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Claire Easterly
17 November, 2011
His 498C
Kosso
A Clash of Violence, Religion, and Civilization
The shock of being exposed to violently new religious practices was an overwhelming
ordeal to the Spanish Conquistadors when they first encountered the Aztec in 1519. Not only did
these soldiers and clergymen immediately categorize the Aztecs as brutal savages, but they
looked internally at their own religion in response. Through their own comparisons of these two
religions, the Spanish used religion as a weapon and justification against the Aztec Empire,
leading to its swift downfall. The element of violence in the Aztec religion challenged the
Spanish conquistadors’ own religious identity and their personal views of worship, causing the
Spanish to increase their motivation to conquer and convert the Aztec people.
This paper will begin by explaining the importance of the Aztec capital city,
Tenochtitlan, and how its mythology and origins is the foundation of Aztec religion. Secondly,
fundamentals of Aztec religion will be explained, especially emphasizing the gods, cosmos, and
why sacrifices were perceived as vital to Aztec survival. The taboo element of cannibalism will
be addressed, along with the metaphorically religious representation of the human body. The
next part will explain Aztec warfare and imperialism, along with the enemies of the Aztecs and
the Triple Alliance. Then, first contact with the Spanish will uncover how the conquistadors and
friars viewed Aztec religion, and the contrast between the Aztecs and Christianity. Lastly, the
differences in religions and the Spanish’s view of Aztec ‘brutality and blood thrust’ will explain
the justifications of conquering and converting the Aztec people.
Foremost, it is pivotal to understand Aztec mythology, tradition, and their environment,
to comprehend why human sacrifice was practiced. The Aztec religion involved human sacrifice
1
not merely for revenge, blood thirst, or as a form of oppression and control, but as a way of
keeping their world functioning and the gods appeased. The basis of Aztec religion was that in
the creation of the earth, the gods had sacrificed themselves to bring life and to benefit mankind.
Therefore, the gods had to be constantly served through ritual offerings of human blood to repay
their debts.1 The founding of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire, and its mythological
origins, began the involvement of the gods directly to the ancestors of the Aztecs. The myth of
the city explains that the god of war and tribute, Huitzilopochtil, guided Aztec ancestors to
establish a city in the location where they would see an eagle eating a snake perched on a fruitbearing cactus.2 This image can be connected to human sacrifice. The cactus stood for the lavish
offering of sacrificed hearts, and the eagle embodied the sun god devouring on hearts and calling
upon more offerings.3 Thus, Tenochtitlan was constructed in a precise and symbolic manner in
accordance with their religion. The city was laid out in four parts, imitating the four cosmos, as
1
Hofstadter
David Carrasco, Religions of Mesoamerica: Cosmovision and Ceremonia Centers [Illinois:
Waveand Press, Inc., 1990], 42.
3
Burr Cartwright Brundage, The Fifth Sun: Aztec Gods, Aztec World [Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1979], 195.
2
2
illustrated in the Codex Mendoza in Figure 1. In this way, the city itself was a religious symbol. 4
In the center was the Templo Mayor, which was important not only because it held the shrines of
the gods Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc (god of rain), but because it held more than 100 caches of
ritual offerings, buried underneath the floors.5 Pyramid structures were symbolic because they
served as replicas of axis mundi (cosmic mountains) where ritual performances connected
Tenochtitlan with the stars, sun, and other celestial influences to the earth.6
Besides the city being a religious monument, it was the center of Mesoamerica’s trade
and agricultural production, because of its abundant resources. It is estimated that up to 200,000
people inhabited the city.7 Religion could not be separated in Aztec society because it was
literally the foundation of their city, with images and artworks of deities and gods surrounding
most buildings. Many elements of Tenochtitlan were designed for human sacrifice, implying that
it was a common occurrence in public areas.
4
Carrasco, Religions of Mesoamerica, 41.
Ibid., 70.
6
Ibid., 52.
7
Richard F.Townsend, The Aztecs [London: Thames &Hudson Ltd.], 46.
