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During his absence, Moctezuma asked deputy governor Pedro de Alvarado for permission to celebrate Toxcatl (an Aztec festivity in honor of Tezcatlipoca, one of their main gods.) After the festivities had started, Alvarado interrupted the celebration, killing all the warriors and noblemen who were celebrating inside the Great Temple.
La Noche Triste ("The Night of Sorrows", literally "The Sad Night"), was an important event during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, wherein Hernán Cortés, his army of Spanish conquistadors, and their native allies were driven out of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.
Pedro de Alvarado (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpeðɾo ðe alβaˈɾaðo]; c. 1485 – 4 July 1541) was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. [1] He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of the Aztec Empire led by Hernán Cortés.
As Alvarado and his cavalry emerged on the other side of the gap with the infantry behind, Aztec canoes filled the gap. [35] Pedro de Alvarado was wounded along with eight men in his camp. [34]: 377 Alvarado escaped from the ambush, but five of his men were captured and taken off to the Great Temple to be sacrificed. [35]
Alvarado and the rest of the Spanish were held hostage by the Aztecs for a month. [88] The nobility of Tenochtitlan chose Cuitláhuac as Huey Tlatoani (Emperor). Cortés ordered Moctezuma to speak to his people from a palace balcony and persuade them to let the Spanish return to the coast in peace.
A page from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, showing a Spanish conquistador accompanied by Tlaxcalan allies and a native porter. The sources describing the Spanish conquest of Guatemala include those written by the Spanish themselves, among them two of four letters written by conquistador Pedro de Alvarado to Hernán Cortés in 1524, describing the initial campaign to subjugate the Guatemalan Highlands.
Upon arriving, Alvarado told Cortés' he had been convinced that the Aztecs planned to attack the Spaniards and thus struck preemptively during an Aztec ritual ceremony, which caused an outrage in Tenochtitlán. The Aztecs named a new emperor to replace Moctezuma, whom they regarded now as weak and easily influenced by the Spaniards.
Alvarado arrived in 1536, put an end to the political infighting, and gained an important victory over Sicumba, a Maya leader in the Ulúa Valley. Alvarado founded two towns that later became important, San Pedro de Puerto Caballos (later to become San Pedro Sula) and Gracias a Dios. In 1537, Francisco de Montejo was appointed governor. As soon ...