Narvaez takes Cortes in

[Darkest]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_Mexico#Defeat_of_Narv.C3.A1ez

Lets say that Hernan Cortes leaves another thirty men behind in Tenochtitlan to watch over the city. He moves very quickly to attack Narvaez during the night. They get there two hours later than OTL due to butterflies. It is still night, and Cortes believes he can claim victory over his pursuers.

Unluckily for him, one of Cortes' soldiers, feeling angry at Cortes for not leaving him in Tenochtitlan, and believing that he will die at the hands of the many numbers of Narvaez, decides to defect, firing his pistol into the air a few minutes before the attack, and running into the woods.

The men in Narvaez' camp awaken before Cortes' army has gotten into full position or sneak into the camp. Narvaez defeats Cortes' army, and takes Hernan as a prisoner, to be sailed back to Cuba for a trial. He would later be executed.

Narvaez also sents a group of fifty of his own men to journey to Tenochtitlan so as to assume command of those in the city. They arrive late, unused to the land and delayed by meetings and dallyings with the natives they've never seen. They arrive on the outskirts of Tenochtitlan to discover that a fullblown rebellion has begun against Cortes' men, who had killed many of the Aztec nobility during a religious ceremony. They decide to flee for their lives. Half of the Spaniards in the city are able to flee, only a part of that group met up with Narvaez' expedition.

The remants of the army of the conquistador Hernan Cortes eventually made it to Tlaxcala, where they were cared for. Ambassadors demanded the Tlaxcala to return them to be sacrificed. Xicotencatl the Younger consented and in the night, his warriors surprised the Spaniard group, imprisoning and sending them to Tlatelolco for human sacrifice. Every one of them would be killed. In return, Xicotencatl was able to bargain for an alliance of the Tlaxcala with the Mexica, effectively welding the two together with a simple deal.

Meanwhile, Moctezuma is killed by the people. Cuitláhuac is named as the new emperor. The Tlaxcalan elders, anti-Aztecs that desire revenge against those who waged the flower wars for so long, secretly more than two-thirds of the guns and gunpowder of the Spaniards, giving only a third of the equipment to the Mexican envoys.

From February to August, nearly one-third of all of the inhabitants of the valley would perish thanks to smallpox.

And, the Europeans were still out there...

 

[Tocomocho]

The remants of the army of the conquistador Hernan Cortes eventually made it to Tlaxcala, where they were cared for. Ambassadors demanded the Tlaxcala to return them to be sacrificed. Xicotencatl the Younger consented and in the night, his warriors surprised the Spaniard group, imprisoning and sending them to Tlatelolco for human sacrifice. Every one of them would be killed. In return, Xicotencatl was able to bargain for an alliance of the Tlaxcala with the Mexica, effectively welding the two together with a simple deal.

Hmmm... I don't think that the Tlaxcaltecs would do that, they hated too much the Aztecs. Just say that after some days, Narváez order the Spaniards to return to Veracruz and leave the camp for Cuba, after selling some weapons to the Tlaxcaltecs. May be some Spaniards could choose remaining in Tlaxcala as military advisors (as Gonzalo Guerrero did in Cozumel Island), but I don't think that they do that if they know what the Aztecs did with the prisoners.

 

[Darkest]

Well, I didn't want the Spaniards returning alive, to tell of the horrors of the Aztec Empire (earning Spanish retaliation). Its cooler if we simply have the Spaniards never figuring out what happened to the two hundred men that were supposed to be in Tenochtitlan.

As for the Tlaxcala, the wide majority wanted violent revenge against the Aztecs for waging the flower wars. However, the leader or 'king' if you will, Xicotencatl the Younger, just wanted to find a way to earn equality with the Aztecs, end the persecution, and stop the flower wars. Without Hernan Cortes to goad the anti-Aztec faction into launching an invasion, Xicotencatl takes his opportunity, selling the Spaniards out to the Mexica in return for peace and alliance.

Not that that removes the anti-Aztec feelings in Tlaxcala. That's why the elders are plotting a retaliation any way, hoping to figure out how to use those Spanish rifles, or at least the gunpowder.

