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The fall of the Aztec Empire was not a struggle between an aggressive and arrogant culture against a mild and pacifistic one; instead it was a struggle between two powerful and warlike peoples. Both cultures in the coming conflict were used to victory on the field of battle. The difference between these two peoples was that the Aztecs were mighty warriors and the Spaniards were mighty soldiers. [White 83] In order for this statement to make any sense, one must realize the differences between the Aztec and Spanish culture that allowed for the military victory that the Spanish had over the Aztecs. Many features combined to create the overall loss, included in these causes are the Aztec religion, the weapons and armor used by each culture, and the tactics employed on the battlefields.
Aztec religion was one of the main reasons for the downfall of the Aztec Empire. It was the Aztecs strong belief in omens and their belief in the cyclical nature of time that allowed the Spaniards to gain much ground in the early part of the invasion. Later it would become their cultures reliance on its religion for stability that became the death knell for the huge and mighty culture. When the Spanish initially arrived in Mexico there were many coincidences in Aztec mythology that fueled fears about the true nature of these visitors. According to Aztec historians, signs foretelling the Spanish arrival began two years before Cortess arrival in Mexico, in the Aztec year 12 House or 1517. Priests had visions with conquerors in full war array riding great deer to attack Tenochtitlan. A bird was supposedly caught that had a mirror that reflected the stars. Pillars of fire and comets appeared. These omens were followed by two major fires, in the temples of Uitzilopochtil and Tzonmulco, and, combined, gave the Aztecs a great fear of what to come. [Bernardino 8] Historians today tend to believe that these omens were added later to Aztec history to try to explain why Tenochtitlan fell. [Townsend 18-9] However, we still see a strong religious tint to the response of the Aztec people to things that they could not understand.
When the Cortes and his men finally did arrive, we find the Aztecs reacting as though they believed the gods themselves had come to Mexico. This idea is hardly incorrect. The coincidences surrounding the Spaniards arrival were too many for the Aztecs to simply ignore. The Aztec belief in the cyclical nature of the world led them to recognize many similarities between themselves and the Spanish. For one, both cultures had entered the land as invading foreigners with warlike designs on the standing center of power. The Spanish arrived from the primordial mother of waters, the ocean. They arrived from the east, which was traditionally held as the direction of the gods. The date of their arrival, 1 Reed, or 1519, was the date associated with Quetzalcoatls departure and threatened return. [Townsend 20] The Aztec religion paid significant emphasis on the coincidence of events in time, and would try to tie mythical events to current events in attempt to explain them. [Townsend 21] Thus the arrival of the Spanish made a very ominous pattern that the Mexicans simply could not ignore.
These patterns led the Aztecs to truly believe that Quetzacoatl had indeed returned to claim his lost throne. Therefore, the Aztecs revered the Spanish as gods. Aztec emissaries brought gifts of ceremonial costumes for the Spanish. In addition they brought two disks one of gold, representing the sun, the other silver, representing the moon. [Bernardino 13] These gifts verify the deified manner which with the Spaniards were being treated. The ceremonial costumes, representing gods, were seen as holy items by the Aztec people. They would have never been presented to anyone less than an Aztec priest. In fact, in the Aztecs search to prove the godly nature of the Spanish we find Bernal Diaz reporting that one of the Aztec emissaries had pointed out that a Spanish helmet looked very similar to the helm worn by their god Uitzilopochtil. [Diaz 56] When the Aztecs presented the Spanish with food, they also performed human sacrifice and sprinkled the blood on the food that they were presenting to the Spanish. The Aztecs believed that the gods ate human flesh and drank their blood, and it was when the Spanish became revolted and refused the food that the Aztecs finally began to realize that the Spaniards were not gods after all. [Bernardino 16] With their initial suspicions proven wrong the Aztecs finally began to realize that the Spanish, with their alarming arms and armor, bizarre appearances, and open disregard for the norms of social behavior, were going to mean trouble.
