Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve. Episode two hundred and forty three,
The Battle for Technoshticlon after La Noche Triste, no one would have been criticized
for assuming Cortez was done for. I'm sure that many of us in his
place would have decided now was the time to cash out our chips and sail
home. But that was not how Cortes saw the situation. He desperately needed
Charles the Fifth to rubber stamp everything he had done in Mexico. For that
to happen, though, he needed to capture Technoshticlon. If he did not
conquer them Mexica, Charles would probably find someone else who could, and Cortez
would lose everything. So he regrouped. After taking control of the Mexican province
of Tepecca, Charles set his sights firmly on Tenosticlan. It was time to
finish the job. Fortunately for Cortez, the Mexican people had just been ravaged
by smallpox and were in no position to resist his advance. Be that as
it may, Cortes knew the Mexica Emperor Quadamak would not go down without a
fight. The battle for technosht Klan was finally at hand. Quadamak had been
carefully fortifying the capital since taking power. Tanosht Clan still stood in all of
its glory, but the Mexica Empire was in tatters. The loss of Chalco
had been a catastrophe. Already, Tenostclan was suffering from a lack of tribute,
and it wasn't just the loss of gold and precious feathers. This time,
the capital city was running out of food. Tanosht Clon was one of
the biggest cities in the world and had no capacity to support itself. It
was dependent on tribute for its very survival. But even in such dire circumstances,
the Mexica did not curtail their usual rituals unless a lack of ingredients forced
them to. In fact, in many cases they may have even intensified some
ceremonies in a desperate effort to get the gods back on their side. In
terms of what to do about Cortez, Quadamak now faced a unique problem.
There was no standing army in old Mexico. Soldiers were all peasants and laborers.
Warriors had attended military school, but for many of them that might have
been a decade prior. Moreover, Mexican soldiers did not get paid. They
were dependent on war booty, and in a defensive struggle there wouldn't be any
spoils to recover. Still, there was a military system. The Mexicans weren't
no strangers to war. The soldiers were organized by their local clan leaders into
companies of around one hundred men. The leaders of these units were in charge
of making sure everyone had the right gear, weapons and supplies. But even
that, given the constraints facing the Mexican capital, wasn't going to be easy.
There was a professional corps of officers drawn from the nobility, but again,
many of these men had been killed in the days leading up to La
noce Triste, so Katamac had his work cut out for him. Interestingly,
there never seems to have been any sense that the new strategies of the invaders
should be met by new policies by the Mexica. In fact, many Mexicans
had grown fatalistic at this point, after suffering through Cortes's first invasion and then
the devastation of smallpox, there was a sense that the old days were over.
Now for Cortes, he continued to hold solid positions around the outside of
the lake. His main force remained at the south at Texcoco. It was
there on April the twenty eighth, fifteen twenty one, that he first launched
his ships into the lake surrounding ten Lushtiklan. These were the devices that Cortes
was counting on to shift the balance of power. These boats were flat bottomed
with sails and paddles. They could maneuver through the shallow lake without being rounded,
and each could carry twenty five to thirty men. But text Coco was
more than just a naval stageing ground. In May fifteen twenty one, the
former allies of the Mexica were busy sharpening swords, stockpiling arrows, building spears,
and otherwise supporting their new European allies. Simultaneously, Cortez sent out word
to all his Indian allies to send all the men they could to text Coco
for the attack. Now, generally most of these men did not go to
fight. Rather, they would be used as auxiliary services, carrying weapons,
digging trenches, repairing canals, etc. Etc. The actual fighting would be
done by the Europeans and their Plascalan allies. Estimates for the amount of men
Cortes had at his disposal were all over the board. Some sources argue he
had more than fifty thousand pluscalans alone, others that he had two hundred thousand
or even half a million Allied warriors, but these are clearly all gross exaggerations.
