1704 Spanish CORTEZ Conquistador New Spain AZTEC Mexico MAPS 2v de Solis
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The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events not only in the Spanish colonization of the Americas, but also in world history. The Spanish authorized expeditions or entradas for the discovery, conquest, and colonization of new territory, using existing Spanish settlements as a base. Many of those on the Cortés expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before. In fact, Cortés had never commanded men in battle before. However, there was a whole generation of Spaniards who participated in expeditions in the Caribbean, learning strategy and tactics of successful enterprises. The Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents.
Main author: Antonio de Solís
Title: Histoire de la conqûete du Mexique, ou de la Nouvelle Espagne, par Fernand Cortez
Published: Paris : par la Compagnie des Libraires, 1704.
Language: French
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Binding: tight and secure leather binding
Illustrations: 13 exquisite copper engraved plates & maps
Pages: complete with all 412 + 380 pages; plus indexes, prefaces, and such
Publisher: Paris : par la Compagnie des Libraires, 1704.
Size: ~6.75in X 4in (17cm x 10cm)
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The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events not only in the Spanish colonization of the Americas, but also in world history. The conquest must be understood within the context of Spanish patterns on the Iberian Peninsula during the Reconquista by Christians, defeating the Muslims, and also patterns extended in the Caribbean following Christopher Columbus establishment of permanent European settlement in the Caribbean. The Spanish authorized expeditions or entradas for the discovery, conquest, and colonization of new territory, using existing Spanish settlements as a base. Many of those on the Cortés expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before. In fact, Cortés had never commanded men in battle before. However, there was a whole generation of Spaniards who participated in expeditions in the Caribbean, learning strategy and tactics of successful enterprises. The Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents.[1]
The campaign began in February 1519, and was declared victorious on August 13, 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor Cuauhtemoc and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire.
During the campaign, Cortés was offered support from a number of tributaries and rivals of the Aztecs, including the Totonacs, and the Tlaxcaltecas, Texcocans, and other city-states particularly bordering Lake Texcoco. In their advance, the allies were tricked and ambushed several times by the peoples they encountered. After eight months of battles and negotiations, which overcame the diplomatic resistance of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II to his visit, Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519, where he took up residence welcomed by Moctezuma. When news reached Cortés of the death of several of his men during the Aztec attack on the Totonacs in Veracruz, he took the opportunity to take Moctezuma captive in his own palace and ruled through him for months. Capturing the cacique or indigenous ruler was standard operating procedure for Spaniards in their expansion in the Caribbean, so capturing Moctezuma had considerable precedent, which might well have included those in Spain during the Christian reconquest of territory held by Muslims.[2]
When Cortés left Tenochtitlan to return to the coast and deal with the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez, Pedro de Alvarado was left in charge. Alvarado allowed a significant Aztec feast to be celebrated in Tenochtitlan and on the pattern of the earlier massacre in Cholula, closed off the square and massacred the celebrating Aztec noblemen. The biography of Cortés by Francisco López de Gómara contains a description of the massacre.[3] The Alvarado massacre at the Main Temple of Tenochtitlan precipitated rebellion by the population of the city. When the captured emperor Moctezuma II, now seen as a mere puppet of the invading Spaniards, attempted to calm outraged Aztecs, he was killed by a projectile.[4] Cortés, who by then had returned to Tenochtitlan, and his men had to fight their way out of the capital city during the Noche Triste in June, 1520. However, the Spanish and Tlaxcalans would return with reinforcements and a siege that led to the fall of Tenochtitlan a year later on August 13, 1521.
The fall of the Aztec Empire was the key event in the formation of New Spain, which would later be known as Mexico.