Problems between the Spanish and Aztecs began suddenly and strongly. When visiting Cempoala, Cortes ordered Montezumas tax collectors arrested. This total disregard for Montezuma quickly earned the Spaniards the title of, Tueles, or gods or demons. This title for the Spanish stuck throughout and following the conquest of Mexico. [Diaz 98] This title would also serve to help the Spanish, after some fighting to gain allies among the Tlaxcalans. Around the Spanish also grew a lot of myths and rumors. The Spanish learned to hide their dead so they would not break the belief among the natives that they were tueles. Further myths and rumors arose around the Spanish. Some Indians believed that the Spanish ate the hearts and flesh of the Indians. Others believed their cannons shot lightning. Their greyhounds were associated with tigers and lions. Their horses could supposedly catch any Indian the Spanish wanted to kill. Yet another belief, that the Spanish gained their powers from the sun, and therefore could only be conquered at night, was laid to rest when the Tlaxcalans attacked at night and were soundly beaten.[Diaz 104] All these rumors and suspicions around the Spanish led to one thing, the spread of the belief that the Spanish were either gods or somehow related to them. Overall, these religious overtones associated with the Spanish gave them a great power over the native Mexicans. While it did not last for the entire conquest, it certainly did give them advantages, which the Spanish exploited.
The weapons and armor used by the Spanish and the Indians also played no small part in the military conquest of the Aztec Empire. In fact, the arms and equipment help to explain why around 500 Spanish soldiers were able to defeat a nation of millions of Indians. [White 57] The standard weapons carried by Cortess men included: long, heavy ash wood lances tipped with steel thrusting points, short light javelins, also fitted with steel tips, and swords made of excellent Toledo Spanish steel. Spanish armor included: helmets, or morions, steel breastplates, chainmail shirts, arm pieces and greaves. While the Spanish soldiers were issued these types of armor, many would trade this armor in for double layered leather or the padded cotton armor that the Aztecs used. The reason for the change was largely because these types of armor were equally effective against Aztec weaponry, and were lighter and cooler than their steel armor. In addition to these standard weapons and armor Cortes was able to procure 32 crossbows, 13 muskets, 10 brass guns, 4 falconets, and the powder and ammunition needed to use these weapons. Cortes was also able to procure 16 strong Spanish horses. These horses were extremely rare and expensive to acquire in the New World. As such, they were also previously unseen by the Aztecs, who could only relate to them as deer. [White 58]
The Aztec weapons, while not as sophisticated as those being carried by the Spaniards, were still deadly and of good design. The Aztec armory, as described by Diaz, had some of the following weapons in it: broadswords with obsidian blades, two-handed swords set with obsidian blades, lances longer than those the Spanish carried also fitted with the obsidian blades, excellent bows, double barbed and fire hardened to be armor piercing arrows, double and single bladed lances, throwing sticks, slings, and round handmade sling stones. [Diaz 151] Indian armor included large and small shields, and quilted cotton armor that extended to the wearers knees and was hardened in brine or vinegar. [White 115] The Aztec warriors equipment was designed to he would be fast and agile in combat, without sacrificing much in the way of armor protection.
