⚔️ Hernán Cortés and the Spanish Expedition

Hernán Cortés landed on the Mexican coast in February 1519 with approximately 500 soldiers, 16 horses, and a small number of cannon — a tiny force by any standard. He had defied the orders of the governor of Cuba (Diego Velázquez), who had tried to cancel the expedition. To prevent his men deserting, Cortés famously ordered his ships to be scuttled (some accounts say beached or destroyed), removing the option of retreat.

Two factors transformed this small expedition into a conquering force:

La Malinche (Doña Marina)

A Nahuatl-speaking indigenous woman given to Cortés as a slave, La Malinche (also called Malintzin or Doña Marina) became his indispensable interpreter and diplomatic adviser. She could translate between Nahuatl (the Aztec language) and Maya, and another Spaniard, Jerónimo de Aguilar, had learned Maya during years of captivity. This chain allowed Cortés to communicate with Aztec envoys — and intelligence from La Malinche repeatedly warned him of plots against his life. Historians continue to debate whether La Malinche was a collaborator, a survivor, or a traitor to her own people.

The Tlaxcalan Alliance

After initially fighting the Spanish, the Tlaxcalans switched sides in September 1519, becoming Cortés's most powerful military allies. At the Battle of Tenochtitlan, Spanish sources suggest Cortés had as many as 200,000 Tlaxcalan and other indigenous warriors fighting alongside fewer than 1,000 Spaniards. The conquest was fundamentally an indigenous civil war as much as a European invasion.