{"id":2459,"date":"2018-08-21T08:40:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T08:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=2459"},"modified":"2026-02-25T07:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:41:14","slug":"final-battle-of-tenochtitlan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/final-battle-of-tenochtitlan\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Battle of Tenochtitlan: A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The final battle of Tenochtitlan<\/a> took place in 1521 CE, when Spanish conquistadors led by Hernan Cortes<\/a>, along with thousands of Mesoamerican allies, attacked the Aztec capital. After months of brutal fighting, starvation, and disease, the city fell, and the last Aztec emperor, Cuauht\u00e9moc, was captured. The fall of Tenochtitlan marked the end of the Aztec Empire<\/a> and the beginning of Spanish rule in Mexico. As such, historians consider the final battle of Tenochtitlan to be one of the most significant events during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

BEFORE THE FINAL BATTLE OF TENOCHTITLAN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As part of the conquest the Spanish conquistadors, who were led by\u00a0Hernan\u00a0Cort\u00e9s, took the Aztec leader Moctezuma II<\/a>\u00a0captive.\u00a0 Soon after, Moctezuma II was dead and the Aztec people retaliated against the Spanish forcing them to flee the Aztec capital.\u00a0\u00a0The Spanish referred to this event as \u2018Noche Triste<\/a>\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0Following the events of Noche Triste, the Spanish fled to Tlaxcala, chased away by Aztec warriors.\u00a0 In Tlaxcala the Spanish recovered from their wounds, including Cort\u00e9s and Alvarado who were both injured in the escape from Tenochtitlan.\u00a0 This time in Tlaxcala had impacts for both the Spanish and the Aztec, because the Spanish were able to resupply and received new Spanish troops while the Aztec suffered from the consequences of the spread of European diseases<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When European explorers arrived in the New World during the Age of Exploration<\/a> they brought with them many different types of diseases that were not already present in the New World, including: smallpox, influenza, measles, malaria, chicken pox and yellow fever.\u00a0 Historians are unsure of how many of the Aztec people suffered and died from the spread of disease at this time, but their newest tlatoani, Cuitl\u00e1huac, died from smallpox. \u00a0This is important because the Aztecs lacked stable leadership during the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, since their leaders (Moctezuma II and Cuitl\u00e1huac) died.\u00a0 Regardless, the spread of smallpox throughout Tenochtitlan severely weakened the Aztec people and aided the Spanish in their final battle against the city. A new tlatoani, and the final one to rule over the Aztec Empire, Cuauht\u00e9moc, was chosen in February of 1521.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Moctezuma
Moctezuma II illustration from 1892.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

FINAL BATTLE OF TENOCHTITLAN – SUMMARY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Spanish began their attack against Tenochtitlan by destroying the aqueducts that brought fresh water to the city.  As well, Cort\u00e9s ordered his troops to surround the city and stop it from receiving food supplies.  This effectively cut off the city from the surrounding areas and further weakened the already suffering Aztec people who were struggling with the effects of smallpox and unstable leadership.  Furthermore, Cort\u00e9s had his men launch several small ships into Lake Texcoco, which prevented the people of Tenochtitlan from escaping or receiving help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hernan
‘Portrait of Hernan Cortes’ by an unknown artist. (1525)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Resupplied and with new Spanish soldiers, Cort\u00e9s further prepared for his attack against Tenochtitlan.  The Spanish and their Tlaxcalan allies left Tlaxcala on December 26th, 1520 and immediately went to work in creating alliances with other powerful city-states in the region of Lake Texcoco against Tenochtitlan.  For example, in a short period of time, Cort\u00e9s was able to get several other Mesoamerican societies on his side, including former members of the Aztec Triple Alliance such as Texcoco.  As a result, when Cort\u00e9s attacked Tenochtitlan in the spring and summer of 1521, they were aided by thousands of Tlaxcala and Texcoco warriors.  As well, at the start of the final battles for Tenochtitlan, the Spanish had nearly 1,000 soldiers of their own, over 120 horses, newly constructed ships for use on the lake, and newly arrived firearms and gunpowder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fighting of the final battle for Tenochtitlan was brutal.  The Aztec people in the city, who were starving and suffering from smallpox, were bombarded by Spanish cannons and firearms.  While the Aztec carried out several counterattacks they were mostly ineffective due to the Spanish\u2019s organization, alliances and overwhelming military power.  Apparently, Cort\u00e9s had hoped that the Aztecs would surrender so that he could capture Tenochtitlan intact and present it as a prize to the Spanish monarch Charles V.  However, during the battle, the Aztec\u2019s sacrificed many of the Spanish prisoners of war that they had held captive.  This angered Cort\u00e9s and caused him to order the destruction of the city and the Aztec people.  Tenochtitlan was finally captured by the Spanish and Tlaxcala on August 13th, 1521.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuauht\u00e9moc was taken prisoner and the Aztec Empire was no more.  The battle had devastated large parts of the city, with huge sections of the temples and buildings destroyed.  However, after capturing the city, the Spanish continued its destruction by taking down any religious symbols and temples.  As well, they burned large areas of the city to root out the remaining people.  With their city destroyed, the Aztec people scattered throughout the Valley of Mexico.  Cort\u00e9s and the Spanish began to build a new city on top of the ruins of Tenochtitlan, which eventually became Mexico City.  For his part Cort\u00e9s later became the governor of New Spain and gained wealth and infamy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Spanish
‘Conquest of Mexico by Cort\u00e9s’ by an Unknown Artist. (17th Century)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final battle of Tenochtitlan was a major event in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. This article details the major events and importance of the final battle of Tenochtitlan during the fall of the Aztec Empire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":13,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,80],"tags":[77,15,79],"class_list":["post-2459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aztec-empire","category-mesoamerica","tag-aztec-empire","tag-history","tag-mesoamerica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459","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=2459"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5735,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions\/5735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}