Hernan
Cortes, with an army of Spanish conquistadors and their Native American allies,
besieged and destroyed the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1521. The city was
greatly damaged during the battle, and in the aftermath of Spain’s conquest of
the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan was ultimately razed to the ground and rebuilt
as Mexico City. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, one of the conquistadors who took part
in the campaign, reminisced about the original city of Tenochtitlan, writing,
“today all that I then saw is overthrown and destroyed; nothing is left
standing” (Conquest of New Spain, chapter 87).
Once
the gold-lusting Spaniards gained full control of Tenochtitlan, they were
disappointed in the underwhelming amount of treasure that they found in the
Aztec capital. Indeed, they tortured the captured Aztec Emperor, Cuauhtémoc (or
Guatemoc), for leads on where to find hidden wealth. Cuauhtémoc and other
tortured Aztec elites could do little but lead the Spaniards to personal hoards
of treasure that they had buried underground or dropped into the marshy lake on
which Tenochtitlan had been built. Yet, such sporadic and limited treasure
troves did not provide enough loot for Hernan Cortes to divide satisfactorily
among his troops.
When
the Spaniards set about rebuilding Tenochtitlan as Mexico City, they
unintendingly found a new source of buried treasure. The incident occurred
while the Spaniards were grading and leveling the rubble at Tenochtitlan for
new construction. Bernal Díaz described the scene:
“After
we conquered that great and strong city and divided the ground we decided to
build a church to our patron and guide St James in place of Huichilobos’ cue,
and a great part of the site was taken for the purpose. When the ground was
excavated to lay a foundation, gold and silver and chalchihuites, and
pearls, and seed-pearls, and other precious stones were found in great
quantities; and a settler in Mexico who built on another part of the site found
the same” (Conquest of New Spain, chapter 92).
Upon
the discovery of the treasure, a court battle ensued over who should take
possession of it, with the church, the crown and the local settlers all hoping
to get a piece. During the legal dispute, Spanish officials also investigated
the origin of the treasure by asking (or interrogating) influential Aztecs
about the hoard of wealth that was found under the cue. The aforementioned Bernal
Díaz wrote of this, claiming that the captured Emperor Cuauhtémoc and other
Aztec elites explained “all the inhabitants of Mexico had thrown jewels and
other things into the foundations, as was recorded in their pictures and
records of ancient times. The treasure was therefore preserved for the building
of St James’s church” (Conquest of New Spain, chapter 92).
Written
by C. Keith Hansley
Picture
Attribution: (Representation of Tenochtitlan by Diego Rivera, [Public Domain]
via Creative Commons).
Sources:
- The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz, translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.
- https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32474/32474-h/32474-h.htm#FNanchor_66_67
- http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32475/32475-h/32475-h.htm
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cuauhtemoc
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Tenochtitlan
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Mexico-City
No comments:
Post a Comment