History
Introduction of Aztec Empire
Aztecs were Nahuatl-speaking people who ruled a large empire in the present central and southern Mexico during the 15th and early 16th centuries. They are called Aztec due to the word Aztlán, which refers to the “White Land”1, probably due to the origin from the northern Mexico. The center of the large Aztec empire, Tenochtitlán, was among the largest cities in the world in 1519. During that time, nearly 38 provinces were working under the rule of Tenochtitlán. Tributes, payments, and human sacrifices were most important events at that time that were given by people from lower ranks of the society. These were given in order to maintain the integrity, greatness, and domain of the city-state. Aztec empire kept on expanding and evolving their empire until they were attacked by the Spanish explorers in 1519. At that time, Moctezuma II (reigning era is from 1502 to 1520) was reigning as the ninth emperor.
Important events in the fall of Aztec empire
Moctezuma II was worried about the Spanish movement, who were settling in Cuba and Hispaniola, and planning to move towards his empire. During the time of 1517, Spanish made many expeditions to Yucatan in the neighborhood. They returned with wondrous stories of a highly developed Mayan civilization, and gold and money. The news about these findings left an exciting thought on the Spanish colonists living in Cuba. Among those was Hernán Cortés, who was the Chief Magistrate of Santiago. Diego de Velásquez, who was the Governor of Cuba, said Cortés that he would be given two to three ships, if Cortés took his army and find the remaining money. Cortés accepted the agreement and on October 23, 1518, Velásquez selected him "captain-general" of a new journey and expedition to the Yucatan.
In 1519, Cortés and nearly 600 men with 15 horses reached near "Villa Rica de la Veracruz", and became the supreme commander. During this time, Cortés showed force and represented his canons in order to terrify the messengers. Cortés sunk all the ships leaving only one small vessel. He was welcomed by Moctezuma II, who also helped him by assigning him a female translator named Malintzin. Upon realization that Cortés was not a god, they honored him and presented him gifts of gold and treasures. At that time, Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured Moctezuma II, confined him to the prison, and demanded more gold. He moved to the city-state of Tlaxcala. Spaniards had huge greed for the gold and their hunger increased incessantly upon seeing the gold at the reach of hand. Militarism and Catholicism replaced Aztec belief on astrophysics through the cross and sword.
Spanish army remained in the city for about six months without any opposition. The Spanish explorers moved on to Cholula, and many people in that area were killed by the Spanish. In the absence of Cortés, Pedro de Alvarado, Spanish officer, killed about 200 Aztec nobles, who were gathered for some religious ceremony2. Aztecs fought with Spaniards and tried to move them out of Tenochtitlán. During the fight many people drowned in canals in the surrounding of the city along with heavy amount of stolen gold. During these fights, Moctezuma died in the custody, and Cuitláhuac, who was his younger brother, succeeded him. He lived and ruled for only a few months as he died from smallpox. After his death, Cuauhtémoc, who was Moctezuma's nephew, got the empire.
Spaniards moved back and gathered forces to return back to Tenochtitlán to siege it. Eventually, in August, 1521, after many months of unequal battles, Tenochtitlán faced the defeat. Aztec empire came to an end after the Spanish capture of Tenochtitlán in 1521. After the destruction of the empire of the Aztecs, Spaniards built their colony upon the ruins of
Tenochtitlán. Presently, Mexico's cathedral is present on the ruins of an Aztec temple, and the National Palace takes the ground of Moctezuma’s Palace. The hugeness of that civilization affects the development of Mexico.
The end of Aztec civilization represented the end of certain other civilizations such as Mesoamerican civilizations. Therefore, we can say that it was the start of the new race. A Spanish colony, New Spain and then the development of a new nation, Mexico, started to flourish due to the clash of two civilizations; Mesoamerica and Europa.
Causes of the fall of Aztec empire
Many factors were responsible for the fall of the Aztec Empire3 and the conquest of Spanish, and some of them are the ritual sacrifices, religion, spread of disease, and tactics of the enemies.
