{"id":2427,"date":"2018-08-20T08:42:27","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T08:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=2427"},"modified":"2026-02-26T06:34:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T06:34:01","slug":"moctezuma-ii-aztec-emperor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/moctezuma-ii-aztec-emperor\/","title":{"rendered":"Moctezuma II (Aztec Emperor): A Detailed Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Moctezuma II was the most significant emperor<\/a> of the Aztec Empire<\/a>. Following the Aztec\u2019s founding and construction of\u00a0Tenochtitlan<\/a>\u00a0in the Valley of Mexico in 1325 AD, they quickly established their authority<\/a> across the other societies in the valley.\u00a0 Historians refer to this time period as the\u00a0Aztec Empire, since the Aztec were constantly expanding throughout central Mexico.\u00a0 As well, for the two centuries that followed the initial construction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec were ruled over by a series of leaders referred to as Huey Tlatoani.\u00a0 In the Aztec language<\/a> of Nahuatl this translates to ‘Great Speaker’.\u00a0 Each huey tlatoani ruled in different ways but they all oversaw the expansion of both Tenochtitlan and the Aztec Empire until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in 1519.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MOCTEZUMA II (AZTEC EMPEROR) – EARLY REIGN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Moctezuma II became the ninth tlatoani and ruler of Tenochtitlan<\/a> in 1502.\u00a0 He ruled over the Aztec Empire until 1520 with the arrival of Spanish conquistadors under the leadership of\u00a0Hernan Cort\u00e9s<\/a>.\u00a0 When he came to power he continued the campaigns of conquest<\/a> and expanded the Aztec Empire even further than it had already in the previous decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he oversaw the Aztec conquer of several different Mesoamerican city-states, he still had bitter rivals in the Tlaxcala and Huexotzinco.\u00a0 During this time the Aztec continued to carry out the\u00a0Flower Wars<\/a>\u00a0against these two powerful city-states.\u00a0 As well, he built temples and public buildings in Tenochtitlan and expanded his authority over the people.\u00a0 More specifically, he strengthened the Aztec social system<\/a> of the time and made it more difficult for commoners to increase their status in the society.\u00a0 As tlatoani of the Aztec, he was often carried by guards so that he did not touch the ground and commoners were not allowed to look directly at him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map
Map of the Aztec Empire and Aztec Triple Alliance by History Crunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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MOCTEZUMA II (AZTEC EMPEROR) – SPANISH CONQUEST OF THE AZTEC EMPIRE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

However, Moctezuma II is most famous for being the Aztec ruler during the\u00a0Spanish conquests of Mexico<\/a>.\u00a0 Historians have reported that Moctezuma II was first made aware of the Spanish\u2019s arrival in 1517 when Spanish conquistadors landed at the edge of Aztec territory along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.\u00a0 In fact, this was the expedition of\u00a0Juan de Grijalva\u00a0who was a Spanish conquistador and one of the first European explorers to arrive in Mexico.\u00a0 Unsure of who these people were or what they wanted, Moctezuma II ordered his people to keep him informed of their movements and actions.\u00a0 In 1519, more Spanish conquistadors arrived, but this time they were led by Hernan Cort\u00e9s<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hernan<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Moctezuma II was informed of their arrival, which was in the area of the Yucatan Peninsula, to the east of the main territory of the Aztec Empire.\u00a0 Quickly, Hernan Cort\u00e9s and his men encountered other Mesoamerican peoples living in the area.\u00a0 For example, they came into contact with the Tlaxcala, which was a powerful city-state to the east of Tenochtitlan.\u00a0 Tlaxcala were traditional enemies of the Aztec as the two had fought each in different battles including the Flower Wars.\u00a0 As such, the Tlaxcala used the opportunity to their advantage and allied themselves with the Spanish against Tenochtitlan.\u00a0 This is important, because Cort\u00e9s used the Tlaxcala and other enemies of the Aztec in his later conquest of Tenochtitlan.\u00a0 In response, Moctezuma II had gifts sent to Cort\u00e9s in an attempt to show his prestige and the power of the Aztec over their rivals.\u00a0 Moctezuma II was also unsure of how to respond to Cort\u00e9s and the other Spanish conquistadors because their arrival into the Aztec territory coincided with an important\u00a0Aztec prophecy in relation to the Mesoamerican god\u00a0Quetzalcoatl<\/a>.\u00a0 The prophecy spoke of Quetzalcoatl\u2019s arrival at the same time as the Spanish, and Quetzalcoatl was said to have white skin.\u00a0 Unsure of whether or not Cort\u00e9s was the god, Moctezuma II responded by greeting him with honor and giving him many gifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Spanish
