, provided a religious justification for the conquest.

Fig. 6-3: First portrayal of the hammock

Cartography provided another medium for art. The earlier maps sketched by the first explorers (such as Columbus) were plain and functional. But later ones were profusely illustrated with all manner of new and strange creatures to be found in the Indies. And when these were later copied many times back in Europe, there was a tendency to incorporate fanciful and imaginary details.

C. Literature of the Conquest

The conquistadores, like the discoverers, were creatures of the Renaissance who had not yet fully shaken off the superstitions of the Medieval period. Further, the Spanish carried with them all sorts of stories, some real and many exaggerated, of their countrymen's exploits during the Reconquest; these undoubtedly influenced the chronicles of the conquest of America. Since the conquistadores were men of action, their writings tended to be direct, descriptive, and matter of fact. The time for reflection, creative esthetics and imagination would come later.

II. Hernán Cortés and the Conquest of Mexico

A. Cortés the man

Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) was the epitome of the Spanish conquistador in the New World. Of humble origins, he managed to attend the prestigious University of Salamanca in Spain but was a poor student, and was constantly in trouble because of his adventures, including several incidents in which jealous husbands pursued him. After flunking out of Salamanca he decided to find his fame and fortune in the New World. He went first to Hispaniola, and then Cuba, where he married a relative of governor Diego Velásquez. In the year 1517 Velásquez had sent an expedition west from Cuba, and it had explored the coast of Mexico, landing, among other places, on the coast near today's Cancún, where the leader was able to observe the remains of Maya cities; some gold was also found.

Fig. 6-4: Cortés

His interest piqued, Velásquez in 1519 sent a larger expedition under Cortés, with a total of eleven ships, some five hundred and fifty men, and sixteen horses. On landing in Yucatán and Tabasco, Cortés had the good luck of finding two interpreters who would help him exploit the psychological and political weaknesses of the Aztecs. One was Jerónomo de Aguilar, a shipwrecked Spaniard who had lived among the Mayas for many years.

The second was Malinche, the daughter of a defeated Aztec chief who had been sold as a slave to a Maya family, and thus could speak both the languages of the Maya and the Aztecs. Using the services of these two, Cortés was able to communicate with the principal groups he encountered in Mexico. Furthermore, Malinche (named Doña Marina by the Spanish) became his lover and counselor, providing him with insights, interpretations and military intelligence which Cortés skillfully used in his campaign and in his dealings with the Aztec leadership. Among other things, she gave him details of the legend of Quetzalcoatl and brought him to realize that not only did he look like the god of long beard and white skin, but that he had arrived at a time of many omens, when the return of Quetzalcoatl was expected.

After founding the town of Veracruz on the coast, and making initial contacts with the emissaries of the Aztec emperor Moctezuma, Cortés began his trek inland to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán. During his journey he battled (and then forged alliances) with several tribes which had been conquered and exploited by the Aztecs, and which subsequently joined him. He also encountered Moctezuma's ambassadors, who gave him gifts (including gold) and passed on to him Moctezuma's request that he return from whence he came. Unfortunately, the gold only whetted the Spaniards' appetites and guaranteed that they would press on.

Cortés' principal writings were five "Cartas de Relación" ("Letters of Report") from 1520 to 1526 in which he described the events of the conquest of Mexico to his emperor, Charles I of Spain (Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire). His writings are more elegant and sophisticated than Columbus', perhaps because of his higher level of education, but they have the same credibility stemming from the fact that the author was also the man who performed the historic deeds. The excerpts which follow are from the second of these letters, dated the 30th of October 1520 from Segura de la Frontera, New Spain (Mexico). In this letter Cortés tells the King of his meeting (accompanied by his interpreter and lover Marina/Malinche) with the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma as he enters their capital of Tenochtitlán. In the last section of this excerpt Cortés has Moctezuma describe the legend of Quetzalcoatl, which was to prove so valuable to the Spaniards in the conquest of Mexico.

