Table of Contents
Introduction: A Controversial Figure
Oh, Hernán Cortés. Controversial. Why controversial? Because it’s curious, he is someone who is easily criticized for the actions he carried out, and yet his impact on history is as absolutely misunderstood as it is spectacular. That is, if there is something that would definitively change not only the relations between America and Europe, but the world in general, it was the actions he undertook. Obviously, it’s not just him, but what he would lead after the conquest of the Aztec Empire. So, if you agree, let’s focus on Cortés.
Semantic Clarification: Aztec vs. Mexica
So, let’s start with a semantic clarification, which is the term Aztec. We know that the people Cortés defeated in the city of Tenochtitlan did not call themselves Aztecs. The Aztecs were their almost legendary ancestors. They saw themselves as Mexica, which is the more correct term in historiography. But throughout this program, I am going to use both Aztec and Mexica equally, essentially because Aztec is the word most widely used in outreach programs, to the point that the current Republic of Mexico itself is referred to as the “Aztec state,” even though from a historical point of view, where Mexico is today, apart from the descendants of the Aztecs, there were other pre-Columbian peoples like the Mayas of the Yucatán or the Chichimecas of the north.
Cortés’s Origins and Ambition
That point clarified, let’s get to our character, Hernán Cortés. This gentleman from Extremadura was born in Medellín in 1475, and we must understand that he was born into what we can define as the low nobility. He comes from a family of hidalgos. His father, furthermore, was an hidalgo who had fallen on hard times. And this will mark Hernán Cortés’s life because one of his great obsessions will be not only to get rich, but above all to become noble. And in the long run, the lack of immediate recognition for what he accomplished would be constrained precisely by the fact that he was not a great noble. Despite having conquered an entire empire, that of the Aztecs, his recognition as a great conqueror in Spain, in European Spain, was very limited because he did not come from those great families with whom great feats were usually associated in those times.
Early Life and Legal Training
What’s more, having been born in Medellín, his parents initially thought he might have a place in the world of letters, and they sent him to study in Salamanca at 15 years old, around 1500, with the aim of him getting a bachelor’s degree to get by. He doesn’t manage to obtain it. He spends less than two years in Salamanca, but from Salamanca, he will jump to working in Valladoliz because he has a good hand, he manages Castilian well, and he even gets a handle on Latin. Valladoliz, which in those times was already, in a way, the de facto seat of the Court of Castile. In Valladoliz, Cortés starts working as a scribe, and this will be very interesting, it’s a point to remember because this will allow him to master and manage all the intricacies of Castilian law, something that will be very useful for his career as a conqueror a few years later.
The Journey to America
In 1500, the American adventure is a very limited one for two reasons. They haven’t reached China. Let’s remember that Columbus’s great objective was to demonstrate that one could reach the coasts of China by crossing the Atlantic. He didn’t know there was an entire continent in the middle. So, the first interest, trade with China, hadn’t happened yet. And second, the discovered lands are very limited because we are talking about the Caribbean islands. So, there is doubt on the part of the young Cortés whether to go to America or stay in Europe and go to Italy for the military campaigns there. In the end, he opted to go to America, and in 1504, we know he had arrived on Hispaniola.
Life in the Antilles and Cuba
With all this, Cortés’s first years in America are somewhat confusing. What does seem clear is that he ends up settling on Hispaniola, in Santo Domingo. We are looking at a member of the low nobility, an hidalgo who is seeking his economic future in the Antilles, who has no military background at all, but who has some university education. This will serve him well because among the people arriving in America, there aren’t many literate men, and having a literate man is useful. Cortés can do that job of a scribe until in 1511, we have the figure of Diego de Velázquez, who is entrusted with the conquest and colonization of Cuba. And this will allow Cortés to improve his properties. He will have properties in Cuba and earn the trust of Velázquez, who becomes first the conqueror and then the governor of the island of Cuba.
The Context of the 1519 Expedition
Two hundred kilometers further west, we had the coast of the American continent, something they didn’t know was the continent yet, which is the Yucatán Peninsula. There are two expeditions sent by Velázquez before the one Hernán Cortés will command. In 1517 and in 1518 they did not have positive results, so Velázquez assembles a new expedition to be commanded by Hernán Cortés, for which Cortés himself will put up money for financing. We must remember, this is very interesting, that most of the conquest of America is through private enterprises, because it is the conquerors putting up their own silver who carry out this work. So, it is not a particularly ambitious enterprise that Hernán Cortés initially had in his head on behalf of Velázquez. And at the beginning of 1519, they cross that space between Cuba and Mexico, and the adventure of the conquest of Mexico begins.
