The fall of Tenochtitlan marked the end of the Aztec empire. However, outside the Valley of Mexico, the Spanish presence in the former empire was minimal. In even more distant parts of what is today’s Mexico, this presence was virtually non-existent. Centuries would pass before effective Spanish control was established over many outlying areas.2
In 1524 Cortes made an ill-advised march to Honduras to arrest Cristobal de Olid, one of his lieutenants, who had rejected Cortes’s authority and begun communicating directly with Carlos
V. Cortes brought Cuauhtemoc along as a hostage to prevent his leading a rebellion during the expedition’s absence. En route, Cortes executed Cuauhtemoc, claiming he was planning an Indian revolt. Little evidence has ever been found to support this claim.3
Upon his arrival in Honduras, Cortes found members of Olid’s colony had already overthrown and executed him, so he returned to Mexico City. During his twenty-month absence, Cortes’s enemies had irreparably undermined his power, accusing him of keeping booty that legally belonged to the Crown and embezzling other funds. His enemies had also assumed political control and deprived those loyal to Cortes of their property and tribute rights.4
After Cortes’s return from Honduras, the Crown dismissed the charges filed in his absence. His insubordination was also forgiven, which, after all, had involved only Governor Velazquez, not the monarch. Cortes, however, still presented the emperor with a dilemma. Carlos V wished to reward the conquistador for his services. Yet he wanted to keep Cortes’s power in check so that he would not threaten the Crown. He resolved this dilemma by appointing a viceroy (administrator) for Mexico and then removing Cortes from formal administration. At the same time, he amply rewarded Cortes, granting him access to many thousands of acres of grazing land and more extensive encomienda (tribute and labor) rights than those of any other conquistador. Cortes’s grant included 23,000 adult male tributaries in twenty-two towns and covered an area of more than 24,900 square miles. To prevent Cortes from using his tributaries as a power base, the emperor selected villages isolated from one another and distant from Mexico City, the seat of political power. The twenty-two towns granted to Cortes extended from the Valley of Mexico to the Valley of Oaxaca and from the Gulf to the Pacific Coast. Even this immense wealth failed to satisfy Cortes. The conquistador died in 1547 while on a return trip to Spain seeking additional reward.5
The Spanish organized various expeditions to extend their control. In 1523, 300 Spaniards and nearly 20,000 Indians, led by Pedro de Alvarado, marched south from Mexico City. Alvarado’s force passed through Oaxaca and established Spanish rule in territory now forming Chiapas, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
In 1527, a 400-man force commanded by Francisco de Montejo attempted to impose Spanish rule on Yucatan. His force fought its way around the peninsula. In one single battle, the Spanish killed more than 1,200 Maya. However, unlike the Aztecs, the Maya lacked a centralized government, making it impossible for the Spanish to simply seize a ruler and, through him, control the Maya. The Maya responded to the Spanish with night attacks and by laying ambushes and traps. Their functioning as jungle guerrillas allowed some Maya to hold out until 1546. Revolts continued to plague the colonizers throughout the sixteenth century.6
In 1529, Nuno de Guzman marched west through Michoacan. His foray, brutal even by the standards of the times, reached southern Sonora, burning villages, enslaving Indians, and executing Indian leaders, including Cazonci, the Tarascan king, who was accused of fomenting succession. Guzman’s expedition neatly illustrated the Crown’s values. No one raised an objection to his having enslaved Indians to be sold in Spain’s Caribbean possessions. The Crown simply levied taxes on their sale. However, royal authorities would not tolerate regicide and, in 1537, imprisoned Guzman for his atrocities.7
These expeditions laid the basis for Spanish colonization, which was more pervasive than that of the Aztecs. Unlike the Aztecs, the Spanish imposed their culture and language on others. Spaniards also progressively deprived conquered Indians of direct control of their land. As Mexican historian Enrique Florescano noted:
Pre-Hispanic man was totally integrated with the earth, his land, his community, nature, and the cosmos. This deep, inextricable integration began to disappear with increasing rapidity when the Spanish appeared and took the land. Upon losing their land, and as the nature of its use changed radically, the Indians also lost their place in the world and their relationship with other men, nature, and the cosmos.8
World History
