A member of the Tenocha royal line who became the 10th great speaker of the AzTECS upon the death of MoCTEZUMA II, Cuitlahuac led the expulsion of the Spanish invaders from Tenochtitlan only to die 80 days after his ascension, a victim of the SMALLPox epidemic that ravaged the city.
Cuitlahuac, brother of Moctezuma II, began his political career as lord of Ixtapalapa. Before the arrival of the Spanish, his best-known martial accomplishment was his leadership of the expedition to subjugate the Mixtecs in 1506. He, like his contemporary XlcoTENCATL THE Younger, opposed admitting the Spaniards into the heart of the empire, a stance for which the invaders imprisoned him along with several other nobles of the region. He was liberated in June 1520 in the revolt that followed the massacre at the Great Temple organized by Pedro DE Alvarado, whereupon a council of nobles and military leaders elected him great speaker, replacing the captive Moctezuma, who died in the rioting shortly thereafter. Cuitlahuac moved to organize the residents of Tenochtitlan for war, ordering ambassadors to solicit aid from potential allies, but could bring few of his plans to fruition, as his reign ended abruptly, only 80 days after it began, when he succumbed to smallpox on November 25, 1520. The works for the defense of the city that he initiated were continued by Cuauhtemoc.
Further reading: Michael Coe, Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs, 4th ed. (London: Thames & Hudson, 1994); Nigel Davies, Aztecs: A History (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980).
—Marie Kelleher
World History
