When Moctezuma met Cortes he was very nervous and did not really know who Cortes was. He thought he was the Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, returning to take over the land. Moctezuma did not know whether to attack him and take him prisoner or to welcome him into his palace. Moctezuma ends up welcoming Cortes to the palace and inviting him to stay. As the Spanish stay at the palace, they discover their different gods and see the many sacrifices.…
They came with ambitions of greed, riches, and the conversion of the Aztec people into Christians and Spanish counterparts by what seems force, due to their feeling that the aztecs were barbaric people. They brought with them horses, armory , guns and swords, and to the Aztecs’ demise, disease. The Spanish were considered Gods, and guests of Motecuhzoma(god) as they entered the historic metropolis city of Tenochtitlan, where they reached the summit of a pyramid where the main temple was built. There they give an account of the awes of the city, and its complex structure: three causeways, irrigated water to the city, canoe travel, great marketplace, fortresses, and a view of all surrounding areas. A direct showing of the crudeness of the Spanish in their conquest is the way in which they slaughtered during the festival in Tenochtitlan. It is said that they immersed themselves among the people and began to kill by cutting heads off, arms, abdomen wounds causing entrails to come out, attacked the drummer discontinuing the music, wounds to the thighs and calves, and the celebrants tried to…
The army was peacefully received by Moctezuma II, the Aztec tlatoani (ruler), who gave extravagant gifts of gold to the Spaniards to satisfy their army. However, this only increased the Spaniards’ greed, and Cortés took Moctezuma captive. Most people don’t on other people to use their armies. After Moctezuma was murdered (either by rebellion or the Spanish soldiers), open rebellion of the Aztec natives forced Cortés and his men to flee.…
The people being conquered hated the Aztecs, so with the help of Malinche, Cortes formed alliances with the natives and got them to agree to fight the Aztec. Moctezuma, the emperor, feared the worst. Messengers brought news…
From the year 1502 until the year of 1520 a man by the name Moctezuma Xocoyotl (II) ruled Mexico as the ninth ruler. Then in June 29, 1520 Moctezuma lost his life while he was held as captive in his own palace. Ironically, there was some events that was not necessarily obvious of how it occurred at that…
Cortes was on a mission to search for gold, to claim land and to convert people to christianity. Cortes was welcomed into the city. The aztecs did not know what he was a normal person or a god to claim the throne. Cortes' men killed some preastes in the middle of a sacrifice to their gods. Cortes held there emperor captive hoping that it was stop attacks on them…
The Spaniards allied with the Tlaxcalan indians and marched into Tenochtitlan. Montezuma welcomed in Quetzalcoatl’s men with open arms, but Hernan Cortes seized power of the empire by using Montezuma as a figurehead against his will, while Cortes made all the real decisions. Cortes acted as a secret leader until 1520, when events caused tension to escalate, and Cortes demanded Montezuma command his people obey the Spaniards. The Indians didn’t like this at all, and showered their leader in stones, he then went on to die days later in June of 1520. The spanish originally went to Mexico to search for land and gold, or other plunders because they had no prosperity back home in Spain. When they reached Mexico, they discovered the Aztec people and the native indians of the land, and decided to try to eliminate them and their ways (cannibalism, human sacrifices, etc. didn’t appeal to the Spanish, and they didn’t want people like that inhabiting the same land as…
The Aztecs believed in many gods. Quetzacotl was one of the gods, and they believed that on Quetzacotl’s birthday, he would appear to Mesoamerica in the flesh. On Quetzacotl’s birthday, big boats (ships) arrived on shore. And out came “Quetzacotl” (Hernando Cortez) and his men. The Aztecs brought Quetzacotl (Spanish) gifts such as fruit, vegetables, jade and gold. Their god also bought newer things such as fruit, vegetables, cattle, armour, weapons and in the end, diseases.…
