Montezuma Biography

He was captured by the Spanish conquistadors and died. His assessments in history are very contradictory. The genuine biography of Montesum is very not easy to recreate. His mysterious figure, in many respects romanticized, but in some ways, is dedicated to huge literature. The surviving sources are peculiar. Many of them were created by Spaniard conquerors who wanted to justify their cruelty against the Indians of America, and therefore are extremely biased.

There are also sources of Aztec. The Aztecs had only a picture of writing. The Aztec chronology is also approximate: there are seven options for the date of construction on the throne of the first ruler of Mexico. More than once, the Aztecs by order of the ruler themselves destroyed their drawing records in order to rewrite their own history. In these sources, there is also a lot of mythology and the bias appears.

So the task of experts is to compare the data of various sources and recreate the true picture by bit. The Aztecs came to the future territory of Mexico from the north around the 10th century AD. They were not the most civilized people of the Mayan civilization significantly exceeded them, but the local tribes gradually conquered them and created their empire.

In the year-on this date, all experts converge-the Aztecs founded Tenchittlan, the city-state-state-state-state. Montesum was born around the year. In this case, by the time the Spaniards arrived, he was 52 years old. Montezuma’s father is the Aztec emperor Ahaiyakatl. Mother is his cousin, the daughter of one of the leaders of neighboring tribes - Khotchoveiet. According to Aztec mythology, the ancestors of this kind had a divine origin - from the virgin and the god Whit -patch.

Ahayyakatt, the father of Montesum, was considered the unifying tribe. A huge temple was revived under him, during the construction of which thousands of people were sacrificed to the gods. Montesuma grew up not in the palace, but in the city, in one of the privileged quarters. He was trained in the temple along with other sons of leaders. From the age of five to six years, permanent comrades from noble families were assigned to him, they all trained together in a special institution in the temple.

Information has been preserved about the rather harsh attitude of the ancient Aztecs to raising children, even from noble families: they cut their lips behind the lies, for the “premature” contact with the woman the boy could threaten the execution. The descriptions of Montesum have been preserved. He had a mane of hair on his head - and only 6 hairs on his chin.

He loved to wash and did it at least twice a day. He was very devout, could sit in the temple for a long time and talk with the statue of God. Sources report that at an early age he proved himself a brave warrior, personally captured the captives, whom the Aztecs, according to custom, sacrificed to their gods. It is believed that Montesuma headed eighteen successful campaigns.

There was no official procedure for the transfer of the throne in the Aztec empire. The ruler had to elect a special advice. But of course, it is impossible to talk about any real democracy here. And the candidate of the successor, of course, was determined by the father, appointing him to an important position for the empire. After which he suddenly died in the year. Then Montesum was solemnly “chosen”.

According to tradition, during the ceremony of the election of Aztecs, they smeared the body of the leader with different colors and wicked incense, dressed in lush clothes with bird feathers. The power of the ruler of the Aztecs was absolute. As soon as he moved the eyebrow, and any order was executed. Undoubtedly, the main thing that the Aztec leader did is military campaigns.

Montesum fought a lot. But when he became the supreme ruler, he liked a more calm, luxurious life in a magnificent residence. There were animal men where exotic animals, birds and fish were contained. Montezuma changed clothes four times a day and ate only in gold. He drank penal cocoa of gold cups. Nothing particularly bothered him, because the Aztecs considered themselves invincible.

But in the year, the Spanish detachment of Conquistador Cortes landed on the territory of Mexico. Cortes immediately took the city of Tabasco, where the Indians conquered the conquerors relatively quickly. Soon he was sent as a gift from Montezuma 20 slaves: the Aztec leader hoped to peacefully disperse from the Spaniards. One of the slaves, named Malinal, at baptism, was given the name Marina, became the concubine of Ernan Cortes and his translator.

The meeting of Montesum and Ernan Cortes of the Spaniards, abolished taxes levied from the conquered Aztec tribes, seemed to the Indians of the liberators. For this reason, many tribes quickly went over to the side of the conquistadors. This is understandable: among the peoples of America, statehood was just beginning to take shape. They were very freedom -loving and could not immediately accept the strict orders that the Aztecs imposed on them.

Therefore, they happily abandoned humility to Montesum. For example, Totonaki, one of the most warlike tribes, became the official allies of Cortes.The Spanish conquistadors came from the Montesum of the delegation with peaceful proposals and more and more luxurious gifts. In the treasury of Emperor Charles V, those gifts that Cortes sent to Europe are preserved. Montesuma hoped to pay off the Spaniards with expensive gifts.

But his tactics did not justify. The Spaniards only strongly strongly capture everything. Montesuma was apparently at a loss. Everyone around remembered the legend of the pale -faced God, Ketzalcoatla, who in time immemorial ruled by all local tribes, and then left for the ocean, promising to return and punish all the guilty. And then the Spaniards appeared, outwardly corresponding to the well -known description of the pale -faced gods.

And the dodgy Cortes was ready for the sake of gold for any lie and insisted on his divine origin. Therefore, Montesuma seriously consulted with the priests, wanting to know if the gods really returned. The priests began to interpret what was happening - and then signs of the arrival of the gods were discovered. For example, floods, which shortly before the arrival of the Spaniards were in Tenochtitlan, were considered a sign of large, formidable changes.

Cortes insisted at a personal meeting with Montesum. Now it is clear that he was planning to seize the ruler of the Aztecs, to deceive the empire and so decisively weaken it. A quite reasonable plan, given the quantitative ratio of Spanish and Indian forces. Montezuma dodged for some time, but in the end agreed. The meeting took place on November 8th. The Spaniards joined Tenochtitlan.

Cortes put on a Montezumu necklace of fake pearls and diamonds, which the Indians took for genuine. In response, Montesum gave him a necklace of precious red shells with eight gold beads the size of a walnut. He was still hoping to settle business in the world. He asked questions about which of the Cortes companions what position occupies in order to correctly distribute gifts.

He was worried about observing court etiquette, not realizing that the Spaniards came to be captured. Montesum was captured in his palace, where Cortes secretly spent more soldiers than was allowed. Cortes began to convince Emperor of the Aztecs to go with him and live where the Spaniards live in another palace, and from there to rule the country. The translator Marina inspired him: “Senor Montesum, I advise you to agree and go with them without arranging a noise.

I assure you that they will respect you with respect as the great ruler as you are. If you do not go with them, you will stay here, but dead. ” Why did the Aztec guard inactive? According to one version, the rule of the ruler was so infinite that the guard did not dare to move without a direct indication and move his finger: everyone could cost life. And the Montesum did not give the teams.

And the guards stood like idols, when a miserable bunch of Spaniards took with them in front of their eyes. Now the invaders had an invaluable hostage. There is no information that he was trying to appeal from captivity to his people and raise him to fight. Probably, everything played a role: both fear for his life and the consciousness that the struggle is useless. The idea of ​​agreeing, by the way, was very reasonable, if we remember what the future war with the conquistadors threatened the Indians.

These peoples had a completely different level of weapons. The Indians did not know firearms at all, did not use iron, dealing only with gold and silver. In battle, they shot from onions and used wooden swords! They had no horses. They did not know the concept of tactics.