While some similarities are seen among Hernando Cortés and the Mexica in their view of the colonization of the New World, the differences are more significant to understanding the history of the Spanish arrival and conquest. As a Spanish conquistador on a mission to expand, Cortés did all he could to accomplish this goal. The Mexica, on the other hand, saw the Spaniards as the prophesied gods that their omens forewarned them about. Cortés and the Mexica distinctively viewed the event that led up to the fall and conquer of Technochtitlan, the Mexica capital, in the light of their own culture and religion.
To begin, the Mexica culture consisted of a polytheistic religion where human sacrifice was essential to the prosperity of their people in the recognition to their gods. The Mexica was also a great warrior society. To have an abundance of people to sacrifice to their gods, they would have ritual seasonal wars, “Flowery Wars,” to capture enemies.
After Motecuhzuma received the eight omens foretelling the arrival of the Spaniards, their belief that the “divinities returning to Mexico, as the codices and traditions promised they would” (Léon-Portilla, 14) became stronger. When they saw these “strange
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“I told them all I knew about this [Catholicism] to dissuade them from their idolatry and bring them to the knowledge of God out savior…especially Mutezuma” (Games and Rotham, 61). Not only did Cortés use this knowledge of Catholics, but also warned them that if they did not convert then they would not be God’s good favor and he, as a defender of God, would have to murder them and their family unless they converted (Games and Rotham, 57-58). With this idea that the Spaniards had an upper hand with God, the Mexica ultimately lost Technochtitlan and parts of their cultural