The Europeans are much more easily numbered than the Allies Cortez had as a
result of recent reinforcements, now nearly ninety horsemen, about one hundred and twenty
crossbowmen and arquebussers about seven hundred and fifty infantrymen. He also had three large
iron guns and fifteen small ones, though he really didn't have enough gunpowder to
use those effectively. Nearly every soldier equipped himself with well quilted body armor,
neck guards, and leggings, as well as a steel headpiece, shield and
sword. Instructions were given that no one was to sleep unless he was both
armed and had on his sandals, that no one was to go to any
nearby village for food, that no gambling was allowed for horses or for arms,
and that no one was to mistreat allies or season e loot. The
penalty for sleeping on guard duty, as for desertion, was death. Cortes's
plan to crush tenosh Declan had a series of parts. The first part was
to conduct a siege. He wanted to starve the population until ideally it's submitted.
If not, he wanted to weaken it enough to make the final conquest
easier. Cortes, in a perfect world, did not want to lose a
single European life, so they would cut the causeways and dominate the lake with
their ships, and this would bring the Mexica to their knees. Cortez organized
his forces into four divisions. Three of these would fight on land under three
different commanders. The fourth would fight on the water and be under Cortes's direct
control. Each commander had around twenty five to thirty horses, fifteen crossbowmen and
arquebusers, and one hundred and fifty foot soldiers. Each of the land divisions
was assigned a different causeway with instructions to hold it and keep the Mexica bottled
up inside their city. Alvarado, yeah, he's still in command for some
reason, went with one division. Know his Telescalan allies immediately engaged the Mexican
the causeway and fought for several hours before nightfall. As early as made the
twenty second. At the same time, the men got to work filling in
any gaps in the causeway the Mexica deliberately cut to keep them out. This
wasn't easy as expected. The attackers were assaulted on two sides from the word
go by war canoes. No Europeans were killed, but at least thirty were
wounded. Meanwhile, the land commanders dispatched small forces to the countryside where they
could commandeer as much corn as they were able. When the peasants did not
give up willingly, the soldiers simply killed them. Sandoval, one of Cortes's
three lieutenants, captured the key town of Iztapalapa that had evaded Cortes the year
earlier, made the thirty first. On June first, the ships were finally
ready. Cortes's initial plan was to sail to Ishtapala, where Sandoval had continued
to fend off Mexican counter attacks, but when he saw smoke signals rising from
the rocky island of Tipepoloco, he changed his mind and attacked there instead.
Not only was the island an important religious site for the Mexica and therefore would
be a blow to their morale of Cortez took it. But if he could
cut the Mexican ability to communicate, then he would be able to move his
forces around the edges of the lake more easily. Cortes landed about one hundred
and fifty men on the island, storm the temple, and dispatch those present.
Unfortunately, not everything had gone according to plan. His flagship how to
run aground during the maneuver, and large numbers of Mexico swarmed over the ship.
Luckily for Cortez, the captain on board the vessel kept his cool.
He fended off the attackers long enough that he was able to notice the Mexican
commander standing on a canoe several yards away. He shot the man with the
crossbow, and after he fell, the attackers lost their cohesion and fled.
Despite this near miss, In his letters home, Cortes described the incident as
a great victory. Much of the success in this case really did have to
do with technology. The Mexica had no answer for European firearms or crossbows,
and on the water there just wasn't any way to avoid either. After the
victory, Cortes Agans changed his plans and decided to an attack a fortress on
one of the causeways called Shallock. In the evening of May the thirty first,
he sailed to Shallock and landed with thirty men. Mexica viciously defended the
fort but again European technology was too much, and Cortes carried the day.
Still, the Mexica did not give up. Late into the evening, the
lake remained chalk full of canoes bearing new warriors to the contest. Around midnight,
the Mexica launched another counterattack, which was rare for them, since normally
the Mexica did not fight at night. More than anything else, this shows
just how desperate the Mexica had become. Ultimately, the Mexica withdrew, leaving
Cortes and his men to an uneasy but triumphant sleep. And once more.