5
3
Human sacrifice was not committed for the sake of violence. Instead, it was performed
for the gods and ultimately for the continuation of Aztec and human existence on earth. Human
sacrifice was practiced throughout most cultures of Mesoamerica, but Aztec practices were more
intensive. In Aztec mythology, human sacrifice and bloodletting were a “necessary function in
the supernatural world.”8 Sacrificial tributes were not only capture during battle from
neighboring enemies, but included willing participants of all economic classes, genders and
ages.9 Kings and their wives performance bloodletting in a specific ways: they would make
incisions on their genitals, giving blood to the god of agricultural that would make the soil more
fertile for the next crop cycle. Aztec time, religion, and mythology are the foundations for
violent offerings: “just as a transformative reality fused time inseparably with things of space, so
too a hungry cosmos that ate to live fused life and creation inseparably with death and
destruction”.10 It was Aztec belief that the gods needed to eat as well, and that by offering human
blood, animals, corn, and other crops, the gods were being nourished. Natural disasters that
affected the population, like droughts, where also thought to affect the gods as well. This
ideology is where the element of cannibalism becomes associated with sacrifices.
Cannibalism was a way to revive not only one’s self, but to rejuvenate the gods as well.
Aztecs believed that the gods needed food and replenishing just like humans. When sacrificing
war prisoners and engaging in cannibalism, it was thought to “pass on the vigor and heroism
along so there would be further war, which in turn would produce further sacrifice.”11
8
Brundage, The Fifth Sun, 209.
Kay Almere Read, Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos [Bloomington: Indiana University,
1998], 129.
10
Read, Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos, 138.
11
Brundage The Fifth Sun, 195.
9
4
Cannibalism was thought to transfer the energy of one body to the other by consuming that
energy.
Aztecs believed that the human body was a sacred vessel, with three parts that
symbolized the three levels of the cosmos. The head was associated with Ithuicatl (heavenly
water). The heart was related to a lower heaven, and the liver was associated with the spitiual
forces of the underworld.12 Besides this ideology of human bodies representing the heavens,
Aztecs believed that human beings were born with tonalli and teyolia. Tonalli was a powerful
divine force existing in the head. According to Aztec legend, the only source of tonalli came
from the god Ometeolu who sent the energy to the embryo inside the woman’s uterus at the
precise moment of conception.13 At four months of age, Aztec infants were taken by their
mothers to the temple to undergo a ritual that would release their tonalli into the air. The priest
would lightly cut the infant’s ear lobes and would hold the baby uncomfortably close to the
sacred fire, symbolically singeing it, to release the tonalli and prepare the child for its role as
corn for the cosmos. Humans were thought to be spiritual food for the gods, therefore reinforcing
the need for cannibalism.
Teyolia was an energy located in the heart and provided the ability for a person to have
sensibilities and thinking patterns. Priests, artists, and people impersonating deities at festivals
were believed to contain more teyolia. The Aztecs believed that once a person died, their teyolia
was released into the ‘sky of the sun’ (world of the dead) and transformed into a hummingbird.14
Teyolia had the power to give energy to the sun, especially if it originated from the heart of an
enemy warrior. This is why human sacrifice was practiced: it was essential to released energy in
12
Carrasco, Religions of Mesoamerica, 53.
Ibid., 68.
14
ibid., 69
13
5
the human body to the gods. As with the infant ceremony previously exemplified, human
sacrifice was not always fatal, and was believed to be a rite of passage for new citizens of the
Aztec Empire. Another example of this is the education system. Boys in school were expected to
perform daily penance and prayer by striking themselves with agave thorns15. The two types of
school both had different forms of rituals and sacrifices. Tepuchcalli trained youth for services in
war and Calmecao trained students for priesthood. These two ‘career’ paths, warrior and priest,
showed how important and interconnected war and religion were to the Aztecs.
Aztec religious ceremonies occurred in three stages: a period of ritual preparation,
ceremonial sacrifice, and certain acts of feeding and nourishing the gods and the community.
