Source 13.4: Conquest and Victory: The Fall of Tenochtitlán from a Spanish Perspective

While the Aztecs may well have thought themselves permanently rid of the Spanish, La Noche Triste offered only a temporary respite from the European invaders. Cortés and his now-diminished forces found refuge among their Tlaxcalan allies, where they regrouped and planned for yet another assault on Tenochtitlán. In mid-1521, Cortés returned, strengthened with yet more Mesoamerican allies, and laid siege to the Aztec capital. Bitter fighting ensued for several months, often in the form of house-to-house combat, ending with the surrender of the last Aztec emperor on August 13, 1521.

A Spanish account of this event comes from Francisco de Aguilar, a conquistador who took part in the siege of Tenochtitlán, though he subsequently regretted his action and became a priest. Much later in life, around 1560, he wrote an account of his experiences, including this description of the final battle of the Spanish conquest.

Questions to consider as you examine the source:

Francisco de Aguilar

Brief Record of the Conquest of New Spain, ca. 1560

[W]ith [Spanish] forces encircling the city and with the brigantines [warships], which were a great help on the lake, the city [Tenochtitlán] began to be battered by land and water. In addition great trouble was taken to cut off the fresh water from the springs, which reached the city by conduits. . . .

The Christians wounded some of the Indians, and great numbers of Indians were killed in the assaults on horseback and by the guns, harquebuses and crossbows. In spite of all this, they put up their strong barricades, and opened causeways and canals and defended themselves courageously. . . . They also killed some of the Spaniards and captured alive one of them called Guzman, who was Cortés’s aide.

The war was sustained fiercely by both sides, since on our side we had the help of many Tlaxcalan warriors, while the Mexicans [had the advantage of] their rooftops and high buildings from which they battered us. . . . As soon as the Spaniards took any of the houses, which were all on the water, they had the Tlaxcalan Indians demolish and level them, for this gave more freedom to maneuver.

When some of the Indian lords inside the city began to see the danger they were in . . . , they decided to escape by night . . . [and] came over to our side. . . . In addition to this, when the Christians were exhausted from the war, God saw fit to send the Indians smallpox and there was a great pestilence in the city, because there were so many people there, especially women, and they had nothing more to eat. . . . Also for these reasons they began to slacken in their fighting.

The Mexicans, almost vanquished, 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 on both sides.

[Twice the last Aztec ruler, Cuauhtemoc, refused Spanish offers to surrender in return for a “pardon and many privileges.” Then he was finally captured.]

This done, the Spaniards seized the house that had been Cuauhtemoc’s stronghold, where they found a great quantity of gold and jewels and other plunder. The Tlaxcalans, who were assisting us in the war . . . , knew [the city’s] ins and outs, so that when they went home again, they were rich with the spoils they took.

Source: Patricia de Fuentes, ed., The Conquistadors: First-Person Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993), 158–62. Translation copyright © 1963 by Penguin Random House LLC. Used by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.