The Spaniards superior weapons are one of the favorite explanations as to why the Spanish could defeat the Aztecs so easily. However the Spanish artillery, muskets, and crossbows tended to break down at the least opportune moments. Additionally, the Aztec warriors would charge through the hail of musket balls, cannon shot, and crossbow bolts, and run right past the cavalry. Therefore, most of the fighting was hand-to-hand. While the steel sword was technically superior to the Aztecs wood and obsidian swords, the fighting usually came down to skill. Both Aztec and Spanish children were trained from their childhood in the use of the sword and how to fight. The simple truth to why the Spanish won more often in the hand-to-hand fighting came down to the fact that the Spanish swordsmen were more skilled in swordplay. [White 171]
It was not the Spanish weapons and armor that won the battles with the Aztecs. Rather, it was the Spanish tactics and strategy that simply outclassed their Indian enemies. The Indians had no overall strategy and while they did use surprise tactics, such as ambushes, they had no overall battle plan and did not know how to attack weak flanks or divert troops to good ground. [White 171-2] The Spanish on the other hand knew how to exploit a battlefield. Furthermore, Spanish fighting focused on teamwork. The individual soldiers goals were to defend his neighbor, and kill the enemy. While the Aztecs, sought to capture the Spanish alive for sacrifice. Also Aztecs focused on personal bravery and preferred private duels between individual warriors on the field. The Spanish tactics did not allow for this occurrence. [Townsend 24] The Spanish could fight well and keep their ranks. When they were surrounded they would form a box pattern and fight back to back in an unbreakable formation. The Indians attacked as disorganized mobs that could be driven from the field with the death of their individual commanders. [White 171] Cortes ordered his crossbowmen and musketeers to work as a team, one set would load the weapons while the others fired and so on, swordsmen were ordered to slash at the enemys guts, while the cavalry and lancers were ordered to aim for Aztec faces. [Diaz 102] Clearly, the Spanish did not have the compunctions about taking their enemies live, like the Aztecs did. The Spanish would also effectively use their resources to stop Indian attacks. They would use their muskets and cannon to break up the Aztec charges, and as the Aztecs charged in large numbers these weapons would have great effect against the charging mass. [Diaz 103] Before the Aztecs could begin using their slings and bows, Spanish cavalry would charge the disorganized group forcing them to fight hand-to-hand, and holding them at bay long enough for the infantry to come into range and effectively end the fight. [Townsend 24] The Spanish footmen would also form up in long lines all holding their pikes, which they would use to create an almost impenetrable wall of blades. [Townsend 24]
While the Spanish were tactically superior to the Aztecs, all Spanish accounts certainly labeled the Aztecs as valiant warriors. The Aztec warriors always conquered their fear of the fearsome Spanish weapons and horses, and would charge through their fallen comrades, through the walls of pikes and would end in close hand to hand fighting. [White 169] Indeed, the few advantages the Spanish had in this close in fighting was their skill with their swords which required less room in which to fight than the Aztec clubs and swords.
The Aztecs were simply not accustomed to war as the Spanish were used to. The Aztecs fought to capture not to kill. The reason for this was the Aztec Flower Wars. In these wars, opposing Indian cities would pick their best warriors to face off against the Aztecs. They opposing sides would then battle, in the fashion of a tournament with the victors taking their enemies prisoner, to be used for sacrifice. The name flower war came from the way in which the contestants would dress, when they fell it was said to have looked like a rain of blossoms. [White 200]
Through the flower wars, the Aztecs came to see war as a sort of sport, to be held in the summer time only in good weather. When the Spaniards arrived, it was fall, thus many Aztec warriors were home harvesting crops and unable to fight. [White 117] Furthermore, the Aztecs saw the outright killing of an enemy to be stupid, clumsy, and reprehensible. [White 116] When the Montezuma allowed the Spaniards to enter Tenochtitlan, he hoped to use the far superior numbers of people living there to intimidate and keep the Spanish in line. Additionally, the Aztecs knew that if they could get the Spanish to fight in city streets their numbers and personal form of fighting would allow them to win over the Spanish, whose tactics were fit for open fields, not city streets. However, the Aztecs, not knowing of the kind of deception that the Spaniards could and would use, allowed Cortes and a number of armed Spaniards into Montezumas temple where Montezuma was taken prisoner. So was the Indians belief in the sacred nature of their temples. The possibility of such a thing never occurred to them.