16
Ritual preparation included fasting and offerings of food and flowers at altars. Willing
sacrificial participants viewed death by sacrifice to be more honorable than dying from natural
causes. Human sacrifice was the “ultimate test of the manhood of those offered up but also to
renew the god for whom sacrifice was intended.”17 These teotl ixiptlas impersonated deities and
were sacrificed during the ceremony. One particular ceremony, New Fire Ceremony, happened
only once every 52 years, when the Aztecs believed it was moment when the three different time
planes intersected. This ceremony included the sacrifice of an enemy warrior, whose sacrifice
would mark the rejuvenation of all cycles of time.18 Most often, the hearts of the sacrifice were
cut out and raised to the sky, but other ways of sacrifice existed. Sacrificial humans were
sometimes drowned, pierced by arrows, or decapitated. Ceremonies that involved large quantities
of human sacrifices were not common occurrence, but the Spanish who wrote about the Aztecs
placed heavy focus on these events. For example, many Spanish writers focus on the incident
15
Kay A. Reed
ibid., 48
17
Brundage, The Fifth Sun 209
18
Carrasco, Religions of Mesoamerica, 56
16
6
when the emperor Ahuitzolt ordered 20,000 captured warriors slaughtered in a single
ceremony.19
Accumulating enemy warriors often happened through scheduled warfare, called
Xochiyaoyotl or Flower Wars between 1450-1519. Warriors were from members of the Triple
Alliance: Tenochititlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. There were many purposes for these wars. One
was to gain prisoners for sacrificial ceremonies, not to destroy the people or their land: “Victory
did not involve the destruction of the target polity’s army but their acquiescence in being
tributaries of the Aztecs.”20 Another reason was to test warriors and to achieve personal honor
through victory. Also, priests could request a battle if the gods spoke to them and reported that
they were hungry or thirsty.
Many historians disagree about why the Flower Wars happened and if it was influenced
by religious or political reasons. In regards to the religious aspect, the origins of war started with
the gods. The four creator gods (representing the forces of wind, earth, fire, and rain21) created
war in order to satisfy the sun, because only blood and hearts could substance him, and war
would be a constant source of obtaining sacrifices from humans.22 An Aztec poem exemplifies
this idea of sacrificial offering: “It seems as if the sun and the God of Earth named Tlaltecuhtli
wish to rejoice; they want to give food and drink to the gods of heaven and hell, regaling them
with the flesh and blood of men who must die in this war.”23 For the political argument,
historians believed that when the Aztec captured enemy warriors, they were displaying their
power to neighboring tribes and their tributary states. Another argument is political
19
Hofstadter
Ross Hassig, War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica [Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1992], 21.
21
Keen 30
22
Brundage 196
23
Keen 43
20
7
manipulation: “[…] imperial kings embarked on military campaigns to validate their position and
leadership qualities and to demonstrate a continuing willingness to consolidate the system and
extend it.”24 It is was a fusion between religion and political control. Just like every other
element in Aztec society and culture, religion could not be separated, especially from politics.
The History of the Indies by Duran notes that “The purpose of this tribute [humans] was to show
the magnificence and authority of the Aztec nation and so the Aztecs would be held to be the
lords of all created things, upon the waters as well as the earth.”25. He also analyses the purpose
of the Flower Wars: “This was their goal: to seize yet not to slay; to do no harm to man or
woman, to a home or cornfield, but to feed the idol! To feed human flesh to the accursed and
famished butchers.”26 Once a warrior was captured, the body belonged to the gods and no one
was allowed to harm or violate the prisoner.27
The Aztec empire was imperialistic, but they were not ridged in their ruling. They
allowed conquered towns to keep their local government, laws and customs. The Aztecs used
these conquered peoples as tributary partners. In this imperialistic system, the economy and
religion often went together: “religious orthodoxy in Tenochtitlan solidly supported the state and
its imperial aspirations, probably because the state was so successful and the various cults and
temples benefited economically.”28 Taking prisoners not only allowed the Aztec to display their
powers, but also enabled them to display their power, image and military might. Military success
in the Aztec Empire was achieved primarily through the capture of enemy soldiers. Repeated
failure to capture enemies could end an Aztec soldier’s career. These captives taken were used
24
Hassig 264
Duran 205
26
Duran 94
27
Brundage, 210
28
Hassig 263
25
8
not only as a measurement of a soldier’s competence but also as sacrifices for ceremonies.
Religion was tied to actions on the battlefield.