Of course, it's worth mentioning that in all these battles, the tlus Galands
played an integral part, and without their aid, Cortes might not have one.
The following morning, Cortes and for reinforcements and about fifty soldiers, seven
or eight horsemen and fifty crossbowmen and arquebusers joined him at Shalak. Just when
they arrived the Mexica launched an attack down the road from the capital. There
were also attacks on both sides the causeway from canoes. The Mexica came shouting
so loudly that Cortes remarked that it sounded as if quote, the world was
coming to an end end quote. But he gained the advantage since by temporarily
opening a bridge just to the south of Shalak, he made it possible for
some of his ships to move to the west side of the lake. Four
went through, then, keeping close to the causeway, They, with the
others on the other side, assisted the foot soldiers and horsemen to fight their
way north to the capital. The Europeans crossed one channel whose bridge had been
removed by using a ship as a stepping stone. When they reached the north
side of it, with guns and horses, they drove back the Mexica to
the first houses of the city. Some ships were carefully paddled into the city
past the stakes which had been set in the water to obstruct them. The
crews of these vessels set fire to the houses in the south of the city,
whereby opening a new and drastic dimension to the war. This was going
to be a war of attrition and destruction. The next weeks, though were
slow and painful for the Europeans, the Mexico were quick opponents who adjusted to
Cortes as every move. They built defensive walls of earth on the causeways and
defended each to the last man. They dug hidden pits that Europeans and plus
Scalinds fell into. They created makeshift swords, attaching blades to existing wooden swords,
thereby augmenting the already obsidian tips. They threw javelins, and of course,
they peppered the Europeans endlessly with arrows. Fighting on the north south causeway
was also far from a walk in the park for Cortes and his crew.
Every day, the Tlascalans would fill in the holes of the Mexico made in
the causeway the night before. Each subsequent night the Mexico would dig out new
ones or hollow out the originals. Each day, the Europeans would press forward
until they had almost reached the first houses of the city, but then they
had to retreat to shellac. Each night, the Mexico would come out from
behind their fortifications and reverse any progress the Europeans had made. For Cortes and
his men, it was maddeningly frustrating. Granted, throughout these early days,
the Europeans lost few men their Indian allies for the brunt of the battle in
these early days, yet Cortes remained determined to starve the city into submission.
Early on, he received a report from Alvarado that the Mexico were still moving
supplies in and out of the city via the North causeway, so Cortes dispatched
Sandoval with a company that included twenty three horsemen and eighteen crossbowmen. It took
Sandoval several days, but he managed to establish himself on a sound position on
the causeway. From that point forward, all of the causeways were in Corstes's
possession. If the Mexica were going to get food and supplies in and out
of the city, it would needs be over the water, so without an
escape route, the Mexica were now stuck trying to fend off Cortes's attacks.
They were now in a completely defensive position. They could not sally forth even
had they wanted to. Cortes held strong defensive positions along each of the causeways,
marching straight into European in firearms and crossbow bolts. In that situation would
have been tantamount to suicide. At the same time, Cortes had begun to
land his ships at various points in the city itself, torching homes as he
saw fit, in order to try and bring matters to a head quickly without
more damage being caused to a city that Cortes still wanted to salvage. He
resolved, after about another ten days, around the tenth of June, to
make a coordinated drive as far as he could into the heart of Kenoshti Klan.
He took command of all of the two hundred foot soldiers which had been
allocated in the original division of the army. He also, of course,
had the support of his ships on both sides the causeway. He gave orders
to Alvarado and Sandoval to the west and north to meet him near the main
temple where the Spaniards had had their quarters back in fifteen twenty when they of
the guests of Montezuma. Cortes set off behind the Europeans on the causeway.
Came an army of what he described eighty thousand Indian allies, though in practice
it would be surprising if the figure was maybe a tenth of that, even
so it would have constituted a major force. The drive at first was successful.