The Factors of Conquest: Technology
The adventure begins in the Yucatán Peninsula. And here it is necessary to make a series of fundamental points. First, these pre-Columbian cultures were technologically in the transition from the Neolithic to metallurgy. The type of metals they used was very limited, so technologically, we are not dealing with people who have a notable military capacity like the one the Spanish were bringing. There is a superiority in military technology, but not only military technology, it is also a matter of military and social organization in general.
The Factors of Conquest: Local Alliances
But the second, very important point is that Cortés very quickly manages to secure the alliance of the people he encounters along the way, to the point that when he finally reaches the definitive conquest of Tenochtitlan, he will do so with a few hundred Spaniards and tens of thousands of Americans—native allies. So, to that superiority of military technology was added the fact that a very high percentage of the conquering army was not European; they were Americans.
The Factors of Conquest: Disease
Well, there is a third element, the viral element, which is that the Spanish carried diseases that the Americans did not know and that decimated the native people, something that affected Cortés’s enemies and his allies equally.
The Translators: Aguilar and Malinche
He found a Spaniard, Jerónimo Aguilar, who had spent several years as a slave to these Mayas, but that allowed Jerónimo Aguilar to learn the Mayan languages and he will be a good interpreter for Hernán Cortés. But as he advanced toward Tabasco, he would find his second “tongue,” the very well-known Malinche. Malinche is a young woman originally of Nahua linguistic origin—Aztec. When these Mayas have to bow their heads to Cortés, she is offered to him as one of the gifts. Malinche had the advantage that she spoke both Nahuatl and Maya. So, when Cortés continues to advance along the coast of Mexico, he will be able to speak with Jerónimo in Spanish, who would translate to Malinche in Maya, and then Malinche would speak in Nahuatl with the locals. But furthermore, Malinche would be someone who would take care to inform Cortés, not just as an interpreter, but to explain the reality of that Mexica world.
The “Malinchista” Controversy
Surely, you will remember that the term malinchista is almost an insult in Mexico today. Yes, like a traitor, right? That’s it, she is the one who betrays. So, of course, Malinche’s case is very curious because she had been given as a slave to this world of the Mayas. Cortés gives her freedom. Malinche’s material living conditions improved notably. And one might ask, why did this woman in 1519 have to be aware that 300 years later the inhabitants of that territory would become independent, and therefore she had to be faithful to those who would live in that territory 300 years later, submitting herself to that situation of slavery? It seems incredible. It seems incredible that people don’t want to sacrifice themselves for what will happen in the world 300 years later. So everyone who uses the term malinchista with that pejorative character should take note.
Cortés’s Strategy: Cunning over Force
Except for the Cuba campaign, Hernán Cortés had not really been in military operations. He will rely on his intuition, on his intelligence to solve military problems, and he will be able to conquer an immense empire by applying a lot of cunning and intelligence. The first example is how he knew how to take advantage of Malinche. The second, how quickly he understood the internal conflicts among the natives of America to start looking for “the enemy of my enemy can be my friend.” And the third is that whenever he could, he tried to avoid combat and tried to establish some type of negotiation.
The Founding of Veracruz: A Legal Maneuver
He advances and will arrive at the city of Veracruz. This is a very interesting moment because the mission Cortés has is to skirt the coast. But he wants to enter. And for that, they carry out a very interesting action in the spring of 1519, which was the founding of the city of Veracruz. Why is that move interesting? Because what he does is that with the 500-plus Spaniards who accompany him, they gather in an Open Cabildo (Council). They are free men. And so, once the city of Veracruz is constituted, that cabildo of Veracruz gives new instructions to Hernán Cortés, which is to go into the interior of Mexico to see what’s going on with these Aztecs. Cortés is not disobeying Velázquez’s orders. Cortés is adhering to the new orders he has received from a new authority, which is the legally established city of Veracruz.
