Spanish Colonization of the Aztec Empire
During the 12th century the Mexica people founded the cultural center of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan. They were said to be led to the land by the God Huitzilopochtli who said they would know they were in the right place if they saw an eagle with a snake in its mouth on a cactus. The story goes that this image was seen on a rock in the center of the swap land of Lake Texcoco, thus marking the place where the great city was to be built. Building up to the 1470s the Aztecs began to amass great wealth through tributes they demanded from nearby civilizations that they conquered. With this wealth the Mexica turned Tenochtitlan into the hub of culture and religion in pre-colonial South America. At its peak the city was home to over 200,000 people and boasted markets and impressive architecture. However, due their conquests the Aztec had fairly poor relations with surrounding communities which eventually helped lead to their downfall.
Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) first arrived in the city of Tenochtitlan in 1521. He was struck by the complexity and technology that the city boasted. In his letters which would be sent back to Spain as updates he created detailed drawings of the city to show its complexity and vastness. The Mexica however were equally shocked by what the Spainards brought with them. Prior to the Spanish the Aztecs had never before seen horses, war dogs, and steel weaponry. This led to early misunderstandings of Cortés being their returning God Quetzalcoatl, which was quickly dispelled by several spirtual tests that were run on the conquistador. The Spanish to some extent understood the power of the Aztecs and knew their forces alone could not defeat the empire. Because of this the Spainish turned to the people who had been victims of the Aztecs' violence for assistance in overthrowing the city. The Spanish were totalitarian in their conquests with the goal of completely "Europeanizing" the people they encountered.
Part of the Spanish’s colonization of Latin America was their religious conquest of the people who lived there. The Codex of Azcatitlan detailed life in the Aztec Empire before, during, and after Spanish colonization. The Spanish placed religious symbols on the battle flags that they carried. As shown in the Codex they had angels on the flags that they carried in to Tenochitlan. They would also destroy religious sites and objects that they would come across as a way to try to prevent the practice of Indigenous belief systems. This practice gained legal backing during the Council of Lima where it was stated that: “We order that all the cult idols and edifices found in the villages where Christian Indians reside be burned and destroyed, and if the site is suitable, a church or at least a cross should be planted there.” This caused the synthesizing of Aztec and Catholic beliefs, rather than the complete erasure of Aztec religion.