The Conquest of Mexico

The first country that wanted to conquer Mexico was Cuba under the rule of Diego Velasquez (J). He decided to send out two explorers to check out the Yucatan Peninsula. In 1517, under the orders of the governer of Cuba, Fransisco Hernandez de Cordoba and Juan de Grijalbathat set out to Mexico (J). Velasquez decided to hire Hernan Cortes to help out with the conquest of the new land. In 1518, Cortes disobeyed Velasquezes orders, and left him with 500 other conquistadores(J).

In 1519, Hernan Cortes, looking for new land for Spain, enetered Mexico (H). Cortes was first attracted to Mexico because of its fertile lands (H). When he arrived, he discovered many different native people like the Aztecs and the Mayans. Cortes had very different interactions with each group of people.

The Mayans:

The first people that Cortes had contact with when he first arrived on the new land were the Mayans. The Mayans were never unified, but many different groups lived in different areas, but all had the same culture and rituals (H). They created Chac Mool statues, in which they placed a human heart from a sacrifice on (H). They also had developed a calender, writing system, and understood some mathematics (H). General Alvarado, from the Spanish crew, attacked one of the Mayan temples (H). After doing this, Cortes became furious at the general knowing that this could cause their expedition to come to an end. Cortes realized that defeating the Mayans would be very difficult because they did not have one ruler to overthrow. The Spanish would have to individually conquer each group of Mayans which they were unable to do. Even today there are still some Mayan tribes that practice their original culture, religion, and rituals.

The Aztecs:


In 1521, Cortes conquered the Aztecs. The Aztecs were a polytheistic people, and believed that one of their Gods was to come back to walk the earth (E). This God was pictured by the Aztecs as very similar in appearance to the Spaniards coming on to their land (E). Therefore, when they arrived, the Aztecs treated the conquistadors with tremendous respect, and brought them many gifts (E).  The Aztecs great intentions towards the Spaniards were thrown away by Spain because all they wanted to do was conquer the Aztecs, and convert them to Christianity. The Spaniards yelled at the natives in a language they did not understand, and made them bow down to God. If they did not oblige, they would be killed or enslaved (E). This, along with the Spaniards superior military technology, and them bringing in new diseases the Aztecs had no immunity to, killed off most of the Aztecs (E). Despite how much damage the Spaniards had already done to the Aztecs, Cortes still attacked the capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519 (E). Cortes entered the capital, and took their ruler, Montezuma, hostage. The Aztec ruler eventually died, which led to "La Noche Triste". "La Noche Triste" was an uprising by the Aztecs in which they tried to run the Spaniards out of Tenochtitlan (E). They were successful in July of 1520 (E). Even though the Spanish were forced out of the capitol, with the help of another indegounous tribe, Cortes went back into Tenochtitlan and destroyed the capitol on August 13, 1521 (E).