“They came in battle array, as conquerors... their spears glinted in the sun, and their pennons fluttered like bats.  They made a loud clamor as they marched, for their coats of mail and their weapons clashed and rattled....  They terrified everyone who saw them.”
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Leading the Spanish march into the Aztec empire was a 34-year-old Spaniard named Hernán Cortés.  At age 19, Cortés had boarded a ship bound for the Spanish Indies determined to make his fortune.  He had no idea then that 15 years later he would overturn a civilization and change the lives of millions of people.

The Spanish Encounter the Aztec

In 1511 Spanish troops, led by Diego Velázquez, conquered Cuba.

A fellow Spanish-born soldier, Hernán Cortés took part in the invasion, and his courage impressed Velázquez.  He rewarded Cortés by giving him control of several Native American villages.  Six years later, smallpox swept across Cuba, killing thousands of Native Americans.  Without Native American labor, the farms and mines the Spanish had built in Cuba could not function.  Velázquez asked Cortés to lead an expedition to the Yucatán Peninsula to find new peoples who could be forced to work for the Spanish.  He also wanted to investigate reports of a wealthy civilization there.  On February 18, 1519, Cortés set sail for Mexico.  He had 11 ships, 550 men, and 16 horses.

The Invasion Begins

After crossing the Gulf of Mexico, Cortés landed in the Yucatán Peninsula.  There he found a shipwrecked sailor—Jerónimo de Aguilar—who spoke the local language and could act as translator.  Despite this advantage, Cortés could not prevent an attack by thousands of warriors from a nearby city.  The battle showed that the Spanish had a technological advantage over the local people.  Spanish swords, crossbows, guns, and cannons quickly killed more than 200 warriors.  As a peace offering, the leaders of the city gave Cortés 20 young women.  Cortés then continued up the coast.  The people farther up the coast spoke a language Aguilar did not know, but among the 20 women traveling with the Spanish was Malinche, a woman who knew the language.  She translated for Aguilar and he translated the words into Spanish for Cortés.  Malinche impressed Cortés.  He had her baptized, giving her the name Marina.  He called her Doña Marina, and she became one of his closest advisers.  From his talks with local rulers, Cortés learned that the Aztec had conquered many peoples in the region and were at war with others, including the powerful Tlaxcalan people.  He realized that if he acted carefully, he might convince the Tlaxcalan to join him against the Aztec.

As Cortés marched inland to Tlaxcala, his army’s physical appearance helped him gain allies.  The local people had never seen horses before.  Their foaming muzzles and the glistening armor they wore were astonishing and terrifying, and when they charged it seemed to one Aztec chronicler “as if stones were raining on the earth.” Equally terrifying were the “shooting sparks” of the Spanish cannons.  After several encounters that displayed Spanish power, the Tlaxcalan agreed to join with Cortés.

Two hundred miles away, Montezuma had to decide how to respond to the Spanish.  He believed in a prophecy that said that the god Quetzalcoatl—a fair-skinned, bearded deity—would someday return from the east to conquer the Aztec.  Montezuma did not know if Cortés was Quetzalcoatl, but he did not want to attack him until he knew for sure.  When he learned Cortés was negotiating with the Tlaxcalan, Montezuma sent envoys to meet the Spanish leader.  The envoys promised Cortés that Montezuma would pay a yearly tribute to the king of Spain if Cortés halted his advance.  To further appease the Spanish, the envoys sacrificed several captives and gave their blood to the Spanish to drink.  The act horrified the Spanish and alarmed Montezuma, since he knew that Quetzalcoatl also hated human sacrifice.  With a joint Spanish-Tlaxcalan force heading toward him, Montezuma decided to ambush Cortés at the city of Cholula.  Warned of the ambush by Doña Marina, the Spanish attacked first, killing over 6,000 Cholulans.  Montezuma now believed Cortés could not be stopped.  On November 8, 1519, Spanish troops peacefully entered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán.