Contents [hide]
1 Sources for the history of the conquest of Central Mexico
2 Aztec omens for the conquest
3 Spanish arrival in Yucatán
4 Spanish conquest of Yucatán
5 Cortés' expedition
5.1 Commissioning the expedition
5.2 Revoking the commission
5.3 Cortés lands at Cozumel
5.4 Cortés lands on the Yucatán peninsula
5.5 Cortés founds Veracruz
5.6 Scuttling the fleet & Aftermath
5.7 Alliance with Tlaxcala
5.8 Cortés marches to Cholula
5.9 Massacre of Cholula
5.10 Tenochtitlan
5.10.1 Cortés welcomed by Moctezuma
5.10.2 Defeat of de Narváez
5.10.3 The Aztec response
5.10.4 Spaniards find refuge in Tlaxcala
5.10.5 Siege of Tenochtitlan
6 Integration into the Spanish Empire
7 Chichimeca Wars
8 Yucatán peninsula
9 The Aztecs under Spanish rule
10 Cultural depictions
11 See also
12 Notes
13 References
13.1 Primary sources
13.2 Secondary sources
13.3 Additional Bibliography
14 External links
Sources for the history of the conquest of Central Mexico[edit]
The conquest of Mexico is not only a significant event in world history, but is also particularly important because there are multiple accounts of the conquest from different points of view, both Spanish and indigenous. The Spanish conquerors could and did write accounts that narrated the conquest from the first landfalls in Mexico to the final victory over the Mexica in Tenochtitlan on August 13, 1521. Indigenous accounts are from particular indigenous viewpoints (either allies or opponents) and as the events had a direct impact on their polity. All accounts of the conquest, Spanish and indigenous alike, have biases and exaggerations. In general, Spanish accounts do not credit their indigenous allies' support. Individual conquerors' accounts exaggerate that individual's contribution to the conquest, downplaying other conquerors'. Indigenous allies' accounts stress their loyalty to the Spaniards and their particular aid as being key to the Spanish victory. Two lengthy accounts from the defeated indigenous viewpoint were created under the direction of Spanish friars, Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún and Dominican Diego Durán, using indigenous informants.[5]
The first Spanish account of the conquest was by lead conqueror Hernán Cortés, who wrote a series of letters to the Spanish monarch Charles V, giving a contemporary account of the conquest from his point of view, but also justifying his actions. These were almost immediately published in Spain and later in Europe. Much later, Spanish conqueror Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a participant in the conquest, wrote what he called The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, countering the account by Cortés's official biographer, Francisco López de Gómara. A number of lesser Spanish conquerors wrote petitions to the Spanish crown, requesting rewards for their services in the conquest, including Juan Díaz, Andrés de Tapia, García del Pilar, and Fray Francisco de Aguilar.[6] Interestingly, Cortés's right hand man, Pedro de Alvarado did not write at any length about his actions in the New World, and died as a man of action in the Mixtón War in 1542. Two letters to Cortés about Alvarado's campaigns in Guatemala a published in The Conquistadors.[7] The chronicle of the so-called "Anonymous Conqueror" was written sometime in the sixteenth century, entitled in an early twentieth-century translation to English as Narrative of Some Things of New Spain and of the Great City of Temestitan (i.e.,Tenochtitlan). Rather than its being a petition for rewards for services, as many Spanish accounts were situation, the Anonymous Conqueror made observations about the indigenous at the time of the conquest. The account was used by eigthteenth-century Jesuit Francisco Javier Clavijero in his history of Mexico.[8]
On the indigenous side, the allies of Cortés, particularly the Tlaxcalans, wrote extensively about their services to the crown in the conquest, arguing for special privileges for themselves. The most important of these are the pictorial Lienzo de Tlaxcala and the Historia de Tlaxcala by Diego Muñoz Camargo. Less successfully the Nahua allies from Huexotzinco (or Huejotzinco) near Tlaxcala argued that their contributions had been overlooked by the Spanish. In a letter in Nahuatl to the Spanish crown, the indigenous lords of Huejotzinco lay out their case in Nahuatl for their valorous service. The letter has been published in Nahuatl and English translation by James Lockhart in We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico,.[9] Texcoco patriot and member of a noble family there, Fernando Alva Ixtlilxochitl, likewise petitioned the Spanish crown, in Spanish, saying that Texcoco had not received sufficient rewards for their support of the Spanish, particularly after the Spanish were forced out from Tenochtitlan.[10]
The most well known indigenous account of the conquest is Book 12 of Bernardino de Sahagún's General History of the Things of New Spain and published as the Florentine Codex, in parallel columns of Nahuatl and Spanish, with pictorials. Less well known is Sahagún's 1585 revision of the conquest account, which shifts from an entirely indigenous viewpoint and inserts at crucial junctures passages lauding the Spanish and in particular Hernán Cortés.[11] Another indigenous account compiled by a Spanish friar is Dominican Diego Durán's The History of the Indies of New Spain, from 1581, with many color illustrations.[12] Another text from the Nahua point of view, the Anales de Tlatelolco, a very early indigenous account in Nahuatl, perhaps from 1540, remained in indigenous hands until it was later published. An extract of this important manuscript has been published by James Lockhart in Nahuatl transcription and English translation.[13] A popular anthology in English for classroom use is Miguel León-Portilla's, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico.[14] Not surprisingly, many publications and republications of sixteenth-century accounts of the conquest of Mexico appeared around 1992, the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first voyage, when scholarly and popular interest in first encounters surged.
