in 1428 an alliance was formed between three powers in central america forming what we now call the aztec empire the aztecs ruled the area through military domination strategic alliances taxes and had a culture centered around sacrifice and rituals to the many gods that were worshipped in massive temples constructed across the land the many cities conquered by the aztecs varied in language and traditions were even allowed to continue practicing their own religion as long as they also agreed to worship huidzillopuchte the aztec god of the sun and war cities under aztec rule paid a tribute or tax to the emperor moctezuma ii and in return they were promised protection and trade but its peak the empire covered much of what is today southern mexico and had a population as high as several million people but this mesoamerican superpower would only thrive for just under a century before everything changed in 1519 when spanish conquistadors arrived on their shores their hearts set on the riches of the americas the ensuing clash of cultures would be rife with suspicion betrayal and blood and the war would bring about the fall of the mighty aztec empire in 1518 spain was enjoying its new colony in the new world cuba the island had recently been conquered and was being used as a launching point for further expeditions into the americas to contact natives map the landscape and of course look for shiny shiny goals the newly appointed governor of cuba diego velasquez was interested in establishing contact with the inhabitants of mexico and called hernan cortez an experienced conquistador to lead an expedition to meet the aztecs governor velasquez told cortez that the goal of this expedition was to be strictly focused on exploration and trade and the conquering and settling the lands would have to wait until the spanish royalty approved of it but cortez sensed ulterior motives mainly he was aware that whoever was able to conquer mexico would receive eternal fame and glory back in spain and governor velasquez wanted that for himself as cuba hadn't quite been as lucrative as everyone had had expected as cortez began gathering ships and crews for his expedition governor velasquez received words that he seemed to be gearing up not to explore and trade like he was told to but was instead gathering weapons and men ready for conquering to stop this velasquez sent another man luis de medina to replace cortez as head of the expedition but this replacement was intercepted and murdered desperate to stop him velasquez then sent orders for the entire fleet to be seized and for cortez to be imprisoned but cortez managed to set sail before being captured officially leaving cuba as a criminal and bringing with him 11 ships and over 600 men the first stop on the way to mexico was cozumel an island just east of the yucatan peninsula this part of central america was controlled by the maya while attempting to convert the man locals to christianity an odd rumor reached cortez telling of two other white men nearby these men were geronimo de aguilar and gonzalo guiero and they had been stranded in the yucatan for eight years since their shipwreck in 1511. both had been taken captive and enslaved by the maya but had since earned their freedom guerrero chose to remain with the maya as he now had a wife and children and aguilar adopted to join cortez on his journey aguilar would prove to be a useful asset for cortez as an interpreter as he had mastered the maya language during his years there after picking up the aguilar cortez left cozumel island sailed around the remainder of the yucatan peninsula landing at the city of potter chan part of the mayan kingdom of tabasco communicating through aguilar's translator cortez told the inhabitants of the city that he would do no harm and come in peace but contrary to his words he ordered the musketeers and archers to ready their weapons which did not go unnoticed by the natives tensions between the two groups skyrocketed and cortez issued a royal order to allow his men to disembark from their ships ma surrounded the fleet with small canoes and told cortez that if he set foot on the island he would be killed and they began firing arrows as the spanish jumped out of their ship sparking full combat from both sides bernal diaz a conquistador with cortez wrote many indians charged us with spears and others pierced us with arrows ensuring that we did not touch land as soon as we would have liked and with so much mud we couldn't even move and cortez was fighting and he lost a shoe in the mud and came to land with one bare foot after leaving their ships the spanish were at a disadvantage trying to get to shore but ultimately their weapons armor and numbers were superior against the man forces on the beach the mayan warriors fled and the spanish chased after them all the way to the center of their city upon seizing the main square of poto chan cortez declared its new name to be santa maria de la victoria the first settlement of new spain but the fighting wasn't over the next day cortez sent two scout groups to march a few miles inland which quickly ran into a man ambush after several hours of fighting the natives retreated and The Scout Groups Returns to Cortez this was when a captured marm warrior informed the spanish that the natives were planning to gather their forces for another attack so cortez ordered that the horses and the cannons be unloaded from the ships and ready for battle as the next day dawns the mayan forces of the tabasco kingdom regrouped where they fought the scout groups the previous day at a city called sendler and cortez marched with his men to meet them when the two armies came face to face the spanish noted that there were so many natives that the entire landscape was covered with them carrying spears bows and small shields the fighting began immediately the skirmish or later named the battle of sandler resulted in around 