x Cortés fought and won several battles against the Tlaxcalan, the
one major group in central Mexico who had not yet been conquered
by the Aztecs. Eventually, they made peace and a formal military
alliance, gaining Cortés tens of thousands of native troops.
x These initial battles showed that the steel armor of the conquistadors
was virtually impenetrable by any of the native weapons. On the
other hand, the Spanish swords easily sliced through the cotton and
wood armor of the natives. Their crossbows and arquebuses were
devastating, both from a distance and in crowds.
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rider to be some kind of monster. Cavalry charges were devastating
to formations of native troops, who had no counter to the assaults.
Even the war dogs wreaked havoc.
x The Aztec emperor at the time, Moctezuma, seemed uncertain how
to react and may even have believed that the appearance of the
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of the harvest season, when the Aztecs normally did not wage war;
thus, Moctezuma invited Cortés to visit him at Tenochtitlán.
x On November 8, 1519, Cortés and his 300 companions entered
Tenochtitlán; they were housed in a palace and treated as honored
guests. After several days of sightseeing, Cortés kidnapped
Moctezuma, taking him to the Spaniards’ enclosure. The Aztecs
did not know what to do; a tense stand-off ensued, during which
Moctezuma was the “guest” of the Spanish.
x Now Cortés learned that 900 Spaniards had landed on the coast and
that their commander, Narvarez, had orders to arrest Cortés and take
over the expedition. Leaving only 80 men in Tenochtitlán under the
command of Pedro de Alvarado, Cortés rushed back to the coast
and rounded up some of the men he had left behind, amassing a
force of 350.