 

[MacCaulay]

Darkest: I like your setup. Something else to think about: the Aztecs might have come into the possession of a few horses from the Spaniards, and there were plenty of instances of Spaniards who would sooner fight for their captors than be sacrificed. If you had one Spanish cavalryman who knew about the care and breeding of horses, and you delayed a forceful Spanish return long enough, the Spaniards that do come back might be surprised to find Aztec cavalry, along with soldiers armed with old muskets.

 

[Darkest]

That's very true. I'm just thinking that maybe the Aztecs, with the plagues going on all around them, would deem the Spaniards as a curse, and do everything they could to kill them so as to appease the gods.

Still, it could happen. Aztec cavalry would be awesome.

 

[MacCaulay]

Supposing that the Aztecs treated the Spaniards as a cursed people, is there any way this might develop into sort of a...Mexican Hong Kong?

Vera Cruz operating as a walled city where trade can be done between the Aztecs and the rest of the outside world. This might slow the spread of any new diseases and provide the Aztecs with vital biological head starts that the New World didn't have in OTL.

Just throwing it out there. It might not be the direction you're going at all, but it sounded good from my end.

 

[stevep]

Hmmm... I don't think that the Tlaxcaltecs would do that, they hated too much the Aztecs. Just say that after some days, Narváez order the Spaniards to return to Veracruz and leave the camp for Cuba, after selling some weapons to the Tlaxcaltecs. May be some Spaniards could choose remaining in Tlaxcala as military advisors (as Gonzalo Guerrero did in Cozumel Island), but I don't think that they do that if they know what the Aztecs did with the prisoners.

Tocomocho

By Flower Wars I presume you mean the ritual attacks to capture prisoners for sacrifice? [Pretty rusty on my knowledge of the period]. Would the Aztecs be willing to agree to this. I know it makes sense from our point of view. However for the Aztecs the sacrifices were a religious duty without which the world would end. They might try and find other sources for sacrifices but they would need a sizeable number. And with all the disasters going on all around them they would probably be clinging more determinedly to their faith.

Steve

 

[Dynamitard]

Do you think the Spaniards would ever come back? What Cortez did was pretty much illegal and the Spanish Higher-ups would probably think twice about sending anybody to the New World after all of Cortez's men never came back. Explorers might not even get there by the begining of the 1600s.

 

[Darkest]

Man, if they wait until the 1600s to conquer the Aztec Empire, they might just find one heck of an enemy that all the rest of the natives would gather around.

Imagine Aztec cavalry, and probably gunpowder. This, coupled with their homeland advantage, would make them a bastion in the New World against European encroachement.

 

[MacCaulay]

Man, if they wait until the 1600s to conquer the Aztec Empire, they might just find one heck of an enemy that all the rest of the natives would gather around.

Imagine Aztec cavalry, and probably gunpowder. This, coupled with their homeland advantage, would make them a bastion in the New World against European encroachement.

If you and me aren't on the same page, we're sure as hell in the same chapter. Here's what's bouncing around my head:

The Aztecs create a walled trade city at Vera Cruz, and confine the Spanish there. The Spaniards, figuring that they can play this game for a few months and then come charging back in again, decide to play it cool. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, the Aztecs are raising horses and making low-grade arquebuses with the help of some of the Spanish expatriots who switched side when they were captured.
When, five or six years later, the Spaniards decide to make their move, they find the Aztec army waiting. They look the same on the outside, but as they encounter them again and again, they realize that beside the warriors with obsidian bladed swords are shock troops. Aztecs with arquebuses firing from the woods, and charging the Spanish troops on horseback.

I bet you could take that far.

 

[The Sandman]

How much contact was there between the Inca and the Aztecs? Obviously there was some degree of trade moving around Central and South America, since smallpox reached the Inca before the Spanish did. What if the Inca get some word of the technological advances being made in Mexico? For that matter, does Cortes' failure eliminate Pizzaro's expedition?

Also, why wouldn't the Aztecs replace other Mexica with Spaniards as the ritual offering du jour? After all, the foreigners have already proven their ill will towards you, and could be threat if allowed to gain a foothold, so why not raid the Spanish outposts for sacrifices? Of course, if the Spanish still start up the slave trade ITTL, the Aztecs might acquire sacrifices that way instead.