🪶 1521 | Spanish in Mexico (Part III) What you’re seeing: The final siege and fall of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Mexica (Aztec) Triple Alliance. Hernán Cortés returned to Lake Texcoco with around 200,000 Indigenous allies and thirteen ships built for war on the water. The Mexica, already devastated by smallpox, resisted through one of the costliest sieges ever recorded before the city fell on August 13, 1521. Where is this? Tenochtitlan stood on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico, where Mexico City stands today. Who is displayed? The Mexica and their subjects, the Tlaxcalans, longtime enemies of the Mexica who allied with the Spanish, and the Spanish under Cortés. What decided it? The Tlaxcalans did much of the fighting. Smallpox did the rest. The disease swept the valley while Cortés was building his ships, killing at least a third of the city, including Cuitlahuac, the new tlatoani (ruler). Without smallpox, Cortés likely loses. Outcome and how we know:
Tenoch...