The most popular and enduring narrative of the Spanish campaign in central Mexico is by New England-born nineteenth-century historian William Hickling Prescott. His History of the Conquest of Mexico, first published in 1843 remains an enormously engaging narrative of the conquest, based on a large number of sources copied from the Spanish archives.[15] Prescott based his narrative history on primary source documentation, mainly from the Spanish viewpoint, but it is likely that the copy of the Spanish text of the 1585 revision of Bernardino de Sahagǘn's account of the conquest was done for Prescott's history.[16]
Aztec omens for the conquest[edit]
Most first-hand accounts about the conquest of the Aztec empire were written by Spaniards: Hernán Cortés' letters to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and the first-person narrative of Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain. The primary sources from the native people affected as a result of the conquest are seldom observed because they tend to reflect the views of a particular native group, such as the Tlaxcalans. Indigenous accounts were written in pictographs as early as 1525. Later accounts were written in the native tongue of the Aztecs and the native peoples of central Mexico Nahuatl. It is also important to note that the natives of the Aztec empire described eight omens that were believed to have occurred nine years prior to the arrival of the Spanish from the Gulf of Mexico. They included:
Aztec empire on the eve of the Spanish Invasion
Fire falling from the sky.
Fire consuming the temple of Huitzilopochtli.
A lightning bolt destroying the straw temple of Xiuhtecuhtli.
The appearance of streaking fire across the oceans.
The “boiling deep ,” and water flooding, of a lake nearby Tenochtitlan.
A woman weeping in the middle of the night for them (the Aztecs) to flee free while they could.
A two headed man running through the streets.
Montezuma saw images of fighting men in a mirror on his bird's head.
Eruption of Popocateptl
Omens were extremely important to the Aztecs, who believed that history repeated itself. Emperor Moctezuma, often spelled Montezuma in English, who was trained as a high priest, was said to have consulted his chief priests and fortune tellers to determine the causes of these omens. However, they were unable to provide an exact explanation until, perhaps, the Spaniards arrived.
It should be noted that all kind of sources depicting omens and the return of old Aztec gods, including those supervised by Spanish priests, were written after the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521. Ethnohistorians say that, when the Spanish arrived native peoples and their leaders did not view them as supernatural in any sense but rather as simply another group of powerful outsiders.[17] Many Spanish accounts incorporated omens to emphasize what they saw as the preordained nature of the conquest and their success as Spanish destiny. This means that native emphasis on omens and bewilderment in the face of invasion "may be a postconquest interpretation by informants who wished to please the Spaniards or who resented the failure of Montezuma and of the warriors of Tenochtitlan to provide leadership."[18] Hugh Thomas concludes that Moctezuma was confused and ambivalent about whether Cortés was a god or the ambassador of a great king in another land. (p. 192). However, Thomas does not support the theory that the Aztec Emperor really believed that Cortés was any reincarnation of Quetzalcoatl.
Spanish arrival in Yucatán[edit]
In 1517 Cuban governor, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, commissioned a fleet of three ships under the command of Hernández de Córdoba to sail west and explore the Yucatán peninsula. Córdoba reached the coast of Yucatán. The Mayans at Cape Catoche invited the Spaniards to land, and the Spaniards read the Requirement of 1513 to them, which offered the natives the protection of the King of Spain, if they would submit to him. Córdoba took two prisoners whom he named Melchor and Julián to be interpreters. On the western side of the Yucatán Peninsula, the Spaniards were attacked at night by Maya chief Mochcouoh (Mochh Couoh). Twenty Spaniards were killed. Córdoba was mortally wounded and only a remnant of his crew returned to Cuba.
Spanish conquest of Yucatán[edit]
Main article: Spanish conquest of Yucatán
Part of the Aztec Empire, the conquest and initial subjugation of the independent city-state polities of the Late Postclassic Maya civilization came many years after the rapid conquest of Central Mexico, 1519-21. With the help of tens of thousands of Xiu Mayan warriors, it would take more than 170 years for the Spanish to establish full control of the Maya homelands, which extended from northern Yucatán to the central lowlands region of El Petén and the southern Guatemalan highlands. The end of this latter campaign is generally marked by the downfall of the Maya state based at Tayasal in the Petén region, in 1697.
