The Conquest of Mexico

        By the year 1521 a small army of Spanish conquered the great Aztec empire. How could so few conquer so many? What was the Aztec nation like to give up so easily? Was Montezuma, its chief, to blame? These are questions that have been asked over and over again in the hundreds of years since the conquest of Mexico.
       There are many answers to these questions. In the first place, the Aztec empire was in trouble already. The Aztecs had conquered many city-states that were restless, seething with plots to overthrow their conquerors, and ready to join with anyone in revolt. Besides that, the Aztecs had no real king. The Spanish thought Montezuma was the absolute ruler of the Aztecs, but he was really only their most important citizen. He had little real power and could be deposed if he did not satisfy the council. This made it difficult for him to act.
       To add to this, strange signs and wonders had filled the people with fear. A comet had been seen by day, sudden violent waves had swept across the lake that surrounded the capital, and two temples had been destroyed in mysterious ways. When stories reached the city of men riding great animals, the Aztecs wondered if these were men or gods. If gods, they should be honored; if men, they must be destroyed. What should they do! Fear kept them from acting.
       Cortez began his march inland at the end of summer, a good time for the invaders because the Aztecs were busy in the fields and had no time for warfare. In any case, they were no match for the Spanish with their crossbows and canons and their terrifying horses. The Spanish were trained to fight, to kill the enemy, and to conquer, but the Natives wanted only to take prisoners and exact tribute. They did not understand European warfare.
       When Cortez and his conquistadors reached Tenochtitlan, the capital, Montezuma received them kindly. In return the Spanish made him a prisoner and looted the city. At last the Aztecs rose up against the enemy. They bottled the Spaniards up in one section of the city and cut off their escape. But early one morning the Spaniards crept through the sleeping city and had almost reached safety when an Native woman saw them and gave the alarm. The Aztecs sprang up, swarmed over the housetops, and drove the enemy into the water. Laden with their heavy armor and stolen gold many Spaniards sank to the bottom. One conquistador used his lance to pole vault across the broken causeway. It was only after fierce fighting that the Spanish reached safety.
       Later the Texcocan people, who were jealous of the Aztecs, sided with the Spanish. The Spanish now had access to the lakes and so Cortez built a fleet of ships and re-entered the city. But as fast as they built bridges across the canals the Aztecs tore them down. It was only when Cortez sent his native allies ahead to destroy the houses and fill the canals with rubble that the Spanish were able to ride their horses
against the Aztecs. Even then the Aztecs fought them step by step until there was no hope left and they had to surrender.
       The descendants of the Aztecs still live in Mexico, their ways a mixture of Indigenous people and Spanish. In the other stories you will read about some of these people who live in the modern town of Tepoztlan where before the conquest their ancestors made amatl paper for their overlords the Aztecs.

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