The Mexica tried to stam me the attack by raising a large bridge connecting
the causeway to the city, but Cortes had his ships carefully placed as a
makeshift pontoon bridge, which enabled Cortes, at the head of a division of
horsemen, to cross into the city with ease. From there, the Europeans
pressed due north into the heart of the city. When Cortes came upon a
large earthwork of adobe and stone, he ordered his cannons dispatched. After a
few shots, the Mexica again fell back, but once Cortes penetrated too far
into the city, it became clear that the Mexica vastly outnumbered his force,
and that those numbers were so overwhelming that the Europeans had no choice but to
withdraw. Cortes lost one cannon in the process. The Mexica captured the gun,
but unsure what to do with it, they simply hurled it into the
lake. By that time, it was late and Cortes ordered to withdraw.
He and his men set fire to as many Mexican homes as they could as
they made their way out of the city. At this point, evidently Cortes
had given up on the idea of handing over a pristine quote unquote great venice
to his far off King Charles the fifth. By this time, so many
houses had been burned and reduced to rubble on the outskirts of the city that
it was almost impossible for the Mexican war canoes to operate. On June the
fifteenth, Cortes launched another major attack. It had been five days since his
last big push, so the Mexica had successfully entrenched themselves along most of their
defensive positions. Even so, the Europeans broke through. They crossed the bridges
into the city and captured the vaunted Eagle Gate. But by this point two
truths had settled themselves down upon Cortez like a cold, wet blanket. First,
he was never going to get back the gold he lost on La No
Christe. The notion that the Mexica would capitulate and hand it all over with
the city was clearly absurd. Second, Mexica were going to fight to the
death. There would be no surrender. If Cortez was going to take the
city, he would need to result to a total war strategy. Years later,
members of the Spanish royal government pressed Cortez about his decision to raise the
city, had he not been maybe overly harsh, Most members of Cortes's expedition
defended their captain. No, said one Luis Manin. Had they not raised
the houses block by block, then the Mexica would have reoccupied them each night
in the army would have found itself fighting over the exact same piece of land
the next day. But the cost was immense. Tenuchti Clan, one of
the largest cities in the entire world, was completely destroyed. And it was
not destroyed by chance. Cortes destroyed it deliberately, block by block, brick
by brick. The Tlascalans, for their part, were jubilant, and why
not their enemy of centuries old was dead. Why shouldn't they celebrate. They
didn't know what history held in store for them. At this point, Cortez
decided he would launch a war of attrition against the Mexica. Every day he
would enter the city at four different points, destroy a section, and retire.
If he kept this up, Cortes reasoned, the Mexica would have to
capitulate by June the twentieth. Cortez had penetrated so far that he was beyond
the main center square of Tenushtiklan and was close to linking up with Alvarado's forces.
Be that as it may, the Mexica still had enough reserves to hold
Cortez at bay. He could advance, but he couldn't hold any new ground.
Each night Cortes found himself compelled to retreat back from whence he came.
Each night, a Mexican relief force, mostly women and children, would come
out and dig up all of the trenches which the European allies and their Indian
allies had filled. In fact, on June the twenty third, several ships
ran aground in five Europeans were captured and sacrificed. Had Cortes not been nearby
with the contingent of horsemen, the disaster would have been worse. Mexica simply
weren't ready to give up. Not yet. At late June, Cortes was
in an overwhelmingly strong position. However, he had the backing of almost all
the cities around the lake, and he could penetrate to nusht Clan itself at
will. By June the twenty third, the Mexica had essentially withdrawn from the
area between the now ruined Gate of the Eagle and the main square. By
the end of June, it seemed like victory was all but certain. Alvarado,
Sandoval, and Cortez were now all about to link their forces, at
which time they could make a final and concerted push toward the main temple.
There was no food coming into the city. Cortez had now destroyed all the
small community gardens from which the Mexica might have drawn some small amount of sustenance,
and Cortes's ships made it impossible for the Mexica to fish in the lake.
