Why Cortez Won: Aztec Folly, Cortez Reaps Benefits

History of war is not always accurate as it is written by the winners. Such is the case of the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs. Though Cortez had superior numbers and weapons his victory was not largely due to this but many other factors. Cortez's conquest stories were blown up to portray him as a great Spanish commander with keen intellect and Military Industriousness. His victory was eminent over these frightened people, but he took the Aztecs significantly sooner than he would have by outright war. Cortez's quick two year conquest was really finished before he started, prior to Cortez arriving, the Aztecs observed strange phenomenon that seemed to them pointed to the destruction of their empire, Cortez also arrived at harvest time which was the worst time for the Aztecs to repel him, and they believed Cortez to be the god Quetzalcoatl coming to destroy them.

The strange signs the Aztecs received seemed to point to the end of their time on Earth. The Aztecs saw a comet in the day time and two temples were destroyed. Surely these bad omens pointed to their demise. So when Cortez arrived they believed their time was up and there was no way to win. The will to live was already broken by the time Cortez actually arrived.

One of the largest factors in Cortez beating the Aztecs was that he arrived at harvest time. During this time the Aztecs were generally not prepared for war as their soldiers were all working in the fields. This was probably one of Cortez's most fortuitous occurrences. Cortez thusly had no trouble in mowing over the Aztecs in the few battles that were fought. Cortez was defiantly lucky that he arrived at the right time.

The luckiest moment for Cortez in the conquest was the fact that the Aztecs believed Cortez to be the light skinned god Quetzalcoatl. The Aztecs had always believed that Quetzalcoatl would come some day to destroy them. This worked to the advantage of Cortez and armed with this now supernatural warfare masqueraded as this god. All the pieces fit in place for Cortez; the Aztecs were ripe for defeat

Cortez's war accounts and subsequent acceptance was distorted by the winner and thusly all accounts are not completely accurate. Cortez beat the Aztecs mostly by pure luck. If the Aztecs had not believed he was a god, the Aztecs could have beaten back Cortez and his small cadre of troops. Cortez merely walked in and destroyed a frightened superstitious people and he is believed to be, even in the modern world, a marvelous battlefield commander. In truth Cortez's victory over the Aztecs was a serendipitous string of events leading to the demise of these once proud people.

Turid Tangen
Cortez Conquers Aztecs
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