In the end it was a combination of many things that lead to the military defeat of the Aztec empire, but none did more damage than the end of the Spanish stay in Tenochtitlan. As the Spaniards left they fought their way to the Aztecs great temple, then destroyed it and set it on fire. This act irrevocably ended their Empire. When the Aztecs crushed an enemy their ultimate sign of victory was to burn the enemys temple, as it represented to destruction of the peoples souls. When the temple fell, so did the Aztec religion, and through this so did the Aztec Empire that depended on the religion for its power. [White 123]
In the end it was the combination of many things that led to the fall of the Aztec Empire. Their religion, which gave the empire its strength, was also its achilles heel. When the Aztecs first met the Spanish, they thought them to be gods, and thereby aided and abetted their own destroyers. When the Spanish destroyed the temple in Tenochtitlan they destroyed the religion and the glue that held the Aztecs together fell apart. The Spanish weapons were better, but more important the Spaniards were better soldiers than the Aztecs. Lastly, the tactical advantage wielded by the Spanish never allowed the Aztecs to catch up militarily. The Aztecs did their best to assimilate Spanish tactics and build counters for them, but Cortes, being a good military leader, never gave them the chance to truly overcome their weaknesses in this area. In the end however, the reason the Spanish won was because the Spaniards were soldiers, part of a cohesive unit that fought together, used tactics, and planned their strategy out. The Aztecs were individuals seeking honor and glory on the field of battle and were therefore easily divided, and killed. The fall of the Aztec Empire, while a loss, was coming; the Spanish were only a catalyst to its eventual downfall. This fact, therefore, has given the Spaniards the unfortunate, and incorrect, impression that they were an aggressive and arrogant people walking on a peaceful and mild Aztec people.
Works Cited:
Bernardino, Fray. The War of Conquest: How It Was Waged Here in Mexico. Trans. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Charles E. Dibble. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 1978.
Diaz, Bernal. The Conquest of New Spain. Trans. J.M. Cohen. London: The Folio Society, 1963.
Diaz, Bernal. The True History of the Conquest of Mexico. Trans. Maurice Keatinge Esq. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, Inc., 1966.
Diaz, Bernal. The True Story of the Conquest of Mexico. Ed. Albert Idell. Trans. Albert Idell. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1956.
Townsend, Richard F. The Aztecs. New York: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1993.
White, Jon Manchip. Cortes and the Downfall of the Aztec Empire: A Study in a Conflict of Cultures. New York: St. Martins Press, 1971.
Aztec religion was one of the main reasons for the downfall of the Aztec Empire. It was the Aztecs strong belief in omens and their belief in the cyclical nature of time that allowed the Spaniards to gain much ground in the early part of the invasion. Later it would become their cultures reliance on its religion for stability that became the death knell for the huge and mighty culture. When the Spanish initially arrived in Mexico there were many coincidences in Aztec mythology that fueled fears about the true nature of these visitors. According to Aztec historians, signs foretelling the Spanish arrival began two years before Cortess arrival in Mexico, in the Aztec year 12 House or 1517. Priests had visions with conquerors in full war array riding great deer to attack Tenochtitlan. A bird was supposedly caught that had a mirror that reflected the stars. Pillars of fire and comets appeared. These omens were followed by two major fires, in the temples of Uitzilopochtil and Tzonmulco, and, combined, gave the Aztecs a great fear of what to come. [Bernardino 8] Historians today tend to believe that these omens were added later to Aztec history to try to explain why Tenochtitlan fell. [Townsend 18-9] However, we still see a strong religious tint to the response of the Aztec people to things that they could not understand.
When the Cortes and his men finally did arrive, we find the Aztecs reacting as though they believed the gods themselves had come to Mexico. This idea is hardly incorrect. The coincidences surrounding the Spaniards arrival were too many for the Aztecs to simply ignore. The Aztec belief in the cyclical nature of the world led them to recognize many similarities between themselves and the Spanish. For one, both cultures had entered the land as invading foreigners with warlike designs on the standing center of power. The Spanish arrived from the primordial mother of waters, the ocean. They arrived from the east, which was traditionally held as the direction of the gods. The date of their arrival, 1 Reed, or 1519, was the date associated with Quetzalcoatls departure and threatened return. [Townsend 20] The Aztec religion paid significant emphasis on the coincidence of events in time, and would try to tie mythical events to current events in attempt to explain them. [Townsend 21] Thus the arrival of the Spanish made a very ominous pattern that the Mexicans simply could not ignore.