The capture of enemy peoples for sacrifice created internal discontent and made the
conquered people resent the Aztecs. Neighboring cities had good reasons to be resentful of the
Aztecs. Aztecs had a growing population with limited agricultural soil, and used the tributary
system to make up for these lack of resources: “as part of its tributary obligation, each major
town and its dependencies were required to grow food for the Aztec army arrived.”29 The
Texlacan people were one of Aztec’s most fierce enemies, who eventually sided with the
Spanish conquistadors in defeating the Aztecs. Another enemy, the Purepecha, were skilled
warriors and were able to stop the Aztec Empire from expanding westward.
Violence in Aztec cannot be separated from religion in Aztec culture cannot be separated:
they are a unified entity that gave life to the earth and life to their gods. The Aztecs did not kill
captives solely for the sake of violence: they truly believed bloodletting is what kept the earth
turning and their empire powerful. When the Spanish first made contact with the Aztecs,
historians believed that they embellished and exaggerated the amount of human sacrifice and the
degree of torture and violence involved in their ceremonies. This manipulation of the Aztec’s
religion was used as justification of the conquistadors and friars to conquer and convert the
Aztec people. The Spanish’s interactions with the Aztecs were unique, and needs to be
investigated before attempting to understand how and why Cortés and his army were able to
swiftly defeat the Aztec empire.
It is important to realize that the sources available to historians regarding the interactions
between Cortés, Montezuma and the conquest and defeat of the Aztecs mainly come from
29
Hassig, War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica, 145.
9
Spanish sources, therefore being biased and written in a western perspective. Letters to the King
written by Cortés are priceless primary documents, but are obviously written for a special
audience and through the eyes of a conquistador. Journals of Friars are also valuable, but have
the same weaknesses. Aztec written word is lost at this time, but their art work give some
insights as to how these people interpreted the downfall of their empire. The Aztecs kept copious
illustrated manuscripts, filled with pictograph symbols to document their history, religion, and
daily life. The Spanish destroyed most of these. What is clearly present in the sources we do
have indicate that importance of religion to the conquistadors and their negative view of Aztec
human sacrifice.
The first contact between the Spanish and the Aztecs is essential in understanding
European views of human sacrifice. Imperial Spain in the sixteenth century followed an
expansionist ideology once they were able to defeat the Moors and take their territory from the
Iberian Peninsula. Spain’s defeat of the Muslims “bred in the Spaniard an attitude compounded
of a firm belief in the superiority of his faith”. 30 Spain’s primary goals in their exploration in the
Americas were to extract wealth, tribute and labor from the Native Americans and convert souls
for the Spanish Crown. The conquest of the Aztecs was no exception. Hernán Cortés landed in
the Yucatan Peninsula in 1519. His army took over Veracruz and here he met messengers from
Montezuma, the Aztec king. Throughout Cortés’ journey, he heard rumors of a wealthy
civilization that were the dominating and most feared power in the region, and believed that the
Aztecs must be these people. He requested to meet with Montezuma, but was denied by the
tributaries. Cortés marched with his men towards Tenochtitlan and made alliances with various
Aztec enemy nations, like the Tlaxcalans. When the Tlaxcalans told Cortés of the Aztecs and
30
Keen 56
10
their practice of human sacrifice, “he could not endure to see or hear of such abominations, such
cruel human sacrifices and unnatural offenses they practiced”31. As Cortes conquered tribute
villages during his journey to the Aztec city, he demanded that they stop performing human
sacrifices at once and began to introduce Christianity to the leaders. Cortés was a deeply
religious man, who “appear[ed] to think of the whole enterprise of conquest as a holy crusade
and of himself as God’s appointed agent to free the natives of Mexico from the power of the
devil”32. Cortés was not only interested in conquering indigenous people and extracting tribute to
the Crown, but wanted to extract souls for the Crown and for God as well. The use of the term
‘devil’ towards the Aztec and other Mesoamerica people denotes the mindset that the Spanish
were superior in faith, strength and culture. When talking to the priests of a Mesoamerican
village, Cortés explains that his reason for conquering was that “the Mexican people might be led
to abandon forever the religion of their accursed idols, do away with human sacrifice, and leave
off the practice of kidnapping.”33 However, if the Aztec were to immediately end human
sacrifice, their world would essentially end, for bloodletting kept the gods appeased and the sun
to continue to rise each morning.
