La Noche Triste: Aztecs Drive the Spanish Out of Tenochtitlan
Hernán Cortés lost 860 Spanish soldiers in a single night trying to sneak out of Tenochtitlan with stolen Aztec gold. June 30, 1520. The causeway bridges were gone, destroyed by Cuitláhuac's forces who'd surrounded the city. Conquistadors drowned in Lake Texcoco, dragged down by the treasure they wouldn't abandon. Cortés himself survived with 440 men. He wept under a tree in Tacuba. But he returned a year later with smallpox and 100,000 indigenous allies who hated the Aztecs more than they feared the Spanish. The disease killed Cuitláhuac within months of his victory.
July 1, 1520
506 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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