The first conquest of a major indigenous polity in the Americas by a European power, the conquest of Mexico fueled the European imagination while providing a template for the violent sub
Trang 1The conquest of Mexico represents one of the most
oft-told and epic sagas in the European conquest of the
New World Our knowledge of the defeat of the
Az-tecs (Mexica) is based on a rich array of firsthand
ac-counts, both Spanish and native The first conquest of a
major indigenous polity in the Americas by a European
power, the conquest of Mexico fueled the European
imagination while providing a template for the violent
subjugation of the rest of Mesoamerica and large parts
of South America in the decades to follow
With the conquest of Cuba complete and much of
the Caribbean under Spanish dominion, the first
explo-rations along the coast of modern-day Mexico were in
1517 under captain Francisco Hernández de Córdoba
This initial exploratory foray was followed in 1518
by an expedition under Juan de Grijalva that further
probed the easternmost fringes of the Aztec domain
Both were under the authority of the governor of
Cuba, Diego Velázquez In a series of sometimes
vio-lent encounters with the native inhabitants along the
coast, the Grijalva expedition learned that a great city
lay somewhere in the interior
The stage was thus set for a third expedition, also
under Governor Velázquez’s authority, to ascertain
fur-ther the nature of these mysterious lands and peoples
After much behind-the-scenes political intrigue and deal
making within Cuba, the governor selected Hernán
Cortés as the expedition’s leader—a choice he would
soon come to regret
SETTING SAIL
The 11 ships under Cortés’s command set sail from
Cuba in December 1519 with some 530 European men,
several hundred Cuban Indians (including women), 16
horses, and numerous dogs They were exceedingly well
armed with artillery, cannons, swords, cutlasses, lances,
crossbows, arquebuses, and other weaponry, and well
stocked with bread, meat, and other provisions,
includ-ing trinkets for use as gifts to friendly natives Officially
this was to be an expedition of discovery only
Gover-nor Velázquez had not granted its leader the authority
to conquer or colonize
Making initial landfall at Cozumel Island,
Cor-tés learned from the natives that two Christians were
held captive in the interior One of them, Jerónimo de
Aguilar, had shipwrecked off the coast of Yucatán in
1511 and lived among the local inhabitants for the
past eight years His knowledge of Chontal Maya and
native customs would prove crucial in the events to
follow The expedition continued north and west, past Yucatán and along the coast of present-day Tabasco state On March 25, 1519, at the village called Poton-chan, after one in a series of violent encounters with coastal peoples, Cortés was given 20 young native women as a peace offering One of these women, Mali-nali, baptized Marina, became one of the key actors of the conquest, acting as Cortés’s interpreter, confidant, and later mistress, bearing his child—reputedly the first
mestizo (Spanish-Indian) child She spoke both Maya
and Nahuatl, the latter the language of the Aztecs, and had intimate knowledge of Indian people’s customs and practices To Mexicans she was later known as La Malinche (Doña Marina), or worse, La Chingada (the violated one) and conventionally has been viewed
as a traitor to her people, an interpretation challenged
by more recent feminist scholarship
The expedition reached San Juan de Ulúa, an island off the coast of modern-day Veracruz, on Maundy Thursday 1519 Reaching the mainland on Good Friday, Cortés established friendly relations with the local Totonac chieftain, an Aztec subordinate named Teudile On Easter Sunday, Cortés undertook a char-acteristically theatrical gesture when he staged a mock-battle on the beach, firing cannon and racing his horses, to the astonishment of his hosts He also asked for gold, which he portrayed as medicine for sick com-rades Within days, Aztec emperor Moctezuma II was informed of the strangers’ activities via oral reports and painted renderings Scholarly debates continue regarding whether Moctezuma and his priests viewed the bearded strangers as gods, particularly whether Cortés was the Plumed Serpent Quetzalcoatl returning from the east as prophesied
In order to circumvent the authority of Governor Velázquez and establish his own authority to wage a campaign of conquest, Cortés pulled a legal sleight
of hand, founding a town called Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, appointing its officials, and resigning his office His men in turn elected him the town’s principal judi-cial and military authority In accordance with Span-ish law, he now derived his authority directly from the Crown The maneuver is often cited as a prime example
of the conquistador’s political cunning
INLAND ExPEDITION
With their base at Villa Rica, the expedition inland began Soon a pattern developed, whereby Moctezuma politely denied Cortés the right to enter the Aztec capi-tal, and Cortés politely insisted on visiting the sover-eign as an ambassador of King Charles I The campaign