User:Chbhurst/Aztec Empire

persuading him that the move was entirely the Totonac's idea and that he had no knowledge of it. The Totonacs provided Cortés with 20 companies of soldiers for his march to Tlaxcala, having effectively declared war on the Aztecs. At this time, several of Cortés' soldiers attempted to mutiny. When Cortés discovered the plot, he had his ships scuttled and sank them in the harbor to remove any possibility of escaping to Cuba. [edit] However, Alonso Hernandez Puertocarrero and Francisco de Montejo reported when they returned to Spain that the ships were rotting and unseaworthy and that the captains themselves decided to beach them.


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Cortés encountered a shipwrecked Spaniard named Gerónimo de Aguilar who joined the expedition and translated between Spanish and Mayan. The expedition then sailed west to Campeche, where, after a brief battle with the local army, Cortés was able to negotiate peace through his interpreter Aguilar. The King of Campeche gave Cortés a second translator, a bilingual Nahua-Maya slave woman named La Malinche (she was known also as Malinalli [maliˈnalːi], Malintzin [maˈlintsin] or Doña Marina [ˈdoɲa maˈɾina]). La Malinche was a princess before she was either taken, or willingly sold, into slavery, eventually being sold to the leader of Campeche. Because of this she could communicate with the higher nobility of both the Mayans and Aztecs. Aguilar translated from Spanish to Mayan, and La Malinche translated from Mayan to Nahuatl. Malinche became Cortés' translator for both language and culture once she learned Spanish, and she was a key figure in interactions with Nahua rulers.


 * 1) ^ "La Malinche, Hernán Cortés's Translator and So Much More". The National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved 2024-05-06.

After fighting several close battles, Cortés eventually convinced the leaders of Tlaxcala to order their general to stand down. Cortés then secured an alliance with the people of Tlaxcala and traveled from there to the Basin of Mexico with a smaller company of 5,000-6,000 Tlaxcalans and 400 Totonacs in addition to the Spanish soldiers.When Cortes and his company of both Spanish and Native soldiers arrived at Cholula, they were forced to separate. The larger group of native soldiers stayed outside the walls while the Spanish were allowed inside. During his stay in the city of Cholula, Cortés claims he received word of a planned ambush against the Spanish. In a pre-emptive response, Cortés directed his troops to attack and kill a large amount of unarmed Cholulans gathered in the main square of the city.

The Spanish expedition leader Hernán Cortés landed in Yucatán in 1519 with approximately 630 men [edit] this posse consisted of 508 foot soldiers, 100 sailors and 16 horses. Cortés had actually been removed as the expedition's commander by the governor of Cuba Diego Velásquez but had stolen the boats and left without permission


 * 1) ^ "Hernan Cortes | Expeditions, Biography, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2024-05-06.