Conquistadors and Aztecs: A History of the Fall of Tenochtitlan

Historian Rinke (Latin America and the First World War) revisits in this comprehensive and insightful chronicle the fall of Tenochtitlan and the Mexica (or Aztec) Empire in the early 16th century. Adding depth and nuance to historical accounts of a small band of conquistadors swiftly overcoming a massive empire through technological and tactical superiority, Rinke draws on Indigenous and Spanish sources to uncover a much more complex series of events. He sketches Hernán Cortés’s youth in Spain and departure for the Caribbean in 1504, before shifting gears to focus on Mexica ruler Moctezuma II and the empire’s state of disarray prior to Cortés’s expedition to Mesoamerica in 1519. Much attention is paid to the Spaniards’ interactions with the Totonacs, Tlaxcalans, and other Mexica vassal states and enemies who proved to be invaluable allies in the battle for Tenochtitlan, which lasted for more than a year and involved victories and setbacks for both sides. Only in subsequent histories, primarily by non-Indigenous peoples, was the fall of the Mexica Empire viewed as inevitable. Rinke’s prodigious research enables him to disentangle the biological, psychological, military, and sociocultural factors behind this much mythologized conquest. The result is a vital reconsideration of the history of the New World. Illus. (June)