2 – Hernan Cortes’ Conquistadores Were Among History’s Most Successful Mercenaries
Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and a small force of mercenaries landed on Mexico’s eastern coast in February of 1519. After subduing the region surrounding today’s Vera Cruz, they marched inland towards the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, defeating and allying with natives en route. Those who refused to join the Spaniards were massacred, as occurred in the city of Cholula. As Cortes described it, after capturing the city, he destroyed and burned it to the ground, while his conquistadors ran riot, killing about 3000 Cholulans in a few hours. Another Spanish eyewitness put the number of massacred Cholulans as high as 30,000. By the time Cortes reached Tenochtitlan, his core of mercenary conquistadores was surrounded by a large native army.
Montezuma II, the Aztec ruler, was indecisive. He invited the conquistadors into Tenochtitlan in November of 1519, hoping to better understand them. However, he foolishly plied them with lavish gifts of gold, which only excited their lust for plunder. The Spaniards treacherously seized Montezuma in his own palace, then ruled Tenochtitlan and the Aztec Empire through the captive emperor, whom they held as a hostage.
In April of 1520, Cortes had to return to Mexico’s east coast in order to ward off another Spanish expedition sent to oust him, and left 200 Spaniards behind under a trusted deputy. While Cortes was gone, his deputy massacred thousands of Aztecs in Tenochtitlan’s Great Temple, triggering an uprising. Cortes hurriedly returned to Tenochtitlan and trotted out the captive Montezuma in an attempt to placate the natives, but the livid Aztecs stoned the Spaniards’ puppet ruler to death.
Cortes fled Tenochtitlan, then returned with a powerful native army to subdue the city. After vicious street-by-street fighting that wrecked much of the Aztec capital, Cortes finally subdued the city, whose population had been decimated by Old World diseases against which the natives had no immunity. The Spanish built Mexico City and their colony of New Spain atop the ruins of Tenochtitlan and the Aztec Empire.