Discovering the Mammoth by John J. McKay

Author:John J. McKay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2017-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

THE AMERICAN COUSIN

In the fall of 1519, Hernán Cortés, six hundred soldiers, and fifteen horses arrived in the territory of the Tlaxcala, on the eastern edge of the central valley of Mexico. Tlaxcala was one of the last Nahua states to remain free of Aztec rule. For decades, they had been locked in the horrific Flower Wars with their larger neighbor. The purpose of these wars was not conquest or settling geopolitical conflicts but to provide prisoners to sacrifice to the gods to stave off famines caused by overpopulation. The first impulse of the Tlaxcala was to destroy this new alien army, and they had an opportunity to do just that, but divisions among their leaders led them to recall their army and make peace with the Spanish. They realized that the newcomers might be able to break the horrible stalemate of the Flower Wars in their favor. They invited Cortés into their city to rest and negotiated an alliance against the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán. While the Spanish rested in Tlaxcala, preparing for a new campaign against the Aztecs, the Tlaxcala leaders made every effort to curry favor and impress these strangers. The Spanish were fed and entertained. The leading houses allowed their daughters to be baptized. At some point during the three weeks the Spanish stayed in Tlaxcala, a group of Spaniards began to question their hosts about their history. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a soldier under Cortés’s command, who wrote a history of the campaign, recorded their answer.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.