1. Conquest: Mexico (October 9, 1997)

2. Conquest: Mexico, 1518-1530: Outline
From the Indies to Mexico,
Conquest of Tenochtitlan,
“Why was a people so resolute and so resourceful defeated by a band of adventurers?”
Role of disease

3. Routes of Conquest: Cortes, 1519 Pizarro, 1531 Jimenez de Quesada, 1536 Mendoza, 1536 Valdivia, 1540

4. From the Indies to Mexico, - 1519
Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba expedition, Feb. 1517: 3 ships, 110 soldiers
Juan de Grijalva, May 1518: 4 ships, 200 soldiers
Hernan Cortes, April 1519: 11 ships, 450 soldiers
Panfilo de Narvaez, May 1520

5. Route of Cortes,

6. Conquest of Tenochtitlan, 1519-1521
Role of Malintzin: diplomacy
Manipulation of Mexica enemies (Cempoala, Tlaxcala, Cholula)
Capture the leader: Montezuma
The defeat of the “sad night” (June 30, 1520)
Smallpox, Oct-Dec, 1520
Blockade: May-Aug. 21, 1521

7. Hernan Cortes

8. Malintzin (Doña Mariana, “La Malinche” & Cortes drawn by native artist: “through the mouth of Doña Marina…”
Native, speaker of Nahuatl, Maya, and later, Spanish
Interpreter: fundamental to Cortes diplomacy
Beginnings of mestizaje (race mixture)
traitor--a sell out to the invaders?

10. Route of Cortes, 1519 Retreat, 1520 Reconquest of Tenochtitlan, 1521

11. Tenochtitlan in 1519: artist rendition

12. Templo Mayor inset over Mexico City today

13. It was remembered that a comet foretold strange happenings

14. Pedro de Alvarado’s violation of the temple, June 1520

19. Why were the natives defeated? (Clendinnen, p. 33)
Technology: horses, weapons
The rules of war: destroy vs. capture
Strategy and tactics
Population loss

21. End