These patterns led the Aztecs to truly believe that Quetzacoatl had indeed returned to claim his lost throne. Therefore, the Aztecs revered the Spanish as gods. Aztec emissaries brought gifts of ceremonial costumes for the Spanish. In addition they brought two disks one of gold, representing the sun, the other silver, representing the moon. [Bernardino 13] These gifts verify the deified manner which with the Spaniards were being treated. The ceremonial costumes, representing gods, were seen as holy items by the Aztec people. They would have never been presented to anyone less than an Aztec priest. In fact, in the Aztecs search to prove the godly nature of the Spanish we find Bernal Diaz reporting that one of the Aztec emissaries had pointed out that a Spanish helmet looked very similar to the helm worn by their god Uitzilopochtil. [Diaz 56] When the Aztecs presented the Spanish with food, they also performed human sacrifice and sprinkled the blood on the food that they were presenting to the Spanish. The Aztecs believed that the gods ate human flesh and drank their blood, and it was when the Spanish became revolted and refused the food that the Aztecs finally began to realize that the Spaniards were not gods after all. [Bernardino 16] With their initial suspicions proven wrong the Aztecs finally began to realize that the Spanish, with their alarming arms and armor, bizarre appearances, and open disregard for the norms of social behavior, were going to mean trouble.
Problems between the Spanish and Aztecs began suddenly and strongly. When visiting Cempoala, Cortes ordered Montezumas tax collectors arrested. This total disregard for Montezuma quickly earned the Spaniards the title of, Tueles, or gods or demons. This title for the Spanish stuck throughout and following the conquest of Mexico. [Diaz 98] This title would also serve to help the Spanish, after some fighting to gain allies among the Tlaxcalans. Around the Spanish also grew a lot of myths and rumors. The Spanish learned to hide their dead so they would not break the belief among the natives that they were tueles. Further myths and rumors arose around the Spanish. Some Indians believed that the Spanish ate the hearts and flesh of the Indians. Others believed their cannons shot lightning. Their greyhounds were associated with tigers and lions. Their horses could supposedly catch any Indian the Spanish wanted to kill. Yet another belief, that the Spanish gained their powers from the sun, and therefore could only be conquered at night, was laid to rest when the Tlaxcalans attacked at night and were soundly beaten.[Diaz 104] All these rumors and suspicions around the Spanish led to one thing, the spread of the belief that the Spanish were either gods or somehow related to them. Overall, these religious overtones associated with the Spanish gave them a great power over the native Mexicans. While it did not last for the entire conquest, it certainly did give them advantages, which the Spanish exploited.
The weapons and armor used by the Spanish and the Indians also played no small part in the military conquest of the Aztec Empire. In fact, the arms and equipment help to explain why around 500 Spanish soldiers were able to defeat a nation of millions of Indians. [White 57] The standard weapons carried by Cortess men included: long, heavy ash wood lances tipped with steel thrusting points, short light javelins, also fitted with steel tips, and swords made of excellent Toledo Spanish steel. Spanish armor included: helmets, or morions, steel breastplates, chainmail shirts, arm pieces and greaves. While the Spanish soldiers were issued these types of armor, many would trade this armor in for double layered leather or the padded cotton armor that the Aztecs used. The reason for the change was largely because these types of armor were equally effective against Aztec weaponry, and were lighter and cooler than their steel armor. In addition to these standard weapons and armor Cortes was able to procure 32 crossbows, 13 muskets, 10 brass guns, 4 falconets, and the powder and ammunition needed to use these weapons. Cortes was also able to procure 16 strong Spanish horses. These horses were extremely rare and expensive to acquire in the New World. As such, they were also previously unseen by the Aztecs, who could only relate to them as deer. [White 58]
The Aztec weapons, while not as sophisticated as those being carried by the Spaniards, were still deadly and of good design. The Aztec armory, as described by Diaz, had some of the following weapons in it: broadswords with obsidian blades, two-handed swords set with obsidian blades, lances longer than those the Spanish carried also fitted with the obsidian blades, excellent bows, double barbed and fire hardened to be armor piercing arrows, double and single bladed lances, throwing sticks, slings, and round handmade sling stones. [Diaz 151] Indian armor included large and small shields, and quilted cotton armor that extended to the wearers knees and was hardened in brine or vinegar. [White 115] The Aztec warriors equipment was designed to he would be fast and agile in combat, without sacrificing much in the way of armor protection.