TURNING POINT
Cortés Defeats the Aztec

Sitting on an island in the center of a lake, the city of Tenochtitlán astonished the Spanish.  It was larger than most European cities.  The central plaza had a huge double pyramid, and canoes carried people along stone canals around the city.

Some of what the Spanish saw here horrified them as well.  The central plaza, for example, contained the tzompantli —a huge rack displaying thousands of human skulls—and the Aztec priests wore their long hair matted down with dried human blood.

Surrounded by thousands of Aztec, Cortés decided to take Montezuma hostage.  Montezuma, resigned to his fate, did not resist.  Under instructions from Cortés, he stopped all human sacrifice and ordered the statues of the gods to be replaced with Christian crosses and images of the Virgin Mary.

Enraged at their loss of power, the Aztec priests organized a rebellion in the spring of 1520.  The battle raged for days.  Spanish cannons and crossbows killed thousands of Aztec.  While trying to stop the fighting, Montezuma was hit by stones and later died.  Realizing they would soon be overrun, the Spanish fought their way out of the city.  Over 450 Spaniards died in the battle, as did more than 4,000 Aztec, inwhat became known as Noche Triste —the “Sad Night.”

Although he had been driven from the city, Cortés refused to give up.  He and his men took refuge with the Tlaxcalan and began building boats to attack the Aztec capital by water.  At the same time, smallpox erupted in the region.  Tens of thousands of Native Americans died.  As one Aztec recorded, the disease devastated the defenders of Tenochtitlán:

“While the Spaniards were in Tlaxcala, a great plague broke out here in Tenochtitlán. ...  Sores erupted on our faces, our breasts, our bellies; we were covered with agonizing sores from head to foot.  The illness was so dreadful that no one could walk or move. ...  If they did move their bodies, they screamed with pain.”

Examining
What was the purpose of Hernán Cortés’s expedition to Mexico?
 

Differing Viewpoints The Spanish in Mexico Historians are still not sure exactly what took place when Hernán Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlán in 1519.  The Aztec version of events was recorded in artists’ sketches and passed down verbally for centuries, while Cortés and others, seeking to justify what they had done, wrote the original Spanish reports.  To determine what actually took place, historians must compare the stories and other evidence and draw their own conclusions. Cortés describes events to Spanish Emperor Charles V: “I asked [Montezuma] to send some of his own men, to whom I would add an equal number of Spaniards, to the estates and houses of those nobles who had publicly offered themselves as vassals of your Majesty, asking them to do your Majesty some service with what riches they might possess. ...  With my men he sent his own, ordering them to visit the rulers of those cities and to require of each one of them in my name a certain measure of gold.  And so it came about that each one of those lords to whom he sent gave very freely when he was asked, whether jewels, small bars and plates of gold and silver, or other valuables which he possessed; of all this treasure gathered together the fifth due to your Majesty amounted to over two thousand four hundred pesos  of gold....” —quoted in Five Letters of Cortés to the Emperor The Aztec view of the Spanish actions: “When the Spaniards were installed in the palace, they asked Motecuhzoma [Montezuma] about the city’s resources and reserves. ...  They questioned him closely and then demanded gold.  Motecuhzoma guided them to it ....  When they arrived at the treasure house called Teucalco, the riches of gold and feathers were brought out to them. ...  Next they went to Motecuhzoma’s storehouse, in the place called Totocalco [Palace of the Birds], where his personal treasures were kept.  The Spaniards grinned like little beasts and patted each other with delight.  When they entered the hall of treasures, it was as if they had arrived in Paradise.  They earched everywhere and coveted everything; they were slaves to their own greed....  They seized these treasures as if they were their own, as if this plunder were merely a stroke of good luck.” —quoted in The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico .

New Spain Expands

After defeating the Aztec, Cortés ordered a new city to be built on the ruins of Tenochtitlán.  The city, named Mexico, became the capital of the new Spanish colony of New Spain.