70 spanish being injured and thousands of man warriors being killed despite being outnumbered once again cortez was able to lead his men to victory primarily thanks to his firearms cannons in cavalry the battle of sentler was the first wartime usage of cavalry in the new world and the maya had never seen anything like it one conquistador noted we saw how the cavalry came and we trapped them with them on one side and we on the other and the indians believed that the horse and rider were one as they had never seen horses before ultimately the spanish were victorious and the next day following local tradition the defeated tobasco kingdom sent ambassadors bearing gifts this included turquoise gold jade and even animals but these other gifts paled in comparison to the 20 young maya women given to the spanish for their victory one of whom would become a crucial part of the spanish conquest this young woman was known by several names such as marina but in this video we're going to refer to her by one of her most common names la malinche cortez later realized the importance melinche carried when he learned of her linguistic abilities not only did she speak the mayan tongue of her hometown but she also spoke nahatul the language of the aztecs cortez could speak spanish to aguilar the spaniards that they had picked up earlier and aguilar could translate this into maya for malinche who could then translate it into nahatul cortez had found his key to communicating with the aztecs now he just had to find them after leaving ponta chan and the kingdom of tabasco cortez sailed a little further north landing on the east coast of mexico in the territory of the aztec empire for reference this area of mexico would later become vera cruz one of mexico's major port cities soon after landing representatives from the aztec empire moctezuma ii arrived to greet cortez and exchange gifts the interaction went smoothly and surprisingly a war didn't start but cortez made sure to show off their firearms before sending the aztecs back home and we can be sure that the cannons made quite the impression now before continuing cortez had problems to solve remember when he had his replacement murdered and fled cuba in an active mutiny against velasquez well criminal charges don't just disappear overnight and he still needed to resolve this or else he could face imprisonment or even the death penalty for treason luckily cortez had an idea first he established an official settlement the name of which was la villa rica de la vera cruz the new town council of the villa rica then elected cortez as the chief judge now somehow this legal loophole they had crawled through meant that they were no longer under the jurisdiction of governor velasquez in cuba and instead directly under the authority of the crown in spain cortez then sent a few men to return to spain to work out the details with the crown and ensure the legality now this sounds really strange but ironically governor velasquez himself had used exactly the same strategy during his conquering of cuba so it wasn't exactly unheard of with the legal mess all mopped up cortez continued exploring and arrived at the city of semperala semperala was part of the tonac kingdom who had been conquered by the aztecs and were now paying tribute to them cortez convinced them to join his side against the aztecs and the tonac were quick to accept his 40 of the stonehack war chiefs and a couple of hundred of their men were now numbered among the spanish forces and the group was ready to continue the march to the aztec capital but before leaving behind the coast and heading up to the heart of the aztec empire rumor of a possible mutiny began circling among the spanish it turns out that a few of the men were still loyal to velasquez and were planning to steal a ship and return to cuba the leaders of this mutiny were executed and everyone else involved was punished harshly and to eliminate even the slightest idea that returning to cuba was an option cortez did something drastic he destroyed his own ships 10 of the 11 spanish vessels in the fleet were scuttled it's popular belief that cortez had his ships burned but this is actually a misconception and the accounts of conquistadors and the expedition state that the ships were intentionally sunk instead of set on fire with any hope of return at the bottom of the ocean there was no choice but to follow cortez deeper into mexico this was a historic gamble but ultimately it paid off as the group marched further inland across mexico's diverse landscape they encountered their next opponents the tlaxcalan taxcala was a federation of around 200 small scattered cities and its central government didn't have much influence on these towns despite this tlaxcala was unique in that it avoided being conquered by the aztecs but their territory was now completely surrounded by aztec control the aztec still waged war with the tax carla every year in an annual event known as the flower wars which makes some historians believe that the aztec may have intentionally left them unconquered so that they could perform human sacrifice with the prisoners of war that they captured each year after years of unending warfare and surrounded by their enemies klax kala was understandably hostile to foreigners and they treated cortez no differently returning on the 2nd of september 1519 the clax carlin gathered their armies to fight cortez as he arrived in their territory and attacked the spanish immediately during the fighting cortez repeatedly released prisoners to return to their leaders with messages of peace and after three days the strategy worked and the war leader ixicotencatl ii made peace with cortez on the grounds that the aztecs were their common enemy cortez and his men were then brought to the main claxcala city where nobles and leaders greeted them with excitement the tlaxcalan people were ready for revenge against