Cortés' expedition[edit]
Commissioning the expedition[edit]
Map depicting Cortés' conquest route
Even before Grijalva returned to Spain, Velázquez decided to send a third and even larger expedition to explore the Mexican coast.[19] Hernán Cortés, then one of Velázquez's favorites and brother-in-law, was named as the commander, which created envy and resentment among the Spanish contingent in the Spanish colony.[19] Velázquez's instructions to Cortés, in an agreement signed on 23 October 1518, were limited to leading an expedition to initiate trade relations with the indigenous coastal tribes, but no authorization for conquest or settlement.
One account suggests that Governor Velázquez wished to restrict the Cortés expedition to being a pure trading expedition. Invasion of the mainland was to be a privilege reserved for himself as the senior official in Cuba. However, by calling upon the knowledge of the law of Castile that Cortés likely gained while he was a student in Salamanca and by utilizing his powers of persuasion, Cortés was able to maneuver Governor Velázquez into inserting a clause into his orders that enabled Cortés to take emergency measures without prior authorization, if such were "...in the true interests of the realm." He was also named the chief military leader and chief magistrate (judge) of the expedition. Such licenses for expeditions allowed the crown to retain sovereignty over newly conquered lands while not risking its own assets in the enterprise. Spaniards with assets who were willing to risk them to increase their wealth and power could potentially gain even more.[20]
Cortés invested a considerable part of his personal fortune to equip the expedition and probably went into debt to borrow additional funds. Expeditions of exploration and conquest were business enterprises, with those investing the more in the enterprise receiving more rewards upon its success. Greater risk reaped greater rewards. Men who brought horses, caballeros, received two shares of the spoils of war, one for the warrior himself, another because of the horse.[20] When his assets were depleted. Governor Velázquez may have personally contributed nearly half the cost of the expedition.
The ostentatious nature of this operation and the rapidity of its commission probably added to the envy and resentment of the Spanish contingent in Cuba, who were keenly aware of the opportunity this assignment offered for fame, fortune and glory.
Revoking the commission[edit]
Velázquez himself must have been keenly aware that whoever conquered the mainland for Spain would gain fame, glory and fortune to eclipse anything that could be achieved in Cuba. Thus, as the preparations for departure drew to a close, the governor became suspicious that Cortés would be disloyal to him and try to commandeer the expedition for his own purposes,[21] namely to establish himself as governor of the colony, independent of Velázquez's control.
For this reason, Velázquez sent Luis de Medina with orders to replace Cortés. However, Cortés' brother-in-law allegedly had Medina intercepted and killed. The papers that Medina had been carrying were sent to Cortés. Thus warned, Cortés accelerated the organization and preparation of his expedition.[22]
He was ready to set sail on the morning of 18 February 1519 when Velázquez arrived at the dock in person, determined to revoke Cortés's commission. But Cortés, pleading that "time presses," hurriedly set sail thus literally beginning his conquest of American Indian territories and nations with the legal status of a mutineer. Velázquez let him go.
Cortés's contingent consisted of 11 ships carrying about 630 men (including 30 crossbowmen and 12 arquebusiers, an early form of a rifle), a doctor, several carpenters, at least eight women, a few hundred Cuban Arawak indigenous and some Africans, both freedmen and slaves. Although modern usage often calls the European participants "soldiers", the term is never used by these men themselves in any context, something that James Lockhart realized when analyzing sixteenth-century legal records from conquest-era Peru.[23]
Cortés lands at Cozumel[edit]
Cortés spent some time at Cozumel island, trying to convert the locals to Christianity and achieving mixed results. While at Cozumel, Cortés heard reports of other white men living in the Yucatán. Cortés sent messengers to these reported castilianos, who turned out to be the survivors of a Spanish shipwreck that had occurred in 1511, Gerónimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero.
Aguilar petitioned his Maya chieftain to be allowed leave to join with his former countrymen, and he was released and made his way to Cortés's ships. According to Bernal Díaz, Aguilar relayed that before coming he had unsuccessfully attempted to convince Guerrero to leave as well. Guerrero declined on the basis that he was by now well-assimilated with the Maya culture, had a Maya wife and three children, and he was looked upon as a figure of rank within the Maya settlement of Chetumal where he lived.[24]
Although Guerrero's later fate is somewhat uncertain, it appears that for some years he continued to fight alongside the Maya forces against Spanish incursions, providing military counsel and encouraging resistance; it is speculated that he may have been killed in a later battle.