Cortés then sent several expeditions to conquer the rest of the region.  The men who led these expeditions became known as conquistadors, or “conquerors.”

Pizarro Conquers the Inca

While the Spanish were fighting for control of Central America, a Spanish army captain named Francisco Pizarro began exploring South America’s west coast.  In 1526 he landed in Peru and encountered the Inca empire.  After the Spanish king granted him permission to conquer the Inca, Pizarro returned to Peru in 1531 with a small force.  When he later marched inland in the spring of 1532, he learned that a powerful emperor named Atahualpa governed the Inca.  After reaching the Incan town of Cajamarca, Pizarro sent his brother to find Atahualpa and invite him to Cajamarca.

While waiting for the emperor to arrive, Pizarro hid cavalry and cannons around the town square.  If Atahualpa refused to submit to Spain, Pizarro intended to kidnap him.  When Atahualpa arrived, he entered the square backed by some 6,000 of his followers.  Pizarro sent a priest to meet Atahualpa first.  When the priest gave a Bible to Atahualpa, the emperor threw it to the ground.  This rejection of Christianity was enough for Pizarro, who ordered the cannons to fire and the cavalry to charge.  He and 20 soldiers then rushed the emperor and took him prisoner.

Pizarro tried to rule Peru by keeping Atahualpa as a hostage.  Less than a year later, however, he executed the Incan emperor and installed a series of figurehead emperors who ruled in name only and had to follow his orders.  Although many people accepted the new system created by Pizarro, others fled to the mountains and continued to fight the Spanish conquistadors until 1572.

Searching for Cities of Gold

Pizarro’s success in finding Peru fueled rumors of other wealthy cities.  In 1528, Pánfilo de Narváez searched northern Florida for a fabled city of gold.  Finding nothing and having lost contact with his ships, Narváez and his men built rafts and tried to sail to Mexico by following the coastline.  They made it to what is today Texas, although most of the men, including Narváez, died in the attempt.  The survivors, led by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and an enslaved man named Estéban, wandered across Texas and New Mexico before reaching New Spain in 1536.

Many conquistadors had also heard tales of the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola rumored to exist north of New Spain.  Hoping to find Cibola, the Spanish sent a large expedition northward in 1540 under the command of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado.

For several months Coronado wandered through the southwestern area of what is today the United States.  Members of his expedition traveled west to the Colorado River and east into territory that today belongs to Kansas.  Finding nothing but wind-swept plains and strange “shaggy cows” (buffalo), Coronado returned to Mexico. 

While Coronado explored the southwestern region of North America, Hernando de Soto took a large expedition into the region north of Florida.  De Soto’s expedition explored parts of what are today North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas.  As they crisscrossed the region, the Spanish killed many Native Americans and raided their villages for supplies.  After more than four years of wandering, the expedition returned to New Spain, but without De Soto, who had become sick and died.  His men buried him in the Mississippi River.

The Spanish Settle the Southwest

The failure of explorers to find gold or other wealth north of New Spain slowed Spanish settlement of the region.  It was not until 1598 that settlers, led by Juan de Oñate, migrated north of the Rio Grande.  Oñate’s expedition almost perished while crossing northern Mexico.  When they finally reached the Rio Grande, the survivors organized a feast to give thanks.  This “Spanish Thanksgiving” is celebrated each April in El Paso, Texas.

The Spanish gave the name New Mexico to the territory north of New Spain.  Pedro de Peralta, the first governor of New Mexico, founded the capital city of Santa Fe in 1609 or 1610.  The Spanish also built forts called presidios throughout the region to protect settlers and to serve as trading posts.  Despite these efforts, few Spaniards migrated to the harsh region.  Instead, the Catholic Church became the primary force for colonizing the Southwest.

Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Spanish priests built missions and spread the Christian faith among the Navaho and Pueblo peoples of New Mexico.  Beginning in 1769, Spanish missionaries led by the Franciscan priest Junipero Serra took control of California by establishing a chain of missions from San Diego to San Francisco.  A road called El Camino Real—or the Royal Highway—linked the missions together.

