23 Nov 2022

75

Hernan Cortes: Spanish Conquistador Who Defeated the Aztecs

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The United States of America has most of its citizens show an interest in the history and destiny of Mexico especially students and even scholars. In the early 13th century, the Aztecs came to America and settled in Mexico bringing tremendous change until the fall of the community. Aztecs are in the modern day known as the descendants of the Mexicas who are composed of the mixture of the Spanish people. The New Mexico City stands in the Aztec's ancient capital city Tenochtitlan. Conquistador Cortes Hernan of Spain remains a hero for conquering the Aztec Empire. Aztecs was a nomadic tribe that lived in Mesoamerica in the 13th century and occupied the Tenochtitlan city (Restall, 2004)

The Aztecs enjoyed facilities in their magnificent city and thereby influenced other regions to be under their control in the 15th century. The Aztecs high political, social and economic power led to other states to invade their city (Thomas, 2013). Aztecs began my merely recognizing that the marshy land is productive and that it only needed some adjustments. Through drainage, the Aztecs developed considerably in Agriculture and so was in trade. The Aztecs showed determination and hard work to develop their land which would later expand to become an empire. 

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Rising in population to about 140000 inhabitants revealed that Tenochtitlan was the most densely populated in Mesoamerica. With enough labor for the Agriculture, sector leads to the sophistication of their system of Agriculture for better results. A well-developed religion and highly developed social and artistically form of state lead to civilization such that the Aztecs were able to use their intellectual skills to expand their empire and protect it too. 

As Cordobas visited the Mexican territory, the reports were fantastic such that the Spanish governor Diego Velasquez had to send a larger army under the command of Hernan Cortes to invade Aztec the fall of Tenochtitlan was as a result of division by the Spanish conquistador Cortes who carefully organized his soldiers and later subdivided the Aztecs further. The community of Spain goes the motivation of conquering Aztec because of the excellent resources they had at their disposal. Spain comes in to take control ( Hassig, 2006). 

As a colleague to Cortes, I recorded the first events that lead to the conquering of Aztec Empire in Mesoamerica. 

March 1519 

Under the command of Cortes who was also an explorer, we slowly planned to invade the city slowly with the help of the intelligence we received from the natives in Tabasco. The exercise was more than we thought so Cortes founded a small town to the southeastern Mexican coast whose name was Veracruz. We were strategically placed in the coastal region so that we could see any approaching ship because many invaders came into Mexico through the sea. Our primary source of information was the natives from the Aztecs civilization group that was then ruled by Moctezuma (Asselbergs, 2008). At the Southeastern coast, we were to form an army specially trained for the attack ahead, and that Cortes wanted to defy the authority of Velasquez completely. Proper training of the military led to a selection of 400 soldiers of which I was I to face Aztec tribe. Proper planning for the attack did not allow us to leave any detail, for example, a translator Malinche. By the time we were planning the attack, Aztec experienced a lot of instability, so we were able to collaborate with other natives to bring down the Aztec. 

November 1519 

A lot of information was at our disposal such that we were able to teach the specific groups that were at war with each other so that we could form alliances to bring the Aztec empire down. We learned that the Tlascalans and Montezuma were at war so, in November 1519, we set our journey to the Tenochtitlan city which was central to all the activities that the Aztecs did. Cortes's physical appearance was deceiving, and so we were received according to the Aztecs custom with a lot of Honor by Montezuma and his people. The Aztecs were so religious, and so they believed that the prophesied legend had arrived in the form of Cortes. From my observation, the Aztecs army was large, but our weapons were more powerful that theirs's. Cortes hired more soldiers and horses to help in the fight (Hassig, 2006). Therefore with hasty, we took hostage the Montezuma, therefore, gaining control by having a slightly lower number of troops which was to our advantage. Montezuma's prisoner prompted a war, and because we had an advantage of weapons and figures, we murdered thousands of the members who belonged to the noble families during a ritual, and finally Montezuma died while in still in custody. 

In Aztecs, leadership was to fall under kinship ties therefore as the Montezuma died; an immediate young nephew of Montezuma took over. When the Aztecs got a new emperor, they began to chase us away from the city but with the help of the Aztec's natural rivals with whom we had met at Veracruz. Due to instability, residents collaborated with and were able to help us defeat Cuauhtemoc. The city was being fought for because it had the best facilities in the whole world such as the well-developed farming programs, well-developed forms of trade among others such as religion. 

The city had well-designed houses well-groomed in culture, religion, art and music played a key role during worship (Restall, 2004) . The Aztecs also showed a high level of intelligence and success in art and craft. The key driver of the Aztec economy was the busy markets in Tenochtitlan where trade was made to give the government revenue. Well, built temples included Aztec gods for sacrifice and a lot of devotion and belief in the gods. You could admire the delicate structures and real designs of the buildings, but within no time, the whole city was in ruins. The Aztecs were well 

July 1519 

Under the leadership of Cortes, we officially took Veracruz in the year 1519 July and with authority, we were able to massacre more people, and we set everything we came about on fire. Opposing from other bodies made our group stronger and stronger because we were had the authority and had won the battle in Aztec. That became the end of Aztecs civilization because more and more people died. Aztecs showed a prosperous civilization by their beautiful and sophisticated buildings in their cities but again due to instability we were able to get to the head o the state and start war. Aztecs had the correct form of government but when there was instability, we the enemies were able to invade the Aztecs and overthrow them out of power. Cortes was named a captain and served as a conquistador for Spain. 

Hernan Cortes was a hero to all of us, and one of the objects I would carry along to Spain is an image of the hero nicely made with the expertise of the Aztecs. I would choose other objects such as jewelry but for having won then a picture of the hero with a sword is all I would carry home. Hernan Cortes defeated the Aztecs by keenly exploring options and laying down plans to conquer the empire. 

Reference 

Asselbergs, F. (2008).    Conquered Conquistadors . University Press of Colorado. 

Carrasco, D. (2000).    City of sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the role of violence in civilization . Beacon Press. 

Hassig, R. (2006).    Mexico and the Spanish conquest . University of Oklahoma Press. 

Restall, M. (2004).    Seven myths of the Spanish conquest . Oxford University Press. 

Thomas, H. (2013).    Conquest: Cortes, Montezuma, and the fall of Old Mexico . Simon and Schuster. 

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