The Spaniards superior weapons are one of the favorite explanations as to why the Spanish could defeat the Aztecs so easily. However the Spanish artillery, muskets, and crossbows tended to break down at the least opportune moments. Additionally, the Aztec warriors would charge through the hail of musket balls, cannon shot, and crossbow bolts, and run right past the cavalry. Therefore, most of the fighting was hand-to-hand. While the steel sword was technically superior to the Aztecs wood and obsidian swords, the fighting usually came down to skill. Both Aztec and Spanish children were trained from their childhood in the use of the sword and how to fight. The simple truth to why the Spanish won more often in the hand-to-hand fighting came down to the fact that the Spanish swordsmen were more skilled in swordplay. [White 171]
It was not the Spanish weapons and armor that won the battles with the Aztecs. Rather, it was the Spanish tactics and strategy that simply outclassed their Indian enemies. The Indians had no overall strategy and while they did use surprise tactics, such as ambushes, they had no overall battle plan and did not know how to attack weak flanks or divert troops to good ground. [White 171-2] The Spanish on the other hand knew how to exploit a battlefield. Furthermore, Spanish fighting focused on teamwork. The individual soldiers goals were to defend his neighbor, and kill the enemy. While the Aztecs, sought to capture the Spanish alive for sacrifice. Also Aztecs focused on personal bravery and preferred private duels between individual warriors on the field. The Spanish tactics did not allow for this occurrence. [Townsend 24] The Spanish could fight well and keep their ranks. When they were surrounded they would form a box pattern and fight back to back in an unbreakable formation. The Indians attacked as disorganized mobs that could be driven from the field with the death of their individual commanders. [White 171] Cortes ordered his crossbowmen and musketeers to work as a team, one set would load the weapons while the others fired and so on, swordsmen were ordered to slash at the enemys guts, while the cavalry and lancers were ordered to aim for Aztec faces. [Diaz 102] Clearly, the Spanish did not have the compunctions about taking their enemies live, like the Aztecs did. The Spanish would also effectively use their resources to stop Indian attacks. They would use their muskets and cannon to break up the Aztec charges, and as the Aztecs charged in large numbers these weapons would have great effect against the charging mass. [Diaz 103] Before the Aztecs could begin using their slings and bows, Spanish cavalry would charge the disorganized group forcing them to fight hand-to-hand, and holding them at bay long enough for the infantry to come into range and effectively end the fight. [Townsend 24] The Spanish footmen would also form up in long lines all holding their pikes, which they would use to create an almost impenetrable wall of blades. [Townsend 24]
While the Spanish were tactically superior to the Aztecs, all Spanish accounts certainly labeled the Aztecs as valiant warriors. The Aztec warriors always conquered their fear of the fearsome Spanish weapons and horses, and would charge through their fallen comrades, through the walls of pikes and would end in close hand to hand fighting. [White 169] Indeed, the few advantages the Spanish had in this close in fighting was their skill with their swords which required less room in which to fight than the Aztec clubs and swords.