This combination of conquest and conversion is illustrated in the incident in Sempoalla
involving five tax collectors sent from Montezuma, a similar situation to the messengers at
Veracruz. The tax collectors approached the leaders of Sempoalla, demanding 40 young men and
women to be sacrificed to the god of war that he might grant them victory over the mysterious
foreigners (the Spanish).34 Cortés was outraged by this request, and demanded the chiefs to take
the tax collectors as captives, for his king “had commissioned him to punish those who did evil
31
Braden, 94
Braden 81
33
Ibid., 89.
34
Braden 91
32
11
and especially to forbid kidnapping and human sacrifices”.35 The Tlaxalans were resentful of the
Aztecs for demanding sacrificial victims for decades, and decided that the best way to defeat
their foe was by making an alliance with the Spanish when Cortés offered to lead them to victory
over the Aztecs.
What made the conquest of the Aztecs different than other Spanish expeditions was the
extent of the religious zeal and passion of Cortés. While all Spanish conquistadors were Catholic
and did include conversion of indigenous peoples a requirement, Cortés was more intense and
believed it was his personal responsibility to stop the natives from “sinning”, or from performing
human sacrifice and not following God’s will. Cortés “[…] appears to think of the whole
enterprise of conquest as a holy crusade and of himself as God’s appointed agent to free the
natives of Mexico from the power of the devil”36. In his letters to King Charles V, he emphasizes
the need to have priests and bishops present to convert the Aztecs and help their transition from
savage murders to civilized beings: “I beg therefore that your majesty may appeal to the Pope, to
grant him the tenths for this purpose, giving him to understand the service which will be
rendered to our Lord God by the conversion of these people, and that the object can be attained
in no other way.”.37 Besides needing priests for the natives, Cortés also wanted holy agents in
the Americas for the spirits of the Spanish who where “cut off from all external aid to
conscience”. 38 Throughout the letters, Cortés repeatedly mentions religion, the evilness of
human sacrifice, and how blind the people were to the “true faith.”.
35
Braden 91
Braden 81
37
Cortés 281
38
Cortés 283
36
12
Once the Spanish reached Tenochtitluan, Montezuma allowed Cortés to enter into the
city after many requests, and this proved to be political suicide for his career and for the future of
the Aztecs. There were many warning signs that predicted the fall of the Aztecs that should have
been a warning to defend themselves against the Spanish. One incident involved the massacre in
Cholula, Cortés arrived in Cholula and began the traditional actions that conquistadors were
required to perform before taking violent actions against indigenous peoples. Cortés defends his
actions in his letters to King Charles V: “I began to deliver my requerimiento in due form […]
but the more I endeavored to admonish them and treat them with peaceable words, the more
fiercely they attacked us”. 39 The Requerimiento was a document that conquistadors were
required to read out loud to the natives to explain their reasoning for conquering and informing
them that if they submit peacefully they would not take violent measures against them.
Obviously, there some fundamental issues here like language barriers. While some conquistadors
had translators, most did not. And if there were translators, natives had never heard of Spain
before, the Pope or Catholicism. Even after this small fight was over and the Spanish settled
there for a few days, Cortés slaughtered the Cholula nobility and warriors after they left a
ceremony because he thought they were planning an attack against him and his army. 40
News spread of the massacre to Tenochtitluan, and the people grew fearful and
suspicious of the Spanish. Other bad omens occurred that made the Aztecs fearful of the Spanish
as well. For instance, a group of Aztec nobilities were hunting and brought back a bird as a
present for Montezuma. When Montezuma saw the bird, he noticed a mirror like object on its
forehead, and in the reflection he saw foreign warriors burning the city down.41 Another omen
39
Cortés 43
Keen 52
41
Schwartz, 32
40
13
also happened: “A group of sorcerers and soothsayers sent by the King to cast spells over the
Spanish were stopped by the young god Tezcatlipuca, who conjured before their terrified eyes a
vision of Tenochtitluan burning to the ground”. 42 Myths of other omens, such as fire falling
from the sky, a temple being struck with lightening, and a lake surrounding the city bubbled as if
the water temperature was extremely hot. Many historians agree that Monetzuma ultimately
decided that his curiosity of the foreigners out weighted these bad omens.
