Download 32. Conquest of Latin America Part One

The Conquest of Latin America Part One
We last left the New World at a point when the first Europeans had made contact
with indigenous peoples. War and gold were already two major themes in this
interaction. Columbus had discovered the Western Hemisphere (some say without
knowing it) just at the time that the first generation of Spanish nobles had arisen without
anyone to fight. Eight centuries of the crusade known as the Reconquista had drawn to a
close. The history of the Americas knows these vigorous soldiers as conquistadores, or
Conquistadors. Spain had only recently become a nation under Ferdinand and Isabella.
While fighting Moors the Spanish watched their neighbors, the Portuguese, navigate their
way around Africa to the East Indies. New national unity, especially unity based on
devout Roman Catholic belief and competition with Portugal and with other European
nations, combined in Spain with the ambition of aggressive conquerors to form an empire
of gold, all in the name of God. The most advanced civilizations in the New World were
destroyed in the process.
Christopher Columbus is remembered as an explorer, but he was also a colonizer,
and a poor one at that. By his death in 1506, though, his discoveries had mobilized what
were essentially the knights of Spain to organize voyages of exploration and colonization
for material gain but also to spread Catholic Christianity. Within seven years of the death
of Columbus Spanish colonies had been established around the Caribbean Sea, and two
years later Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean by crossing the isthmus at Panama. Thus
by 1515 the makings of an empire existed which Spain was uniquely positioned and
equipped to establish. Many names of great sea captains like Amerigo Vespucci and
Ferdinand Magellan as well as great explorers like Hernando de Soto and Ponce de Leon
echo from the Age of Exploration, but two names stand alone when it comes to
conquering. Both men were born in the high plateau of south-central Spain in the
province of Estremadura. One, Hernán Cortés, was born to a noble family and enjoyed
some education in Latin and in law. The other, Fracisco Pizarro, was the son of a
nobleman, but his mother was only from a good neighborhood. Pizarro was thus
illegitimate and inconvenient and the only great man in history to have started out as a
pig herder. Both men took ship to the New World in the service of others but wound up
wielding, for a time, absolute power.
Cortés, probably because of his higher birth, rose faster. The year 1518 found
him mayor of the capital city of Cuba outfitting an expedition to the Yucatán Peninsula of
Mexico. Aboard his eleven ships he had 508 soldiers, 100 sailors, 200 Cubans, several
black slaves, some Indian women, and sixteen horses. He demanded complete obedience
from his subordinates unlike most Spaniards in the New World who actually held votes
on major decisions. When attacked by Indians with arrows from canoes, Cortés landed
his force, which was armed with muskets (arquebuses) and swords, and took over a
village. He announced to the Indians (through an interpreter) and to his own men that he
claimed the land in the king’s name. When a larger force of Indians counter-attacked,
Cortés unleashed his secret weapons, the sixteen horses now armored with breastplates
each bearing an armored knight with a lance all backed by artillery. With this frightful
display of power the Spanish drove back an Indian force that outnumbered them 300 to 1!
Eight hundred Indians were killed, and two war chiefs were captured.
Despite this military success Cortés realized he could never overcome the Indians
by sheer force. He released the chiefs and sent them away with gifts to relay the message
that he came in peace. When receiving some Indian envoys he staged a display of his
most aggressive stallion and fired his largest cannon without warning while the Indians
were mesmerized by the prancing horse, terrifying them into promising peace and a
supply of food for the Spanish. The Indians buried their dead, disposed of their idols at
their new master’s command, and erected a large cross in the village square. Cortés
made one condition before his men could take native women to bed—the Indian maidens
must first be baptized. When Cortés got the word “gold” translated the Indians
responded with the word, “Mexico.” The Spanish soon heard of the great leader of the
interior of Mexico, Montezuma, and he soon heard of them. The Indians Cortés first
conquered were the Totonacs, and the Aztec leader interpreted their allegiance to King
Charles of Spain as a rebellion against him. While the Spanish built a fortified town and
called it Vera Cruz, Cortés worked hard to undermine the allegiance of the Totonacs to
the Aztecs who had only recently conquered them. Ever after, if his own subject Indians
threatened to rise up against him he silenced them by saying the Spanish would simply
depart and leave the Totonacs to the wrath of the Aztecs. Clever man.
The cleverness of Cortés with Indians was only surpassed by his cleverness in
controlling his own men. He had a talent for orchestrating events such that his own men
would come to him and ask to do what he himself wanted them to do. Through his
manipulation his soldiers wrote a letter praising Cortés and their accomplishments
together to be sent to the king of Spain along with all the gold they had managed to
scrape together in the three months since they arrived on the Mexican mainland. Cortés
actually convinced every man to give up his share in order to make the total amount sent
to Spain as impressive as possible. He promised the men more would come. Cortés
could also take charge directly and act decisively in the face of crisis. When a few
attempts were made by some of his men to steal one of the ships and sail back to Cuba,
he simply scuttled the fleet. With no way of escape the men (now including the 100
sailors) knew they had to fight and keep on fighting until they either conquered Mexico
or died.
