To legitimize his planned conquest of the Aztecs, which was in direct violation of Velazquez’s orders, on June 28, 1519, Cortes established a town named Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz (Rich Town of the True Cross), complete with a municipal government. The Spanish then elected a town council composed of Cortes’s friends. Cortes declared Velazquez’s authority to be superseded by that of the new municipal government, which appointed him commander-in-chief. Cortes then sent Francisco de Montejo to notify Emperor Carlos V, the Spanish monarch, that he would serve the emperor directly “until such time as His Majesty provided anyone else.” Given the slow com - munications of the time, Cortes knew that no royal response would come before he had had the opportunity to conquer the Aztecs and ingratiate himself to the Emperor.16
The Spaniards soon contacted the Totonac Indians, one of the many indigenous groups dominated by the Aztecs. Through them, they discovered that the Aztecs had created an empire that exacted tribute from non-Aztecs. The Spaniards saw how this imperial domination could be turned to their advantage and promised protection to the Totonacs in exchange for their allegiance.
Cortes treated the Totonacs as he would later treat other indigenous groups he encountered. He offered them the opportunity to accept Christianity and Spanish political control. If the offer was rejected, the Spanish attacked. If the offer was accepted, Cortes’s men would destroy indigenous idols, which they declared to be the work of Satan. However, Cortes would prevent looting and physical abuse of Indians by the men under his command. Many villages, when faced with Spanish military might, decided Spanish control constituted a lesser evil than Spanish attack.
To prevent any faint-hearted Spaniards from returning to Cuba, Cortes scuttled his ships. Then on August 8, 1519, Cortes’s 300-man force began to march inland, accompanied by roughly 250 Totonacs who served as porters, guides, and combatants. Even at this early date, the Indian-versus-European dichotomy was an oversimplification.17
As the expedition wended its way inland, the Spaniards marveled at the strange peoples and magnificent scenery. When they encountered Indians, the Spaniards would try to win their loyalty and Christianize them. They were quite successful at this since, as Cortes noted in a letter to the Emperor, the Indians “would rather be Your Highness’ vassals than see their houses destroyed and their women and children killed.”18
After a month of marching, the Spaniards reached Tlaxcala, a small resource-poor nation east of Tenochtitlan that the Aztecs had never conquered. The Tlaxcalans maintained their independence through tenacious defense of their homeland and the political convenience an “enemy” provided to the Aztecs.
Cortes realized he could benefit from the hostility between the Tlaxcalans and the Aztecs and commented:
When I saw the discord and animosity between these two peoples I was not a little pleased, for
It seemed to further my purpose considerably; consequently I might have the opportunity of
Subduing them more quickly, for, as the saying goes, “divided they fall.”19
The Tlaxcalans debated the type of reception they should give the Spanish. Some felt they should be welcomed. Others argued that their coming from an Aztec tributary town indicated that they were secretly allied with the Aztecs. Upon deciding the Spanish had allied with the Aztecs, the Tlaxcalans mobilized to defend themselves.
As the Spanish approached, they read the requerimiento, a charge in Spanish directing Indians to lay down their arms and accept the Spanish king and Christianity or suffer the consequences. It notified the indigenous people of a chain of command from God to the pope to the emperor to the conquistadores. The latter, it noted, were merely implementing the divinely sanctioned donation of American lands and peoples by the pope to the Spanish monarch.20
Source: From Tenenbaum, Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 2, 1E. Copyright: Gale, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc. Reproduced by permission, Www. cengage. com/permissions
It was immaterial that distance prevented the Indians from hearing the requerimiento and that they could not understand Spanish. Merely reading the charge fulfilled the Spanish requirement that infidels be given fair warning before being attacked. In conclusion, the requerimiento noted that if the Indians did not follow the order to accept Spanish rule and Christianity, the resulting havoc that would be wreaked on them would be their own fault, not the fault of the Spanish king, the reader of the requerimiento, or the Spanish soldiers.21
The right to conquest proclaimed by the requerimiento reflected legal doctrine in European international law that had been developing since the thirteenth century. Europeans claimed that Christians had the right to occupy the territory of the heathen if they assumed the responsibility for evangelizing those living there. This right was further elaborated with the notion of “just war,” which could be waged against those who refused to accept Christianity or who later rebelled against Christian authority. Those captured in a “just war” could legally be executed for treason or sold into slavery.22
After the reading of the requerimiento, a series of battles ensued between the Tlaxcalans and the Spanish. Tlaxcalans provided stiff resistance to the conquistadores. In between battles with the Tlaxcalans, the Spanish would pillage the countryside, sowing fear by burning towns and mutilating civilians. Such tactics had proved to be especially effective on Hispaniola and Cuba.23
As a result of Spanish marauding and mounting battle casualties, the Tlaxcalans finally surrendered. The Spanish then entered Tlaxcala unmolested. Its citizens immediately accepted the Spanish offer to form an alliance against their perennial enemies—the Aztecs. Cortes showed his political skills by winning not only the Tlaxcalans’ submission but their loyalty. This loyalty later saved the Spaniards’ lives.
Cortes next marched to Cholula, an Aztec tributary town that had long served as a destination for religious pilgrimages. Further blurring the European versus Indian dichotomy, some 6,000 Tlaxcalans accompanied the Spanish. After Cortes’s force arrived in Cholula, an informer told them that the Cholulans were preparing to attack them. Using this report as an excuse, the Spanish and the Tlaxcalans attacked the Cholulans.24
The Spanish priest, historian, and defender of Indian rights, Bartolome de las Casas, later commented on the Spanish attack:
Among other massacres was one which took place in Cholula, a great city of some thirty thousand inhabitants. When all the dignitaries of the city and the region came out to welcome the Spaniards with all due pomp and ceremony. . . the Spaniards decided that the moment had come to organize a massacre (or “punishment” as they themselves express such things) in order to inspire fear and terror in all the people of the territory.25
Even if a plot against the Spanish actually existed (evidence is mixed), the punishment inflicted by the Spanish was clearly excessive. Rather than targeting leaders believed to be involved in the plot, the Spanish slaughtered thousands of unarmed Cholulans.26
As the news spread that Spanish power rivaled that of the Aztecs, lords from several nearby cities approached Cortes and offered to reject Aztec sovereignty and fight with the Spanish. Cortes accepted such assistance, which later proved to be invaluable.
From Cholula, the Spanish departed for the nearby Aztec capital, which they entered by crossing a long causeway across Lake Texcoco. Causeways to the north, south, and west provided access to Tenochtitlan. A ten-mile-long dike divided the lake into fresh-water and salt-water sections. Streams flowed into the fresh-water section, enabling the Aztecs to fish and irrigate chinampas. Water then passed into the salty section, where it evaporated (as does water flowing into the Great Salt Lake in Utah), leaving salt to be collected.
Capital cities of the Triple Alliance
Figure 2.2 The valley of Mexico In Aztec times
Source: Reproduced courtesy of Michael D. Coe; map drawn by Patrick Gallagher
Di'az del Castillo commented on the Spaniards’ reaction upon viewing Tenochtitlan:
When we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land and that straight and level Causeway going towards Mexico, we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments they tell of in the legend of Amadis, on account of the great towers . . . and buildings rising from the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our soldiers even asked whether the things we saw were not a dream.27
World History