Montezuma greeted the Spanish and invited Cortés and his men to stay in the city. There
are conflicting sources that claim it was impossible to see the emperor, for Aztec legend says the
king was a sacred vessel and it was an insult to the gods to gaze upon his face. However, Cortés’
letters and other Spanish sources say that this meeting happened. These sources also note that
one reason Montezuma was eager to meet this these strangers was because he believed that
Cortés was a reincarnation of their god, Quetzalcoatl, who was represented as a feathered serpent
and was god of the wind, of civilization and of creation.43
Legend says that Quetzalcoatl was supposed to return to regain this lost throne in the year
of 1519, which mysteriously was the year that the Spanish arrived. In addition, the Aztec could
not help but parallel the Aztec’s arrival with their history. The Aztecs believed their ancestors
originated from somewhere north and fought for political dominance. The Spanish also arrived
from the north, and seemed to be a powerful clan. Also, the Aztecs saw symbols in their
geographic venture to their land: they came across the ocean, the “primordial mother of waters,
and they traveled from the east, traditionally held as the direction of authority among
Mesoamerican peoples.”44 Aztecs paid close attention to symbols, time, and relations to the
42
Keen 54
Schwartz, 9
44
Ibid.,, 20.
43
14
cosmos, which is perhaps why Motecuhzoma, by accident, sparked the fall of the empire by
inviting Cortes and his army into the city.
After the Spanish were able to conquer Granada, the last Muslim kingdom, in 1492, the
conquest acted as a catalyst to Spanish exploration abroad, even if they did respect their culture.
Historian Schwartz argues that: “Each conquest further raised individual Spanish hopes of fame
and fortune, and all were justified as expeditions that extended the sovereignty of the Spanish
crown and the truth of the Roman Catholic faith”.45 The violent lifestyle and rituals of the Aztecs
made the conquest of Tenochitatln famous back in Spain, for the domination of godless people
made people believe that Spain had divine right and the favor of God to spread their faith
to’savages’, especially to the Aztecs who were almost an equal match to the Spanish army.
Schwartz also notes: “In the Yucatan and Mexico, the Spaniards encountered for the first time
ancient civilizations that were structured in hierarchical societies, organized in large kingdoms
and willing to defend their way of life”. 46
Once the Spanish marched into Tenchotitlan, Cortés and his army were invited to stay in
the city and were given tours of the temples and palaces. Cortés and other conquistadors were
greatly impressed with the art, architecture and technology in the city. Cortés notes in his letters:
“The mode of life if its people was about the same as in Spain, with just as much harmony and
order; and considering that these people were barbarians, cut off from the knowledge of God,
and other civilized people, it is wonderful what they have attained in every respect”.47 If the
Spanish admired the city and somewhat claimed that they had some civilized elements, then why
did the Spanish want to conquer the people? It is because religion was such a driving motivator,
45
Schwartz, 13.
Schwartz, 13
47
Cortés, 59-60
46
15
and the Aztec’s lack of ‘faith’ and their false idols and violent rituals justified the Spanish in
conquering these people. The Spanish also admitted that the Moors in Spain had advance
technology, but their different religion is what made them barbaric and godless people. Cortés
and other writers: “occasionally […] compare Moslem and Aztec cultural achievements, to the
advantage of the latter, in order to demonstrate the high level of civilization attainted by the
Aztecs”. 48 While admitted that both their ‘enemies’ the Aztecs and Muslims, were in essence an
advanced civilization, their religious views and practices were unforgivable to the Catholic
Spaniards.
The Spanish were able to swiftly take control of Tenochtitluan swifty by kidnapping
Montezuma in his own palace after only 8 days.49 Their first step in the insurgency was to
destroy the Aztec temples and idols and replace them with crosses and Catholic images. This
action in of itself proves that the Spanish could not tolerate Aztec religion and were horrified by
human sacrifice, for they also burned temples that contacted sacrificial human hearts and blood.
At this point, the Spanish had not official begun war with the Aztecs. During this confusing
period, Cortes had to leave the city and left his lieutenant, Pedro de Alvarado, in charge of the
army. Alvarado ordered a massacre of the leading Aztec chiefs and warriors as they celebrated a
religious ceremony for the god Huitzilopochtli.50 This sparked the actual fighting in the battle for
Tenochtituan. The Aztecs, who were very unhappy with Monetzuma’s actions towards the
Spanish, elected a new leader, Cuitlahuac, to defend their city. Even though the Aztecs were
fierce warriors and had the home advantage, they could not compete with Spanish weaponry.
