Fall of Tenochtitlan - The Surrender

The Surrender

The Aztecs surrendered on August 13, 1521. Cortés demanded the return of the gold lost during La Noche Triste. Cuauhtémoc was taken hostage the same day and remained the titular leader of Tenochtitlan, under the control of Cortés, until he was hanged for treason in 1525 while accompanying a Spanish expedition to Guatemala.

Aztecs fled the city as the Spanish forces, primarily the Tlaxcalans, continued to attack even after the surrender, slaughtering thousands of the remaining population and looting the city. As this practice was generally not done in European warfare, it suggests that Cortés’s indigenous allies had more power over him than he suggested or he simply could not control them in the final days of the siege. The survivors marched out of the city for the next three days. Almost all of the nobility were dead, and the remaining survivors were mostly very young children. It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine with any exactitude the number of people killed during the siege. As many as 240,000 Aztecs are estimated to have died, according to the Florentine Codex, during the eighty days. This estimate is greater, however, than some estimates of the entire population (60,000-300,000) even before the smallpox epidemic of 1520. Reasonable Spanish observers estimated that approximately 100,000 inhabitants of the city died from all causes.

Although some reports put the number as low as forty, the Spanish probably lost around 100 soldiers in the siege, while thousands of Tlaxcalans perished. It is estimated that around 1,800 Spaniards died from all causes during the two-year campaign—from Vera Cruz to Tenochtitlan. (Thomas, p. 528-9) The remaining Spanish forces consisted of 800-900 Spaniards, eighty horses, sixteen pieces of artillery, and Cortés’s thirteen brigantines. Other sources estimate that around 860 Spanish soldiers and 20,000 Tlaxcalan warriors were killed during all the battles in this region from 1519-1521.

It is well accepted that Cortés’ indigenous allies, which may have numbered as many as 200,000 over the three-year period of the "conquest," were indespensible to his success. Their support was never acknowledged until much later, and they derived little benefit from their sacrifices, aside from being rid of the Aztecs. Although several major, allied native groups emerged from this campaign, none was willing to challenge the Spaniards, and the person who benefited was Cortés, who ruled the remnants of the Aztec Empire through his captive and puppet, Cuauhtėmoc and other Aztec lords.