What do you think?
Rate this book
Cortés And The Downfall Of The Aztec Empire
This book is the story of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and most specifically, Cortes' influence on its conduct and consequences. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
The invasion began in February, 1519, and was declared victorious on August 13, 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish conquistadors and Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. During the Spanish campaign, Cortés allied with a number of the tributaries and rivals of the Aztecs, including the Totonacs, and the Tlaxcaltecas. After eight months of battles and intrigue, which overcame the diplomatic resistance of the Aztec Emperor Montezuma to his visit, Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519, where he took up residence. After an Aztec attack on Nauhtlan, a city on the coast, that left several Spaniards dead, Cortés took Montezuma captive in his own palace and ruled through him for months.
After the massacre at the Main Temple of Tenochtitlan and a rebellion by the population of the city, Cortés and his men had to fight their way out of the capital city in June, 1520. However, the Spanish and Tlaxcalans would return with reinforcements and a siege plan that led to the fall of Tenochtitlan a year later.
The collapse of the Aztec Empire was a major milestone in the formation of New Spain, which would not be formalized by the Spanish Crown until 1535.
The invasion began in February, 1519, and was declared victorious on August 13, 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish conquistadors and Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. During the Spanish campaign, Cortés allied with a number of the tributaries and rivals of the Aztecs, including the Totonacs, and the Tlaxcaltecas. After eight months of battles and intrigue, which overcame the diplomatic resistance of the Aztec Emperor Montezuma to his visit, Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519, where he took up residence. After an Aztec attack on Nauhtlan, a city on the coast, that left several Spaniards dead, Cortés took Montezuma captive in his own palace and ruled through him for months.
After the massacre at the Main Temple of Tenochtitlan and a rebellion by the population of the city, Cortés and his men had to fight their way out of the capital city in June, 1520. However, the Spanish and Tlaxcalans would return with reinforcements and a siege plan that led to the fall of Tenochtitlan a year later.
The collapse of the Aztec Empire was a major milestone in the formation of New Spain, which would not be formalized by the Spanish Crown until 1535.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Jon Manchip White
62 books3 followersJon Ewbank Manchip White was a novelist, editor, playwright, poet, and researcher.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 26, 2019
History is frequently a story of the famous, a recounting of good matches between individuals and the time and place in which they lived. Steve Jobs was a man for our time as were Gandhi, Winston Churchill, and Walt Disney for theirs. For the vast majority of human beings, the time is not such as to single them out for fame and fortune. This is not to say that those unnoticed by history lead unhappy or poverty stricken lives, far from it, but only those catapulted to fame or infamy come down to us as recollected.
There was a period of about 60 years during which the Spanish conquistadores (con KEYS ta door ace), fearless, driven and having a lust for gold as they were, found fame in a new world only just opened and waiting for them to exercise their talents.
Of this group of daring men willing to go to any length, to endure any suffering, to sweep aside anyone and anything that stood in their way was Hernan Cortez, a law school dropout determined to set himself up in power and wealth, but of a temperament that left him longing for more adventure when he did. Arriving on the Spanish scene in the elating time for that country that signaled the victory of the Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Muslims, anything seemed possible to him as a reward for daring.
At the same time in what we now call Mexico, the mighty Aztecs had only recently risen to unquestioned power. Literally bloodthirsty, this civilization required thousands to be sacrificed to their gods by ripping out beating human hearts, deliberately capturing rather than killing opponents in war for the purpose of later sacrifice. It had come to the point where enemies were allowed to maintain their societies so that frequent raids by the overlord Aztecs could provide victims to be placed on the altar; a farming of humans.
This account is a striking example of the times meeting the man. Aztec legend had it that ancient relatives would be returning as gods to reclaim their place, that they would have fair skin and would arrive by sea. Cue Cortez, with his 500 men in ships appearing on the coast with horses, an animal never seen before in the area, metal suits and long rods that produced loud noise and spit metal that killed at a distance. Could anyone appear more godlike?
Yet this supposed god with his associates was found to be quite human. Once the killing had begun, the surrounding peoples who thoroughly hated the Aztecs were vital allies of Cortez in battle to the point of slaughtering Aztecs despite the appeal of Cortez to stop. As for superior technology, the Spaniards soon gave up their heavy and inflexible metal armor in favor of the cotton armor worn by the Aztecs.
