Broken Spears The Spanish Defeat Of The Aztec Empire

The Broken Spears is a book written by Miguel Leon-Portilla that gives accounts of the fall of the Aztec Empire to the Spanish in the early 16th century. The book is much different from others written about the defeat of the empire because it was written from the vantage point of the Aztecs rather then the Spanish. Portilla describes in-depth many different reasons why the Spanish were successful in the defeat of such a strong Empire.

Portilla starts out by giving a thorough background of the culture and religious beliefs. The reader can draw many theories on how this carried over to the Aztecs way of thinking and fighting. In addition to the religion and culture, Portilla shows the technology advantages the Spanish had over the Aztecs. He also goes on to describe the poor leadership of Motecuhzoma. Motecuhzoma will be portrayed as a coward. Portilla also writes about the strategy that worked rather well for the Spanish as they made alliances with the Tlaxcalatecas and other cities. He finally talks about plague that wiped out much of the Aztecs. This may have been the greatest factor in the fall of the Aztecs Empire. All of these factors combined effectively show how the Spaniards prevailed over this great Aztec Empire of the 15th and early 16th century.

The religion and culture of the Aztecs played a role in the way the way they thought and fought. They worshiped the war-god Huitzilopochtli. He was identified with the sun and was called "the Giver of life" and "the Preserver of Life" (xxxix). The religion carried some ridiculous rituals such as human sacrifice along with using magicians and wizards to cast spells. In war conditions, human sacrifice played a big role because the Aztecs would not fight to kill, but fight to capture. The reasoning was so that they could sacrifice the people to their god Huitzilopochtli. Because of this thinking, I feel the Aztecs never made technological advancements to bigger and better weapons which would later come back to haunt them when faced by an opponent that was fighting to kill such as the Spanish.

Technological advancement greatly favored the Spanish. As mentioned before, the Spaniards where fighting to kill, so on all fronts they where better equipped. They came in on well-built ships, equipped with cannons. They carried iron swords and shields rather than spears and wooden shields of the Aztecs.

Although the Spanish clearly had technological advances over the Aztecs, one big reason for the success of the Spanish was nothing they had done. It had to do with the King Motecuhzoma's coward ness and lack of leadership. Motechuhzoma was extremely ignorant in his ways of thinking. He believed in "Omens" that had surfaced 10 years before the Spanish arrived, and looked at them as signs. The first bad omen was described as a "flaming ear of corn, or a fiery signal, or the blaze of daybreak; it seemed to bleed fire, drop by drop, like a wound in the sky" (4). Another bad omen that they observed was a "Fire stream through the sky while the sun was still shining" (5). They would observe many natural phenomenons like these, but instead of accepting them as nature, he (along with his people) believed that it was a sign from the gods. At this time, ships had never been seen, and when the Spanish arrived, it was first thought to be another omen as the first spotting reported that "towers or small mountains where floating on waves in the sea" (13). It was later confirmed that they were actually the ships of Spanish coming to the new land.

The first mistake of Motechuhzoma was that he thought the Spanish where gods. He announced to his people that the new arrivals were that of "Quetzalcoatl and other deities" (21). He immediately sent gifts of ancient treasures and gold to the Spanish. The Spanish especially took a liking to the gold that was brought to them, and would later take much more on their conquest. When the messengers' returned, they reported to Motechuhzoma all that the Spanish had. From their appearance, to the food they ate, to their impressive weapons. At this point a good leader would have realized the threat to his land, and would start to prepare for an attack or defense. Motechuhzoma's response was not that at all. "He sent for magicians and warlock's in the hope that they could harm the Spaniards" (32). This clearly shows that the king is not in control, but rather confused and scared.

At this point it seems obvious that this was a threat. The messenger reported back to the king and spoke of the power of the Spanish, along with all of the weapons. Even after hearing all that, Motechuhzoma refused to rule out the idea that they where gods. He sent prisoners from war to be "sacrificed before the Spanish because he believed these gods would want to drink their blood" (33). Obviously this disgusted the Spanish, but more importantly it built a case for Motechuhzoma to believe these people weren't gods. If he believed in his religion