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Insights such as this one are making present-day politicians and the public at large cast about for new ways to understand and refer to what happened that summer of 1521. Cortés and his conquistadors may have represented at the most one or two percent of the total forces on the field. Instead, the war that unfolded in 1519-1521 involved multiple and fiercely independent Mesoamerican city-states such as Cempoala, Tlaxcala, and Texcoco, organized in ever-shifting coalitions, one of which included a handful of Spaniards.
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Scholars very seldom speak with one voice, but there is broad consensus that understanding the events of 500 years ago as a binary clash between “Spaniards” and “Natives” is simply wrong.ĭiscover how artificial intelligence is helping to preserve Aztec culture.
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The usual textbook portrayal of a band of brave Europeans toppling the most powerful Indigenous empire in the Americas may have some cinematic qualities but has always been suspect, particularly to professional historians like myself. At the plaza, I ran into a working crew anchoring a gleaming new sign that identified the famous tree as the Árbol de la Noche Victoriosa or “Tree of the Victorious Night.” It was a stark change in point of view.īelow this novel Spanish designation, the sign offered an even more contrasting rendition in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs that is still spoken by more than a million Indigenous people in central and southern Mexico: “ Quautli in Yohualli Paquiliztli, nican ochoca” or “Tree of the Happy Night, here he cried.” Finding the right words This summer, I visited the Tree of the Sad Night and found city workers preparing for the fateful anniversary. Created 150 years later, they also reveal late 16th-century attitudes on the Spanish colonization of Mexico. Right: "The Capture of Tenochtitlan", by an unknown painter, is one of eight panels in the Library of Congress that depict the events of 1521. After a long siege that cut the fresh water supply to the island, and following a multi-pronged attack that included ships assembled on the lakeshores and equipped with artillery pieces, Tenochtitlan finally surrendered to the Spanish and their allies on August 13, 1521, exactly 500 years ago today. The following year, Cortés returned with an army of Spanish soldiers and tens of thousands of Indigenous allies. This Aztec victory proved temporary, however. At some distance from Tenochtitlan, Cortés and his followers finally paused in a cypress grove to catch their breath, where the defeated Spanish leader sat at the base of a tree-perhaps the famous Árbol-and wept, as our textbooks and history classes would have it. More than half of the Spanish contingent may have perished during the chaotic retreat. The formidable Aztec warriors fought back, driving the intruders from their island city and inflicting heavy casualties along the way. Prompted by mistrust and lack of understanding, on the Spanish launched an unprovoked attack on a group of unarmed Aztecs during a ceremony at the Templo Mayor.
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Yet the newcomers outlasted their welcome. Read more about the complex Aztec alliance. Some of these city-states had once been rivals of the Aztecs, but Tenochtitlan had become the dominant power by the 1500s. From the top of Tenochtitlan’s grandest temple, the Templo Mayor, the visitors gazed out at dozens of city-states spreading all around the surrounding lakeshores. The Europeans were thus able to wander freely, according to our textbooks, marveling at the lavish buildings and floating gardens of a city built on top of an island in the middle of five interconnected lakes.
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Remarkably, the Aztec tlatoani (emperor) Moctezuma initially welcomed the strangers.
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