They were, in other words, starving. Sure, the Mexican still
had some stores of horn, but those were dwindling, and within the Mexican
ranks divisions had begun to form. Some wanted to open negotiations with the Europeans,
others wanted to fight to the death. K Adamak was still emperor and
he was in the war party, so generally dissent was still silenced with the
blade. But it wasn't over yet. The Mexican continued to show astonishing resiliency.
Every night they re dug the ditches in the causeway which the Spaniards or
their allies had filled in the previous day. They still seemed able day after
day to withstand heavy attacks on three fronts. They were able to adapt themselves
to facing the horses, the guns, even the steel swords. With skill,
they were able to inflict far more damage than Europeans could possibly have supposed
possible with their obsidian edged weapons, their stones, their arrows, even rudimentary
clubs and sticks. They rarely killed. That's true, their weapons weren't made
for that. But they wounded often, and they were able to hold up
European and Indian allied advances remarkably still, making it impossible, after a month
of the siege for the Europeans to move down a street whose buildings they and
their friends had not previously cleared or burned. One explanation for this resiliency was
that the education of all these young men in the military schools was showing its
benefits. Of course, when boys would set out for those schools, fathers
would say to them, quote, listen, you're not going to be honored,
nor obeyed, nor esteemed. You're going to be looked down upon,
humiliated and despised. Every day you will cut agave thorns with penance, and
you will draw blood with those finds, and you obey that night, even
when it's very cold, to harden your body end quote. Everything had been
done to prepare these boys for war, and this is a moment that it
showed that the positive benefits of this spartan like system paid dividends. But youth
wasn't the only thing sustaining the Mexico at this point. Many scholars believe the
Mexico were getting assistance from hallucinogenic mushrooms and peyote. Obviously, we cannot confirm
these theories today, but it certainly wouldn't be the only time in history warriors
used substances to improve their stamina and fearlessness in battle. Throughout most of the
end of June, most days followed a predictable pattern. Each morning, Cortez
would sally forth. His Indian allies would fill in the gaps in the causeway
in Mexico cleared the night before. Then, the horsemen would ride in and
the general havoc would commence. Every night, the Mexican would come out dig
the holes again, in the entire process would repeat itself. Cortes consulted his
captains as to whether to attempt another combined offensive, with Alvarado and Sandoval asking
them to take the marketplace at Talteco. If that's where we're taken, the
Mexico would have literally to defend. Divided, they would have to choose between
surrendering and dying of hunger and thirst. Still, Cortez was a little concerned
about the scheme. After all, even if the Europeans were able to establish
headquarters in the square of Talteco, it could easily be surrounded. There was
no shortage of numbers among the enemy. To reach Talteco, it was necessary
to cross one of the several broad causeways, which, however wide, could
always be cut in the square. No ships would be able to reach them.
Besiegers might become the busy aged, but many of Cortes's captains kept pressing
the ideal. Alvarado and his captains insisted that they wanted to just get to
the square first. It was kind of a race. Cortez took this recommendation
seriously, more so perhaps than he should have, so Eventually, against his
better judgment, he decided that they would advance. Cortez agreed to go ahead
with the combined attack on June thirtieth fifteen twenty two. Now it's important to
point out that Teleteco is actually a separate political ethnic entity from the Nush Declan,
and at this point, the Ennush Declon deasperately needed Teleteco. It needed
its manpower and its land. So Qadamak made a direct appeal to Teleteco for
aid. They agreed, but insisted on a hefty price. If Tenoshdklan survived
this deal, it would no longer be in charge of the lake. Teleteco
would be in charge. U Adamok agreed. He had no choice, and
also he had tele taken blood, so it made some sense from an ethnic
standpoint. U Adamok moved his headquarters to Teleteco. He moved all his remaining
military forces there and most of the civilians. The most colon had effectively ceded
their city to Cortes. They would make their final stand on foreign soil.
