The Defeat of the Aztecs

The Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire was lead by Hernan Cortes. He led this expedition into the city of Tenochtitlan with a small group of soldiers. As he passed by, he made alliances with many of the city-states nearby since the city-states are angered by how cruel the Aztecs are. The one state that the Aztecs cannot defeat was the Tlaxcala. When he arrived, he received a friendly welcome from the Aztec king, Moctezuma, Moctezuma believed that Cortes was a representative of Quetzalcoatl, the god who had departed from his homeland centuries before and was promised that he would return. When Cortes was there, Moctezuma offered gifts of gold to Cortes and his crew, also Moctezuma gave the “foreigners” a palace to use while they were there. But after awhile, Cortes became harsh and cruel. He took Moctezuma hostage and went to destroy the city. The natives or the population of the Aztecs revolted and wanted to drive the intruders-Cortes and his army- out of Tenochtitlan. Even though many of Cortes’s army was killed, but the Aztecs encountered more problems than the Spaniards. The fact was that when the Spaniards arrived here in Tenochtitlan, they already have a deadly inside of them, which was the smallpox. Since the Aztecs have never encountered this problem and yet they are not immune to this disease, it was a great disaster. Many of the Aztecs fell sick and died. Because of smallpox, Cortes was supplied with more troops from the nearby city-states. Also, due to the conditions of smallpox, Cortes won Tenochtitlan as a claimed land for Spain.