On This Day In History: Spanish Conquistadors Led By Hernan Cortés Entered The Aztecs Capital Tenochtitlán – On Nov 8, 1519

AncientPages.com - On November 8, 1519, Hernán Cortés, a Spanish Conquistador, entered Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec Empire.

Cortés led an expedition that contributed much to the fall of the Aztec Empire. During the march through Mexico, Cortés encountered a group of natives called the Tlaxcalans, who were enemies of the Aztecs.

Conquistadors and their Tlaxcalan allies enter Tenochtitlan. Image : Margaret Duncan Coxhead - Romance of History, Mexico - Public Domain

They became an essential ally for Cortés during his siege of Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital.

On this day, he was welcomed by Moctezuma, the second Aztec emperor and the fifth king of Tenochtitlan.

Moctezuma’s father prepared accommodations for the guests in his palace. The Aztec emperor deliberately let Cortés enter the Aztec capital, the island city of Tenochtitlan, hoping to get to know their weaknesses better to crush them later. Cortes ordered the removal of large idols placed in the main temple pyramid in the city and shrines to the Virgin Mary and St. Christopher to be set up in their place. He strongly disapproved of idolatry and human sacrifice, so he ordered the Aztecs to stop them, which made them very angry.

However, Cortes’ arrival also coincided with an Aztec prophecy about the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, a white-skinned god arriving from the east. The Aztecs dared not to attack ‘god.’ By the time they realized the truth, it was too late.

However, after a week, Cortes took the emperor hostage. In the meantime, the governor of Cuba sent a force to Mexico to arrest Cortes, who went to the coast to meet them and successfully deal with the threat. Then he rushed back to Tenochtitlan, where his soldiers were engaged in local troubles while they tried to stop the Aztecs’ ceremony.

Cortes made Montezuma go out to talk to his people but they stoned him. (Others, including indigenous scholars, emphasized that the Spanish killed him.) After his arrival, he found the Spaniards besieged in their palace.

The Conquistadors managed to leave the city and reach the coast, but many soldiers died. Cortés regrouped his people and attacked Tenochtitlán in full force in 1521. At that time, the city’s society had crumbled. The Aztecs were short on food, and the smallpox epidemic was underway. More than 3 million Aztecs died from smallpox, and with such a severely weakened population, it was easy for the Spanish to take Tenochtitlán.

Cortes gathered reinforcements and then marched on Tenochtitlan once again. When he reached lake Texcoco, he ordered them to build boats and armed them with cannons. The ships then sailed across the lake to attack the city (which was built on an island). The Spaniards were also helped by the smallpox epidemy, which broke out among the Aztecs.

Eventually, the Spaniards captured Tenochtitlan and burned it.

The Spaniards began to control Mexico, which they called New Spain. Cortes was appointed its first governor.

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