Hey guys, I noticed a couple of posts concerning the Aztecs and Cortes so maybe I can add a bit to our class discussion, blog posts, and the article I presented in class entitled “Human Sacrifice at Tenochtitlan”.
In our textbook (pages 84-85), Calloway writes about how Cortes landed near Vera Cruz in 1519 with only 508 men. There was little doubt about the Spanish intent of staying in Mexico: Cortes had the Spanish ships burnt to show that there was no turning back. Basically, as Cortes and his men advanced upon Tenochtitlan (present day Mexico City, it had a population of 200,000) they made allies with various tribes who were eager to overthrow the Tenochtitlan empire.
As I mentioned in my presentation, Tenochtitlan only produced roughly 15% of its agricultural needs within the city. This meant that they had to import a substantial amount of goods. One tactic used to ensure these goods to the Tenochtitlan empire was the threat of human sacrifice. So as you can imagine, human sacrifice was not very popular with all Aztec people.
When Cortes reached the city, he was initially welcomed as a guest. The textbook doesn’t mention whether or not he was welcomed as a god-like figure, but according to a University of Calgary website, (http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/aztec.html) “the city's populous believed Cortés to be the descendent of the white-skinned god Quetzalcoatlin of Aztec prophesy. This prophesy stated that Quetzalcoatlin had left Mexico in the tenth century but would return from the east to reclaim his authority over the Aztecs. The Aztec Emperor, Moctezuma, saw Cortés' arrival as the fulfilment of this prophecy and welcomed the party warmly, presenting the Spaniards with lavish gifts.”
Needless to say, the Spaniards quickly wore out their welcome and were kicked out of Tenochtitlan in a bloody revolt. About this same time, a massive smallpox epidemic broke out and wiped out “a vast number” of Aztecs. Cortes, reinforced by Spanish soldiers from Cuba along with his new native allies and the outbreak of smallpox, quickly destroyed the Tenochtitlan empire.
As someone else mentioned in their blog, the Spaniards were very impressed when they fist entered the marvelous city of Tenochtitlan. There are some great first-hand accounts of the Spaniards’ initial impression on page 85 of our textbook.
3 comments:
Jake Thibodeau
Yeah I had actually heard that they thought Cortez was a god also, so I wondered during the presentation what Your article said about that. Thanks for clarifying the rest and adding new information. Sometimes I think we, as modern folk, don't give enough credit to the native peoples as being free thinking, thoughful, Conscientious, beings. We often times think they had little thought as to what was happening to them because perhaps we veiw them as stupid. It is clear through the readings and presentations this is not the case.
I was very surprised to learn that human sacrifice was not accepted by everyone as I had been under the impression that human sacrifice was regarded by the Aztecs as necessary to their community for spiritual reasons but I was not aware that it was used to keep people in line. Obviously if people are seeing their children or other loved ones sacrificed, they are not going to be happy about that but I had previously believed that they were willing to accept it because of the spiritual benefits derived from it. I had also read that some cultures (not necessarily Native American ones) had looked upon being sacrificed as an honor. So that presentation on human sacrifice and Tenochtitlan was very informative.
This is very cool. I think it was very neat to see how warfare was used to take out the Azteks. When i think of the Spaniards and the Azteks normally I think they were a bunch of stupid people that still thought the world was flat, and didnt have a clue what they were doing. So this goes to show, and prove me wrong, that they were a great nation (both spain and the azteks) and were very skilled.
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