The conquest of Mexico
The Big Idea
The Aztecs built a great empire in central Mexico
but were conquered by the Spanish in 1521.
Main Ideas
• The Aztecs built an empire through warfare
and trade and created an impressive capital
city in Mesoamerica (Tenochtitlan).
• Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec Empire.
In the late 1400s Spanish explorers and soldiers
arrived in the Americas. The soldiers, or
conquistadors, came to explore new lands,
search for gold, and spread the Catholic
religion.
Hernan s
• Cortes was born in 1485 in Medellin, Spain. His parents were
of small Spanish nobility. In 1499, when Cortes was 14 he
attended the University of Salamanca, at this university he
studied law. Two years later in 1501 he gave up on his
education and started wandering around.
• Hernán Cortés left Spain at the age of nineteen and sailed for
what is now the Dominican Republic to try his luck in the New
World.
• In 1511, he joined an army under the command of Spanish
soldier named Diego Velázquez & helped Velasquez to
conquer Cuba. Velázquez became the governor of Cuba, and
Cortes was elected Mayor-Judge of Santiago.
• Cortés' past performance made him the perfect candidate for
the Governor's expedition to the main land in 1519 (Mexico).
Journey of Cortes
http://ntap.k12.ca.us/whs/projects/history/cortez.html
Malinche
• In March 1519, Cortes landed
in Mexico, and suppressed the
town of Tabasco.
• This was where Cortes met his
soon to be mistress Malinche.
She became a guide and
interpreter.
• "La Malinche." Slave,
interpreter, secretary,
mistress, mother of the first
"Mexican."
• Many Mexicans continue to
revile the woman called Doña
Marina by the Spaniards and
La Malinche by the Aztecs,
labeling her a traitor and
harlot for her role as the
mistress of Cortes as he
conquered Mexico.
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history/malinche.html
Malinche, con’d
• However, she saved
thousands of lives by
enabling Cortes to
negotiate rather than
slaughter.
• Herself a convert, she was
baptized Marina.
• She bore Cortes a son,
Don Martin Cortes
• A small group of conquistadors led by Cortés
reached Mexico in 1519.
• Montezuma II, the Aztec leader, believed that
Cortés was a god (due to Cortes' physical
resemblance to the light-skinned Quetzalcoatl,
whose return was prophesied in Aztec legend).
• Montezuma sent Cortés gifts, including gold.
Cortés wanted more gold, so he went to
Moctezuma.
• Cortés took Montezuma prisoner. The
other Aztecs attacked Cortés and his
men. The Spanish were driven out,
but Montezuma was killed.
• There is a controversy about how
Montezuma died. Some historians
believe he was killed by one of the
Aztecs from the stone thrown on his
head. Others think that Cortes got rid
of him. No one knows exactly.
• Cortés returned with many Indian
allies and in 1521 they defeated the
Aztecs and ended their empire.
Montezuma & Cortez
What helped Cortes defeat the Aztec Empire?
• Cortes’s alliances with the Aztecs’ enemies.
Causes of the Defeat of the Aztecs
• Alliances The Spanish had made allies in the region who gave
them supplies, information, and warriors.
• Weapons The Spanish had better weapons than the Aztecs.
They had cannons, armor, swords, and horses that the Aztecs
did not have.
• Geography The Spanish were able to cut off the capital city.
The people had no food or water, so many Aztecs died of
starvation.
• Disease The Spanish had unknowingly brought deadly
diseases such as smallpox to the Americas. These diseases
killed the Aztecs, who had never been exposed to such
diseases.
One invent …two stories
Historical interpretation of the conquest of Mexico
Aztec Account
• 1. Spaniards were agents of a barbaric
Spanish Account
and superstitious Catholic culture.
• 1. Spaniards were agents of great
Catholic civilization
•
2. The Spaniards were motivated
primarily by greed
• 2. Conquistadors were motivated
to spread Catholic religion
•
3. The Spaniards destroyed great
cultures such as the Aztec and Inca
civilizations.
•
4.Conquest gave rise to an especially
exploitative colonial system based on
cruel systems of forced labor
• 3. Spanish conquest eliminated
human sacrifice and cannibalism,
and introduced domestic animals
and tools to improve agricultural
production.
• 4. Spanish colonial system
protected and incorporated
natives, such as Aztecs
Now, your turn.. You will read 2 documents written from 2
different point of views of Aztecs and Spanish. Then we will
record your opinion as a class. While you read keep in mind:
1. Did the Spaniards attack the Aztecs or were they defending
themselves? Why did that happen? 2. Why didn’t Aztecs
defeat themselves or did they?
• Spanish Account
• Aztec Account
Why did the Spaniards attack the Aztecs?
Why didn’t Aztecs defeat themselves?
Sources of History
Letters from Hernan Cortes
Letters from Spanish Soldiers
• Many of the Spanish
conquerors wrote
letters to their friends
and loved ones
describing their role in
the events
Aztec Pictographic/Glyphic Documents
Tlaxcalan Indian Documents (Spanish
Allies)
Be a historian…investigate!
You will be working with a group, read
the Aztec and Spanish account primary
sources and underline key terms, and
rewrite the events in the order they
occurred
Discuss with your group whose fault
was the conquest of Mexico? Why?
The prompt
• Summarize the two accounts of the Spanish
attack on the Aztec. How do they differ? What
might account for these differences?
• Write a well thought our response to the
prompt. Use evidence from the text to defend
your answer.
You may use these sentence starters to
assist you with writing.
• The Spanish and the Aztecs had different
goals:….
• According to Cortez, Aztecs were…..
• According to Aztecs, Spanish were….
• Their point of view differ because…