Cortes Captures Aztec Capital: An Empire Falls

After 75 days of siege, starvation, and smallpox, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan fell to Hernan Cortes and his indigenous allies on August 13, 1521. The last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtemoc, was captured while trying to escape across Lake Texcoco by canoe. With his surrender ended a civilization that had dominated central Mexico for two centuries, and one of the most extraordinary cities the world had ever produced was reduced to rubble. Tenochtitlan was a marvel that astonished the Spanish when they first saw it in November 1519. Built on an island in Lake Texcoco, connected to the mainland by three wide causeways, the city housed between 200,000 and 300,000 people, making it larger than any European city except Constantinople. Its markets, temples, aqueducts, and botanical gardens represented the accumulated achievement of Mesoamerican civilization. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a soldier in Cortes's army, compared the sight to the enchanted cities in the tales of Amadis. Cortes had been expelled from the city during the Noche Triste in June 1520, losing hundreds of soldiers and most of his Aztec gold. He spent the next year rebuilding his forces and, crucially, cementing alliances with indigenous peoples who resented Aztec domination, particularly the Tlaxcalans. When he returned, he commanded roughly 900 Spanish soldiers and somewhere between 75,000 and 200,000 indigenous warriors. He also brought 13 small brigantines, built from scratch to control the lake. The siege was methodical and merciless. Cortes cut the freshwater aqueducts, blockaded the causeways, and destroyed the city section by section to prevent ambushes. Disease did as much damage as weapons. Smallpox, introduced by a single infected member of an earlier Spanish expedition, tore through a population with no immunity. By the time Cuauhtemoc surrendered, an estimated 100,000 to 240,000 Aztecs had died. The Spanish built Mexico City directly on top of Tenochtitlan's ruins, burying the old world beneath the new.