In 1519, the
Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortes, sailed from Europe to land in what is
now Mexico. After a difficult journey inland, Cortes and his men entered
the Aztec capital city and met Moctezuma, the Aztec leader.
Normally,
the Spanish adventurers would have been captured and sacrificed
immediately, because that is what the Aztecs did to invaders. But the
Spanish were lucky. They were allowed to enter the city, and welcomed as
valued guests, all because of an old legend.
This legend told of the god Quetzalcoatl. The Aztecs believed that the god
of night had defeated Quetzalcoatl in a game of tlachtli. As the winner,
the god of night could decide what to do with Quetzalcoatl. The god of
night decided to banish Quetzalcoatl to the East. Quetzalcoatl had no
choice but to leave. He vowed that some day he would return, when
the end of the world was near, to save his people.
The
Aztecs were always worried that the end of the world was always near.
That's why they sacrificed so many people. They wanted to keep their gods
very happy, so they could save their people. When the
Spanish arrived from the East, the Aztecs believed that Quetzalcoatl had
kept his promise and had returned. They treated the Spanish as if they
were gods.
The Spanish had no idea how lucky they were that the Aztecs
misunderstood who they were and why they were there. The Spanish
conquistadors were looking for lands to conquer, gold to capture, and
people to convert to the Catholic religion.
The Spanish
were amazed at what they found in the capital city of Tenochtitlan.
Everything was clean. There were “eating houses” and hairdressers. You
could buy medicines and herbs and all kinds of food. You could buy meat
and game. There were streets that sold only pottery and mats.
Painters could buy the paints they needed for their art.
Cortes
mentioned in one of letters home that he believed there were more than
60,000 people in the marketplace buying and selling wares. No one used
money. Goods were bartered and small differences in value were evened up
using cocoa beans.
Cortes wrote
to the Spanish Emperor, back in the Spain, the following: “We lodged in the chief’s house, situated
in the most refreshing gardens ever seen. In their midst flows a beautiful
stream, beset with gay flower beds, an infinite number of different fruit
trees, many herbs and fragrant flowers. Three hundred men had charge of
these birds for their sole employment. Over each pool there were
beautifully decorated galleries and corridors, where Moctezuma
came to
amuse himself by watching them. I do not mention the other diverting
things Moctezuma had in the city, because they were so many and so
various.”
The
Spanish made themselves very comfortable in the Aztec capital city. As
time went on, the Spanish became concerned that they might never leave,
not alive anyway. And, as time went on, the Aztecs began to grow
suspicious. The Spanish did not act like gods. They did not do the
things that gods did. They even avoided the sacrifice ceremonies, which
after all, were conducted in their honor. The Aztecs decided it was time
to move the Spanish along. Carefully, so as not to upset the gods (just
in case), the Spanish were expelled from the city. But they were allowed
to leave. By the time they left, the Spanish had learned how lucky they
were to be leaving alive.
The
Spanish did return, but they were much better prepared to fight the
fierce Aztec warriors. It was not the Spanish guns that won the
day. It was the Spanish horses and dogs. The Spanish brought huge fierce
mastiffs with them into battle. Disease
also brought down the Aztecs. The Aztecs had never been exposed to
childhood diseases like measles. As well, the Spanish had help from the other tribes in
the area. These tribes saw a chance to get even, and perhaps even to rid
themselves of the feared and hated Aztecs.
By the mid-1500’s, the Aztec Empire had collapsed.