Cortez did not initiate the fight for Tenochtitlan, what we now call Mexico City. Remarkably, he was invited into the city by the Aztec ruler Moctezuma who befriended the Spanish, conversing with them daily through a native woman interpreter who had earlier been given to Cortez as a gift by a non-Aztec tribe. This book is filled with twists and turns, loyalty and treachery at all levels and usually between Spaniards. Even as Cortez was in the process of conquest, another Spanish fleet was dispatched from Cuba to bring him back in chains.
There are so many wow things in this book. Can you imagine a naval fight for Tenochtitlan? It happened. Cortez had over a dozen ships built to fight on the lakes that surrounded the city, countering the Aztec navy of hundreds of war canoes. The city itself was tiny, really a royal preserve with a fairly small population while the lakes around it were huge and crossed by causeways that would see hand to hand combat. Today all that water is history yet large boulevards follow the path of the old causeways.
Jon Manchip White was a prolific author with a particular fascination with the American southwest and Mexico. His deep and broad knowledge of the cultures of Spain and Latin America is evident throughout this great read. He provides a rich background for the conflict but does not stop with the end of the life of Cortez. He goes on to relate the influence of what happened beyond the famous events right up to modern times. He doesn't hesitate to speak of the psychology involved on both sides of the conquest. This is an action book that never lets up, aided by the fact that Bernal Diaz, a participant in the events, left a detailed account of what happened, of who did what, and why, written so well that White often lets him address you.
I read this book in the 1970's and, impressed, kept it. Now, 40 years later, I see I was right to be impressed, though the paperback is falling apart with age.
Join in an epic adventure that will astound you more than once.
There was a period of about 60 years during which the Spanish conquistadores (con KEYS ta door ace), fearless, driven and having a lust for gold as they were, found fame in a new world only just opened and waiting for them to exercise their talents.
Of this group of daring men willing to go to any length, to endure any suffering, to sweep aside anyone and anything that stood in their way was Hernan Cortez, a law school dropout determined to set himself up in power and wealth, but of a temperament that left him longing for more adventure when he did. Arriving on the Spanish scene in the elating time for that country that signaled the victory of the Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Muslims, anything seemed possible to him as a reward for daring.
At the same time in what we now call Mexico, the mighty Aztecs had only recently risen to unquestioned power. Literally bloodthirsty, this civilization required thousands to be sacrificed to their gods by ripping out beating human hearts, deliberately capturing rather than killing opponents in war for the purpose of later sacrifice. It had come to the point where enemies were allowed to maintain their societies so that frequent raids by the overlord Aztecs could provide victims to be placed on the altar; a farming of humans.
This account is a striking example of the times meeting the man. Aztec legend had it that ancient relatives would be returning as gods to reclaim their place, that they would have fair skin and would arrive by sea. Cue Cortez, with his 500 men in ships appearing on the coast with horses, an animal never seen before in the area, metal suits and long rods that produced loud noise and spit metal that killed at a distance. Could anyone appear more godlike?
Yet this supposed god with his associates was found to be quite human. Once the killing had begun, the surrounding peoples who thoroughly hated the Aztecs were vital allies of Cortez in battle to the point of slaughtering Aztecs despite the appeal of Cortez to stop. As for superior technology, the Spaniards soon gave up their heavy and inflexible metal armor in favor of the cotton armor worn by the Aztecs.
Cortez did not initiate the fight for Tenochtitlan, what we now call Mexico City. Remarkably, he was invited into the city by the Aztec ruler Moctezuma who befriended the Spanish, conversing with them daily through a native woman interpreter who had earlier been given to Cortez as a gift by a non-Aztec tribe. This book is filled with twists and turns, loyalty and treachery at all levels and usually between Spaniards. Even as Cortez was in the process of conquest, another Spanish fleet was dispatched from Cuba to bring him back in chains.
There are so many wow things in this book. Can you imagine a naval fight for Tenochtitlan? It happened. Cortez had over a dozen ships built to fight on the lakes that surrounded the city, countering the Aztec navy of hundreds of war canoes. The city itself was tiny, really a royal preserve with a fairly small population while the lakes around it were huge and crossed by causeways that would see hand to hand combat. Today all that water is history yet large boulevards follow the path of the old causeways.