Thus began the test of wills between two great leaders, Hernán Cortés and
Montezuma. Cortés marched his men overland toward Tenochtitlan, the floating Aztec
capital. Along the way he studied his opponent by liberating subject Indian tribes, by
interviewing them carefully, and by allying with those few that remained independent
from the Aztecs. He thus gathered information about the Aztecs and discovered that they
were cannibals. Perhaps this is why Cortés switched leadership styles and hereafter
skillfully persuaded his men to follow his orders. In other words, he led by consent when
his men realized that if they were captured by the enemy they would be ritually killed and
then eaten. In his quest for gold it served Cortés well that he possessed a silver tongue,
and it did not hurt his cause that the Aztecs were so brutal as to inspire Indians by the
thousands to fight alongside his tiny force.
Another advantage the Spanish enjoyed was that their arrival coincided with a
prophecy that the ancient god, Quetzalcoatl, would return, and Quetzalcoatl had white
skin. Montezuma therefore first tried the ancient magic of his priests to curse the
invaders. When voodoo-like attacks had no effect, Montezuma sent gifts. When the
Spanish kept coming and asked for more gold, the Aztec ruler set a trap to ambush the
Spanish. When the trap was sprung 6,000 Aztecs were killed in only five hours. The
news of this defeat deeply demoralized Montezuma who spent ten days praying with his
priests in seclusion. This time only allowed the Spanish to regroup. When Montezuma
went back to giving gifts, Cortés shrewdly reiterated his coming in peace and that he
knew Montezuma had not dared to order the ambush. He said that a great prince like
Montezuma would never give such commands but make war only in open fields.
“However,” said Cortés through a messenger, “we do not care whether we are attacked in
the open country or in the town, by day or by night, for we will kill anyone who ventures
to do so.” Montezuma responded by saying Cortés was right, the ambush was the fault of
the townspeople of Cholula, the site of the attack, and that he wanted peace.
Cortés therefore marched his army on into Mexico and right into the streets of
Tenochtitlan. He met Montezuma face to face and only refrained from embracing him
because two Aztec lords nearby would not suffer their leader to be touched. The Aztecs
did bow down and kiss the ground. Montezuma then rose and addressed Cortés as
Quetzalcoatl, welcoming him home! He told Cortés not to believe any lies he might have
heard from those Indians marching with him about the Aztecs. For six days the two
leaders met in formal diplomatic negotiations while the Spanish soldiers toured the sites
around Tenochtitlan. Living accommodations were arranged for the Spanish and land
ceded for the construction of a church.
The plot thickened. By accident the Spanish discovered a bricked-over door in
their sleeping quarters that opened (once broken down) onto Montezuma’s own treasure
stores! This incentive must have redoubled the creativity of Cortés because he turned the
conversation from gold to theology. He cleverly dismissed the thought that he was
Quetzalcoatl (how long could any devout Roman Catholic endure worship as a god?) but
hinted that King Charles of Spain would come one day to Mexico and he was more
important than his servant. Montezuma agreed, incredibly, that the Aztecs probably erred
in their religious beliefs for the simple reason that they had left their homeland long ago
whereas the Spanish had left their home only recently. Through such subtleties, Cortés
eventually gained the upper hand. He ordered an end to idol worship and human
sacrifices. The temples of the Aztecs were cleansed from bloodstains, and crosses and
statues of Mary were put in the place of the idols.
All seemed well. Cortés divided up the gold from the Aztec treasure after it was
melted down into ingots—a fifth for the king, a fifth for him, and three fifths for the rest
of his men. For a short time of peace he busied himself with agricultural experiments
while his men presumably “baptized” some Aztec women. Montezuma’s conciliatory
attitude changed suddenly and inexplicably, however. Pressure had mounted from Aztec
priests over the desecration of their gods. Montezuma openly acknowledged that his
people would be impossible to rule without his priestly office—without the idols and
temples in full service he could not restrain his people from attacking the Spanish. Cortés
had beaten Indian forces many times the size of his own, but Tenochtitlan contained
hundreds of thousands. Only later did Cortés discover that Montezuma’s new hard line
had originated because a new Spanish fleet had appeared off the coast of Mexico back at
Vera Cruz. His messengers had alerted him before the Spanish in his city found out.
Montezuma shrewdly sent gifts to the new Spanish and received a pledge from them that
they would come rid him of Cortés and his men.
When the rival Spanish fleet was discovered, Cortés again responded brilliantly
and quickly. He took 250 handpicked men and raced back to Vera Cruz. He assured
them that they were hardened veterans while the Spanish getting off the ships would be
raw recruits. This fact proved useful in the only direct clash between the rival Spanish
forces, and Cortés beat back a force four times the size of his own. He then surprised his
countrymen with a night attack and captured their leader, a man named Narváez, who
spent the next several years in prison in Vera Cruz. Cortés convinced the rest of the new
Spanish force with tales of gold and opportunity in Mexico to return with him as
reinforcements.
Meanwhile, Pedro de Alvarado, the Spanish officer Cortés left in charge back in
Tenochtitlan, had precipitated the very thing Cortés had strained all his wits for six
months to avoid, a bloodbath. Alvarado had snapped when he sensed the Aztecs had
readied 100,000 warriors to kill them while Cortés was gone. Having gone to Vera Cruz
on forced marches to stave off a Spanish intruder, Cortés returned to Tenochtitlan by
forced marches to rescue Alvarado. He arrived just in time to learn that Alvarado had
massacred around 1,000 Aztecs who had sacrificed to their gods and were dancing naked
bedecked in gold and jewels. Cortés lost his cool. He could not afford to chastise
Alvarado because he needed the loyalty of all his men just to survive the night. What he
did do was call Montezuma a treacherous dog when two emissaries came asking Cortés
to visit their king. He gave the messengers an ultimatum—have Montezuma get the
Aztec people back in their houses or he would not be responsible for what his soldiers
would do to them.
What followed was almost unimaginable. Untold hordes of Aztecs attacked the
Spanish with arrows, javelins, and sling-stones and wounded over 80 (including Cortés)
and killed a few while the Spanish returned fire with crossbows, muskets, and cannon
killing thousands. The Aztecs shouted that the Spanish would have their hearts torn out
and offered to the gods while their Indian allies would be fattened in cages and eaten.
The battle raged for several days until Cortés had no choice but to ask Montezuma to stop
the attacks pledging that he and his men would then leave the city. Montezuma
responded that the Aztecs had chosen a new king and that he feared all the Spanish would
be killed. Montezuma then did the unthinkable—he climbed atop the Spanish
battlements and called on his people to stop all the killing. The Aztecs fired on him and
wounded him so severely that he died three days later.
Aztecs then seized and fortified the great temple atop which they had made all
their gruesome sacrifices. Cortés ordered it taken. He personally led four hundred
Spanish up the temple step by step ultimately killing all of the estimated four thousand
Aztecs, hurling their bodies down the steps just as their sacrificial victims had always
been thrown down. The new king of the Aztecs, Cuitlahuac, then ordered his forces to do
a strange thing. Not ever having seen what mounted cavalry could do, he had his
warriors meet the Spanish on open ground. Delighted, Cortés ordered his 22 lancers to
charge at full gallop, aim their lances at the Aztec’s faces, then wheel around and charge
again while the Spanish infantry marched in their wake. This last battle raged for a
whole day while the Spanish cut their way out of Tenochtitlan, but not to flee.
Cortés incredibly marched his men back to Vera Cruz; met new Spanish ships
with men, arms, and gunpowder; rallied his Indian allies; and prepared to march back to
conquer the Aztec capital for good. In the meantime, smallpox, which had been carried
to Mexico by one black slave in the Narváez expedition, began to spread in the country.
When it arrived in Tenochtitlan, Cuitlahuac died of it. A son-in-law of Montezuma,
Cuauhtemoc, became king. This fierce young man mounted what must be one of the
most stubborn defenses in all military history. When the Spanish arrived back at
Tenochtitlan in 1520 the Aztecs fought them at every bridge and canal in their floating
city. The fighting was so fierce that twice Cortés himself was captured but rescued. The
Aztecs wanted so badly to cut his heart out and sacrifice him that they would not kill him
outright on the field of battle.
In the final two months of this war the Aztecs made a show of eating their
captured Spanish prisoners. They threw roasted arms and legs into the midst of the
Spanish saying they were glutted on Spanish flesh. After days and weeks of back-andforth battles around the Aztec capital, Indians that had long been subjugated by the
Aztecs must have sensed the end being near. In the last assault, Cortés was supported
amazingly by around 150,000 Indians. Cortés noted in his journal that he did not have to
feed these allies because they ate the flesh of dead Aztecs. In one battle 12,000 Aztecs
were killed. In another 40,000 Aztecs were killed. All the while Cortés reported that he
repeatedly asked them to surrender. Surrender was forbidden, however, by their priests.
On August 13, 1521, Cortés ordered the final assault on the last Aztecs holding then only
1/8 of their city. Fifteen thousand more Aztecs were killed on the final day, and
Cuauhtemoc was captured trying to escape in a canoe. The last campaign to capture
Tenochtitlan was over after 93 days of constant fighting. Dutifully, Cortés collected all
the remaining treasure in the Aztec capital and send 1/5 to the King of Spain on three
ships. Ironically, the ships were captured by French privateers and delivered to Francis I.
Cortés had Mexico, however. Emperor Charles V appointed him Governor and
Captain-General of New Spain. The Spanish utterly destroyed Tenochtitlan while Roman
Catholic priests launched a campaign of their own to destroy Aztec religious relics.
Cortés set himself up as a feudal lord by giving his soldiers encomiendas, or tracts of land
along with the service of the Indians living there. His vassals with up to 500 Indians at
their disposal had to have arms for all of them to serve as infantrymen. Spanish nobles
with more than 500 Indians were required to keep horses and form the cavalry. The
Aztec Empire disappeared. Cortés sent Pedro de Alvarado, the Spaniard who had
touched off the war by the massacre of the dancers, exploring and conquering on south
into Central America.