Cacaxtla's Civilization

Each year, the Totonacs were forced to send hundreds of children to the altars of Tenochtitlan, a city within the Aztec empire, for sacrifice, therefore their hatred was prominent. [10] Whereas the Tlaxcalans, had been at war with the Aztecs for about a century, to the Tlaxcalans, the Spanish represented their only hope. [11] For this reason, Tlacochcalcatl forged an alliance with Cortés. Before his alliances, his army only had 508 men to conquer the Aztec empire, which had millions of people. Cortes had 50,000 Tlaxcalans backing him up for the re-conquest of Tenochtitlan, as well as 25,000 combined Indians allies.

The Aztecs, part of modern day Mexico, were once the epitome of fine culture. They began their rule of southern and central Mexico during the 14th century and practiced an incredibly wealthy lifestyle. Nonetheless, this rule began to deteriorate when Spanish explorers disembarked at Tabasco and Vera Cruz on April 21st 1519. When the Spanish voyagers first arrived, they were welcomed warmly, respectfully and received Godlike treatment. Montezuma, the ruler at that time, believed that the Spanish military leader, Hernán Cortés, was the great god Quetzalcoatl. The Spanish took advantage of this Aztec belief and conquered Mexico within two years. By 1521, the Aztec culture was officially eradicated and a new culture, consisting of a

Maybe too much credit is given to Cortés as one of the greatest Spanish conquerors who developed effective strategy to defeat the Aztecs. Restall see this as somewhat of a myth accounting for the failure of historians to look at history before the 1519 (Restall, 19). Restall says “However, too often, without any direct evidence, the actions of Conquistadors after the 1519– 21 invasion of Mexico are taken as deliberately imitating Cortés, while pre-1519 patterns are ignored.” Whatever the case for whom should be given the credit for the strategy used to defeat the Aztecs; one must admit Cortés was able the win the trust of the people and use the Aztecs’ fear of him to control their empire. Cortés harbored fear of his own. Elliott says, “Cortés felt some uneasiness, when he reflected that it was in the power of the Indians, at any time, to cut off his communications with the surrounding country, and hold him a prisoner in the capital.” The Omens of the Aztecs betrayed them and caused them to see the arriving settlers as gods. They were not prepared to defend themselves against the advanced weapons of the Spanish. Much like the Aztecs, the Mayans faced hard times at the hands of the Spanish conquerors, but their defeat came much easier to the Spanish.

began migrating to the Valley of Mexico. These people are what society calls Aztecs today. In A.D. 1325 the Mexica founded the great city of Tenochtitlan (modern day Mexico City) on the island of Lake Texcoco. Tenochtitlan allied with the cities of Texcoco and Tacuba to form an alliance against the Tepanec people who were the dominant people of the region. This alliance was known as the Triple Alliance which was the basis of the Aztec Empire. The Triple Alliance dominated Central Mexico up until the time of the Spanish Conquest in 1521.

In 1519, Hernan Cortes set sail toward Yucatan, Mexico. The Spaniards were excited for being able to settle in this place for the first time. In Tabasco, Mexico Cortes ran into some resistant natives. He cleared them out with ease, until they were forced to surrender. They gave him supplies and then he left. His mind was set to conquering the Aztecs. He had heard of them and he knew that they were very important in Mexico and he wanted to overthrow them. While they were parading through Mexico they encountered the rivals of the Aztecs, called Tlaxcalans, which were another tribe in Mexico. They became very important allies for the Spanish, during their upcoming siege on the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan. When Cortes arrived, the Aztecs actually though he was their God, Quetzalcoatl, and their leader treated him with a big party. This was because their God was supposed to be returning to Earth that day. The Spaniards wanted to make themselves look powerful, so they fired shots into the air, to scare the Aztecs. They further entered the city and started to sack the whole thing, with the help of the Tlaxcalans and Doña Marina. They took Montezuma (the Aztec leader) hostage. Cortes manipulated him and ruled the city that way. While Montezuma was captured and the Spaniards were ruling the city, another Spanish force arrived from Cuba. Cortes stormed the

Many years after Tenochtitlan was first built by the Mexica, they formed a three way alliance with two other cities Texcoco and Tlacopan. These three cities were to rule the Valley of Mexico. Over time Tenochtitlan became the dominant city of the Alliance and its ruler became the supreme “high king”. Tenochtitlan became the capital of the Aztec empire, the heart of the Aztec civilization and countless other cultures.

The Tlaxcaltecas were very beneficial to Cortes and his men because they despised the Aztecs. When Tenochtitlan fell, the Tlaxcaltecas finally had their revenge for the times the Aztecs had deceived them; they robbed the Aztecs of all their gold and valuables. The Tlaxcaltecas were valuable allies to the Spaniards because they helped them navigate the land. In the Massacre the Canal of the Toltecs, the Tlaxcaltecas willingly gave their lives by throwing themselves into the canal and formed a bridge, which the Spaniards were able to cross

Cortez and his force arrived in Tenochtitlan on November 8th, 1519. Tenochtitlan was the capital of what we know today as Mexico. Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities in the world at that time. Tenochtitlan was run by the Aztecs. Cortes then met Montezuma, the Aztecs’s emperor. Montezuma and the Aztecs thought Hernan Cortes was a god. They thought he was Quetzalcoatl. Cortez was there at the right time because the god was supposed to arrive the same year Cortes was there. Since they thought he was a god they would do anything for his command. Later on Montezuma suspected Cortez not to be the god. He gave him gold and jewels to try and get him to leave. It had the opposite affect and increased the Spaniards greed. Cortez then captured Montezuma as hostage to prevent the Aztecs attacking.