Sacrifices
Ritual Aztec sacrifice is considered as one of the most important causes of the fall of the Aztec Empire. Thousands of people were killed in religious sacrifices in order to please god. However, it affects the empire in more than one ways. It is obvious that killing of thousands of people is not a good thing for society; more people died leaving more people helpless. Although Aztecs were not the only people, who were involved in the ritual sacrifices, there way of sacrificing and the number of people was not good for the empire. It generated a common feeling of hatred. This hatred was also found in the people from powerful city-state of Tlaxcala. Many people were sacrificed and their relatives joined Spaniards in order to fight with Aztecs. It can also be said that Spaniards were only an excuse to start the war; the empire was already in the
situation of civil war. Finally, it is also believed that the terror of human sacrifice increased the confidence of Spaniards to conquer the evil culture.
Religion
Obviously, religion played an important role in the fall of Aztec empire as it was closely related to sacrifices. It has also been thought that Spanish were initially considered as gods by Aztecs. In this regard, historians and scholars are questioning the belief that Spaniards were considered as the return of the god Quetzalcoatl4.
Another important point in this regard is that Aztecs didn’t demolish the Spanish army as they wanted more people to sacrifice to their gods. This can be considered as the planning error as that army affected the Aztec empire in the last times of reign.
During the time before the entry of Spanish explorers in Mexico, Moctezuma II along with his people was feeling the coming of some evil or bad forces. They thought that a chain of bad omens are showing the coming of the time of great loss and misfortune. They also observed the movement of a fire filled comet through the sky, and in the same time, the temple of Huitzilopochtli, who was the god of war, was burnt. The Mexican lake started rising, and came to houses in the form of floods. A crying woman walked by in the mid of the night. She was crying about her children. She was also saying to move away from the city. A fisherman found a bird having an odd mirror in the crown of its head. Moctezuma II saw the mirror and observed a distant plain, where people were fighting with and they are on the backs of deer-like animals. Aztecs also believed that the so called Fifth Sun was coming to an end and a sign for that was the existence of a god. Moctezuma II saw that god in Cortés and forecasted the end. Moctezuma II
was worried and agitated about all these signs, and his predictors started explaining those awful signs. They prophesied demolish of the kingdom.
Disease
Disease was also an important factor in the fall of the Aztec empire5. During that time, after the land of Cortés in Mexico, another Spanish army came to Cuba in order to confirm whether he was following orders or not. Cortés started fighting with them. There was an African slave in that new group, who was infected with smallpox, which is a very contagious disease. One of the men of Cortés got infected with the disease. After their return, the Aztec army rapidly besieged the Spanish army. They killed many of them and causing the rest to move back. Although the infected soldier was killed, he transferred the disease to an Aztec soldier while the soldier was looting the body. The disease rapidly spread in the population during that time. Those people were unaware of the treatment, and they were also not resistant to the disease. In many instances, all of the family members in a house died of the disease. There were numerous deaths as a result of the disease, and houses of those people were demolished in order to bury them under houses.
In 1520, when Tenochtitlán was attacked with army, people of Aztec were already facing the problem of food shortage and many of them were dying of smallpox. Nearly 25% of the empire was lost due to the problem of the disease alone. Most importantly, the Aztec army also faced the same problem of disease. The emperor, Cuitláhuac, was also infected with the disease. He died of the disease, and many of the army leaders also died as a result of this disease.
Strategies
Obviously, Spanish army came with good planning and strategies. They consider all the above mentioned things and fought with good planning. The hostile type of activities such as strict payments and sacrifices were the reasons that Aztecs were strongly opposed by the people and cultures from the surrounding neighborhood. So, it is easy to assume that Cortés befriended with people from the areas such as "Tlaxcaltecans" in his movement towards Tenochtitlán to defeat Aztecs. Talaxcaltecs were the indigenous people of Nahua ethnicity. They were actually made by the combination of Nahuatl, Pinome, and Otomi.
Spanish army was also loaded with weapons including gunpowder, iron, and horses that were not common in Aztecs. Moreover, determination of those allies who were oppressed by Aztec was also an important factor in the fall of Aztec Empire.
Bibliography
Aguilar-Moreno, M. Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. Oxford University Press, 2007.
Cypess, S.M. La Malinche in Mexican Literature: From History to Myth. University of Texas Press, 2010.
Schuman, M.A., and W.S. Bock. Maya and Aztec Mythology Rocks! : Enslow Publishers, Incorporated, 2011.
Silberman, N.A., and A.A. Bauer. The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Oxford University Press, 2012.
The University of Maine. "Fall of the Aztecs." The University of Maine, http://www.portfolio.umaine.edu/~hartm/Multimedia/Aztec.swf.