Jon Manchip White was a prolific author with a particular fascination with the American southwest and Mexico. His deep and broad knowledge of the cultures of Spain and Latin America is evident throughout this great read. He provides a rich background for the conflict but does not stop with the end of the life of Cortez. He goes on to relate the influence of what happened beyond the famous events right up to modern times. He doesn't hesitate to speak of the psychology involved on both sides of the conquest. This is an action book that never lets up, aided by the fact that Bernal Diaz, a participant in the events, left a detailed account of what happened, of who did what, and why, written so well that White often lets him address you.
I read this book in the 1970's and, impressed, kept it. Now, 40 years later, I see I was right to be impressed, though the paperback is falling apart with age.
Join in an epic adventure that will astound you more than once.
January 23, 2019
The best and only biography of Cortés I've ever read, (or will ever read, one is enough) and the relevant contextualization of his life, times and the lives and actions of some ancillary characters in the historic tale of the conquering of Mesoamerica.
I picked this book up for 2 euros in a charity shop and it was more of an impulse buy because of the aesthetic blue hardback cover and the inside-cover artwork, and I set it aside for a while, having no real interest in the history of South America or the Americas in general. I still don't, but I found the book to be easily accessible (IE. not a dusty tome, the fate of many modern history books) as I began reading, and a book I looked forward to spending a few hours a day reading to eventual completion.
I consider the author to be centered with a tilt in favour of the Spaniards when it comes to biases over the "justness" or morality of the Spanish conquest. He seems to be passionate about the type of men the Conquistadores were, and obviously admires their drive, ambition and bravery which he continually brings up. He condemns the modern tendency to paint with broad strokes and execrate the Spanish, Christianty, the Conquistadores etc etc for rapaciousness and cruelty in their treatment of the Indians, praising the Spanish government for its humanity relative to the likes of other colonizing forces such as the English and their total exclusion and arguable genocide of the Indian populations of North America; His praise extends to the Spanish church/Catholicism and especially to the holy orders, the former for giving the deracinated indigenes a tool of social cohesion and a new benign and hopeful faith, the latter for often championing the cause of the Indians in their woe. He also props up Spanish governance as a more appealing alternative to the savagely authoritarian Aztec dominance of Mexico, which he bemoans along with Mexican historians (who suffer from a bit of cognitive dissonance or "cultural schizophrenia" in this regard) as the major reason for Mesoamerica's subsuming by the Spanish - if only the more benevolent civilizations of the classical period in Mexico hadn't fallen and been replaced by the Aztec "parasitic interlopers" and "barbarians", and the worship of the moderate Quetzalcoatl been supreme instead of the furious Huitzilopochtli greedy for human blood, the Conquistadores would never have found a foothold in the land or been met as liberators by the oppressed tribes.
I picked this book up for 2 euros in a charity shop and it was more of an impulse buy because of the aesthetic blue hardback cover and the inside-cover artwork, and I set it aside for a while, having no real interest in the history of South America or the Americas in general. I still don't, but I found the book to be easily accessible (IE. not a dusty tome, the fate of many modern history books) as I began reading, and a book I looked forward to spending a few hours a day reading to eventual completion.
I consider the author to be centered with a tilt in favour of the Spaniards when it comes to biases over the "justness" or morality of the Spanish conquest. He seems to be passionate about the type of men the Conquistadores were, and obviously admires their drive, ambition and bravery which he continually brings up. He condemns the modern tendency to paint with broad strokes and execrate the Spanish, Christianty, the Conquistadores etc etc for rapaciousness and cruelty in their treatment of the Indians, praising the Spanish government for its humanity relative to the likes of other colonizing forces such as the English and their total exclusion and arguable genocide of the Indian populations of North America; His praise extends to the Spanish church/Catholicism and especially to the holy orders, the former for giving the deracinated indigenes a tool of social cohesion and a new benign and hopeful faith, the latter for often championing the cause of the Indians in their woe. He also props up Spanish governance as a more appealing alternative to the savagely authoritarian Aztec dominance of Mexico, which he bemoans along with Mexican historians (who suffer from a bit of cognitive dissonance or "cultural schizophrenia" in this regard) as the major reason for Mesoamerica's subsuming by the Spanish - if only the more benevolent civilizations of the classical period in Mexico hadn't fallen and been replaced by the Aztec "parasitic interlopers" and "barbarians", and the worship of the moderate Quetzalcoatl been supreme instead of the furious Huitzilopochtli greedy for human blood, the Conquistadores would never have found a foothold in the land or been met as liberators by the oppressed tribes.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews