Sourcing – Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire Excerpts
STUDENT MATERIALSSTUDENT MATERIALSS-4SOURCING - SPANISH CONQUEST OF THE AZTEC EMPIREWORLD HISTORY PROJECT / LESSON 5.3 ACTIVITYSOURCING EXCERPTS – SPANISH CONQUEST OF THE AZTEC EMPIRESource 1: Flowers and Songs of SorrowAztec poets wrote this “song of sorrow” after the conquest of Tenochtitlan by the Spanish. The collection, Cantares Mexicanos, housed in the National Library of Mexico, was written about 1523. The following selection below “laments that only grief and suffering remain in the once proud capital.”Flowers and Songs of SorrowNothing but flowers and songs of sorroware left in Mexico and Tlatelolco,where once we saw warriors and wise men.We know it is truethat we must perish [die],for we are mortal men.You, the Giver of Life,you have ordained [ordered] it.We wander here and therein our desolate [unhappy] poverty.We are mortal men.We have seen bloodshed and painwhere once we saw beauty and valor [bravery].We are crushed to the ground,we lie in ruins.There is nothing but grief and sufferingin Mexico and Tlatelolco,where once we saw beauty and valor.Have you grown weary [tired] of your servants?Are you angry with your servants,O Giver of Life?Source: Leon-Portilla, Miguel, ed. The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Translated by Angel Maria Garibay K. and Lysander Kemp. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1962 (p. 149).
STUDENT MATERIALSSTUDENT MATERIALSS-5SOURCING - SPANISH CONQUEST OF THE AZTEC EMPIREWORLD HISTORY PROJECT / LESSON 5.3 ACTIVITYSource 2: The Chronicle of Fray Francisco de AguilarAlonso de Aguilar (1479–c. 1571) was a conquistador who fought with Hernán Cortés and took part in the conquest of the Aztecs. He was granted an encomienda1, but he gave that up in 1529 and joined the Dominican Order, taking the name Francisco. He wrote a firsthand account of the conquest decades after the wars had ended when he was in his 80s. HisRelación Breve de la Conquista de la Nueva España (Brief Account of the Conquest of New Spain) was published centuries after his death in 1900.When some of the Indian lords inside the city began to see the danger they were in, and the scarcity [lack] of supplies and lack of water, they decided to escape by night. One in particular was Ixtlilxochitl, captain of Texcoco and brother of Cuaunacuxtli the lord of Texococo. He appeared before Captain Cortés and offered himself and his allies, promising to aid him and the Christians in the war against his fellow people, and since he was very valiant [brave], this was a great blow to the Mexicans. It must also have hurt them when on another night the lord who ruled Xochimilco and Cuitlahuac came over to our side, because his people, with their canoes, fought most cruelly against the Mexicans and contributed largely to their destruction. In addition to this, when the Christians were exhausted from war, God saw fit to send the Indians smallpox, and there was a great pestilence [plague] in the city because there were so many people there, especially women, and they had nothing more to eat. We soldiers could scarcely [hardly] get about the streets because of the Indians who were sick from hunger, pestilence and smallpox. Also for these reasons they began to slacken in their fighting. Moreover, as they gradually retreated to some fortified [secured] houses on the water, we held the advantage, and our allies were able to devote themselves to leveling houses and buildings, which made it possible for us to take the whole city, since we could run our horses on level ground. The Mexicans, almost vanquished [defeated], withdrew to their fortresses on the water, and since a great number of women were left among them, they armed them all and stationed them on the rooftops. The Spaniards were alarmed at seeing so many of the enemy again, whooping and shouting at them, and when they began killing them and saw they were women, there was dismay [sadness] on both sides.Captain Hernando Cortés, and Alderete the first royal treasurer, and the scrivener [scribe] who was named Orduña, and several other gentlemen, reached the fortified house where Cuauhtemoc [the last Aztec emperor] had already taken refuge [shelter]. Cuauhtemoc, youthful lord of about eighteen years of age, was a person of great valor and courage. They sent word to him saying that since there was no place further to which he could retreat, he should surrender, and that the king would pardon him and grant him many privileges. He replied with great conceit and little shame: “I do not care to give myself up, for I prefer to see you all killed.” And so at night we retired to our camp.Source: Aguilar, Francisco de. “The Chronicle of Fray Francisco de Aguilar.” In The Conquistadors: First-Person Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, edited and translated by Patricia de Fuentes. New York: The Orion Press, Inc., 1963 (pp.159-160).1 Grant from the Spanish crown that gave conquistadors labor rights over groups of indigenous peoples (a form of slavery).
STUDENT MATERIALSSTUDENT MATERIALSS-6SOURCING - SPANISH CONQUEST OF THE AZTEC EMPIREWORLD HISTORY PROJECT / LESSON 5.3 ACTIVITYSource 3: Third Letter of CortesHernán Cortés (1485-1547), one of the most famous conquistadors of the sixteenth century, wrote an account of his travels and conquests in the Americas to inform the Spanish monarch, Charles V, of his victories in the New World. These letters were crafted to highlight his successes in the Americas and to get him out of trouble with the crown for rebelling against the Spanish Governor of Cuba. The letters, first published beginning in 1522, became a popular read for those of the European upper classes. Before leaving the camp, I had ordered that Gonzalo de Sandoval should proceed with the brigantines [ships] to the place where the Indians had fortified themselves in houses, thus holding them surrounded, but not attacking them until he should observe that we began to fight; in such manner that, holding them thus surrounded, they had no place to go except amongst the dead, and on the roofs which were left them. For this cause, they neither had, nor procured [obtained], arrows, nor darts, nor stones, with which to hurt us. Our friends accompanied us, armed with swords and shields, and such was the slaughter done that day on water and on land, that with prisoners taken they numbered in all more than forty thousand men; and such were the shrieks and the weeping of the women and children that there was none whose heart did not break; and we had more trouble in preventing our allies from killing and inflicting tortures than we had in fighting with the Indians, for no such inhuman cruelty as the natives of these parts practice was ever seen amongst any people. Our allies obtained very great plunder, which we could not prevent, because we were about nine hundred Spaniards, and they more than one hundred and fifty thousand men, and no attention or diligence [carefulness] was sufficient to prevent them from robbing, although we did everything possible to stop it. One of the reasons why I refused to go to extremes in those previous days was that, by taking them by assault [force], they would probably throw what they had into the lake, and if they did not do so our allies would steal everything they found; and, for this reason, I feared that but a small part of the great wealth existing in the city, as shown by what I had before obtained for Your Highness, would be secured for Your Majesty. As it was already late, and we could no longer endure [stand] the stench of the dead which had lain for many days in those streets (the most pestilential [plague-like] thing in the world), we returned to our camps. ...When day had dawned, I had our whole force prepared, and the large field pieces brought out; and I had, the day before, ordered Pedro de Alvarado to await me in the square of the market-place, and not to begin fighting until I arrived. All being assembled, and the brigantines ready for action, behind the houses on the water, where the enemy were gathered, I ordered that, on hearing a musket-shot, the land force should enter the small part which was still to be captured, and force the enemy towards the water where the brigantines would be awaiting them; and I cautioned them particularly to look after Quatamucin [Cuauhtemoc, the Aztec emperor], and to endeavour [try] to take him alive, because then the war would stop. ... After a short time, they returned with one of the highest chiefs of all of them, who was called Ciguacoacin, captain and governor of them all, whose counsel followed in everything concerning the war. I showed a very good disposition [mood] towards him, so that he might be reassured and have no fears, and finally he told me that the sovereign [king/ruler] would in no way appear before me, and that he rather preferred to die where he was, and that he himself was much grieved [pained] at this decision but that I could do as I pleased. Recognising by this his determination, I told him to return to his own people, and that he and they might prepare themselves, as I was determined to attack them, and finish destroying them; and so it happened. More than five hours had passed in these parleyings [discussions], and the inhabitants of the city were all treading [walking] on the dead, others in the water were swimming, and others drowning themselves in the large lake where the canoes were collected. Such was the plight [trouble] in which they were, that no understanding could conceive [imagine] how they could endure [bear] it; and an infinite number of men, women, and children kept coming towards us, who, in their haste [hurry], pushed one another back into the water and were drowned amidst the multitude [great number] of dead. It appears they had perished [died] to the number of more than fifty thousand, from the saltwater which they drank, or from