Then · the record

In 1519, inspired by rumours of gold and the existence of large, sophisticated cities in the Mexican interior, Hernán Cortés was appointed to head an expedition of eleven ships and five hundred men. The great empire of the Mexica dominated much of Mesoamerica, and Tenochtitlán had become so splendid that, according to records, it dazzled the Spaniards, exceeding anything they had seen before. Accounts of the conquest differed: Francisco López de Gómara was criticised for inaccuracies and for aggrandising Cortés; Bernal Díaz del Castillo dictated “the story of myself and my comrades, all true conquerors” in response; Diego Muñoz Camargo’s Historia de Tlaxcala recounted the conquest and the Tlaxcalan support of Cortés; and the 1524 Nuremberg map of Tenochtitlán drew on both European and indigenous sources. Two years after Cortés and his conquistadors arrived, constant war and diseases new to the Americas had destroyed Tenochtitlán, and the Aztec Empire was no more.

Malintzin, also called Marina, spoke both a Maya dialect and Nahuatl, and she served as the interpreter through whom Cortés negotiated the encounter. He forged alliances with several disgruntled Aztec subject peoples, chiefly the Totonac and the Tlaxcalans; the Tlaxcalans were especially critical because they were old rivals of the Aztecs and had a sizable army that supplemented the modest conquistador force. Smallpox, introduced to the Aztecs through the Spanish, killed half of Tenochtitlán’s inhabitants during those months, including the emperor Cuitláhuac. At Tlaxcala, Cortés built thirteen small ships and left in December. The force that besieged Tenochtitlán numbered more than 800 conquistadores and tens of thousands of indigenous warriors. The siege lasted 93 days, from 22 May to 13 August 1521.