La Noche Triste, The Night of Sorrows June 30-July 1, 1520
—Jason

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             La Noche Triste, or Night of Sorrows, took place on the night of June 30-July 1, 1520, in the Mexica capital of Tenochtitlan.  This was the evacuation of the Spanish garrison, and their native allies the Tlaxcalans, conducted at night to avoid detection.  The tensions between the Spanish and Mexica had been building since November 1519.  The avarice, greed, and brutality of the Conquistadors led to a general uprising to expel them from the Mexica Empire.

            In August 1519, Cortes, his Spanish soldiers, and native allies had marched from Veracruz to the Valley of Mexico.  They had received repeated emissaries from the Mexica Emperor, Montezuma, asking them to turn around and not penetrate deeper into his territory.  These emissaries, and their message, were ignored by Cortes and by November 8, 1519, the Spanish had arrived at Tenochtitlan.  After a tense meeting on the causeway connecting the Mexica capital to the shore, Montezuma did not expel the foreign invaders; rather, he housed them in the palace hoping to isolate them and convince them to leave his empire.

            Cortes chose to believe that the Mexica Emperor had ceded his kingdom to the Spanish King, Charles V, to whom the Conquistador owned fealty.  Since Cortes, in his view at least, was his lord’s herald, that also meant that he now was governor of this new Spanish province.  That reinforced the idea that the Conquistadors were the masters of the natives.  For Montezuma and his people, no transfer of authority had been discussed with, much less given to, Cortes.  The Mexica Emperor was caught in a situation where he had to appease both his “guests” and his people.  Montezuma fed, housed, clothed, and gave gifts of gold, silver, and even women over to the Spanish to appease their growing appetites.  The Mexica nobles and warriors saw this as an affront and their anger and frustration grew throughout this period.

            Cortes himself had other problems beyond the discomfort of the Mexica weighing on his mind.  He was not an official representative of King Charles V, rather the crown legally considered him a mutineer and outlaw.  While he and his men were preparing for their mainland expedition, in Cuba, they were under the authority of that province’s governor.  He forbade Cortes from sailing to conduct exploration or conquest.  Cortes chose to ignore that order and left Cuba intent on finding the cities rumored to be in Central America.  By ignoring the governor’s orders, Cortes and his men had branded themselves outlaws and warrants for their apprehension and capture had been issued.  Cortes and his commanders knew that, eventually, a Spanish expedition would be assembled to arrest them.

            The Spanish village of Veracruz was founded on the eastern coast of Mexico to act as an early warning site against this new expedition.  Cortes left behind some of his men to act as both garrison and guerilla force.  They needed to delay the advance of any reprisal force and relay messages to Cortes to let him know the size and location of the threat.  The plan of the Conquistadors was to let the reprisal force march inland and get lost and exhausted, allowing Cortes’s men to attack the survivors.  This was an excellent plan for Cortes because his pursuers would be at multiple disadvantages: they would not know the terrain, native peoples, or even the location of their quarry.  Those Spanish soldiers who survived the battles would be either imprisoned or absorbed into Cortes’s forces.

            Cortes also worked to convince King Charles that he was not being disobedient and taking the territory for himself.  He wrote numerous letters to his sovereign discussing the people, cities, and treasures that were now part of the growing Spanish Empire.  Cortes melted down the gold and silver Mexica calendars he had received as a gift from Montezuma and sent back to Spain in bars.  He also sent back numerous items of clothing, weapons, crafted goods, and decorations hoping to avoid punishment.  Cortes was desperate to save not only his governorship, but also his life.

            The long-awaited Spanish punitive force, commanded by Panfilo de Narvaez, landed at Veracruz.  Runners were sent to Cortes in Tenochtitlan to give him time to assemble his soldiers.  Assembling 300 Conquistadors, Cortes left his deputy governor Pedro de Alvarado and a small garrison in charge of guarding Montezuma and the other Mexica royals.  After Cortes departed in haste, Montezuma asked de Alvarado if it was possible for the Mexica to celebrate one of their most important religious festivals.  Alvarado agreed to allow the ceremonies to take place but was wary that the gathering of so many nobles and warriors might be a precursor to uprising.  Spanish soldiers were positioned near the Grand Temple with orders to massacre the assembled Mexica.

            Cortes meanwhile force marched his 300 Conquistadors and caught Narvaez’s forces.  Despite being outnumbered 3 to 1, Cortes quickly crushed the expedition sent to arrest him.  He managed to bribe many of his pursuers with promises of gold and other wealth if they joined him.  Narvaez refused to join Cortes and was imprisoned for several months.  After absorbing the survivors, Cortes marched his combined column back to Tenochtitlan.  What he walked into shook him to the core: the city was in a state of general uprising and the garrison was trapped in the palace.  Cortes fought his way to his men and royal prisoners to find out what had transpired while he was away.