Deleteco, however, was confident. They believed their hour of glory was at
hand, and for a few days even this seemed possible. Cortes's new joint
offensive ended very badly. Cortes wrote to Sandoval and Alvarado to tell them of
the plan and establish a camp in the market of Teleteco. Sandoval was to
join Alvarado, but he was to leave behind his horsemen on the mainland and
give the impression he was breaking camp all together. This would enable the cavalry,
at least in theory, to lure the Mexica in the north of the
city into an ambush. Alvarado would, in the meantime advance from the west
in collaboration with Sandoval's infantrymen. Cortez divided his own troops. They would drive
up the southern causeway in the normal way. Once inside Tinoshtiklan, they would
divide into three. One column would move up the main street, which the
Europeans by now knew well, first to the main square before the temple precinct,
and then northwest to Teleteco. They would be supported by a large number
of allies to fill in the breaches which Cortes knew would have been made in
the streets. Another force would with a similar size of infantry, advanced from
the road which led east to west. Cortez himself would take the third contingent.
He would travel north along a narrower road with about one hundred foot soldiers
and eight horses as well as, of course, a large contingent of Indian
allies. Each of them would have to cross the large waterway, which divided
to much declan from Teleteco, but it would do so at different points.
The Europeans crossed the Gate of the Eagle, which was now in ruins,
and divided their main force into three as planned. Cortes quickly found himself facing
a concerted Mexican counter attack and was forced to halt. From the matter of
a few seconds, the tide began to turn. Suddenly, the entire European
line was forced back. Cortes tried to organize a retreat, but the retreat
turned into a route. Before he could do anything, the Mexicans suddenly realized
that they might have a real chance to inflict major damage on the European army.
War canoes streamed to the battle, trying to cut off the European advance.
Yet again, the Mexica insistence on taking hostages for sacrifice held them back.
Had the Mexica simply shot to kill Cortez and his men went of all
parish that day, they didn't, but the losses were still the worst Cortes
had suffered since Lance Triste twenty Europeans lay dead, another fifty captured. Two
thousand Indian allies had died, one cannon and one ship had been lost in
the struggle. They got worse for those who survived. As they regrouped,
the survivors heard the beating of drums in the distance. The men who had
just been captured were about to be sacrificed, and the words of one Spaniard
quote, our comrades were being carried by force up the steps of the Great
Temple. When they got them up to the little square in front of the
shrines of the gods, we saw them place plumes on their heads with things
like fans. They forced them to dance before their God. Then they placed
them on their back on some stones, and with large fint knives they saw
it opened their chests, drew out their palpitating hearts, and offered them to
the gods. They kicked the bodies down the steps, and the Indian butchers
who were waiting below, cut off the arms and legs, and flayed the
faces, and prepared them afterwards as a kind of glove leather with the beard
still on for use and drunken fiestas. While the bodies were eaten with molae,
and the stomachs and guts they threw to the tigers, lions and snakes,
which were kept in the wild animal zoo. The fallout from the failed
attack was instantaneous. Most of Cortez's Indian allies disappeared. Men who had moments
before been filling gaps in the causeway melted away. The support from some of
the smaller cities around the lake vanished, and this was qw Adamak's opportunity.
He sent messages to the chiefs of the cities of Chauco, Shamalinko and Cornavaca
and elsewhere with the flayed heads of his captives, as well as their hands
and feet. He set several horses heads too. He assured the lords that
half the invaders had been killed, that the rest had been wounded. After
all, he was able to insist that the gods had not abandoned the Mexica.
Hugh Adammak pointed out how the Indian allies of Cortes had fled overnight.
He said that he was learning from the captured crossbowmen how to use the bows
of the Europeans, even in fact that he had secured five crossbow to fight
for him. These arrangements actually didn't do well. They cross bowmen who were
captured were ordered to shoot at their countrymen, and they did, but they
always shot in the air and the every arrow fell harmless. In response,
the Mexica killed them on the spot. But the days came and went,
and by the middle of July, Cortes recognized Quadamak had not capitalized on his
victory. He needed to be aggressive and attacked the European camp, and he
had not. Perhaps this wasn't his fault. This point, q adam Mok
was down to bare bones resources. He might not have had the capacity to
launch a counter attack. They had no food or munitions, plus Cortez's remaining
ships still controlled the lake. In reality, that had been q Adamok's last
throw of the dice. He and his people were spent. By mid July,
the Europeans were back to making tentative new attacks into the city. Point.
