Lecture 15: 1521 Tenochtitlán—Aztecs vs. Conquistadors
x He entered into negotiations with Narvarez while secretly
communicating with friends within Narvarez’s forces and
spreading bribes among Narvarez’s troops. Cortés then launched
a surprise night attack on Narvarez’s headquarters. Narvarez and
his lieutenants were captured, and through a mixture of bribery and
skilled oratory, Cortés persuaded the rest of the soldiers to join him.x Meanwhile in Tenochtitlán, Alvarado had been invited to attend
a religious festival at which many high-ranking Aztecs were
present. Perhaps seeing this as an opportunity to paralyze more
of the Aztec leadership, Alvarado had broken the sacred peace
and attacked the unarmed worshippers, slaughtering many of the
Aztec aristocracy. Alvarado was now besieged in the palace by
mobs of furious Aztec warriors.x Cortés, to impress upon his troops the message that they had to
succeed or die trying, ordered that the ships be destroyed. There
would now literally be no turning back. Cortés managed to break
through to Alvarado and join his forces, but the Spaniards were
surrounded and besieged in the palace.x The captive Moctezuma, who all along seems to have favored a
conciliatory policy, agreed to urge the Aztecs to be calm. When
he appeared, they stoned him, fatally wounding him. The new
emperor, Cuauhtémoc, viewed the Spaniards solely as enemies to
be exterminated and launched an all-out attack.x 2QWKHQLJKWRI-XO\&RUWpVDQGKLVDUP\WULHGWRÀHHDFURVV
one of the causeways. Many of the conquistadors, in addition to
their weapons, could not resist burdening themselves with the gold
treasure, and as they tried to swim across the gaps in the causeways,
hundreds drowned.x Cortés escaped but lost half his army. As they marched away, the
bedraggled survivors had to suffer the additional horror of watching
their captured friends and comrades being dragged to the top of
the main temple to have their hearts ripped out by priests and their