After his explanation as to why he chose to tell of his times during the conquest, Diaz explains the amazement experienced between the Aztecs and the Spanish upon their arrival. The Aztecs were amazed by the sight of the light-skinned Spanish men riding on horses as it was something that they had never seen before. The Spanish were so amazed by the sights of the land, such as the abundance of people and the buildings. Once it was time for Captain Cortes, Diaz’s superior, to meet with Montezuma, they were treated with respect and hospitality. Diaz makes this evident by is telling that Montezuma presented Captain Cortes with a “necklace made of gold crabs” in which he “greatly astonished his [own] Captains by the great honor that he was bestowing on him.”(36) Diaz described Montezuma as being dressed in lavish clothing and to have been treated by his people as some sort of Godly entity. Diaz then talks about a conversation held between Montezuma and Cortez in which Cortes spoke of the religious view of the Spanish--Christianity. Cortes explains the beliefs and practices of the religion as a plead to get him to discontinue the Aztec practice of human sacrifices to the Gods. On their fourth day, the Spanish men took a trip to the marketplace where they were awed by the merchants and…
The Tlaxcaltecs, sworn enemies of the Aztecs, provided Cortes a hundreds porters and 2,000 warriors to march on the capital. More than seven months after landing on the coast, Cortes arrived in Mexico City. Montezuma was kind and hospitable to Cortes despite how he felt. He allowed the Spaniards to live in his father’s palace for eight months. They were both weary of, and fascinated, by the people and their culture.…
They met up with the Tezcoco tribe and learned from them that they did not like the Aztec Indians either so they formed an alliance with them as well and they all three marched towards Mexico to take over the Aztec Indians. Motecuhzoma the chief of the Aztec Indians heard that the Gods were coming with other tribes to their land and he was afraid, he wanted to run and hide. Instead he sat and waited with great fear and anticipation on their…
Hernan Cortes landed on the east coast of the Aztec empire where the natives mistaken for Quetzalcoatl. Cortes ran with it and told his men to shine their armor so they will reflect the sun making them to appear to have a Heavenly glow. This worked well even convincing the leader of the Aztec empire -Montezuma II- that Cortez and his men were deities. On Cortez's way to the capitol, Tenochtitlan Cortes gained allies among the natives under Aztec control. Montezuma II made the mistake of sending big loads of gold and silver to Cortez as tribute, still under the belief that he was a deity only encouraging Cortez for there to conquer for more treasure. Cortez ended up taking the capital hand going down in history as one of the biggest contributors…
The Franciscans pushed for religious conversion, the natives, while subject to this, wished to remain mostly steady in their old ways, and the Spaniards desired a peaceful autonomy and control. Although variant in their goals, the groups of the Yucatán did, for some time, come to an agreeable and sustainable balance of living. Coexistence might not have been harmonious, but it was tolerable: “one or two conquerers did marry Indian women…their children would have Mayan as their first tongue, and be tended through their first years by Indian hands” (pg. 44). Not only did the natives and the Spaniards connect on a social level, but partnerships between the two groups were also political and economic. Indians would come “regularly into the Spaniards’ towns and houses, bringing in their tribute and serving out their labor obligations” (pg. 43).…
The aztecs thought it was a warning that their empire was going to fall. In 1519, a spanish explorer (Hernando Cortes) arrived at the east coast of mexico. He defeated the local tribes and set off for the Aztecs. When he arrived at the city, the spaniards captured the emperor, took him as a prisoner, and killed him.…
When they arrived in Tenochtitlan, the residents were already resigned to their faith, knowing they were “about to die and perish, we are awaiting our deaths”. This reinforced the Spaniards’ perceived superiority, partly stemming from the esteem that the Mexica gave them. Tenochtitlan was known as the foundation of heaven, and the city itself was given a divine status. This inspired the Mexica to fight and defend something so great. Even the Spanish, when they first entered the city, were in awe as they gazed “on such wonderful sights, we did not know what to say, or whether what appeared before us was real,”. They compared the city of Tenochtitlan to European cities such as Venice. This was one of the first times that the Spanish saw the Mexica as civilized human beings that were similar to the Spanish and…