How did the Spanish treat Aztecs?
When they at last broke through the city's defenses, the Spanish and their indigenous allies were ruthless. They subdued the Aztecs street by street, slaughtering indiscriminately and looting what they could. Houses were burned and temples destroyed.
What did the Spanish call the Aztecs?
The inhabitants of Tenochtitlan called themselves the Tenochca; those of Tlatelolco called themselves Tlatelolca. Collectively, these two main forces in the Basin of Mexico called themselves the Mexica.
Why did the Spanish not like the Aztecs?
They hated the Aztecs because they had raided their cities for people to sacrifice to their gods. Montezuma II tried to keep Cortés from getting all the way to Tenochtitlan, but Cortés continued his march. He destroyed the Aztec religious city of Cholula along the way.
What did the Spanish think of the Aztec religion?
The Spanish were horrified by the idea that the Aztecs believed in deities that frequently expected blood and hearts from their worshippers, especially when these were obtained in such a brutal way.
Could the Aztecs have defeated the Spanish?
They couldn't have. Not because of weaponry or Aztec decline - but the fact remains that about 70% of them were wiped out by disease. A weakened, crippled population with half its leadership dead of smallpox was the main reason why the Spaniards won their Empire and why they were able to create a mestizo culture.
What do Mexicans call the Aztecs?
The Mexica or Mexicas — called Aztecs in occidental historiography, although this term is not limited to the Mexica — were an indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico, known today as the rulers of the Aztec empire.
Are there any Aztecs still alive?
Today the descendants of the Aztecs are referred to as the Nahua. More than one-and-a-half million Nahua live in small communities dotted across large areas of rural Mexico, earning a living as farmers and sometimes selling craft work.
How did the Spanish treat the natives in Mexico?
What did the Spanish do to the Natives? They enslaved them and took their food.
Why do the Aztecs no longer exist?
Invaders led by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés overthrew the Aztec Empire by force and captured Tenochtitlan in 1521, bringing an end to Mesoamerica's last great native civilization.
Why were the Aztecs angry at the Spanish?
This is because Moctezuma II continued to rule over the Aztec Empire and city of Tenochtitlan from his imprisonment in the Aztec palace. The Aztec nobility and religious leaders became very angry during this time with the Spanish. They believed that Moctezuma II was weak and had let the Spanish take over the city.
How many Aztecs died from the Spanish?
It will never be definitively determined how many Aztecs were killed by the Spanish, but it is estimated that they killed as many 200,000 people during the Battle of Tenochtitlan alone. If European borne diseases are included, the death count could go as high as 20 million people.
Did Aztecs think Spanish were gods?
The Aztecs first thought the Spanish were gods due to their light skin and dark hair. The Aztecs would pay the Spanish gold and other gifts to celebrate them. The Spanish saw these riches and realized they wanted more but were outnumbered by the Aztecs.
What were the Aztecs also called?
Early Aztec History The Aztecs were also known as the Tenochca (from which the name for their capital city, Tenochtitlan, was derived) or the Mexica (the origin of the name of the city that would replace Tenochtitlan, as well as the name for the entire country).
What did the Spanish call the Indians?
The indigenous world already knew the naboría, a person directly and permanently dependent upon the ruler or a noble. This role was appropriated by the Spaniards, who commandeered substantial numbers of Indians for their permanent employ, calling them naborías.
What did the Spanish call the natives?
Native peoples Indios were defined as the native indigenous peoples in all the Spanish American and Asian possessions. During the Spanish colonial period in the Mariana Islands (17th through 19th centuries) the CHamoru people were classified as indios.
What did the Spaniards call Mexico?
After the fall of the Aztec Empire, Spain called their new lands the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and ruled over Mexico for the next three hundred years. Tenochtitlan, the old capital of the Empire, became known as Mexico City.
Who was the Spanish conquistador that led the expedition to explore and conquer the Aztec Empire?
Hernan Cortés was the Spanish conquistador that led the expedition to explore and conquer the Aztec Empire. At the age of 19, he travelled to the Spanish controlled colonies in the Caribbean. More specifically, he arrived at the island of Hispaniola which is the modern-day Dominican Republic and Haiti. After several years in the colonies, Cortés convinced Diego Velasquez, another conquistador and then governor of Cuba, to let him lead an expedition to Mexico. Cortés set sail soon after with approximately 11 ships and just over 500 men. Moctezuma II was informed of their arrival, which was in the area of the Yucatan Peninsula, to the east of the main territory of the Aztec Empire.
What was the Spanish exploration of?
In the years before the arrival of the Spanish into the territory of the Aztec Empire, the Spanish had been exploring the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean during the European ‘Age of Exploration’. Spain’s monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, were expanding Spain’s influence and prestige by funding expeditions by Spanish explorers. Many of these explorers were driven by a desire to capture as much gold and other precious metals as possible. For example, Spain had already played an important role in the early part of the Age of Exploration with the voyages of Christopher Columbus.
What was the white skin of Quetzalcoatl?
The prophecy spoke of Quetzalcoatl’s arrival at the same time as the Spanish, and Quetzalcoatl was said to have white skin . Unsure of whether or not Cortés was the god, Moctezuma II responded by greeting him with honor and giving him many gifts. Regardless, the Aztecs were amazed by the Spanish.