It was the rainy season. The rain started every afternoon and continued ceaselessly
for hours. This slowed down Cortez, but it didn't stop him. The
Mexica continued to fight bravely and repair the damage. The Europeans were causing,
but the reality was by this point simply weren't enough men left, and if
there were a few men, there was even less food and even less fresh
water. Around this time, the Mexica sent an emissary to Cortes, offering
to discuss peace. Cortez made his way with an armed guard to the Great
Temple, but it was a ruse. No sooner had Cortez shown himself than
he and his party were peppered with arrows and javelins. This actually might not
have been an intentional trick. However, It's possible that many of the Mexica
did want peace, but Hugh ad Amok or someone else overruled them at the
last moment. Regardless, as a result of this fighting, Cortes did capture
three prominent nobles that he sent back to q Adam Mok, insisting he was
interested in real peace negotiations. Q Adamok held a conference of his captains and
well angry, it seems even he was willing to accept at least discussing peace.
By this point. Oddly, it was now his captain's turn to disagree.
They didn't want peace with Cortes or the Europeans. Mostly this is because
they believed no matter what Cortez said, he would just break his word anyway,
so agreeing to anything was totally pointless. But the tide had turned.
Every day was bringing new victories for the Europeans. On July the twenty third,
Sandoval executed a spectacularly successful ambush on the Mexica. The next day,
Cortes captured hordes of Mexican women and children as they worked to dig holes in
the causeway. Every man, women or child lost was another source of labor
q Adamok desperately needed. He was running out of time. Quartz still wanted
peace. The Mexica might now only control the small zone of the city,
but Cortes wanted to be able to present as much of it intact as possible
to Charles the Fifth. But the Mexica continued to refuse negotiations. The sheer
enormity of the situation seems to have paralyzed them. Whether they realized it or
not, their civilization was ending in a real existential way. Why not fight
to the end if the world is ending? I guess that was their thinking.
Q Adamok's response to Cortes's new attacks was to name a quetzawattle warrior.
The domination of a quezawattle warrior was always the final action of the Mexica at
war, and in the past it had always brought the Mexico victory. The
quetzaowl warrior dressed as the Mexican god come to life, wearing a dazzling costume
of feathers, gold, and silver. According to some, the Europeans were
in fact astonished at the sight of this warrior. At first, his body
was quite hidden beneath the birds feathers, which had been skillfully assembled on cloth
frame. The plumes, gold and other decorations were so grand it seemed as
if quote a mountain burst. The Castilians fought as if they had seen something
inhuman end quote. In fact, in subsequent fightings, three men were apparently
captured by quets A wattle. They were instantly sacrificed by Qadamak in person.
For a moment, the Europeans seemed to want to withdraw, but an isolated
active valuer just couldn't end the reality that the Mexico had lost the siege.
The quets A wattle warrior fighting with his spears and arrows was seen for some
time from a distance to the middle of the fray, then reporting one European
he quote dropped from a terrace quote and was seen moan more so. Little
by little, the Mexican quote drew back along the walls and they retreated,
but still the Mexican leaders didn't give up. Angry Cortez ordered Alvarado to attack
again with everything he had. This time, the counquistador broke through the last
line of the Mexican defenses. Allied Indians poured in behind him, and before
long the scene devolved into a general slaughter. Men, women, and children
were all killed. Some estimates where that forty thousand Mexicans died that day.