Tlacaelel went to the neighboring tribe to talk about the surrender. Instead he declared war against them. The commoners disagreed with him but the army backed him up. The Aztecs won the war. They started to conquer other tribes because Tlacaelel made them believe they were the chosen ones in the name of Huitzilopochtli. (their

Before getting to Tenochtitlan, Cortes arrived at Tlaxcalteca. Tlaxcalteca was a alliance with around 200 towns and no central government. When they first met, the Tlaxcalans greeted them by fighting and the Spanish had several small battles with them. When they were fighting the Spaniards got cornered on the top of a hill, and as Bernal Diaz describes it, they may have lost if one of the elders from Tlaxcala had not persuaded the commander of their army that it may be better to allie with them. Cortes was taken back to the main city of Tlaxcala and made friends with the leaders of the city. He even managed to get four of their leaders to be baptized.

The first being political political: the subjugation of enemy city states in order expand the empire and demonstrate power and superiority. The second objective was religious and socioeconomic: the taking of captives to be sacrificed in religious ceremonies. According to Friar Diego Durán’s accounts of the Aztec civilization, Tlacaelel - a king of the Aztec Empire - arranged with leaders of other Pre-Columbian city states to engage in ritual battles that would provide all parties with enough sacrificial victims to appease the gods. Tlacaelel reigned over a period of great famine in the empire in year 1450. The Aztec Religion believed that Gods required sacrifices to keep all running smoothly. There were several gods that the Aztecs worshiped to for agricultural purposes, for example: Tláloc, who sends rain and nourishes maize7, Centeotl, the god of maize in general, Teteoinnan, the god of agriculture as well as sexual fertility, and Xipe Totec, god of rituals and sacrifice8. The Aztecs believed that through worshipping certain gods, and generously providing them with a steady supply of sacrifices and blood, the gods would in return keep things balanced. When there was not enough victims, Tlacaelel resorted to these battles to collect more humans to be sacrificed. War was a dominant aspect of the Aztec civilization, and they aspired to exponentially expand their empire through military conquest, while also collecting tribute from the

The Spanish campaign against the Aztecs started on February, 1519 and on the 13th of August 1519, the Spanish were victorious. Hernan Cortes had rallied a coalition army of Spanish forces and rivals of the Aztecs, including the Totonacs, the Tlaxcaltecas and Texococans to fight against the Aztecs. The siege of Tenochtitlan was the final battle between the Aztecs and the Spanish and lasted for eight months. The entire campaign lasted for around 2 and a half years.

The Totonacs joined forces with Cortes against the emperor and his allies. Other neighboring towns that resented the deplorable Aztec hegemony stopped paying tribute as a gesture of support for the Spanish. As a response, those in power at Tenochtitlán sent forces to Cempoala to “punish the defiance but the Spanish with newly acquired allies defeated the advancing army” (Castillo). It was here at Cempoala that the Spanish would meet the Tlaxcalans for the very first time, prompting a standoff between the two. Openly opposing the Mexica empire, the Tlaxcalans were a force to be reckoned with since they had twice prevented Aztec domination (Portilla) and were suspicious of the Spanish at first especially when the conquistadors accepted

• After eight months of battles and negotiations, which overcame the diplomatic resistance of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II to his visit, Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519, where he took up residence, welcomed by Moctezuma. When news reached Cortés of the death of several of his men during the Aztec attack on the Totonacs in Veracruz, he took the opportunity to take Moctezuma captive in his own palace and ruled through him for months. Capturing the cacique or indigenous ruler was standard operating procedure for Spaniards in their expansion in the Caribbean, so capturing Moctezuma was a similar

Many Mexican authorities told Cortes to leave Tlaxcala, and go to the city near them named Cholula. Cholula was the second largest city of Mesoamerica, and the most sacred of them all. In Cholula held not only the largest pyramid in the Americas, but the largest pyramid known to have ever existed named Tlachihualtepetl ("Great Pyramid of Cholula." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.). Cholula was a religious city, but Cortes believed it to be military threat so he invaded them. Since the city was mainly religious, they did not fear an attack because they left their faith in the gods to defend themselves. Before the actual attack, word got to Cortes about the locals were planning to him and his troops in his sleep. Cortes led an attack before what he believed was a sneak attack on himself, and captured and killed most of the nobles. He captured the city leaders, and in one of his own letters Cortes says in under 3 hours they killed more than 3,000 people, and destroyed the rest of the city. One witness tells that the death toll was around 30,000 not 3,000 ("Hernando Cortés." Hernando Cortes. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.)-("Hernán Cortés." Hernán Cortés - New World Encyclopedia. Web. 01 Dec. 2016.)("Cortés, Hernán." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Encyclopedia.com. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.). This had a huge effect on the other cultures around them. Most of the Aztec empire