The fall of Tenochtitlan marked the end of the Aztec Empire. Tlatelolco soon fell as well. The Aztecs still chose their own leaders, but those men had to obey the Spanish. Some rulers who promised loyalty to Spain were allowed to govern their local communities, but they, too, had to answer to Spanish officials.
National Hero
Cuauhtemoc has become a national hero in Mexico for his bravery fighting against a foreign invader. A statue of Cuauhtemoc was put up in Mexico City in 1887, and today boys are sometimes named after him. Some of the more prominent Cuauhtemocs of recent years include the soccer star Cuauhtemoc Blanco (b. 1973) and the political leader Cuauhtemoc Cardenas (b. 1934).
S o me high-ranking Spanish men married local noblewomen, because few Spanish women settled in the colony. Even when they did come, those women never married native men. Over time, the mestizo children of the Spanish settlers and native women also took important roles in the society of New Spain—the Spanish name for the former Aztec Empire and other parts of modern-day Mexico.
This map, drawn in 1524, shows what Europeans believed the Aztec Empire looked like.
The gold Cortes craved made its way into the treasury of King Charles and into the pockets of Cortes and his men. Thousands of Spanish moved to Mexico to settle and exploit the land. There was not all that much gold in Mexico, but there was plenty of silver. Eventually silver mining became a major source of wealth for the Spanish, who forced the native people to work long hours under terrible conditions in the silver mines.
With the Spanish conquest, the Roman Catholic Church sent priests as missionaries to convert the native people. Charles V and later Spanish rulers took this effort very seriously. Many Aztecs who wished to become Catholic were allowed to keep their estates, which was a major incentive. Catholicism became the religion of Mexico, as it is to this day.
But the Aztec Catholics did not practice their faith as most Europeans did. The native people who accepted Catholicism adapted it to suit their own religious traditions. They emphasized public rituals, sacred images, and making offerings. Churches were typically built on or near the sites of the old temples, reusing the same building materials and even pieces of statues or whole carvings. Human sacrifice was abandoned with little regret—which showed that it was mainly an activity of the Aztec warrior state.
World History
