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Why Did Cortés Win?

By conquering Mexico, Hernán Cortés demonstrated that the New World could enrich the Old. But how did a few hundred Spaniards so far away from home defeat millions of Indians fighting on their home turf?

First, several military factors favored the Spaniards. They possessed superior military technology, which partially offset the Mexicans’ superior numbers. They fought with weapons of iron and steel against the Mexicans’ stone, wood, and copper. They charged on horseback against Mexican warriors on foot. They ignited gunpowder to fire cannon and muskets toward attacking Mexicans, whose only source of power was human muscle. However, the Spaniards’ weaponry alone was not enough to overpower the Mexicans’ immense numerical superiority.

The Spanish forces also had superior military organization, although they were far from a highly disciplined, professional fighting force. Cortés’s army was composed of soldiers of fortune, young men who hoped to fight for God and king and get rich. The unsteady discipline among the Spaniards is suggested by Cortés’s decision to beach and dismantle the ships that had brought his small army to the Mexican mainland, thereby leaving his men with no choice but to go forward. Still, the Spaniards formed a well-oiled military machine compared to the Mexicans. Spanish tactics concentrated soldiers to magnify the effect of their firepower and to maintain communication during the thick of battle. In contrast, Mexicans tended to attack from ambush or in waves of frontal assaults, showing great courage but little organization or discipline. In the siege of Tenochtitlán, for example, when Mexicans had Spaniards on the run, they often paused to sacrifice Spanish soldiers they had captured, taking time to skin “their faces,” one Spaniard recalled, “which they afterward prepared like leather gloves, with their beards on.”

But perhaps the Spaniards’ most fundamental military advantage was their concept of war. The Mexican concept was shaped by the nature of the empire. The Mexicans fought to impose their tribute system on others and to take captives for sacrifices. They believed that war would make their adversaries realize the high cost of continuing to fight and would give them incentive to surrender and pay tribute. To the Spaniards, war meant destroying the enemy’s ability to fight. In short, the Spaniards sought total victory; the Mexicans sought surrender. All these military factors weakened the Mexicans’ resistance but were still insufficient to explain Cortés’s victory.

European viruses proved to be at least as significant as military technology. When the Mexicans confronted Cortés and his men, they were weakened by the smallpox and measles viruses that the Spaniards had brought with them to Mexico. A smallpox epidemic struck the Caribbean in 1519 and lasted through 1522, killing thousands of Indians and leaving many others too sick to fight. As one Mexican explained to a Spaniard shortly after the conquest, the plague lasted for months, “striking everywhere in the city and killing a vast number of our people.” While Mexicans were decimated by their first exposure to smallpox and measles, Spaniards were for all practical purposes immune, having previously been exposed to the diseases.

Christianity was as much a part of the conquistadors’ armory as swords and gunpowder. Spaniards’ Christianity was a confident and militant faith that commanded its followers to destroy idolatry, root out heresy, slay infidels, and subjugate nonbelievers. Mexicans’ religious doctrine caused them to be hesitant and uncertain in confronting Spaniards when they were most vulnerable. At first, Mexicans worried that Spaniards were immortal, an illusion Cortés tried to maintain by hiding the bodies of Spaniards who died.

Mexican military commanders often turned to their priests for military guidance. Spaniards routinely celebrated mass and prayed before battles, but Cortés and his subordinates—tough, wily, practical men—made the military and diplomatic decisions. When Spaniards suffered defeats, they did not worry that God had abandoned them. In contrast, when Mexicans lost battles advised by their priests, they confronted the distressing fear that their gods no longer seemed to listen to them. The deadly sickness sweeping through the countryside also seemed to show that their gods had abandoned them. “Cut us loose,” one Mexican pleaded, “because the gods have died.”

Finally, politics proved decisive in the Mexicans’ defeat. Cortés shrewdly exploited the tensions between Mexicans and the people in their empire. Cortés reinforced his small army with thousands of Indian allies who were eager to seek revenge against their Mexican conquerors. With skillful diplomacy, Cortés obtained cooperation from thousands of Indian porters and food suppliers. Besides fighting alongside Cortés, Spaniards’ Indian allies provided the invaders with a fairly secure base from which to maneuver against Mexicans’ stronghold. Hundreds of thousands of other Indians helped Cortés by failing to come to Mexicans’ defense. These passive allies of the Spaniards prevented Mexicans from fully capitalizing on their overwhelming numerical superiority. In the end, the political tensions created by the Mexican empire proved to be its crippling weakness.

Questions for Analysis

Summarize the Argument: What factors were most significant in allowing Cortés and the Spaniards to overwhelm the much more numerous Mexican forces?

Analyze the Evidence: What military technologies aided the Spaniards? How did disease influence conquest? To what extent did ideas contribute to the Mexicans’ defeat?

Consider the Context: To what extent was this conquest a clash of cultures? How did conquest change Spaniards’ thinking about their New World empire? How did conquest shape New Spain?