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constructed wooden ladders, used them to scale the walls, and conquered the fortress.
99 During Cortés's absence the Aztecs attacked the Spaniards remaining in Tenochtitlan and scaled the walls of their fortress.100 |
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If neither breaching nor scaling the walls succeeded, the remaining option was to lay siege to the city or fortress. The Aztecs could besiege towns within the basin of Mexico because of the ease with which canoes could be used to ferry supplies. But logistical constraints rendered sieges virtually impossible elsewhere. More than other tactics, sieges depended on factors external to the military skills of the forces involved. Time, expense, logistics, and the presence of potentially hostile groups adjacent to the target city affected siegecraft. Enemy resistance in the area could stiffen, and the besieged city might be reinforced and resupplied while Aztec supplies dwindled. Moreover, the Aztecs themselves could be attacked. So instead of sending a small army capable of defeating a city through a siege, the Aztecs sent a large army to overwhelm it. |
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Large siege machines did not exist in Mesoamerica, and only the weapons normally used in combat were available to the attackers.101 Projectiles had harassment value in besieging fortifications, and atlatl darts and stones proved to be effective. Both could be lobbed over the walls of fortifications with telling effect,102 and burning arrows were used to set buildings afire.103 |
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Since extended sieges were usually not feasible, defensive fortifications could be rudimentary. Strongholds could doubtless have been built to withstand sustained sieges, and their absence reflects the limitations of the attacking army. Rather, such forts were temporary refuges where women and children could escape the fighting and, if the battle went badly, where the nobles and leaders could withdraw and hold out for a short period. During this time they could still negotiate the terms of surrender from a better bargaining position than if they had suffered outright defeat. |
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Given the potential of fortifications for defense, their infrequent use in postclassic Mesoamerica was probably linked to nontactical considerations. First, as noted above, the Aztecs had developed some countermeasures. Second, even if a city were to erect effective fortifications, the cost of manning the entire perimeter was enormous, particularly for sprawling agricultural towns, as opposed to the planned fortified cities of Europe. And the inhabitants were unlikely to be able to repulse a massed enemy at any given point along the |
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