Return to Tenochtitlán
Cortés returned to Tenochtitlán with his reinforcements, but found it in a state of uproar, as one of his lieutenants, Pedro de Alvarado, had ordered a massacre of Aztec nobility in his absence. Aztec Emperor Moctezuma was killed by his own people while trying to placate the crowd and an angry mob chased the Spanish from the city in what became known as the Noche Triste, or “sad night.” Cortés was able to regroup, re-take the city and by 1521 he was in charge of Tenochtitlán for good.
Cortés’ Good Luck
Cortés never could have pulled off the defeat of the Aztec Empire without a great deal of good luck. First of all, he had found Gerónimo de Aguilar, a Spanish priest who had been shipwrecked on the mainland several years before and who could speak the Maya language. Between Aguilar and a woman slave named Malinche who could speak Maya and Nahuatl, Cortés was able to communicate effectively during his conquest.
Cortés also had amazing luck in terms of the Aztec vassal states. They nominally owed allegiance to the Aztec, but in reality hated them and Cortés was able to exploit this hatred. With thousands of native warriors as allies, he was able to meet the Aztecs on strong terms and bring about their downfall.
He also benefited from the fact that Moctezuma was a weak leader, who looked for divine signs before making any decisions. Cortés believed that Moctezuma thought that the Spanish were emissaries from the God Quetzalcoatl, which may have caused him to wait before crushing them.
Cortés’ final stroke of luck was the timely arrival of reinforcements under the inept Pánfilo de Narváez. Governor Velázquez intended to weaken Cortés and bring him back to Cuba, but after Narváez was defeated he wound up providing Cortés with men and supplies that he desperately needed.
Governor
From 1521 to 1528 Cortés served as governor of New Spain, as Mexico came to be known. The crown sent administrators, and Cortés himself oversaw the rebuilding of the city and exploration expeditions into other parts of Mexico. Cortés still had many enemies, however, and his repeated insubordination caused him to have very little support from the crown. In 1528 he returned to Spain to plead his case for more power. What he got was a mixed bag: he was elevated to noble status and given the title of Marquis of the Oaxaca Valley, one of the richest territories in the New World. He was also, however, removed from the governorship and would never again wield much power in the New World.
Later Life
Cortés never lost the spirit of adventure. He personally financed and led an expedition to explore Baja California in the late 1530’s and fought with royal forces in Algiers in 1541. After that ended in a fiasco, he decided to return to Mexico, but instead died of pleuritis in 1547 at the age of 62.
Legacy
In his bold but ghastly conquest of the Aztecs, Cortés left a trail of bloodshed that other conquistadores would follow. The “blueprint” that Cortés established – dividing native populations against one another and exploiting traditional enmities – was one followed later by Pizarro in Peru, Alvarado in Central America and other conquests in the Americas.
Cortés' success in bringing down the mighty Aztec Empire quickly became the stuff of legend back in Spain. Most of his soldiers had been peasants or younger sons of minor nobility back in Spain and had little to look forward to in terms of wealth or prestige. After the conquest, however, any of his men who had survived were given generous lands and plenty of native slaves, in addition to gold. These rags-to-riches stories drew thousands of Spanish to the New World, each of whom wished to follow in Cortés’ bloody footprints.
In the short run, this was (in a sense) good for the Spanish crown, because native populations were quickly subjugated by these ruthless conquistadores. In the long run, however, it proved disastrous because these men were the wrong sort of colonizers: they were not farmers or tradesmen, but soldiers, slavers and mercenaries who abhorred honest work.
One of Cortés’ lasting legacies was the encomienda system that he instituted in Mexico. The encomienda system, a left over relic from the days of the reconquest, basically “entrusted” a tract of land and any number of natives to a Spaniard, often a conquistador. The encomendero, as he was called, had certain rights and responsibilities. Basically, he agreed to provide religious education for the natives in exchange for labor. In reality, the encomienda system amounted to little more than legalized, enforced slavery and made the encomenderos very wealthy and powerful. The Spanish crown would eventually regret allowing the encomienda system to take root in the New World, as it later proved very difficult to get rid of once reports of abuses began piling up.
In modern Mexico, Cortés is often a reviled figure. Modern Mexicans identify as closely with their native past as with their European one, and they see Cortés as a monster and butcher. Equally reviled (if not more so) is the figure of Malinche, or Doña Marina, Cortés’ Nahua slave/consort. If not for Malinche’s language skills and willing assistance, the conquest of the Aztec Empire would almost certainly have taken a different path.