            Alvarado explained to Cortes that while he was dealing with his pursuers, the Mexica nobles and warriors attempted to oust the Spanish.  The religious festival had been merely a distraction to allow the bulk of Mexica warriors to get near the palace.  Seeing that the Mexica were practicing human sacrifice as part of the rituals, the Spanish felt they needed to stop it.  Alvarado ordered his Conquistadors to enter the Grand Temple and massacre all the Mexica within.  Many nobles and warriors were killed in this surprise attack.  The few who escaped spread word of the Spanish treachery. 

            While Cortes was successful in reentering the palace, he found that the situation completely untenable: there was no way possible for the Spanish to survive a siege.  Cortes forced Montezuma to address his people, hoping this would cause the Mexica to disperse and allow Spanish rule to resume.  The surviving nobles from Tenochtitlan, as well as the rulers of Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan understood that Montezuma was no longer a free monarch and had elected Cuitlahuac, his brother, as the new emperor.  The crowd around the palace was agitated by the sight of Montezuma forced to defend the massacre of his nobles.  According to Spanish accounts the Mexica crowd threw stones that fatally injured Montezuma.  The Mexica confirm that Montezuma was alive after being hit by debris.  Most likely, Cortes realized his captive’s usefulness was done and had the wounded emperor strangled.  The Conquistadors still had the sons of Montezuma and the ruler of Texcoco, as well as his children, as hostages.

            Realizing that the city was no longer under his control and the destruction of the Spanish forces was eminent, Cortes and his lieutenants created an escape plan.  Since Tenochtitlan was built on a series of artificial islands in the lake that dominated the valley, escape could only be conducted by moving across removable causeways.  Cortes told his soldiers and native allies to gather as much food, water, and gold as they could carry in preparation for the retreat.  This was an extremely dangerous enterprise to conduct while facing tens of thousands of enemy troops.  The causeways could be moved by the Mexica to prevent the Spanish from escaping or they could be attacked via boats.  A daylight retreat would result in utter destruction of the Spanish and their native allies.

            Cortes crafted several ploys to better the odds of his soldiers escaping: the first was that he asked the Mexica for a week-long ceasefire.  He promised to give back all the gifts the Mexica had given the Spanish and that they would leave Tenochtitlan.  While these negotiations were taking place, Alvarado and some of the Spanish constructed a mobile causeway that the Conquistadors could use as they retreated.  Plans were laid that the Conquistadors and their Tlaxacan allies would attempt their escape under the cover of night.

            A rainstorm broke out as night was falling on June 30, 1519, a boon to the Spanish.  Cortes and his few mounted troops formed the vanguard of the column and breaking the Mexica forces blocking the rest of the column.  As the Spaniards left the palace, they were quickly spotted by the Mexica.  The Spanish fought their way to the first causeways under heavy attack.  They were quickly exhausted by the amount of gold and silver they carried with them, and many fell into the lake to drown.  The advantages of gunpowder gave little help to the Spanish: they had been forced to abandon their cannons because they were too cumbersome and evacuate and their guns were useless at night.  Under a stream of arrows and javelins, the Spanish and Tlaxcalan column disintegrated. 

            Cortes and his horsemen were the first to reach the shoreline and scattered the Mexica warriors stationed there.  He quickly reorganized his cavalry and charged back across the causeway and created a breakthrough point for his surviving forces.  Every Spaniard suffered wounds during the escape attempt.  According to Bernal Diaz de Castille, one of the Conquistadors, the Spanish commander was shocked by the scale of his losses; of the estimated 1,300 Spaniards, just over 500 survived.  Even with the men he had absorbed from Narvaez’s army, Cortes’s forces were a shadow of their former selves.

            The Mexica had won an impressive, if only temporary, victory over the Spanish.  They had expelled Cortes from the capital, but at a horrendous cost.  Montezuma, his son, multiple other princes, and the ruling family of Texcoco were killed by the Conquistadors once they reached the shore.  The number of Mexica killed during La Noche Triste cannot be confirmed.  Emperor Cuitlahuac died of smallpox shortly after the Spanish retreat.  Cuauhtémoc, Montezuma and Cuitalhuac’s cousin, was named the last Mexica Emperor.  The city of Texcoco effectively lost its ruling family and named a new ruler as well.  The leadership of the Triple Alliance had been decimated through treachery, combat, and disease. 

            Cortes and his survivors were closely pursued by Mexica forces.  The two forces met in battle at the Plain of Otumba on July 7, 1519.  The Mexica did not capitalize on the exhaustion, hunger, and injuries from which the Spanish were suffering.  40,000 Mexica warriors confronted the shattered Conquistadors and their Tlaxcalan allies.  According to Bernal Diaz it was the Castilian cavalry that proved instrumental in the Spanish victory that day.  After repeatedly attacking the Mexica, the Spanish foot soldiers fired into the shaken enemies.  The Mexica commander was killed, and according to Cortes his forces massacred 20,000 warriors.  This victory was enough to completely dishearten the Mexica.  The Spanish escaped to Tlaxcala, where Cortes rebuilt his forces and plotted the destruction of the Mexica Empire.