The Spanish Conquistadors Conquer the Aztecs

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The Spanish Conquistadors Conquer the Aztecs
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The Conquistadors

• Conquistadors were 15th century Spanish explorers
  and conquerors who sailed across the uncharted
  oceans
• desire to explore new worlds
• to gain political power
• to win fame and fortune
• The price of conquest was high
• shipwreck
• disease
• starvation
• warfare
• death
• The Conquistadors' mission was to
• find gold
• convert new souls to Christianity
• claim new territories for the King and the glory
  of their country

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How Did They Get There?New Technologies

• The conquistadors needed to be able to steer
  their ships and find their way with very
  unreliable maps.
• the caravel was a lighter, faster ship than the
  ships that the Spanish had used earlier the
  first ocean-going ship able to sail into the wind
  without the use of oars.
• used a magnetic compass with a magnetized needle
  that always pointed north. That and the North
  Star were their main directional guides.
• They also needed to be able to measure the
  distance traveled in order to follow their course
  and get back home again.
• Quadrants were used to measure the angle between
  the horizon and the sun or stars, to get the
  latitude position.
• The Astrolabe -Another way to figure out latitude
  was to use an astrolabe to measure the height of
  the North Star or the noon sun.
• Dead Reckoning-To figure out how far east or west
  a ship was from its home port, ship's captains
  calculated by "dead reckoning." They estimated
  and kept a record of their direction (with the
  compass), time (measured by hourglass, which
  10-12 year old boys on ship had to turn every 30
  minutes), and speed (which they mostly guessed

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Voyage to the Unknown

• It seems impossible to us in these days of space
  travel, instant communications, and satellite
  mapping to think that there was once a time when
  people in Europe had no idea what most of the
  world was like or how to map it.
• Even once they had figured out that the world was
  round, they had no idea what lay beyond the
  Atlantic Ocean to the west, or how far the ocean
  even extended.
• Only by setting off on dangerous expeditions
  could the conquistadors find out and expand their
  knowledge about the Unknown.

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Hernan Cortes

• Hernan Cortes was only seven years old when
  Christopher Columbus first sighted the New World.
  In 1506, at the age of 22, he joined a force of
  soldiers and sailed to the port city of Santo
  Domingo on the Spanish-controlled island of
  Hispaniola, in the Caribbean Sea. Cortes was
  given a grant of land with native Indians to
  serve him. Although he would have preferred to go
  off to seek gold and adventure, Cortes was
  persuaded by the Spanish governor to settle down
  and run his estate.
• He moved to Cuba in 1509 and in 1511 he agreed to
  help Diego Velazquez in the Spanish conquest of
  Cuba. In battles there, he proved to be a
  capable, brave soldier. In return, Governor
  Velazquez rewarded Cortes for his service by
  giving him an even larger grant of land and more
  Indian slaves.When news arrived about the Mayan
  Civilization on the Yucatan peninsula and the
  fact that explorers had found treasures of silver
  and gold there, the atmosphere in Cuba became
  more and more like a "Gold Rush." Governor
  Velazquez decided to send an expedition to
  Yucatan. On October 23, 1518 he chose Cortes as
  its commanding officer.

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The Cortes Expedition

• Cortes prepared for his expedition by using his
  own money to buy muskets, ammunition, crossbows,
  navigational instruments and supplies.
• He pulled together an army of Spaniards,
  promising them gold, land, and Indian slaves.
  After all his money was gone, he borrowed money
  from friends and mortgaged his plantation.
• Governor Velasquez became concerned that Cortes'
  expedition was becoming larger than was
  originally planned.
• Velasquez decided to relieve Cortes of his
  command, but Cortes' brother-in-law killed the
  messenger carrying the governor's orders.

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Helpers

• On February 18, 1519 Cortes' expedition set sail
  from Cuba. Smooth sailing brought them to
  Cozumel, an island off the coast of Yucatan.
  There, Cortes found Geronimo de Aguilar, a
  Spaniard who had been shipwrecked from a previous
  expedition. Aguilar spoke the local Maya language
  and joined the expedition.
• Cortes sailed along the coast of Yucatan and
  stopped at a large native settlement by the
  Tabasco River. The native Mayas asked the
  expedition to leave, wanting "neither war nor
  trade." After a battle and an easy victory
  because of Spanish weapons, Cortes was able to
  destroy the local idols. The leaders promised to
  obey Cortes and brought him gifts of fruit,
  birds, ornaments made of gold, and 20 women to
  cook tortillas and serve them, including a woman
  named Malintzin, who would become an important
  key in the conquest of the Aztecs.