Aguilar, now quite fluent in Maya as well as some other indigenous languages, proved to be a valuable asset for Cortés as a translator - a skill of particular significance to the later conquest of the Aztec Empire that was to be the end result of Cortés' expedition.[25]
Cortés lands on the Yucatán peninsula[edit]
After leaving Cozumel, Hernán Cortés continued round the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula and landed at Potonchán, where there was little gold. However, Cortés, after defeating the local natives in two battles, discovered a far more valuable asset in the form of a woman whom Cortés would have christened Marina. She is often known as La Malinche and also sometimes called "Malintzin" or Mallinali, her native birth names. Later, the Aztecs would come to call Cortés "Malintzin" or El Malinche by dint of his close association with her.[26]
Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote in his account The True History of the Conquest of New Spain that Marina was "an Aztec princess sold into Mayan slavery." She was not actually an Aztec princess but was of noble birth, probably of Toltec or Tabascan origins. Later the respectful title of doña, like señor, would be added before her name.
Her lineage notwithstanding, Cortés had stumbled upon one of the keys to realizing his ambitions. He would speak to Gerónimo de Aguilar in Spanish who would then translate into Mayan for Marina. She would then translate from Mayan to Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. With this pair of translators, Cortés could now communicate to the Aztecs. How effective is still a matter of speculation, since Marina did not speak the dialect of the Aztecs nor was she familiar with the protocols of the Aztec nobility, who were renowned for their flowery, flattering talk.
Doña Marina quickly learned Spanish, and became Cortés's primary interpreter, confidant, consort, cultural translator, and the mother of his son, Martin. Until Cortes's marriage to his second wife, a union which produced a legitimate son whom he also named Martin, Cortés's natural son with Marina was his heir.
Native speakers of Nahuatl would call her "Malintzin." This name is the closest phonetic approximation possible in Nahuatl to the sound of 'Marina' in Spanish. Over time, "La Malinche" (the modern Spanish cognate of 'Malintzin') became a term that denotes a traitor to one's people. To this day, the word malinchista is used by Mexicans to denote one who apes the language and customs of another country.[27] It would not be until the late 20th century that a few feminist writers and academics would attempt to rehabilitate La Malinche as a woman who made the best of her situation and became, in most respects, the most powerful woman in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the founder of the modern Mexican nation.
Cortés founds Veracruz[edit]
Coat of arms of Villa Rica, Veracruz. First town council founded by Spaniards. Tile mosaic located in Mexico City.
Cortés landed his expedition force on the coast of the modern day state of Veracruz in April 1519. He learned of an indigenous settlement called Cempoala and marched his forces there. On their arrival in Cempoala, they were greeted by 20 dignitaries and cheering townsfolk.
Cortés quickly persuaded the Totonac chief Chicomecoatl (misspelled as Chicomacatt by Spanish writers[examples needed]) to rebel against the Aztecs.
Faced with imprisonment or death for defying the governor, Cortés' only alternative was to continue on with his enterprise in the hope of redeeming himself with the Spanish Crown. To do this, he directed his men to establish a settlement called La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. The legally constituted "town council of Villa Rica" then promptly offered him the position of adelantado.
This strategy was not unique.[28] Velásquez had used this same legal mechanism to free himself from Diego Columbus' authority in Cuba. In being named adelantado by a duly constituted cabildo, Cortés was able to free himself from Velásquez's authority and continue his expedition. To ensure the legality of this action several members of his expedition, including Francisco Montejo, returned to Spain to seek royal acceptance of the cabildo's declaration.
The Totonacs helped Cortés build the town of La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, which was the starting point for his attempt to conquer the Aztec empire. This settlement eventually[when?] grew into the city now known as Veracruz ("True Cross").
During this same period, soon after he arrived, Cortés was welcomed by representatives of the Aztec Emperor, Moctezuma II. Gifts were exchanged, but Cortés ultimately attempted to frighten the Aztec delegation with a display of firepower. He also challenged the Aztec representatives to combat, but they quickly left the area so they could report to Moctezuma. Following this first meeting, more ambassadors from the Emperor returned, bearing many more gifts, including gold (which the Aztecs did not value highly). Although they attempted to dissuade Cortés from visiting Tenochtitlan, the lavish gifts and the polite, welcoming remarks only encouraged El Caudillo to continue his march on the capital of the empire. Throughout most of his march, the ambassadors of Moctezuma accompanied the Spanish force, and undoubtedly reported faithfully to Moctezuma.
