The Siege and Fall of Tenochitlan

"The Mexicans have been conquered; we do not know who the conquerors are, but all Mexico City is foul with the odor of dead bodies."

It is hard to imagine what the battle for Tenochitlan was like. Like mentioned in class, it is a difficult and complicated event to study. It must have been extremely difficult for the neighboring tribes and cities to believe that such a great city like Tenochitlan could have fallen. Sadly to the present day all that remains of Tenochitlan is the Templo Mayor in the center of the center. I have had the opportunity to visit the Templo Mayor and see its beauty but unfortunately can only imagine what it must have looked like in it's prime. Hernan Cortes mentions the difficulty of destroying the buildings but that he did it because it hurt the Indians more than the Spaniards.That seems a little obvious. Whether that is true or not no one will ever know.

One of the first pieces of Tenochitlan found
during construction in 1978

What the Templo Mayor was believed
to look like

While studying the conquest of Mexico and the destruction of Tenochitlan I can't help but think poorly of the Spanish conquistadors (as can probably be understood from my 1st paragraph). Reading this last section I realized that the conquest of Mexico probably would not have been possible without the help of other Mexican Indians. Rarely do you hear someone complain about the Indians that assisted in the conquest of Tenochitlan. I am not an expert on the conquest but it appears from our readings that there were thousands of Indians on the Spaniards side and that they suffered much higher causalities than the Spaniards. Why did the Indians help them? What were the Indians offered by the Spaniards? Would the conquest have been possible without the Indians aid? How were the Indians that assisted in the conquest treated by the Spaniards afterwards? There are so many questions that come to mind after learning the Indians role in the conquest. It baffles me to think that so many Indians assisted in what was basically their own conquest. Most of these questions can probably never be answered and the motives of the Indians helping the Spaniards may never be fully understood. Personally it is hard for me to understand how the Indians did not see what was happening (of course hind sight is 20/20). In the end like Dr. Mack loves to say..."it's complicated."