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The Two Worlds Meet

• "A ball of stone comes out shooting sparks and
  raining fire. It makes smoke that smells of
  rotten mud. When the ball of stone hits a tree,
  the trunk splits into splinters, as if it has
  exploded from the inside. They cover their heads
  and bodies with metal. Their swords are metal,
  their bows are metal, their shields and spears
  are metal. Their deer carry them on their backs,
  making them as tall as the roof of a houseWe are
  powerless against him. We are nothing compared to
  these strangers." Anonymous Aztec Eyewitness   
• Cortes and his expedition set off to meet
  Montezuma. The expedition marched over 400 miles
  inland. They scaled two mountain ranges and
  crossed a plain with stagnant water. Constantly
  threatened by native people who vowed to kill
  them and eat their flesh with chili peppers, the
  Spanish soldiers begged Cortes to turn back.

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Early Victories

• Cortes' expedition entered the Tlaxcalan region.
  Over 50,000 Tlaxcalans fought the 400 Spaniards
  and were defeated as a result of the superior
  Spanish weapons and horses. Cortes rewarded the
  Tlaxcalans, who offered to provide Cortes with
  10,000 warriors for his march on Tenochtitlan.

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The First Occupation of Tenochtitlan

• The Spanish entered the city of Tenochtitlan to
  meet Montezuma. Coincidentally.Montezuma greeted
  the Spanish with an elaborate ceremony and
  thousands of attendants. "This is what our kings
  and those who ruled this city told us that you
  would come to assume your rightful place. Welcome
  to your kingdom, lords!" Montezuma said on first
  meeting Cortes.
• The Aztecs housed the Spanish in a wondrous
  palace. When Montezuma asked Cortes what it would
  take to make the Spanish leave his empire, Cortes
  replied, "We Spanish suffer from a disease of the
  heart, which can be cured only by gold." Cortes
  decided to take Montezuma hostage, falsely
  claiming that the emperor had ordered an attack
  on his forces on the coast. 
• When Governor Velazquez of Cuba realized that
  Cortes was no longer following his orders, he
  sent a large army to arrest him. Cortes took 100
  of his men and returned to the coast, where he
  easily defeated Velazquez's army, ensuring his
  free reign in Mexico.
• Back in Tenochtitlan, Cortes' captain, Pedro de
  Alvarado, gave permission for the Aztecs to
  celebrate a festival. As the unarmed worshippers
  danced and sang, the Spaniards suddenly attacked
  the Aztecs. Alvarado later explained the attack
  by stating that he thought the Aztecs were going
  to try to free Montezuma.

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The Aztecs Fight Back

• The Aztecs quickly cut off supplies of food from
  the Spanish and attacked the palace where they
  were holding Montezuma. When Cortes received news
  that the Aztecs had attacked and imprisoned his
  soldiers, he returned from the coast to
  Tenochtitlan.
• In a desperate move, the Spanish and their
  Tlaxcalan allies decided to take advantage of a
  dark, rainy night to escape from Tenochtitlan.
  Cortes loaded seven horses and 80 Tlaxcalan
  porters with gold from the treasure house and
  gave the rest of the heavy gold to his soldiers.
• A woman getting water from the lake spotted the
  escaping Spaniards and the Aztecs quickly
  launched a surprise attack. To prevent the
  Spaniards from escaping, the Aztecs removed the
  drawbridges on the causeway, but Cortes'
  carpenters had built portable bridges

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Cortes' Return to Tenochtitlan

• Cortes retreated to Tlaxcala, where he gained new
  troops and supplies from Cuba, trained new
  Tlaxcalan allies, and planned an attack by water
  on Tenochtitlan. Cortes gained control of the
  towns around the lakeshore. After Christmas 1520,
  Cortes led an army of 16,000 men back to
  Tenochtitlan.
• The Aztecs, under their new leader Cuauhtemoc,
  were ready and had built barricades of rubble and
  removed the bridges in the causeways. They had
  also put sharpened stakes underwater in the
  canals. As the Aztecs prepared for war, smallpox
  continued to devastate the native population of
  Tenochtitlan.  

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The Final Battle

• Cortes attacked Tenochtitlan from three
  directions at once with 13 new ships. The Aztecs
  had more than 200,000 canoes. It took Cortes
  three months to reach the sacred center of
  Tenochtitlan.
• The fighting was so fierce that the lake water
  turned red with blood. Aztec soldiers sacrificed
  Spanish soldiers and rolled their heads along the
  causeways. The Spanish could not move "without
  treading on the bodies and heads of dead
  Indians.
• In the final all-out attack on the center of the
  city, 15,000 Aztecs died that day alone. Emperor
  Cuauhtemoc and his last few supporters tried to
  escape in a canoe, but were captured by the
  Spaniards. The siege of Tenochtitlan was over. In
  the Aztec calendar, this was the first day of the
  Great Feast of the Dead, a month of traditional
  lamentation and remembrance.