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Siege of Tenochtitlán

One of the most daring and complex sieges in military history, the capture of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán in 1521 by a few hundred Spanish troops and thousands of Amerindian allies resulted in the toppling of the Aztec Empire and the beginning of Spanish domination of Mesoamerica.

After attempting to defeat Indian armies allied to the Aztec Empire in 1519, Hernando Cortés, the Spanish conquistador, turned his attentions to laying siege to the city of Tenochtitlán. One of the largest and most well-engineered cities in the world, with a population of 200,000 people scattered across a lake linked with stone causeways, Tenochtitlán was a bustling capital of a large empire kept together through the subjugation of neighboring Indian states.

Landing on the Yucatán Peninsula in 1519, Cortés had outfitted an army to make himself rich and to conquer pagan lands and people for God and the king of Spain. He and a small army of around 500 men proceeded inland, fighting their way slowly through the suburbs of Tenochtitlán while Indian vassals of the Aztecs rallied to their cause. When they reached the outskirts of the city, Cortés and his army of Spaniards and Indians were cautiously welcomed by Aztec leader Montezuma II, who feigned friendship in order to learn more about the powerful foreigners.

After an evening of entertainment, Cortés and his men suddenly took Montezuma prisoner. That move gave them access to the city and created chaos among the Aztec leadership and people. To quell an upsurge in native resistance, Cortés later took Montezuma to the rooftop of his palace, where he was allegedly stoned to death by his own people.
Driven out of the city but determined to retake it, Cortés obtained more Indian allies, Spanish soldiers, and 13 large assault boats and proceeded to the capital in May 1521. Cortés soon learned that smallpox had overtaken the Aztec city and reduced the effectiveness of the defenders.

Aboard boats armed with cannon, Cortés and his men encircled the city and began to cut off its supply lines. They left their boats and ventured across the causeway into the city as Aztecs counterattacked. Led by native allies, Cortés and his troops managed to make it into the city's center square, only to be repulsed by the Aztecs once again. Cortés finally stumbled on a plan to raze the city's buildings to give his horses more room to maneuver and reduce the advantages enjoyed by elevated Aztec archers. That action, along with the arrival of some of Juan Ponce de León's soldiers aboard a ship laden with gunpowder, crossbows, and other supplies, enabled Cortés to continue his raids into the city.

On August 15, 1521, after several days of heavy fighting, the last pockets of resisting Aztec warriors in the northwestern portion of the city were killed. The fall of Tenochtitlán brought an end to the Aztec Empire.

References:
Cantu, Caesar C., Cortes and the Fall of the Aztec Empire, 1996; Henderson, Keith, The Fall of the Aztec Empire, 1993.

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