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As the year 1519 began, the Aztecs were nervous, because it was the end of the 52-year cycle. Would the god Quetzalcoatl return to destroy the empire?
Strange things began to happen. A temple caught fire and burned to the ground, and a ball of fire streaked across the sky. These events seemed to be signs of terrible times to come. The Aztecs’ fears came true in a way that none of them could have imagined.
▲ In 1519, Aztec legend says that a bird came ashore with a mirror on its head. The Aztec ruler Montezuma II looked into the mirror and saw warriors approaching. They were riding on what he thought were deer.
Around the same time, Montezuma also saw a comet in the sky, another sign of danger. ▼
Montezuma
This fanciful drawing of Montezuma was a nineteenth-century European’s idea of what he looked like. ▶
Cortés
◀ Spanish explorer and conqueror Hernán Cortés landed in Tenochtitlan in 1519, just as the 52-year cycle was ending. He wanted gold for himself and Spain. To earn riches and the support of the King of Spain, he planned to conquer the Aztec empire. According to legend, after he arrived in Mexico, Cortés burned his ships so his men couldn’t leave. They would have to stay and fight.
◀ The Aztecs had never seen anything like Cortés’s huge ships before, and they were shocked. The Aztec name for ship was “mountain built on the water” and “house that moves across the sea.”
Stunned, the Aztecs watched as Cortés and his 500 men rode into the city on what looked like huge dogs. They carried magical weapons that rained fire from the sky. They spoke a strange language. Were they gods or demons? ▶
Check It Out!
Who was Doña Marina, and how did she help Cortés?
Doña Marina’s birth name was Malintzin. But the Spanish later baptized her Doña Marina. She came from Vera Cruz and was probably of noble birth. Doña Marina was important to Cortés’s understanding of the Aztecs. She could speak both Maya and Nahuatl, the Aztec language. A man from the Yucatán could translate Maya into Spanish. With these two translators, Cortés was able to understand the Aztecs.
▲ Cortés offered Montezuma tribute, but the Aztec leader feared Cortés might be Quetzalcoatl coming back to destroy the city. He gave Cortés a large gold disk, hoping to impress him. The Spanish visitor was impressed. He wanted all the gold he could get!
▲ Cortés soon took Montezuma prisoner, and fighting broke out between the Aztecs and the Spanish soldiers. Montezuma was killed in the fighting. But we don’t know exactly how he died. He may have been killed by the Spanish, or by his own people, who no longer believed in him as a leader.
▲ The Aztecs were no match for the Spanish, who had cannons, guns, and metal armor. Cortés put together a large fighting force that included many of the Aztecs’ enemies. They hated the Aztecs for forcing them to pay tribute and for taking their people as human sacrifices. By 1521, the city of Tenochtitlan was in ruins. More than 100,000 Aztecs starved to death or died in the fighting.
◀ Within ten years of Cortés’s conquest, Spain ruled all of Mexico. Europeans brought smallpox and other new diseases that killed millions of the native peoples. The Aztecs scattered, and many became slaves. The empire of the fifth Sun was over. Pictured is a figurine with the scars of smallpox.
