How useful are Interpretation B and Sources C and D for a historian studying the conflict between the Spanish and the Aztecs between 1519 and 1521? In your answer, refer to the interpretation and the two sources as well as your own knowledge.
Interpretation B
From ‘Spain in the New World’ by Bernard Waites, 2008.
How were the Spaniards able to recover from their retreat from Tenochtitlan? Three factors stand out, though the significance of each one is much debated.
First, the fragmentation of the Aztec Empire brought the Spaniards new allies. Messengers from other cities arrived and offered to support Cortes against the Aztecs.
Second, smallpox was sweeping through Tenochtitlan for sixty days. The dead were too numerous to bury and were tossed into the lake.
Third, the Spaniards’ technical superiority enabled them to build a fleet of flat-bottomed boats, each carrying thirty fighting men, with which to blockade Tenochtitlan.
Source C
From ‘The True History of the Conquest of New Spain’ written by Bernal Diaz, one of Cortes’ soldiers. He finished the book in 1568 but later added more to it as a response to the publication of a different and more critical account of Cortes’ actions.
In the siege of Tenochtitlan we filled in water channels and gaps in the day time so we could advance. But the Aztecs reopened them each night. The fighting and filling in was very hard labour. Cortes asked us whether we approved of a rapid advance into the city as far as the great market. If we could capture it, we could establish our camps there, and from that base we should be able to fight in the streets of the city without all the labour of nightly retreats and filling in and guarding the bridges.
Source D
From ‘The General History of the Things of New Spain’ written by Bernardino de Sahagun, a Franciscan friar, between 1558 and 1585. This extract is based on accounts from Indians.
Before the Spaniards arrived, an epidemic broke out among the Aztecs. Large bumps spread on people, some were completely covered. A great many died of it. The disease lasted for sixty days and the Aztec warriors were greatly weakened by it. After the Spaniards arrived there was famine, many Aztecs died of hunger. There was no good and pure water.
Later, as the Aztecs were backed up against the city walls, a blood-coloured fire seemed to come from the sky. It was very dark when the fire appeared. It was like a whirlwind. It went spinning around and around, and as it went it then seemed to explode into blazing coals. It circled the walls. No one uttered a sound.