Fig. 6-5: Moctezuma

Despite the relatively auspicious first encounter with Moctezuma, Cortés' conquest of Mexico was not easy. He gained temporary control of the empire by taking Moctezuma prisoner and claiming that he was indeed Quetzalcoatl who had returned to reclaim his throne. But then came a threat from a different direction: Governor Velásquez of Cuba had never really trusted Cortés, and was beginning to realize that Cortés was acting on his own and was trying to establish a direct link to the King in Spain and set up his own independent domain in Mexico. Velásquez had sent an expedition to bring Cortés back to Cuba as a prisoner, and Cortés learned from messengers that the new expedition had captured his base of operations in Veracruz. Never a passive man, Cortés decided to return to the coast and confront Velásquez' expedition. In doing so he left the city of Tenochtitlán and Moctezuma in the hands of Pedro de Alvarado, who promptly murdered several hundred Aztec leaders. Cortés was able to defeat the expedition Velásquez had sent, and quickly returned to Tenochtitlán, where he found the Aztecs in open rebellion against the excesses of Alvarado. Moctezuma was now discredited and of little use to Cortés, who was forced to retreat from Tenochtitlán in the defeat the Spanish called "La Noche Triste" (the sad or tragic night). Aided by an outbreak of deadly smallpox, Cortés was able to regroup, and complete the conquest by August 1521.

"Letter of Report" from Hernán Cortés, to King Charles V (The Spaniards enter the city of Tenochtitlán, 1520)

...Having passed this bridge, Lord Moctezuma came out to meet us, with almost two hundred lords, all barefoot and dressed in different livery and manner of clothing, very ornate, much more so than that of the previous ones. They came in two processions, pressed close to the walls of the street, which is very broad, straight and beautiful on both sides; it is about two thirds of a league long, and on both sides there are very large and grand edifices, both houses as well as temples.

Moctezuma walked down the middle of the street with two lords, one on each side. One of the lords was the tall one who had come out to meet me previously, and the other was Moctezuma's brother, the lord of the city of Iztapalapa, which I had departed from the same day. All three were clothed the same way, except that Moctezuma had footwear and the others were barefoot. The two lords were close to his elbows, and when I came near to them I dismounted from my horse and tried to embrace Moctezuma. But his two companions held me back so I could not touch him, and then the three of them ceremoniously kissed the earth...

When I spoke to Moctezuma I first removed a necklace I was wearing made of pearls and glass diamonds, and placed it around his neck. After a short walk one of his servants came with two necklaces, wrapped in a cloth, made from the shells of red snails which they have in abundance. From each necklace hung eight golden shrimp, perfectly made, and very large. After he received these necklaces he turned to me and put them around my neck, and continued down the street until we reached a large and beautiful house, well appointed, which he had set aside for us to rest in.

There he took me by the hand and escorted me to a great hall which faced the patio through which we had entered. There he had me sit in a luxurious drawing room and asked me to wait. In a short while, once all of my company was settled, he returned with many and diverse jewels of gold and silver, and feathers, and perhaps five or six thousand pieces of cotton clothing, very luxurious and woven and crafted in many diverse ways. And after he had given me all these things he sat down and began to speak to me in this manner:

Fig. 6-6: Cortés and Moctezuma

"For a long time we have known from the scriptures that our ancestors wrote that neither I nor all the others who live in these lands are native to it, but rather we are foreigners who have come here from very distant parts. We also know that a Lord brought us to these parts, and that all of us were his vassals, and that he then reverted to his original nature"...

"And we have always believed that his descendants would return someday to dominate these lands and also us, as their vassals. According to the things you tell us about your land of origin, which is where the sun rises, and the things you say about this great lord or king who sent you here, we believe and hold to be true the fact that he is our natural lord. Especially since you tell us that he has known about us for some time. For this reason you may be sure that we will obey you and consider you lord in place of the great lord who sent you. In this there will be nothing held back and no trickery. And in any of my lands you may command at your will, because you will be obeyed, and everything we have is yours to dispose of as you wish."

III. Bernal Díaz del Castillo

For another perspective of the conquest of Mexico we have the work of one of Cortés' soldiers, Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1495?-1584). He was a lower ranking soldier who had accompanied Cortés in over a hundred battles and skirmishes in Mexico, and he provides us with the viewpoint of the common man instead of the heroic leader. His only work, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain (Mexico), was not published until sixty years after his death, and did not achieve acclaim until many years after that.

In 1518 Bernal Díaz had taken part in one of the early expeditions which explored Mexico's Caribbean coast, and thus was well prepared when he joined Cortés' expedition in 1520. He accompanied Cortés during the key battles in Tenochtitlán, and then later in other parts of Mexico and Central America from 1521 to 1524. As his reward, he was granted an "encomienda" (a large parcel of land along with the Indians living on it) in Guatemala. He lived out his life there in Santiago de los Caballeros (Antigua), Guatemala, where he is buried.

