Just What Happened and How

By Jack Euteneuer

Synopsis When Cortés began his conquest of Mexico, he was in dire need of allies.

Knowing this, he set about gathering the disparate cities that opposed Montezuma, and none were more important than the city of Tlaxcala, a powerful city that was at war with Tenochtitlan. This was not as easy as it sounds, because Tlaxcala itself was not willing to ally itself to Cortés’ cause. There was a brief a somewhat brief war to bring Tlaxcala over to the side of the Spaniards, and there was much back and forth between actual fighting, and political maneuvering between and even (in the case of the Tlaxcalans) the political factions. It was during this war that the Spanish started to truly learn just who the major players were in the land, and what the situation was concerning those players and how best to exploit it.

According to Cortés Cortés was told to go to Tlaxcala by the Cempoalans, because they were

trustworthy and Tenochtitlan was not. Several times while on the way to Tlaxcala, Cortés was met by Chieftains from Tlaxcala, and told that they wished to be friends: “they wanted to be my friends, wished me good fortune and said I would be welcomed by them.”1There were also several times when warriors from that same city would attack him, often within a day of having the chieftains visit him. All throughout this, Cortés never lost his apparent boundless mercy and forgiveness: “I replied that they had done wrong, but that I was content to be their friend and to forgive what they had done.” (Cortés, Pg 58) In the end, he arrived at Tlaxcala and allied the people to his cause, because, he claims, they wished to be loyal vassals to the Spanish King and do as he wished.

According to Díaz Díaz mostly corroborates with Cortés concerning this subject, with a few

exceptions, such as dates and gives a great amount of detail on the interior workings of the Tlaxcalan nobility. Díaz reveals that it is Xicotenga the younger who is constantly fighting the Spaniards, which at first is supported, but then is condemned by his father, Xicotenga the elder. Díaz also tells the reader that the Tlaxcalans tried to use foul magics and sacrifice of soothsayers in order to bring about victory: “they decided to summon all the soothsayers, priests and those others called Tacal naguas, and they told them to find out from their witchcraft, charms, and lots what people we were.”2 Beyond this, he describes the battles in more detail, and otherwise agrees with Cortés’ description of the order of events, except for some chronological conflicts, such as when the night attack occurred.

The Indigenous Point of View There is very little, if any, information about Cortés and how he made allies

with the Tlaxcalans. This could be because almost all of the indigenous sources are from either Tlatelolco, as is the case with Sahagún, or the people being used to write the sources are from a much later time than when the actual conquest took place, which is also the case with Sahagún again, and it is likely that many of the people who could have lived to this time from the Conquest that are indigenous have died, from one cause or another.

Compare and Contrast Cortés tended to be very vague about any details concerning any of the battles,

or just what the Tlaxcalan representatives talked about, but he did give a decent overview of the events that happened. Unfortunately, even Bernal Díaz gives a very different view of what happened in Tlaxcala, so it is hard to say just how accurate the Spanish side of the story truly is. Díaz gave more detail concerning the Tlaxcalans and their political machine, which concerned the two Xicotengas, and how it was Xicotenga the younger who kept fighting with the Tlaxcalans, even after the soothsayers and magicians had been spent and the chieftains were leaning towards suing for peace. The indigenous view is essentially non-existent, because there is almost no mention of it in either the Florentine Codex or any of the other sources that are available.

Sources n s, Anthony Pagden. Letters from Mexico (New Haven: Yale UP, 1986)

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az Del Castillo, a, Alfred Percival Maudslay, and Hugh

Thomas. The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico (Cambridge, Ma.: Da Capo, 2003)

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