The Last Aztec
Tenochtitlan
We came to a broad causeway … and when we saw these great buildings rising from the water, all made of stone, it seemed like an enchanted vision from the tales of Amadis. Indeed some of our soldiers asked if it was not all a dream …
Father Bernal Diaz del Castillo
The Spaniards marched into the Aztecs’ capital city of Tenochtitlan on 8 November 1519 and were given a state welcome by Moctezuma. For two weeks, they played at being guests, marvelling at the huge market places, the aqueduct that carried fresh water to a population that numbered more than 100,000, and the towering pyramid that was the Aztecs’ Great Temple.
The Spanish, fearing an uprising, killed hundreds of unarmed Aztec nobles at a ritual dance
A vassal of the Spanish king
By then Cortés had worked out the best way to take control of the huge city: he tricked his way into Moctezuma’s palace and took him prisoner. Stunned, Moctezuma pretended to his people that he had been placed under guard willingly.
Over the winter, Cortés’s men investigated the gold mines and vassal cities of the region. Then, in early 1520, Moctezuma declared that he was the vassal of the Spanish king Charles I.
The sad night
Tension in the city worsened when Cortés installed a crucifix on the Great Temple, and the Spanish, fearing an uprising, killed hundreds of unarmed Aztec nobles at a ritual dance.
At Cortés’s command, Moctezuma pleaded with his people for calm, but they turned on him and stoned him. In the mayhem, he died (some Aztecs suspected by Spanish hands), and the city finally rose against the invaders. In one night of fierce fighting – the Noche Triste (the sad night) – two thirds of the Spanish and many hundreds of Aztecs died. The surviving Europeans and their allies fled across the lake’s three causeways, which were piled high with dead bodies.