Scuttling the fleet & Aftermath[edit]
Cortés scuttling fleet off Veracruz coast
Those of his men still loyal to the Governor of Cuba conspired to seize a ship and escape to Cuba, but Cortés moved swiftly to squash their plans. Two ringleaders were condemned to be hanged; two were lashed, and one had his foot mutilated. To make sure such a mutiny did not happen again, he decided to scuttle his ships, on the pretext that they were no longer seaworthy. There is a popular misconception that the ships were burned rather than sunk.
This misconception has been attributed to the reference made by Cervantes de Salazar in 1546 as to Cortés burning his ships.[29] This may have also come from a mistranslation of the version of the story written in Latin.[30]
With all of his ships scuttled, except for one small ship with which to send his representatives and booty to the King of Spain, Cortés effectively stranded the expedition in Mexico. However, it did not completely end the aspirations of those members of his company who remained loyal to the Governor of Cuba. Cortés then led his band inland towards the fabled Tenochtitlan. The last seaworthy ship was loaded with the Royal Fifth (the King of Spain claimed 20% of all spoils) of the Aztec treasure they had obtained so far in order to speed up Cortés's claim to the governorship.
In addition to the Spaniards, Cortés force now included 40 Cempoalan warrior chiefs and at least 200 other natives whose task was to drag the cannon and carry supplies. The Cempoalans were accustomed to the hot climate of the coast, but they suffered immensely from the cold of the mountains, the rain, and the hail as they marched towards Tenochtitlan.
Alliance with Tlaxcala[edit]
Palacio de Gobierno, Tlaxcala city: Murals - Discussions between Tlaxcalans and Hernán Cortés.
Cortés soon arrived at Tlaxcala, a confederacy of about 200 towns and different tribes, but without central government.
The Tlaxcalans initially greeted the Spanish with hostile action and the two sides fought a series of skirmishes and battles that ultimately forced the Spaniards up a hill where they were surrounded. Conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo describes this final battle between the Spanish forces and the Tlaxcalteca as surprisingly difficult. He writes that they probably would not have survived, had not Xicotencatl the Elder persuaded his son, the Tlaxcalan warleader, Xicotencatl the Younger, that it would be better to ally with the newcomers than to kill them. Their main city was Tlaxcala. After almost a century of fighting the Flower Wars, a great deal of hatred and bitterness had developed between the Tlaxcalans and the Aztecs. The Tlaxcalans believed that eventually the Aztecs would try to conquer them. It was just a matter of time before this tension developed into a real conflict. The Aztecs had already conquered most of the territory around Tlaxcala. It is possible that the Aztecs left Tlaxcala independent so that they would have a constant supply of war captives to sacrifice to their gods.[31] The sacrifice of a brave warrior was considered a greater gift to the gods than other common sacrifices.
On 18 September 1519, Cortés arrived in Tlaxcala and was greeted with joy by the rulers, who saw the Spanish as an ally against the Aztecs. Due to a commercial blockade by the Aztecs, Tlaxcala was poor, lacking, among other things, both salt and cotton cloth, so they could only offer Cortés and his men food and slaves. Cortés stayed twenty days in Tlaxcala, giving his men time to recover from their wounds. Cortés seems to have won the true friendship and loyalty of the senior leaders of Tlaxcala, among them Maxixcatzin and Xicotencatl the Elder, although he could not win the heart of Xicotencatl the Younger. The Spaniards agreed to respect parts of the city, like the temples, and reportedly took only the things that were offered to them freely.
As before with other native groups, Cortés preached to the Tlaxcalan leaders about the benefits of Christianity. Legends say that he convinced the four leaders of Tlaxcala to become baptized. Maxixcatzin, Xicotencatl the Elder, Citalpopocatzin and Temiloltecutl received the names of Don Lorenzo, Don Vicente, Don Bartolomé and Don Gonzalo.
It is impossible to know if these leaders understood the Catholic faith. In any event, they apparently had no problems in adding the Christian "Dios" (God in Spanish), the lord of the heavens, to their already complex pantheon of gods.
An exchange of gifts was made and thus began the highly significant and effective alliance between Cortés and Tlaxcala.