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The Aztec Religion Playing a Role in the Spanish Victory

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World History 102 Dr. Carol Loar September 22, 2018

In the book, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, Miguel Leόn-Portilla describes how aspects of Aztec religion played a role in the victory of the Spaniards. The ancient Aztec religion was mainly focused around ‘keeping the nature of the gods in balance’ and having full faith. They did this by performing sacrifices to allow the reenactment of traditional myths, offering valuable items such as gold, as well as keeping faith in their rulers to protect them.

The Aztecs believed that if they kept ‘the gods’ happy, then they would be protected from natural tragedies. They performed human sacrifices and ceremonies to do this. Unfortunately, the Aztecs, specifically Motecuhzoma, had believed that the Spaniards were one of their gods coming back to reclaim his throne: “…my Jaguar Knights, come forward. It is said that our lord had returned to this land. Go to meet him”1. Thus, when the Spaniards had arrived, the Aztecs wanted to welcome them with meaningful items. Keeping tradition, they sacrificed a human and brought the blood and body parts before the ‘gods’. The Spaniards did not react well to this: “… the white men saw this done, they were filled with disgust and loathing. They spat on the ground, and shook their head in abhorrence”2. They were greatly disturbed by the actions of

1 Miguel Len-Portilla, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston: Beacon, 1962), 23. 2 Miguel Len-Portilla, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston: Beacon, 1962), 33.

the Aztecs causing them to start disliking the culture of the Aztecs, which may have motivated their idea of destroying their community so they cannot continue their culture of sacrificing. The Aztec culture also includes having full faith in god to protect them from any natural hazards.

This meant they avoided to make any advancements to resolve any types of problems in their community such as diseases. When the Spaniards had arrived, they caused the outbreak of a diseases. The people of Tenochtitlan, the location of the small pox outbreak, described the symptoms of the disease: “sore erupted on our faces, our breasts, our bellies”3. This caused a great decrease of the Aztec population. Due to this, they had a weaker ‘army’ than the Spaniards and were defeated. The culture of the Ancient Aztecs being centered around having full faith in the gods developed the belief that nothing could be done to avoid natural events, so they do not have the technological advancements, like pharmaceutical, to resolve tragic events, such as the small pox outbreak that occurred amongst the Ancient Aztec civilization.

Apart from pharmaceutical goods, the Aztecs lacked strong weaponry. The only kinds of

weapons they had were mostly used for their rituals of sacrifice, and the Aztecs were terrified of the items the Spaniards had with them. The messengers describe to Motecuhzoma how “their

3 Miguel Len-Portilla, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston: Beacon, 1962), 93.

trappings and arms are all made of iron. They dress in iron and wear iron casques on their heads”4. The Spaniards had better weapons and protection than the Aztec. The weapons used for

Aztec rituals were no match for the Spaniards and were defeated.

There were many materialistic items involved in the Ancient Aztec culture like gold and other valuables. These valuables were placed upon deities and ‘gods’ as a boon. The Spaniards were possibly motivated to gather all the valuables by destroying the civilization and gather all the goods. When they were offered the valuables by the Aztecs, the Spaniards were greatly intrigued by the gold: “the Spaniards burst into smiles….they hungered like pigs for that gold….”5. The Spaniards were heavily influenced to take over the Ancient Aztec civilization to have all these riches for themselves, so they began war to have all of what they ‘hungered’ for. The Aztecs respectfully offered boons to the travelers, not knowing the consequences that might come from displaying all their wealth and riches to those who had travelled specifically for discovery and bringing back new goods to their homeland.

With the quotes of the characters in The Broken Spears by Miguel Leόn-Portilla, it is evident that the variating aspects of the Ancient Aztec culture played a role in the victory of the Spaniards. The Spaniards were motivated to destroy the civilization to take all of their riches as 4 Miguel Len-Portilla, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston: Beacon, 1962), 30. 5 Miguel Len-Portilla, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston: Beacon, 1962), 51.

well as to prevent anymore sacrificing rituals that disturbed them. Ultimately, blaming Aztec culture for their own downfall....