What Happened to the Aztecs?
Many things happened to the Aztecs, however, the Spanish were critical to the fall of the Aztecs.
What about the Spanish?

In order to understand the Spanish motives, you have to understand three things about their worldview:
- They were devout catholics
- Their economy was reliant on wool, and wool prices were falling
- Portugal was a sore thumb, and the Spanish were jealous of Portugal's empire
These were the main parts of the Spanish worldview. The Spanish were also mostly farmers, and they were very Eurocentric. This is where their three main motivations for conquering existed:


- God
- To Catholics, non-Catholics were savages, as the only right religion was Catholism
- The only way to make the world follow the right religion was to convert them to Catholism
- Glory
- The more colonies you had when this madness happened, the more glory you had among other European countries
- Gold
- Their economy was failing, and gold was very valuble
- This pretty mush means "They want money"
What'd the Aztecs do?
Well, the Aztecs also made a few blunders too, which didn't help:
- They confused Cortés for a god
- Due to the fact that they would want to treat a god with respect, they didn't immidately kill Cortés
- If they had, then México mightn't me speaking Spanish, but Aztec
- Relying on a unfortified, unprotected aqueduct
- The Aztecs relied heavily on the aqueduct for fresh water
- By not protecting it, they were sitting ducks
- Not taking Cholula and Tlaxcalan
- The Spanish used the "The enemy's enemy is a friend" strategy
- By not taking Cholula and Tlaxcalan, the two very powerful forces could be used against them
What happened at the end?
It was October 1520. The Spanish army were, at the time, settled in Tlaxcala. He was preparing for an attack on Tenochitlán. The Aztec were at the time, dropping like flies due to smallpox. The population dropped, and the ruler at the time, Cuitláhuac, died. He was replaced by Cuauhtémoc, and many of the people who weren't falling due to smallpox were starving.
Due to this, Cortés decided to besiege the city. On 22nd of May, 1521, the siege started. Most of his armies were native allies, and each army could have up to 30000 of them. The Aztecs were forced inside the city, and after that, Cortés decided to destroy the aqueduct.
The Spanish slowly pressed in on the Aztecs, and more natives joined Cortés. The Aztecs fought galliantly until the end, but they surundered on 13th of August, 1521.
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