the aztecs as on top of battling with them each year the aztecs had also cut off tlaxcala from trade and the people were lacking in many essentials the spanish and tlaxcala quickly became close trusted allies and cortez was extra respectful during his day in their territory to add to the growing bonds four of their leaders were even baptized into catholicism and added the god of christianity to their ever-growing list of deities to worship after resting for a few weeks with their new friends the spanish and the klax carlins began marching towards their first aztec city cholula cholula was one of the most important aztec cities and one of the most beautiful often called the religious center of the aztec empire cholula boasted magnificent temples and worship sites but the real attraction was the great pyramid which was actually larger in volume than even the largest of the pyramids of giza cortez entered the city without any bloodshed which wasn't a surprise as the religious center didn't have a large army contrary to tradition the leaders of cholula didn't meet cortez to welcome him to the city and had not offered him food water or gifts there was an uneasy tension and some of cortez's allies reported that fortifications were being built outside the city malinche who as mentioned earlier was fluent in the aztecs language spoke to one of the noble wives who told her of a secret plan to murder the spanish in their sleep melinche brought this information to cortez who with no way to verify the validity of the story decided to strike first and ordered his men to attack the city the tax carlin and the spanish approached their leaders in the temple who admitted that the aztec emperor moctezuma ii had indeed ordered them to defend cholula but that they had ignored this order regardless cortez was highly suspicious so he had them all killed and then his men set fire to and attacked the people of cholula in just a few hours over three thousand people were massacred fearing the same fate emperor moctezuma sent messengers to officially invite the spanish and their allies to the aztec capital tano chitman as cortez and his forces entered tenno chitlan they must have been amazed by what they saw the capital was situated on an island in the center of a lake could be accessed by long wooden causeways that crossed the water the city was absolutely massive and with a population anywhere from 100 to 300 000 it was the largest city in the americas not only was it the largest city in the americas but it was also one of the largest in the world dwarfing most cities in europe at the time it was certainly an impressive sight to the spanish on november the 8th 1519 emperor moctezuma himself came to meet cortez in one of the causeway gave him expensive jewelry and traditional aztec clothing and welcomed him to the city according to the spanish moctezuma explained that he believed cortez to be the god quetzalcoatl the god of death resurrection knowledge and many other things but why would he believe such a thing ancient aztec legends taught that this god the feathered serpent god had promised to one day return from the east to Tenochtitlan and rule the Aztec kingdom. When not in his feathered costume, the god was often depicted as a bearded man. But it gets even crazier.
To add to the coincidence, Quetzalcoatl was prophesied to return in one reed year, which in the cyclical Aztec calendar occurs once every 52 years. The year the bearded Cortes arrived from the east, 1519, just happened to be one of these one reed years. The unnerving coincidence drove moctezuma to declare his loyalty to cortez and he said to him as for your great king i am in his debt and will give him of what i possess today there is debate about the authenticity of this version of events and many modern scholars believe that the spanish exaggerated the story in the decades after and that moctezuma never really thought cortez was a god however it is likely that at the time at least some of the population drew connections between the legend of quetzal cotel's return and cortez after all there were many coincidences but moctezuma himself could have been quite skeptical regardless of moctezuma's beliefs it seems at first that everything in the capital was off to a great diplomatic start and the spanish even got a glimpse of the royal aztec treasury which supposedly contained so much gold that they were speechless when they saw it but things quickly took a turn for the worse just a couple of days later cortez upon seeing the great temple in the center of tenno chitlin asked moctezuma who meant to raise a giant cross and an image of the virgin mary at the top of it the aztec priests were furious at this request so furious in fact that they killed seven spaniards in retaliation the priests were burned to death and cortez took bach tetsuma hostage keeping him alive to use his control over the city as he remained emperor even while imprisoned in the palace with cortez during the next few months cortez began looting tano chitlin and nearby cities melting their gold down into ingots and preparing it for return to spain and built a catholic altar on top of the great temple but some inhabitants of tenochitlán were starting to get fed up with all of this the remaining aztec priests and moctezuma's brother had began rallying warriors and ability around the idea of a rebellion to overthrow the spanish but were hesitant without the permission of the emperor with tensions in the capital rising for months cortez received more bad news moctezuma informed cortez that another fleet of spanish had just arrived on the coast this was a man named narvaez and he had been sent from cuba by governor velasquez to kill cortez for his treason cortez was forced to handle this immediately so he left conquistador alvarado in charge of watching mock tetsuma and took most of his men out of the city and off to meet the arriving