Fig. 6-7: Bernal Díaz

As an old man he read an account of the conquest of Mexico prepared by the priest Francisco López de Gómara, who had served Cortés as secretary in Spain. But Gómara was not present during the conquest of Mexico, and had never served in a conquering expedition. Furthermore, as Cortés' secretary, he naturally gave his employer full credit for all the glorious deeds of the conquest, presenting him in the best light possible. Bernal Díaz reacted with anger at Gómara's account, feeling that it distorted the truth and neglected the common soldier, and began to write his own history of the conquest.

Although Bernal Díaz does not attack Cortés, or try to diminish his glory or fame, clearly he feels that the hero of the conquest is a collective one, namely the conquistadores as a group. Thus, his work is a populist one, exalting the courage and feats of the frequently anonymous common soldier as much as the captains and leaders. In addition, he frequently makes corrections to what he perceives are the errors and exaggerations of Gómara.

Bernal Díaz also gives us a different perspective of the Aztec: he is the enemy, frequently cruel, who must be decisively defeated to permit the success of the Spanish enterprise. But he also expresses admiration for some of the Aztec leaders, especially Moctezuma and Cuahutemoc (the last emperor, who was killed by Cortés). In presenting the common soldier as hero, Bernal Díaz does not accept the criticism of people like Father las Casas, who during this time was bitterly criticizing the excesses of the Spanish conquistadores and early settlers. But Bernal Diaz' account is often frank and direct, and in his stories of the conquest he sometimes does chronicle excesses on the part of his fellow-soldiers.

The first of the two fragments of the True History which follow deals with Marina/Malinche, and stresses the importance of her contribution. The second selection provides details of the Spanish retreat from Tenochtitlán during the "Noche Triste" of 30 June of the year 1520.

True History of the Conquest of Mexico by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

Regarding Doña Marina

Before I get into the matter of the great Moctezuma and his great Mexico and the Mexicans, I want to tell of Doña Marina, and how, from her girlhood, she was a great Lady and leader of the people and vassals, in this manner:

Her father and mother were Lords and chiefs of a town called Painala, and they had other peoples subject to them, about eight leagues from the village of Coatzacoalcos. Her father died when Doña Marina was a little girl, and her mother then married another gentle chief, and they had a son. It seemed that they loved the son very much, and between the father and mother they agreed to give the son their inheritance after their days on earth had passed. In order to avoid any problems with Marina in this inheritance, they gave the girl away one night to some Indians from Xicalango with orders to hide her, and then they put the word out that she had died. At about that time the daughter of a slave of theirs died, and they told everyone that the corpse was that of their daughter Marina. And the Indians of Xicalango gave Marina to those of Tabasco and those of Tabasco gave her to Cortés.

Fig. 6-8: Marina/Malinche interpreting

I knew her mother and her half-brother, son of the old lady. He was now a man and governed his people jointly with his mother, because the mother's second husband (his father) had died. After they converted to Christianity the old woman took the name Mary, and the son Lazarus. I know this very well because in the year 1523, after Mexico and other provinces were conquered, and Cristóbal de Olid had rebelled in las Higueras, Cortés went there and passed through Coatzacoalcos. With him and us on that trip were most of the inhabitants of that town, as I will relate in the proper time and place.

Inasmuch as Doña Marina, in all the wars of New Spain, Tlascala and Mexico, was such an excellent woman and good interpreter, as I will explain later on, Cortés always took her with him. On that trip and occasion she married a nobleman named Juan Jaramillo in a town called Orizaba in front of various witnesses. One of them was called Aranda, a neighbor of Tabasco, and he told me of the wedding, and it was not the way recorded by the chronicler Gómara. Doña Marina had a lot of presence, and had absolute say among the Indians of all of New Spain.

Cortés, while in the town of Coatzacoalcos, ordered that all the chiefs of that province be called to have a parley regarding the holy doctrine and its proper treatment. At that moment Doña Marina's mother and her son Lázaro arrived, with the other chiefs. It had been some days since Marina told me that she was from that province, and Lady of the vassals. This was well known to Cortés, and to Aguilar the interpreter, so that when they saw the mother, her daughter, and her brother, they knew right away that she was her mother's daughter because she looked a great deal like her. The mother and son were afraid of Marina because they thought she had ordered them to come so that they would be killed, and they cried.

When Doña Marina saw them crying this way, she consoled them saying that they should not be afraid, because when they had given her away as a young girl to the Indians of Xicalango, they did not know what they were doing, and she forgave them. She gave them much gold jewelry and clothing and told them that they should return to their village, and that God had given her much grace because she no longer worshipped idols, and was a Christian, and was married to a gentleman, who was her husband Juan Jaramillo. She said that even though she might be named chief of all the provinces in New Spain, she would not accept this post, because she placed greater value in serving her husband and Cortés than anything else in the world. All of this which I tell you I heard, and can attest to, and I swear it, amen.

