LA NOCHE TRISTE

'La Noche Triste' ("the sad night") was an episode in the Spanish conquest of Mexico where Hernán Cortés' expedition was nearly annihilated in the Aztec capital, and barely succeeded in escaping the Aztecs by night.

Contents

Prologue

La Noche Triste

Aftermath

Footnotes

References

Secondary sources

See also

External links

Prologue

The Cortés expedition arrived at Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, on November 8, 1519 and shortly thereafter had taken Moctezuma II, the Aztec ''Hueyi Tlatoani'', captive. During the following six months, Cortés and his native allies, the Tlaxcalteca, were increasingly unwelcome guests in the capital.
In June, news from the Gulf coast reached Cortés that a much larger party of Spaniards had been sent by Governor Velázquez of Cuba to arrest Cortés for insubordination. Leaving Tenochtitlán in the care of his trusted lieutenant, Pedro de Alvarado, Cortés marched to the coast, and defeated the Cuban expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez. When Cortés told the defeated soldiers about the city of gold, Tenochtitlán, they agreed to join him.
During his absence, Alvarado led an unprovoked attack against many of the Aztec nobles in the main temple, slaughtering dozens or hundreds of them. (''See The massacre in the Main Temple, Tenochtitlán''.)
Upon his return in late June, Cortés found the Aztecs had elected a new ''Hueyi Tlatoani'', Cuitláhuac. Shortly thereafter, the Aztecs besieged the palace housing the Spaniards and Moctezuma. Cortés ordered Moctezuma to speak to his people from a palace balcony and persuade them to let the Spanish return to the coast in peace. Moctezuma was jeered and stones and darts were thrown at him. He fell with what was reported as a concussion. Moctezuma died a few days later, whether from his injuries or a victim of the Spaniards, it is not known.

La Noche Triste

Under attack, with food and water in short supply, Cortés decided to break out of the city. Bridges on four of the eight causeways into the city had been removed, so a portable bridge was devised. The gold and other booty gained from the Aztecs were packed; many of the Spaniards had loaded themselves down with as much gold as they could carry. Horses' hooves were muffled.
On the night of