The Aztecs were simply not accustomed to war as the Spanish were used to. The Aztecs fought to capture not to kill. The reason for this was the Aztec Flower Wars. In these wars, opposing Indian cities would pick their best warriors to face off against the Aztecs. They opposing sides would then battle, in the fashion of a tournament with the victors taking their enemies prisoner, to be used for sacrifice. The name flower war came from the way in which the contestants would dress, when they fell it was said to have looked like a rain of blossoms. [White 200]
Through the flower wars, the Aztecs came to see war as a sort of sport, to be held in the summer time only in good weather. When the Spaniards arrived, it was fall, thus many Aztec warriors were home harvesting crops and unable to fight. [White 117] Furthermore, the Aztecs saw the outright killing of an enemy to be stupid, clumsy, and reprehensible. [White 116] When the Montezuma allowed the Spaniards to enter Tenochtitlan, he hoped to use the far superior numbers of people living there to intimidate and keep the Spanish in line. Additionally, the Aztecs knew that if they could get the Spanish to fight in city streets their numbers and personal form of fighting would allow them to win over the Spanish, whose tactics were fit for open fields, not city streets. However, the Aztecs, not knowing of the kind of deception that the Spaniards could and would use, allowed Cortes and a number of armed Spaniards into Montezumas temple where Montezuma was taken prisoner. So was the Indians belief in the sacred nature of their temples. The possibility of such a thing never occurred to them.
In the end it was a combination of many things that lead to the military defeat of the Aztec empire, but none did more damage than the end of the Spanish stay in Tenochtitlan. As the Spaniards left they fought their way to the Aztecs great temple, then destroyed it and set it on fire. This act irrevocably ended their Empire. When the Aztecs crushed an enemy their ultimate sign of victory was to burn the enemys temple, as it represented to destruction of the peoples souls. When the temple fell, so did the Aztec religion, and through this so did the Aztec Empire that depended on the religion for its power. [White 123]
In the end it was the combination of many things that led to the fall of the Aztec Empire. Their religion, which gave the empire its strength, was also its achilles heel. When the Aztecs first met the Spanish, they thought them to be gods, and thereby aided and abetted their own destroyers. When the Spanish destroyed the temple in Tenochtitlan they destroyed the religion and the glue that held the Aztecs together fell apart. The Spanish weapons were better, but more important the Spaniards were better soldiers than the Aztecs. Lastly, the tactical advantage wielded by the Spanish never allowed the Aztecs to catch up militarily. The Aztecs did their best to assimilate Spanish tactics and build counters for them, but Cortes, being a good military leader, never gave them the chance to truly overcome their weaknesses in this area. In the end however, the reason the Spanish won was because the Spaniards were soldiers, part of a cohesive unit that fought together, used tactics, and planned their strategy out. The Aztecs were individuals seeking honor and glory on the field of battle and were therefore easily divided, and killed. The fall of the Aztec Empire, while a loss, was coming; the Spanish were only a catalyst to its eventual downfall. This fact, therefore, has given the Spaniards the unfortunate, and incorrect, impression that they were an aggressive and arrogant people walking on a peaceful and mild Aztec people.
Works Cited:
Bernardino, Fray. The War of Conquest: How It Was Waged Here in Mexico. Trans. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Charles E. Dibble. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 1978.
Diaz, Bernal. The Conquest of New Spain. Trans. J.M. Cohen. London: The Folio Society, 1963.
Diaz, Bernal. The True History of the Conquest of Mexico. Trans. Maurice Keatinge Esq. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, Inc., 1966.
Diaz, Bernal. The True Story of the Conquest of Mexico. Ed. Albert Idell. Trans. Albert Idell. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1956.
Townsend, Richard F. The Aztecs. New York: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1993.
White, Jon Manchip. Cortes and the Downfall of the Aztec Empire: A Study in a Conflict of Cultures. New York: St. Martins Press, 1971.
zmetallica
Member
no clue what you are talking about skeksis. i frequent hubs with over 7k users and over 1PB of data.
also if you didn't see the news, IFPI went after some DC++ people. so maybe hubs got shut down or got scared. none the less i got some big hubs. i prefer private hubs though. that way i can get to actually know who i'm getting stuff from and its more community oriented.
also if you didn't see the news, IFPI went after some DC++ people. so maybe hubs got shut down or got scared. none the less i got some big hubs. i prefer private hubs though. that way i can get to actually know who i'm getting stuff from and its more community oriented.
Liverslapper
w00t
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Enemy242
Member
i haven't used dc++ in about 4 days or so but the last time i used it it seemed fine but then there was no public hub list and a lot of hubs were dead so i thought i was just having a problem but if more people are having that kind of stuff thats kinda weird.
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