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Chapter 16
The Spanish Conquest |
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The Spanish conquest ended large-scale and coordinated use of Aztec and allied troops. Thereafter numerous Indian warriors from central Mexico fought other Indian groups, but on behalf of the Spaniards.
1 Often these warriors used indigenous arms and armor, but they gradually adopted Spanish arms, direction, and tactics.2 |
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Much of the battle between Cortés and Moteuczomah Xocoyotlbetween Spaniard and Aztechas been cast in terms of a titanic struggle of cultures and of ideas.3 There undoubtedly was such a clash, but arms and armor, strategy and tactics, and, most important, the imperial political structure itself supplied the pattern the Conquest was to follow. |
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Cortés and his men landed on the coast of present-day Veracruz in the spring of 1519.4 They left the coastal region on August 16 and journeyed inland, entering Tlaxcaltec territory on August 31.5 The Spaniards fought two main battles with hostile Tlaxcaltec forces. Though hard pressed, they won (on September 2 and 5), and the Tlaxcaltecs admitted them to their capital.6 |
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In the context of Tlaxcallan history this defeat may seem anomalous. The Tlaxcaltecs had fought numerous battles against the Aztecs and others, and while they had lost many, they had never been decisively defeated. Rather, they remained in a state of economic and political siege, continually pressured by Aztec incursions. Why, then, did the loss of two battles lead to their capitulation to the Spaniards, particularly since their losses had been no worse than in previous battles and their military leaders were still undaunted? |
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