Entrance of Hernan Cortes into the Aztec Empire. It shows the meeting between Hernan Cortes and Moctezuma II.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cort\u00e9s and the Spanish arrived at the city of Tenochtitlan in November of 1519.\u00a0 While they were accompanied by their new allies, the Tlaxcala, only Cort\u00e9s and the Spanish were invited into the city.\u00a0 Still believing that Cort\u00e9s might be Quetzalcoatl, Moctezuma II gave the Spanish many gifts and allowed them to stay as guests in the Aztec capital.\u00a0 During the next week or so the Spanish toured the city<\/a> and saw the many Aztec temples, markets and palaces.\u00a0 At this point Cort\u00e9s became fearful that Moctezuma II may order his death and in response he took the Aztec leader captive in the palace that Moctezuma II had prepared for the Spanish in Tenochtitlan.\u00a0 Capturing the leader of an indigenous tribe or group was a very common practice by the Spanish throughout their conquests of the Caribbean and Central America.\u00a0 As such, Cort\u00e9s was simply following a commonly held practice by the Spanish during the time period.\u00a0 The Spanish remained in Tenochtitlan for the next several months, during which time they controlled the city through Moctezuma II.\u00a0 This is because Moctezuma II continued to rule over the Aztec Empire and city of Tenochtitlan from his imprisonment in the Aztec palace.\u00a0 The Aztec nobility and religious leaders became very angry during this time with the Spanish.\u00a0 They believed that Moctezuma II was weak and had let the Spanish take over the city.\u00a0 For example, during this time, Cort\u00e9s replaced Aztec religious symbols in the palace with Christian<\/a> symbols and demanded that the Aztec deliver as much gold as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the months after Moctezuma II was imprisoned in Tenochtitlan, Cort\u00e9s was forced to leave to handle a different situation.\u00a0 Cort\u00e9s had been made aware that Diego Velasquez, the Spanish governor of Cuba, had ordered his arrest for disobeying orders in regards to his expedition to Mexico.\u00a0 As such, Cort\u00e9s left that spring to stop P\u00e1nfilo de Narv\u00e1ez and other Spanish men that were sent to arrest him.\u00a0 While he was gone, the Spanish conquistadors\u00a0that remained in Tenochtitlan carried out a massacre of Aztec citizens<\/a>.\u00a0 The Aztec responded and the Spanish were essentially held captive by the Aztec nobility and warriors in Tenochtitlan following the massacre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometime during the conflict between the Spanish and the Aztecs, Moctezuma II was killed, however there are different accounts of the event and historians are unsure of the truth.  First, Spanish accounts of the death of Moctezuma II argue that he was killed by his own people while trying to get them to retreat from fighting the Spanish.  This version is based on the idea that the Aztec people became so disgusted with Moctezuma\u2019s actions and support for the Spanish that they killed him.  An account by Cort\u00e9s suggests that Moctezuma II was stabbed to death by his own people, while another account suggests that he was stoned to death.  Supposedly, the Spanish had forced to him to speak to his people in an attempt to allow the Spanish to go free.  The second version of his death, which comes from Aztec accounts of the event, is that Moctezuma II was killed by the Spanish as they fled the city following the Aztec retaliation for the Spanish massacre of Aztec people in the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan as part of a festival.  In this version, Moctezuma\u2019s body was said to have been thrown from the palace as the Spanish fled.  The Aztec people cremated his body soon after.  Historians are unsure of which version is true based on the truthfulness of the sources of information and the difficulty of assessing an event so far in the past.  Regardless, Moctezuma II died during this time and his death was one of several factors that led to the eventual collapse of the Aztec Empire during the Spanish conquest.  Cuitl\u00e1huac, the younger brother of Moctezuma II, was chosen as the next tlatoani to rule over Tenochtitlan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Moctezuma
Moctezuma II imprisoned by Hernan Cort\u00e9s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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MOCTEZUMA II (AZTEC EMPEROR) – INFOGRAPHIC<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Moctezuma
Moctezuma II Infographic by History Crunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moctezuma II was the ninth Aztec Emperor, which was referred to as the huey tlatoani (Great Speaker). This article details the history and significance of Moctezuma II in relation to the Aztec Empire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":25,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,100,80],"tags":[77,18,15,79],"class_list":["post-2427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aztec-empire","category-biography","category-mesoamerica","tag-aztec-empire","tag-biography","tag-history","tag-mesoamerica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2427"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5756,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2427\/revisions\/5756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}