Who was the first conquistador to sail to Mexico?
After several years in the colonies, Cortés convinced Diego Velasquez, another conquistador and then governor of Cuba, to let him lead an expedition to Mexico. Cortés set sail soon after with approximately 11 ships and just over 500 men.
Who met with Moctezuma II?
The meeting of Cortes and Moctezuma II.
Did the Aztecs have white skin?
First, the Aztec had never seen a person with white skin before. Secondly, the armor and weapons that the Spanish used would have been mostly unimaginable to the Aztecs. For example, the Aztec would not have known what firearms were, or understood how they worked.
When did the Aztecs end?
The Aztec Empire ceased to exist with the Spanish final conquest of Tenochtitlan in August 1521. The empire had been composed of separate city-states that had either allied with or been conquered by the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, and rendered tribute to the Mexica while maintaining their internal ruling structures. Those polities now came under Spanish rule, also retaining their internal structures of ruling elites, tribute paying commoners, and land holding and other economic structures largely intact. Two key works by historian Charles Gibson, Tlaxcala in the Sixteenth Century (1952) and his monograph The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule: A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519–1810 (1964) were central in reshaping the historiography of the indigenous and their communities from the Spanish Conquest to the 1810 Mexican independence era.
What was the Spanish conquest of Mexico?
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Mexico or the Spanish-Aztec War (1519–21), was one of the primary events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas . There are multiple 16th-century narratives of the events by Spanish conquistadors, their indigenous allies, and the defeated Aztecs.
How long did the Aztecs plague last?
The Aztecs were struck by a smallpox plague starting in September 1520, which lasted seventy days. Many were killed, including their new leader, the Emperor Cuitlahuac. : 92–93
What was the role of cavalry in the Spanish Conquest?
In addition, aside from the infantry and the allies' role in the Spanish conquest, cavalry was the "arm of decision in the conquest" and "the key ingredient in the Spanish forces". Many of those on the Cortés expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before, including Cortés.
How many horses were left in the Spanish escape?
The Spanish were able to complete their escape to Tlaxcala. There, they were given assistance, since all 440 of them were wounded, with only 20 horses left. Maxixcatzin, Xicotencatl the Elder and Chichimecatecle told Cortés's men: "Consider yourselves at home. Rest...do not think it a small thing that you have escaped with your lives from that strong city...if we thought of you as brave men before, we consider you much braver now." : 306–07
What was the key event in the formation of the Spanish Empire overseas?
The Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents with established practices. The fall of the Aztec Empire was the key event in the formation of the Spanish Empire overseas, with New Spain, which later became Mexico .
Who was the leader of the Spanish army in 1521?
The Spanish campaign against the Aztec Empire had its final victory on 13 August 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor Cuauhtémoc and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire.
Overview
The Aztecs under Spanish rule
The Council of the Indies was constituted in 1524 and the first Audiencia in 1527. In 1535, Charles V the Holy Roman Emperor (who was as the King of Spain known as Charles I), named the Spanish nobleman Don Antonio de Mendoza the first Viceroy of New Spain. Mendoza was entirely loyal to the Spanish crown, unlike the conqueror of Mexico Hernán Cortés, who had demonstrated that he was independent-minded and defied official orders when he threw off the authority of Governor …
Significant events in the conquest of Mesoamerica
Historical sources for the conquest of Mexico recount some of the same events in both Spanish and indigenous sources. Others, however, are unique to a particular primary source or group narrating the event. Individuals and groups laud their own accomplishments, while often denigrating or ignoring those of their opponents or their allies or both.
Sources for the conquest of Mesoamerica
The conquest of Mexico, the initial destruction of the great pre-Columbian civilizations, is a significant event in world history. The conquest was well documented by a variety of sources with differing points of view, including indigenous accounts, by both allies and opponents. Accounts by the Spanish conquerors exist from the first landfall at Veracruz, Mexico (on Good Friday, 22 …
Spanish expeditions
The Spanish had established a permanent settlement on the island of Hispaniola in 1493 on the second voyage of Christopher Columbus. There were further Spanish explorations and settlements in the Caribbean and the Spanish Main, seeking wealth in the form of gold and access to indigenous labor to mine gold and other manual labor. Twenty-five years after the first Spanish settlement in …
Further Spanish Wars of Conquest
After hearing about the fall of the Aztec Empire, Irecha Tangaxuan II sent emissaries to the Spanish victors (the Purépecha empire was a contemporary an enemy of the Aztec Empire). A few Spaniards went with them to Tzintzuntzan, where they were presented to the ruler and gifts were exchanged. They returned with samples of gold and Cortés' interest in the Tarascan state was awakened.
Cultural depictions of the Aztecs
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire is the subject of an opera, La Conquista (2005) and of a set of six symphonic poems, La Nueva España (1992–99) by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero.
Cortés's conquest has been depicted in numerous television documentaries. These include in an episode of Engineering an Empire as well as in the BBC series Heroes …
See also
• Aztec warfare
• Aztecs
• Aztec influence in Spain
• Historiography of Colonial Spanish America
• History of Mexico City