August the twelfth, fifteen twenty two. Q Adam Mock knew he couldn't keep
going. It was over. He held a final meeting with his advisers,
and he told them to surrender. He would not you, Adam Mock,
would sail away on a canoe. Why we're not totally sure. You might
not have been able to deal with the indignity of being the last ever Mexican
emperor, or perhaps he truly believed he could return north from where his people
originally legendarily came and returned with a fresh army. Still as dawn broke on
August thirteenth, Hugh adam Mok was preparing to make his escape. Cortez that
same morning was marshaling his men for one last assault. He wanted q Adamak
alive, and he told his men to keep out an eye for him,
but there would be no great final battle. When Courtes rode out that day,
the surviving Mexicans surrendered. They had nothing left to give. Q adam
Mok was captured trying to escape. The triumphant Europeans turned and took their captives
straight to Cortes. Courtes received q Adamak as an emperor in a theatrical if
appropriate ceremony. Hugh Adamak made a speech recorded along the following lines. Quote
Captain, I have done everything in my power to defend my country and keep
it out of your hands, and my luck has not been good. I
beg you to end my life. That would be just, and with that
you can finish with the Mexican kingdom, since you have destroyed and killed my
city and my vassals. Quote Quartez, at least, according to reports,
responded affectionately. He said that he esteemed the emperor the more for having defended
the city with such courage. He only wished that q Adamak had made peace
before. So much of the city had been destroyed. Now, he suggested
that he should rest thereafter quote he would be able to rule over his empire
as before end quote. According to his own account, he told q Adamok
that he should quote fear nothing. Of course, all of these reassurances relies.
The following day, Cortes held one final meeting with the remaining Mexican nobility.
We have no record of what exactly was said. The Mexico were not
made to sign a treaty. Cortes did not read the requimiento, but the
meeting officially ended the hostilities. Old Mexico was over. New Spain had begun
for the defeat of the days after the fall of ten Lush Declan was a
horror show. The plus Galins and tex Cocins decided now is the time for
vengeance, and they killed indiscriminately. We just don't have any really firm numbers
about how many people were killed. But between the siege the smallpox in the
days after the siege, suffice it to say that in Mexico were all but
wiped out. Quote there is no house left to be burned and destroyed,
and quote wrote one Spaniard present. The only movable loots or booty that Cortes
and his men could find were the women. Some went with counquistadors willingly.
Their husbands and fathers were all dead. There was nothing left for them.
Now Slavery wasn't their choice, it was the only choice. Years later,
a Mexican poet would commemorate the defeat with a final lament. It was called
the jaguar Sun. Then it happened that the sky was crushed. The sun
did not follow its course. When the sun arrived at noon, immediately it
was dark, And when it became dark, jaguars ate the people. The
giants greeted each other. Thus, do not fall down, for whoever falls
falls forever. As for the Europeans, Cortes commemorated his victory with the banquet
held the day after the city fell. We don't know what everyone ate,
but they certainly drank themselves into a stupor. Soldiers made speeches about how they
were looking forward to owning horses with golden saddles. As we'll see next week,
that wasn't going to happen. I want to end this episode by quoting
directly from one of the historians that I've read on the subject, Hugh Thomas,
who writes quote the sense of triumph felt by Cortes at these moments was
touched with melancholy time and time again. In his account of the last stages
of the siege, he used phrases such as we could not be but saddened
by their determination to die. There was the destruction of technolody. Decline to
consider for the prospect of capturing the beautiful city of which he had heard tell
when he was still at Faracus had surely fired his imagination. Now it was
rubble. Sacred books have been destroyed in hundreds. Cortes organized the omplicated siege.
He had inspired the ships. He had built an unlikely alliance with the
Indian subject peoples through clever diplomacy. He had even made alliance between different European
groups. He had seen his friends killed. He had won a great victory
with modest losses to his own men. His fellow Cunquistadors had fought bravely against
what seemed in the beginning to have been great odds for a time he and
his friends seemed to have been looked upon by some Mexica at least as being
the reincarnations of deities, but in the end, to be honest, it
had been to Mexica who had fought like gods. As always. If you're
interested in more content, check out the various links and the show notes,
including the link to the website. Add free shows and Western sieve two point
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