In September 1520, four months after the Toxcatl massacre and two months after the Spanish and Tlaxcalteca invaders were expelled from the city, Tenochtitlan crowned Montezuma’s brother Cuitlahuac, depicted here, as the new emperor. Under his leadership, the city prepared for war. Soldiers had learned that lances could be used effectively against Spanish horses and that running zigzag greatly diminished the accuracy of European weapons. The city secured alliances by freeing tributaries from contributions. With great numerical superiority, it was all but certain that Tenochtitlan’s forces would destroy the few invaders that had managed to escape, and that the imperial jewel would continue to rule over Mesoamerica.
But history took a turn. In early October 1520, a lethal illness spread across the city like wildfire. People experienced fever, vomiting, skin eruptions, and finally death. Symptoms did not manifest during the first two weeks after infection, allowing illness to spread undetected. Mortality peaked in November, as corpses piled up on the streets and the sick went uncared for. By mid-December, the plague retreated, concluding the first, deadliest wave, and leaving behind a decimated leadership, ruined armies, and a city drowned in decaying corpses.
This drawing from the Aubin Codex shows Emperor Cuitlahuac, who was claimed by the plague on December 4, 1520. He is depicted in blue (left) next to his bundled corpse (right). Part of the text reads, “Cuitlahuactzin . . . ruled for only eighty days. His rule ended in the month of Quecholli, in which he perished. He died of pustules” (Dibble 1963:60–61).
Image Source
- London, British Museum, Aubin Codex, 1576, fol. 44v. Courtesy the British Museum, © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Further Reading
- Cook, Noble David. Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650. New Approaches to the Americas. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- Dibble, Charles E. Historia de la nación mexicana: Reproducción a todo color del Códice de 1576 (Códice Aubin). Colección “Chimalistac” de libros y documentos acerca de la Nueva España 16. Madrid: J. Porrúa Turanzas, 1963.
- León Portilla, Miguel. Visión de los vencidos: Crónicas indigenas. Crónicas de América 6. Madrid: Historia 16, 1985.
- Restall, Matthew. When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting That Changed History. New York: Ecco, 2018.
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