spanish cortez supported by a couple of hundred spaniards and ten thousand native warriors ambushed narvaez at night barbaz and his forces were completely taken by surprise and after some chaotic fighting narvaez received a spear to the eye after he was captured the hundreds of new spanish arrivals surrendered to cortez and after some convincing simply joined his army velasquez had tried to kill cortez but instead it essentially sent him reinforcements and ammunition back in the capital things had only gotten worse after cortez had left bochted sumo while still under house arrest had asked alvarado for permission to celebrate the feast of tocs cattle and was allowed to but during the ceremony spanish soldiers suddenly attacked and slaughtered the aztec nobility and anyone else celebrating inside the temple the spanish claimed at one point that they had intervened to stop human sacrifice which was indeed part of the ritual but later claimed it was a preemptive strike to quell a rebellion while the aztecs claimed that the spanish had been tempted by all the gold jewelry that they'd seen on the nobles no matter the cause the scene was brutal and hundreds lay dead in the temple murdered in the religious center of their capital to make matters worse for the spanish a few of the nobles had escaped the carnage and spread the word of the attack through the city and citizens began taking to the streets ready to fight the conquistadors and their allies this was the problematic scene that cortez returned to in july 1520 and just as he arrived the city rose up in full scale rebellion cortez asked moctezuma to speak to the crowds and command them to stop but they ignored their emperor and threw rocks at him killing him despite their superior firepower the sheer number of civilians fighting in the streets was simply overwhelming and the spanish had no choice but to retreat across the causeways out of the city the retreat known as the sad night was a devastating day for the spanish forces cortez tried to sneak out of tennoshitlan but his men were spotted while crossing the city's canals the city was up in arms and tried to stop them from fleeing heavy rain poured down on the spanish as they made their way through the angry crowds the causeways desperately trying to escape the city the citizens and tennochitlan were armed with spears bows and the fearsome macuahua an obsidian bladed carbons the spanish were more outnumbered than ever before once on the causeways they were surrounded on all sides by aztec war canoes full of angry warriors that stabbed fired arrows and threw rocks at the fleeing spanish as the orderly retreat morphed into more of a panicked run dozens of spanish were killed or fell behind and were captured others weighed down by their armor gold and jade fell through the gaps in the bridges and drowned in the lake at one point the conquistador alvarado was faced with a gap in the causeway and as he ran he stabbed his spear into the bottom of the lake to carry himself to the other side after fighting their way back to land it became clear just how much cortez had lost that night sources vary but it's generally agreed that at least a few hundred spanish soldiers were killed while escaping the city as well as over a thousand tlaxcala warriors and those that had been captured alive were already being taken up the steps of the main temple to be sacrificed but the fighting wasn't over cortez was still in hostile land and was still being chased he took his men around the city and began heading east toward his allies the tlaxcala where he knew he could find refuge but the aztecs wouldn't let cortez get away so easily and sent an army to kill him which intercepted the spanish march in the plane of otumba on the 7th of july 1520. the battle of otumba would be the first time that the aztecs would fight against the spanish in open combat up until that point they underestimated cortez and his abilities especially with how poorly their retreat from the capital had gone even worse the aztecs didn't understand the strength that warhorses brought to a fight as they had only seen them be walking around tenno chipman during their stay in the capital and they weren't ready for how fast and deadly they could be in battle the battle began with cortez ordering his cavalry to charge straight into the aztec front lines this disorientated them and with no real idea of how to counter such an attack many of the aztec ranks became disorganized and chaos but because of their immense numbers they were still able to keep the pressure on the spanish cortez knew that his chance of victory was to go straight for their leader and quickly spotted him among his army thanks to his ornamental headdress and colorful armor cortez led a charge with his captain straight at the aztec leader and attacked him with his lance juan de salamanca managed to defeat him in battle and claimed the aztec battle standard which cortez then raised as his own with their chief defeated the aztec army quickly fell into disarray and began retreating cortez was now able to march safely into tlaxcala arrest up and plan its return when they arrived in tlaxcala as much as half of the spanish and thousands of his allies had been killed nearly everyone was wounded cortez included and ammunition was running low the aztecs sent a message to the tlaxcala promising the much-needed peace and trade if they killed the spanish which they easily had enough strength to do but the tlaxcala rejected the offer and reaffirmed their alliance with cortez as part of the new treaty with them cortez promised in the name of the spanish crown that tlaxcala would receive half the spoils from tenochtitlan the entire city of cholula and spanish weaponry and supplies cortez then moved into the surrounding nations that were under aztec control some he fought briefly before convincing them to join his alliance and some joined with no resistance at all slowly but surely cortez was multiplying his strength while simultaneously weakening the aztecs and when some spanish ships full of supplies and ammunition arrived in mexico cortez was ready to take on the capital With Moctezuma killed, the people of Tenochtitlan had chosen a new emperor, Quitlalac, Moctezuma's brother, but his time on the throne was not particularly long.
