The Conquest of Mexico : An Ancient Prophecy: Spanish Conquistador and Aztec Warrior

The Spanish Conquistador: God or Destroyer

The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire began in February1519 and was acclaimed victorious on 13 August 1521 by Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortés.

According to the Aztec chronicles recorded by Sahagún, a Spanish Franciscan missionary, the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II believed the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortés was the returning feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl.

Aztec legends foretold Quetzalcoatl would one day return to reclaim his throne, thus iInstead of a full attack by the Aztecs, Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez was welcomed with great pomp into the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

Sahagún further reports that Moctezuma II welcomed Cortés to Tenochtitlan on the Great Causeway with the greeting, "My lord, you have finally arrived. You have come to your city: Mexico, here you have come to sit on your place, on your throne. Oh, it has been conserved for you for a small time; by those who have gone, your substitutes. This is what has been told by our rulers, those who governed this city, ruled this city in your absence. That you would come to ask for your throne, your place. Come and rest: take possession of your royal houses, give food to your body."

Indigenous accounts written in the native Nahuatl tongue, described seven omens that were believed to have occurred prior to the arrival of the Spanish that according to prophecy foretold the return of Quetzalcoatl: - a strange appearance in the eastern sky - fire consuming the temple of Huitzilopochtli in the great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan - a lightning bolt destroying the straw temple of Xiuhtecuhtli - the appearance of streaking fire across the oceans - the "boiling," and later flooding, of a lake near Tenochtitlan - an unseen woman heard weeping night after night but no woman was ever located - the capturing of an unknown creature (a bird the color of ashes) with a fishing net. This bird wore a strange mirror in the crown of its head. The mirror was pierced in the center like a spindle whorl, and Moctezuma II was able to see frightening images upon that mirror.

Further, the Spanish ships were sighted off the coast of Veracruz in the year 1-Reed, the exact date foretold for the return of Quetzalcoatl and the exact location where Quetzalcoatl was supposed to have departed in the past and promised to return,

Upon all these prophetic happenings, the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II was said to have consulted fortune tellers to determine the causes of these omens and if they could be signs for the return of Quetzalcoatl from across the waters.

The End of the Aztecs

On 8 November 1519 after nearly three months of travel from the coast, Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortés arrived at the outskirts of Tenochtitlan, the island capital of the Mexica-Aztecs. It is believed that at the time the city was one of the largest in the world. Of all the cities in Europe, only Constantinople was larger than Tenochtitlan. The most common estimates put the population between 200,000 to over 300,000 people.

The end had arrived. The meeting of the two worlds inevitably meant that one would end. Glory, victory and defeat, all describe the outcome of the fateful meeting, depending who tells the story. As often happens, the future as well as the past of those defeated is written by the victor.

When the affairs of the destruction of Tenochtitlan and its army were concluded in 1521 the mighty Aztec Empire was no more. The mighty city of Tenochtitlan was leveled to the ground. Old gods were replaced with new and the once proud Aztecs, the ones that survived the battles, the ensuing famine and the deadly smallpox were left to wonder; did Quetzalcoatl return?

--view video clip: Conquistadors and the Fall of the Aztecs--