Already their numbers decreased after the spread of smallpox begun, thanks to the Europeans
48
Keen 56
Schwartz, 127
50
Keen, 54
49
16
and the Aztec’s fragile immune system against foreign diseases. Tenochtituan fell, and the
Spanish were once again victorious against the indigenous Native Americans.
Once the Aztecs were defeated, Cortes made Tenocitihuan the new capital of New Spain.
Immediately, priests and friars traveled to the city to convert the natives. The aftermaths of the
Spain conquest was a struggle between many powers back in Spain. Spanish thought in the
sixteenth century in regards to colonies in the Americas was a ideological, political, and religious
struggle between the Church, the Crown and the conquistadors.51 The main question was who
should control Indian labor and tribute, and how the conversion of the natives should be handles.
The religious practices that the Spanish witnessed in Tenochtitlan was the catalyst to the Spanish
friar’s zealous converting frenzy of these godless, savages. The religious sects that came after the
conquest were the Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, and later the Jesuits. The first group
to travel to Tenochitualn was the Dominicans, who “tended to take a more formal position in
terms of ideology and were less willing to look for parallels in indigenous religion which might
lead native peoples to convert more easily”.52
Even though the Spanish greatly distanced themselves and their culture from the Aztecs,
it is interesting to note the similarities of the Aztec religion and Christianity. The Spanish did not
want to acknowledge these similarities that could potentially connect these two peoples, but
instead sought to ostracize the Aztecs and their peculiar use of human sacrifice. However, they
did identify that theses similarities would help in converting the Aztec people in the future. Jesus
can be compared to the myth of Quetzalcoatl, who vanished but was expected to return. Aztec
religious hierarchy was similar to the organization of the priesthood in Rome. Young Aztec men
were trained to priesthood, and women were admitted for unique services for specific gods and
51
52
Keen, 72
Schwarts, 25
17
goddesses.53 The cross was also present in the artworks throughout Mesoamerica, though the
origin of cross in Mexico is unclear54. Duran makes a comparison of an Aztec celebration that is
similar to Easter: “From these things two observations can be made: either (as I have stated) our
Holy Christian religion was known in this land or the devil […] forced the Indians to imitate the
ceremonies of the Christian Catholic religion in his own service and cult, being thus adored and
served”55. The present of the cross to the Spanish priests “seemed sure proof that the gospel had
been preached there, but that in some fashion the worship of the cross had been taken advantage
of by the devils”, a term used by the Spanish when referring to the Aztec people.56
The writings of histories and accounts about the Aztecs were very popular back in Spain,
and histories written years afterwards were still a hot topic of interest. Most of these writings
agreed that the Spanish were ironically doing the Aztecs a favor by conquering and converting
the people. Once writer, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda who never went to the Americas himself but
received hi information from his friend, Cortés, calculated that “Assuming that twenty thousand
persons had been sacrificed each year on the Aztec altars, he reckoned that six hundred thousand
lives had been saved in the thirty years since the Conquest”.57 Another writer, Francisco Lopéz
de Gómava, who was hired by Cortéz to write an account of the conquest, wrote that “Now
through the Grace of God they [Aztecs] are Christian and free from the sacrifice and eating of
men[…] owe much to the Spaniards who conquered and converted them”.58 The idea of the
Spanish doing the Natives a favor by converting and conquering them was not just an ideal held
53
Charles S. Braden, Religious Aspects of the Conquest of Mexico [North Carolina: Duke
Univerrsity Press, 1930], 61.
54
Ibid., 62-63.
55
Duran 75
56
Ibid., 63.
57
Keen 82
58
Keen, 83
18
by the conquistadors, but by Spaniards years after the conquest. As Keen observes, “Groups of
writers form the Americas or about Indians closely toed to the encomendero and conquistador
interests, stressed the misery of commoners under Aztec rule, and praised the conquest as a
liberator of the Indian from abject material and spiritual slavery”.59 While the Aztecs were
grouped together with the rest of Native American ‘savages’, paradoxically they were set apart
from other groups because of their practice of human sacrifice.
59
Keen 77
19