The up-close impersonal fighting on the causeways had allowed smallpox to pass from some of the Spanish soldiers into the Aztec population, and the disease spread like wildfire through the capital, killing thousands, including the new emperor. The Aztecs referred to smallpox as the Great Rash, and it's estimated to have killed up to 40% of the city's population, and also caused intense famine in the region when able-bodied farmers were killed. too sick to produce the food needed for such a large population the europeans had been battling smallpox for hundreds of years so their immunity was much higher than the natives of the americas who were now experiencing it for the first time smallpox is one of the main reasons that the aztecs weren't able to send massive forces after cortes while he was gaining alliances in the surrounding area and were instead fortifying their city for defense arriving at the lake surrounding tenochitlan the spanish constructed 13 brigandines or small warships each warship was armed with crossbowmen musketeers and cannons accompanying the spanish forces were 20 000 allies that had joined up along the way and together they began cutting off the capital from the outside world they broke the aqueduct that carried water into the capital began circling the banks of the lake alvarado and thousands of allied warriors began attempting to cross one of the causeways but were repelled by aztec warriors as the bridges were too narrow for horses to be useful on the other side of the lake cortez launched his ships and battled over a thousand aztec canoes these aztec war canoes were highly effective at first but later became outgunned by the spanish ships in the lake forcing a change in their plans day after day the spanish tried to push up the causeways but had to retreat at night losing any ground gain during the day but the aztecs were being weakened every day and their food situation was growing desperate spanish ships intercepted supply canoes every night and many inhabitants of the capital were resorting to drinking lake water the spanish were now camping on the causeways at night to avoid losing their progress and were slowly getting closer to the city after one intense battle two aztec chiefs were caught and interrogated alerting the spanish to an ambush planned for that night walkanese were planning to ambush two of cortez's ships so cortez launched a counter-ambush and destroyed dozens of aztec canoes the fighting was desperate and brutal on both sides the spanish wrote with horror that each night they could see their own men being sacrificed on top of the main temple we saw our comrades who had been captured in cortez's defeat being dragged up the steps to be sacrificed cutting open their chests drew out their palpitating hearts which they offered to the others then they ate their flesh with a source of peppers and tomatoes after 12 days of siege the spanish were beginning to make significant progress many of the coastal towns that were supplying the capital surrendered to cortez and the spanish had complete naval control of the lake tennichitlan was completely out of food and water and people were eating anything that they could get their hands on like leather and even wood at last the spanish manager reached the city and began using rubble from the buildings to filling gaps in the causeways allowing their cavalry formations to march forward fighting in the streets was chaotic and hundreds were killed each day as cortez marched forward all the while more and more allies were joining the fight across the causeways the exhausted aztecs retreated to their marketplace and prepared for their last stand which didn't last long as the spanish arrived in the market they began crushing the remaining aztec warriors aided greatly by the tlaxcala who were merciless in attacking their oppressors the aztec emperor quatmark finally began peace talks with cortez especially after his ceremonial hour warrior had fallen off a ledge and disappeared during the fight which was taken to be a bad omen while these peace dogs were failing quite mark and many of his nobles attempted to escape the city at night on a canoe taking their gold with them but the spanish ships intercepted them and the aztecs officially surrendered on august the 13th 1521. the fall of tenechtlan and the first spanish battles on the continent showed the power of modern weaponry in the americas horses cannons and firearms were stunningly powerful and the aztecs had no way to counter them during the siege the spanish even built a trebuchet which was the first and last time the trebuchet was used in the war in the americas because the first projectile it fired went straight up into the air and went right back down onto the machine breaking it after the dust had settled as many as 240 000 people have been killed in tano chitlin either from combat smallpox or starvation in the subsequent looting of the city aztec culture was destroyed without remorse and their gold was melted into ingots to send back to spain survivors of the attack fled the city in the the days following the siege and the aztecs were banished from living in their home with the aztec empire out of the way the spanish with cortez at the helm went on to continue their conquest of mizu america and founded the colony of new spain with its capital being built right on top of the ashes of tano chipman this capital would one day be the foundation for mexico city one of the largest cities in the western hemisphere to this day