distrusted Cortés from the beginning but
failed to destroy him when he had the
chance. While Cortés was still at
Veracruz, Montezuma sent emissaries
laden with gold and silver, requesting
that the Spanish not venture inland to his
capital city of Tenochtitlán, now Mexico
City. The gifts only whetted the conquis-
tador’s appetite and made him more
determined than ever to take control of
this rich land.
Some attribute Montezuma’s vacilla-
tion to his belief in the legend of Quetzal-
coatl. According to this account,
Montezuma believed that his reign would
see the return of the great Quetzalcoatl, a
god of peace and fertility who had been
driven away by a hostile god. Quetzalcoatl
would come as a white-skinned, bearded
man traveling across the water from the
land where the sun rises. Montezuma sup-
posedly feared that Cortés was that man
and that upon arrival he would take over
the empire. However, some historians
argue that this story is not well-founded
and that Montezuma’s uncertainty in deal-
ing with Cortés was sufficiently explained
by his fear of the unknown and his overes-
timation of Cortés’s resources.
Perhaps the most important weak-
ness of the Aztec Empire was its disunity.
Its subjects feared the Aztec but also
hated them for enslaving and sacrificing
some of their people and exacting heavytaxes from the rest. For their part, the
Aztec feared rebellion and were constant-
ly spying in search of rebels. On several
occasions, Cortés masterfully played the
rebels and the Aztec against each other,
indicating to one that he had come to lib-
erate them and to the other that he had
come to safeguard their rule.
On August 8, 1519, Cortés and about
300 soldiers began the 250-mile march
inland from the coast to Tenochtitlán.
“To conquer the land or die” was his slo-
gan. They encountered heavy resistance
from the Tlascalan, an independent peo-
ple who eventually surrendered and
formed an alliance with Cortés against
the Aztec, their ancient enemies.
Montezuma, fearful of Cortés but unwill-
ing to launch an army against him, per-
mitted him to enter the Aztec capital on
November 8, 1519. Built on an island in
a lake, the city of 250,000 people was
larger than any in Spain and dominated
by great flat-topped temples. But Cortés
was not intimidated by its obvious power
and wealth or by how ludicrously he was
outnumbered. Given a palace to live in,
which he fortified as a headquarters, and
freedom to move around the city at will,
he resisted his soldiers’ wish to take what
gold they could and run away. He was
determined to conquer or die.
Accordingly, when visiting Monte-
zuma one day, he took the Aztec emperor34 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY
Mexico City in the 16th century(Library of Congress)“And when we saw all those
towns and villages in the
water, and other great towns
on dry land, and that
straight and level causeway
leading to Mexico, we were
astounded. These great
towns...and buildings rising
from the water. All made of
stone, seemed like an
enchanted vision....Indeed
some of our soldiers asked
whether it was not all a
dream... It was all so
wonderful that I do not
know how to describe this
first glimpse of things never
heard of, seen, or dreamed
of before.”
— Bernal Díaz del Castillo, one of
Cortés’ soldiers, writing about
seeing the Aztec capital of
Tenochtitlán for the first time in
his eyewitness account The
Conquest of New Spain.