Native American Influence On The Aztecs

When you hear the name of one of the great civilization of all time, The Aztecs, what comes to mind? Is it their most famous leader, Montezuma, or the man who defeated and conquered them, Hernán Cortés? The Aztec’s, a Native American civilization from Mexico, attitude toward the invading Spaniards had change through the course of interaction with them. For example, the first group of people Montezuma were in awe because they believe that the conquistadores were God sent. As Montezuma sent more and more groups of people to send the conquistadores gifts and food they got a better look at them and their horses and firearm which the Aztec had never seen before. When the Spaniards got closer to Mexica’s capital, Montezuma became worried because
According to Broken Spears, before the Spaniards arrived in the New World, the Native American had started to see eight omens which was taken as bad signs for the future. For example, the first major of the eight was, “great column of flame which burned in night, shooting out such flame which burned in the night, shooting out such brilliant sparks and flashes that it sees to rain fire on the earth and it blazed like daybreak… this portent burned for a year.” (Portilla, 1962, p. 07) The next major omen was the seventh which was that men, who worked at Lake Mexico, saw a dark-feathered bird that resembled a crane and brought the bird to Montezuma who was full of dread and wonder. The first time Montezuma looked into the mirror of the bird’s he saw stars of the sign if Gemini and three stars of Taurus, which are said to be a bad omen and the second time he looked into it he saw a large sum of armed warrior accompanied by horses. So with these omens the Aztecs civilization was already at their peak and declining before the Spanish
The Spanish had explored the city and had come upon the Aztec gods and the human sacrifices and skulls that were used to satisfy the gods. Cortes then ordered his men to destroy the temple, this occurrence made the priest furious and they demanded that Montezuma get rid of the Spaniards. The plan that Montezuma came up with was to offer the conquistadors more gifts of gold hoping that they would go away, however, Cortes and his men did not go away and instead arrested and held Montezuma captive because they thought that it would keep the Aztecs from attacking the palace. This did not work because the Spanish soldiers had killed some of the priest at a religious ceremony. In the chaos, Montezuma was killed and the conquistadores had fled from the