Fig. 6-9: Conquistador

This seems to me similar to what happened to Joseph and his brothers in Egypt, who came to power during that business of the wheat. This is what really happened, and not like Gómara tells it. He also said some other things which I will overlook.

Returning to our subject, Doña Marina knew the language of Guacacualco, which is the tongue of Mexico, and also knew the language of Tabasco, and Jerónimo de Aguilar knew the language of Yucatán and Tabasco, which is one and the same. They (Marina and Aguilar) understood each other well, and Aguilar would pass the information on in Castillian to Cortés. It was a great beginning to our conquest, and things went our way, glory be to God, in a very prosperous way. I wanted to state all this because without Doña Marina, we would not have been able to understand the tongue of New Spain and Mexico.

The Tragic Night

After we learned of Cortés' decision regarding the way in which we were to leave that night over the bridges, and since it was dark and foggy and drizzly, just before midnight we began to bring the portable bridge and march with the baggage and the horses and the mare and the Tlaxcaltecas loaded with the gold. We put the bridge in place and Cortés and the rest of his group crossed over first, many of them on horse. And at that moment we heard the voices and the trumpets and the shouts and whistles of the Mexicans, who cried out in their language to those of Tatuleco: "Come out with your canoes because the teules (Spaniards) are leaving, and you must grab them so that none will get out alive!" And just when we were not expecting it we saw a great number of squadrons of warriors fall on us, and their lake was filled with uncountable canoes, even though many of our soldiers had gotten through.

And, at that point, so many Mexicans came to remove our bridge and wound and kill our people, that we could not help them. Since fortune is bad in such times, one bad thing happened after another: because it was raining, the horses slipped and fell into the water. When we, and Cortés' group, saw this, we tried to regain control of the bridge, but they had so many warriors that we were unable to, despite our great struggle. And as a result, there was a water gap where the bridge was supposed to go, and this gap was quickly filled with dead horses and Indians and their women, and the porters and baggage and trunks. Fearing that they would end up killing us all, we pushed ahead along the causeway and ran into many more squadrons who were waiting for us with long spears, and who cried out to us with insulting words, saying: "Oh, you devils, you are still alive!"

Fig. 6-10 Conquistador

Stabbing and thrusting with sword and knife we cut our way through them, although they wounded six of ours. Cortés and his captains and soldiers who had gone first on the causeway on horse, had saved themselves and reached the mainland and made it without losing anyone. They were also able to bring out the horses with the gold and the Tlaxcaltecas, but we, if we waited any longer, would have all been killed, soldiers as well as horses, and none would have gotten out alive. The reason was this: while we were fighting our way along the causeway we were being attacked by the Mexican squadrons, and on one side we had water and the lake full of canoes, and on the other we had houses. We could do nothing, since our firearms and our crossbows had stayed on the bridge, and it being dark and at night, what could we do except what we tried to do, which was to push forward and stab those who tried to stop us, and push through across the causeway. If it had been daylight, it might have been even worse. And those of us who did escape, did so because Our Lord helped us. And for anyone who did not that night see the multitude of warriors who fell upon us, and the canoes which they used to attack our soldiers, it was frightful.

We who pushed on ahead along the causeway reached the town of Tacuba, where we found Cortés and the other captains, Gonzalo de Sandoval and Cristóbal de Olid and the others on horse who had gone on ahead. They were crying out to Cortés: "Sir captain, listen to us, because they say we are fleeing and we are leaving our friends behind to die on the bridges. Let us go back to see if we can protect those who have stayed and have not come out". Cortés' answer was that it was a miracle that any had gotten out. But he decided later to go back to the bridges with the horses and the ones who were not wounded.

They had not gone very far when they came upon Pedro de Alvarado, badly wounded, with a spear in his hand and on foot, because his sorrel mare had been killed, and he brought with him four soldiers as badly wounded as he was, and eight Tlastaltecans, all of whom had bleeding wounds. And while Cortés went along the causeway with the other captains and the Indians of Tacuba, there arrived from Mexico many squadrons yelling out orders to the Tacubans and to those from Atzcapozalco, and they began to hurl lances and stones and arrows and great spears. We made some charges in which we both defended ourselves and attacked.

Fig 6-11: Europe's slowly increasing knowledge of America