The Alliance with Tlaxcala
He begins to advance into the interior and will arrive at Tlaxcala, one of the few cities that were still able to resist the imperialist pressure of the Aztecs. They were the great enemies of the Aztecs. Cortés considered the Tlaxcalans to be the best allies to continue advancing. The Tlaxcalans considered Cortés to be the best ally to confront the Aztecs. A singular communion of interests. Because we mustn’t forget that the Tlaxcalans ended up being conquerors under the same conditions as the Spanish and ended up having the same amount of privileges as the Spanish. This is very interesting because that is the part of the history that we forget to tell. These so-called “Indian friends” were conquerors and achieved the privileges of the other conquerors who came from Europe.
Arrival in Tenochtitlan
Already with the support of the Tlaxcalans, they arrive at the great city in the lake of Mexico, the great city of Tenochtitlan, which is where the head of that Aztec state was and where they will meet the sovereign, Moctezuma II. He receives him with cordiality and certain reservations. Here is the famous legend that there is a god, Quetzalcoatl, who left and one day was to return. They soon saw that these bearded men had little of gods and very much of humans.
The Narváez Complication
But Cortés is informed that a new group of Spaniards has disembarked in Veracruz. Because Governor Velázquez of Cuba is angry with Cortés and has assembled a new expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez. So Cortés leaves Tenochtitlan, leaving one of his lieutenants, Pedro de Alvarado, in charge, and goes to speak with Narváez. What Cortés manages to do is convince Narváez’s men to come work for him, to abandon Narváez.
Alvarado’s Massacre and “La Noche Triste”
In the interim, Pedro de Alvarado, who was not a man with Cortés’s cunning, was a bit more brutish. In that tension, there is a moment when he starts killing quite a few and arrests Moctezuma, makes him his prisoner. So when Cortés returns to Tenochtitlan, he finds a rather alarming situation. On June 30, 1520, Hernán Cortés decides to withdraw from the city in what became known as La Noche Triste (The Sad Night). In a moment prior, Moctezuma comes out to speak to the people, and his own people revolt and throw stones, arrows, and such. Moctezuma is badly wounded and dies.
The Siege and Fall of Tenochtitlan
Cortés has retreated and summons his Tlaxcalan allies, who had arrived by the thousands and will now arrive by the tens of thousands, and subjects Tenochtitlan to a systematic siege that will last more than a year. Here something very interesting will happen. The “I’m going to burn my ships” story is not quite like that. When they have to assault Tenochtitlan, they build ships—brigantines—but they also use much of the rigging that comes from the old ships. By November 1521, the conquest has ended, and Cortés replaces that head of the Aztec Empire with himself, meaning he not only has conquered the city, but he now dominates the entire territory that the Aztecs had controlled.
The Immense Scale of the Conquest
The change produced by that conquest is that with the conquest of the Mexica Empire, a territory was incorporated into the crown of Castile that was four times larger than Castile itself. In 1522, Cortés and his troops had doubled the population of Castile and had quadrupled the territory of Castile. From then on, they begin to realize that what they found on the other side of the Atlantic was a completely new world. By his death, Cortés had expanded the territories of Castile twelve-fold. Tenochtitlan, now converted into Mexico City, will become the largest city in the Hispanic monarchy.
Later Years, Expeditions, and Death
His position in Mexico has become very marginalized, so he has to pack his bags and go to Spain to negotiate with Emperor Charles V. We are talking about 1528. He decides to return to America. They will establish the viceroyalty of New Spain. This makes Hernán Cortés lose most of his political influence. Hence, he organizes new expeditions, like the one in 1535, which is what will take him to Baja California. That’s why that sea is called the Sea of Cortés. He returns to Spain in 1541 and will end up dying in a town near Seville in 1547.
Legacy and the Call for Apologies
The Spaniards who went to Mexico stayed in Mexico and reproduced in Mexico. So, when Mexicans today want the Spanish to apologize, well, they will have to ask themselves, looking in the mirror, “I apologize for the conquest that the ancestors of today’s Mexicans carried out.” It’s not our ancestors from modern Spain who went to conquer Mexico; it’s the ancestors of the Mexicans.
Final Assessment
What is undeniable is that the change produced by the conquest of the Mexica Empire by Cortés and his troops was brutal in the history of America, in the history of Spain, in the history of the world in general. It is then that they finally understood that they were facing a whole new continent. A character who, as I say, has the uniqueness of not having been a spectacular strategist in heroic military actions, but rather a guy with a very sharp intelligence.