Meshican leaders forced out Spaniards

Hernán Cortés and troops struggled to recapture Tenochtitlan

By Miguel Encinias
For the Journal
The reign of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés as a Meshican god was short-lived.
The Meshican leadership ousted Emperor Moctezuma, who died June 25, 1519, of injuries received after being stoned by his own subjects.
He was replaced by his brother, Cuitlahuac, and a young cousin named Cuaunahuac, who declared war on the intruders and attacked the palace in the capital city of Tenochtitlan.
Cortés saw no way to save himself and his surviving soldiers other than to fight their way out.
Before leaving the palace, he had an enormous treasure of gold piled up in the main hall. He took the king's share, which equaled one-fifth of the treasure, and entrusted it to two soldiers, who loaded it on two pack horses and took it with the group fleeing the city.
As for the rest, he told his soldiers to take as much as they could carry in their pockets. At nightfall the escape began.
The commander was able to get out of the city with only 500 out of more than 2,000 Spaniards and an unknown number of Natives. The rest were either killed or captured.
The Meshicans sayed hot on their heels until they were well away from the city, then, distracted by their victory and the ensuing sacrifice of those captured, they permited the Spaniards to reach Otumba, halfway to Tlaxcala, and safety.
Some pursuers, however, intercepted the Spaniards by taking a shortcut across a lake to the east of Otumba.
After a series of skirmishes, Cortés and soldier Juan de Salamanca spotted the Meshican leader Serpent Woman and killed him with a lance thrust.
With this, the fighting abated, and the Spaniards were able to reach a haven at Tlaxcala, where they were fed, attended to and admired for their bravery and skill.
These steadfast Native allies now considered Cortés their ruler.
After a few days of rest, Cortés began the reconquest of the capital city.
With the help of his new Native subjects and reinforcements Gov. Velazquez had sent from Cuba to help in the arrest of Cortés (Velasquez did not know that Cortés had taken command of the people he was sending over), Cortés started subduing Meshican frontier towns and forming plans for storming the island city of Tenochtitlan by building 13 sloops to counter the Meshican canoes and to bypass the causeways.
Next, he cut off the fresh water supply from Chapultepec, upstream of the city. One of the cities he captured without a struggle was Tetzcoco since many of the residents had fled. He appointed a Native lord of the city, as he did elsewhere, to calm the inabitants that remained.
Soon he had all the auxiliaries he needed from around the towns in the area. He tried to persuade the Meshican military leader Cuauhtemoc to submit peacefully by acknowledging the rule of King Charles, but was unsuccessful.
With three armies of 200 Spaniards and 800 Native allies each, the final assault on Tenochtitlan began in an engagement between the Spanish sloops and the numerous Meshican canoes.
The attackers waited until the canoes were approaching arrowshot then raised sails and plowed into the smaller craft. In the pursuit, which lasted nine miles to the edge of the city, most of the canoes were destroyed and the occupants killed.
Cortés set up his ground attack command post at the Iztapalapan causeway. The first foray reached the center of the city, but was driven back.
Pedro de Alvarado, leading troops on the other side at the Tacuba causeway, drove into the city without securing his positions, and was repulsed with heavy losses. One of his soldiers reported that he could see Spanish soldiers being sacrificed at a nearby pyramid.
In late July and early August of 1521, the Native allies started deserting the Spaniards because an oracle had predicted they would be defeated during the period when the planet Venus would disappear after sunset as it came into conjunction with the sun for an eight-day period.
When the eiqht days were up and the Spaniards were still holding the city under siege, the allies started coming back. Adding to this good turn of events, a Spanish ship put in at Vera Cruz with powder and arms.
Cortés now began reducing the city by burning buildings and filling in approaches to the city with the rubble.
On July 28, 1521, his and Alvarado's forces met in the main square of Tlatelolco, the northern quarter of the city. The Spaniards had trouble preventing their Native allies, who now numbered 100,000, from killing the now-passive Meshican inhabitants.
Cuauhtemoc, who had taken over when Cuitlahuac died of smallpox, tried to escape in a canoe with his wife, the Princess Tecupuitzin, who was a legitimate daughter of Moctezuma. But his canoe was overtaken by a sloop of armed soldiers, who captured him.
The war was over.
The Spaniards continued to dismantle one of the greatest cities that ever existed, and started building Mexico with the material from the ruins.