The priests and missionaries in California and those in New Mexico took different approaches to their work.  In California, they forced the mostly nomadic Native Americans to live in villages near the missions.  In New Mexico, on the other hand, the priests and missionaries adapted their efforts to fit into the lifestyle of the Pueblo people.  They built churches near where the Pueblo people lived and farmed, and tried to teach them Catholic ideas and European culture.  The Spanish priests tried to end traditional Pueblo religious practices that conflicted with Catholic beliefs.  Some priests beat and whipped Native Americans who defied them.  In response, a Native American religious leader named Popé organized an uprising against the Spanish in 1680.  Some 17,000 warriors destroyed most of the missions in New Mexico.  It took the Spanish more than a decade to regain control of the region.

Identifying
Where did most people who colonized the southwest part of North America come from?
 

Spanish American Society

The society that developed in New Spain was a product of the Spanish conquest.  The conquistadors were adventurers.  Most were low-ranking nobles, called hidalgos, or working-class tradespeople.  They had come to the colonies in America in search of wealth and prestige.  The society they built in America reflected those goals.

The Encomienda System

After defeating the Aztec, Cortés rewarded his men by giving each of them control over some of the towns in the Aztec empire.  This was called the encomienda system.  Each Spaniard deserving a reward was made an encomendero, or commissioner, and was given control over a group of Native American villages.  The villagers had to pay their encomendero a share of the products they harvested or produced.  Under this system, the encomendero had obligations too.  He was supposed to protect the Native Americans and work to convert them to Christianity.  Unfortunately, many encomenderos abused their power.  Native Americans were frequently overworked, and many died.

A Society Based on Class

The people of Spain’s colonies in the Americas formed a highly structured society.  Birth, income, and education determined a person’s position.  At the top were peninsulares—people who had been born in Spain and who were appointed to most of the higher government and church positions.  Below the peninsulares were criollos—those born in the colonies of Spanish parents.  Many criollos were wealthy, but high colonial positions were reserved only for peninsulares.

Mestizos made up the next level of society.  They were of mixed Spanish and Native American parentage.  Since many Spanish immigrants married Native Americans, there were many mestizos, and their social status varied greatly.  A few were accepted at the top of society.  Others worked as artisans, merchants, and shopkeepers.  Most, however, were poor and lived at the lowest level of society.  The lowest level also included Native Americans, Africans, and people of mixed Spanish and African or African and Native American ancestry.  These people provided most of the labor for New Spain’s farms, mines, and ranches.

To govern this vast, diverse empire in America, the Spanish king created the Council of the Indies.  The Council advised the king and watched over all colonial activities.  To manage local affairs, the king created a special court in Mexico known as the audiencia.  The audiencia’s members were not only judges but also administrators and lawmakers.  To ensure that his interests were represented, the king divided his American empire into regions called viceroyalties.  He then appointed a viceroy to rule each region as his representative.

Mining and Ranching

When the Spanish realized that most Native American cities did not have much gold, they set up mines and used Native American labor to extract minerals from the ground.  Ultimately, however, it was not gold that enriched Spain, but silver.  The Spanish discovered huge deposits of silver ore in the 1540s and set up mining camps all across northern Mexico, transforming the economy.  The work in the dark, damp mineshafts was very difficult.  Many miners were killed by explosions and cave-ins.  Others died from exhaustion.  Many of the silver mines were located in the arid lands of the north.  The land could not grow crops, but it could feed vast herds of cattle and sheep.  To feed the miners, Spaniards created large cattle ranches in northern Mexico.  These huge ranches covering thousands of acres were called haciendas.  The men who herded the cattle were called vaqueros, and cowhands in the United States later adopted their lifestyle.  The words lasso and corral are Spanish words that originated with the vaqueros.

Describing
Why did the Spaniards set up mines and cattle ranches in northern Mexico?