The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico

Sometimes referred to by the Spanish form of his name (“Montezuma”), Motecuhzoma II (c. 1466-1520) was the tlatoani (king) of the Aztecs from 1502 through 1520. His reign coincided with the arrival of the Spaniards to the New World in 1519. Because Motecuhzoma was convinced that the conquistadors were Aztec deities, he shied from taking aggressive action against them until it was too late. Motecuhzoma was killed after the Spanish imprisoned him in his palace in Tenochtitlan—it is unclear if he died at their hands or those of his own people. 

One of the first Spanish conquistadors, Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) gained wealth and fame by bringing about the downfall of the Aztec empire and the city of Tenochtitlan in the early 16th century. The Nahua narratives of Broken Spears characterize Cortés as a cruel and greedy man, while his indigenous allies emphasize his benevolence and capabilities as a leader. 

Also called “The Sun,” Pedro de Alvarado (1485-1541) was a Spanish conquistador and Cortés’s right-hand man. When Cortés briefly left him in charge, de Alvarado led the massacre of the Aztec celebrants of the fiesta of Toxcatl.

Cuauhtémoc (c. 1520-c. 1525) was the last king of the Aztecs; he succeeded to the throne after Cuitlahuac died of smallpox. Cuauhtémoc surrendered Tenochtitlan to the Spanish in 1521.

Motecuhzoma’s brother Cuitlahuac (c. 1476–1520) was the lone voice of dissent against welcoming the Spanish into Tenochtitlan. On Motecuhzoma’s death, Cuitlahuac became king of the Aztecs. Cuitlahuac’s reign was short-lived: He died in a smallpox outbreak soon after.

Motecuhzoma’s nephew and a prince of Tezcoco, Ixtlilxochitl (c. 1500–c. 1550). enthusiastically converted to Catholicism and allied with Spanish forces.

La Malinche (c. 1500–c. 1529) was a Native woman of the Gulf Coast who could speak both Nahuatl and Mayan. Along with Jeronimo de Aguilar, she served as an interpreter for Cortés; she also bore Cortés a son.

Diego Munoz Camargo (c. 1529-1599) wrote Historia de Tlaxcala, a history of the Tlaxcala people. Munoz Camargo was a mestizo—that is, of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry—but married into Tlaxcala nobility. His account is an important insight into the perspective of the Aztecs’ primary Indigenous opponents, the Tlaxcaltecas.