How Did Cortes Betray The Aztec

How would you feel if you welcome an outsider into your home but, they end up betraying your trust, that’s what happened to the Aztecs and their empire in the Spanish conquest of 1521. Hernan Cortes, a Spanish conquistador sent by King Charles V, arrives in Central America in 1519 and starts to hearing things about the Aztecs, a very wealthy civilization. Once the Spanish find the city Tenochtitlan (capital city of the Aztec Empire), with the help of the Tlaxcalans (enemies of the Aztecs), they are welcomed by the Aztec leader Montezuma II because he thinks that Cortes is the white skinned god Quetzalcoatl who is to arrive from the east, according to Aztec legend. Then Cortes orders his men to destroy religious statues and idols belonging to the Aztecs, so Cortes has Montezuma II arrested and taken hostage to hopefully prevent an attack from the Aztecs. While other conquistadors killed Aztec priests whilst in one of their religious celebrations. But the Aztecs responded by attacking the Spanish and Montezuma gets killed in the cross fire, but it’s not established if the Spanish or an Aztec killed him. The Spanish retreat and many end up getting killed by the Aztecs or by drowning while crossing Lake Texcoco. Finally, one year later the Spanish return with their allies the Tlaxcalans and launch a siege on

This was one of the most important conflicts, not in a sense of the kidnapping but in a sense that this event sort of paved the way for the uprising of the Aztecs and the destruction of the Aztecs later on. Moreover, without the Aztecs’ leader they might’ve made an incorrect decision by attacking the Spanish because it unsurprisingly gets Montezuma killed, even though it is not known if either the Spanish killed him or a disgruntled Aztec who thought that Montezuma was no longer fit to be ruler of the