Cortes and the Downfall of the Aztec Empire

Jon Manchip White (born 1924) is the Welsh American author of more than thirty books of non-fiction and fiction, including Mask of Dust, Nightclimber, Death By Dreaming, Solo Goya, and his latest novel, Rawlins White: Patriot to Heaven, published in 2011. White is also the author of a number of plays, teleplays, screenplays and volumes of short stories including The Bird with Silver Wings, a collection of musical stories to be published in the summer of 2012. This book is the story of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and most specifically, Cortes' influence on its conduct and consequences. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The invasion began in February, 1519, and was declared victorious on August 13, 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish conquistadors and Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. During the Spanish campaign, Cortés allied with a number of the tributaries and rivals of the Aztecs, including the Totonacs, and the Tlaxcaltecas. After eight months of battles and intrigue, which overcame the diplomatic resistance of the Aztec Emperor Montezuma to his visit, Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519, where he took up residence. After an Aztec attack on Nauhtlan, a city on the coast, that left several Spaniards dead, Cortés took Montezuma captive in his own palace and ruled through him for months. After the massacre at the Main Temple of Tenochtitlan and a rebellion by the population of the city, Cortés and his men had to fight their way out of the capital city in June, 1520. However, the Spanish and Tlaxcalans would return with reinforcements and a siege plan that led to the fall of Tenochtitlan a year later. The collapse of the Aztec Empire was a major milestone in the formation of New Spain, which would not be formalized by the Spanish Crown until 1535.