Cholula Massacre (1519): Cortés's March to Tenochtitlan

The Cholula massacre took place in October 1519, when Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés and their Tlaxcalan allies killed several thousand people in Cholula, a large and sacred city allied to the Aztec (Mexica) Empire. Spanish accounts justified the attack as a response to a planned ambush, while Indigenous and later critical accounts describe it as a deliberate act of terror. The massacre opened the road to Tenochtitlan and remains one of the most debated episodes of the conquest of Mexico.

Background: the holy city of Cholula

Cholula, in the valley of Puebla east of the Valley of Mexico, had been inhabited for more than 2,000 years. Its Great Pyramid, known in Nahuatl as Tlachihualtepetl (“made-by-hand mountain”), is the largest pyramid in the world by volume, though by 1519 it was already old and partly overgrown. The city was a major pilgrimage centre for the god Quetzalcoatl, a busy market town and, by Spanish descriptions, very populous.

Cholula was governed by a council of lords and priests rather than a single powerful king, and its prestige came from religion and trade more than war. Cortés, in his letter to the king, described it as a large city with many temples, and claimed he had counted hundreds of temple towers from the top of a single shrine. Like many Spanish figures, this was probably an exaggeration, but it reflects the size and importance of the place.

In 1519 Cholula was allied with Tenochtitlan and a rival of Tlaxcala, its neighbour to the north. In September Cortés had fought and then made an alliance with the Tlaxcalans, as described in Tlaxcala’s alliance with Cortés. The Tlaxcalans urged him to take the road through Tlaxcalan territory to Tenochtitlan. Moctezuma’s envoys, on the other hand, encouraged him to go through Cholula.

The arrival in Cholula

Cortés decided to visit Cholula, possibly to test its loyalty and to keep pressure on Moctezuma. He reached the city in mid-October 1519 with his Spaniards, some Totonac allies from Cempoala and a large Tlaxcalan force. The Cholulan lords asked that the Tlaxcalans, their enemies, stay outside the city, and Cortés agreed.

At first the Spaniards were received with food and lodging. After two or three days, according to Spanish accounts, supplies dwindled, the Cholulan lords avoided meeting Cortés, and his men noticed signs of preparation for fighting, such as barricades and covered pits in the streets. The Spaniards also heard rumours that a Mexica army was waiting nearby.

The alleged plot

The best-known element of the story comes from Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a soldier in the expedition who wrote his account decades later. He says that an elderly Cholulan noblewoman approached Malintzin, Cortés’s Nahua interpreter, warned her that the Spaniards would be destroyed and offered to marry her to her son if she stayed. Malintzin pretended to agree, then told Cortés. Cortés reported that he questioned captured Cholulans, who confirmed the plan.

Whether this plot was real cannot be proved. Some historians accept that the Cholulans, under Mexica pressure, were preparing to attack. Others think the Spaniards misread defensive measures or invented the plot to justify their actions. A third view stresses Tlaxcalan influence, since Tlaxcala gained greatly from the destruction of its enemy’s power.

The massacre

Cortés asked the Cholulan lords to assemble their nobles and many porters and warriors in the courtyard of the temple of Quetzalcoatl, on the pretext of preparing for departure. Once they had gathered, the gates were closed. According to Cortés’s own letter to the king, he told the lords that he knew of their treachery, then gave a signal, and his men opened fire with guns and crossbows and attacked with swords.

The fighting spread through the city. The Tlaxcalan warriors waiting outside rushed in, killing, taking captives and looting. Temples and houses were set on fire. Cortés wrote that more than 3,000 people died in about two hours. Other early accounts give figures from about 5,000 to 6,000 or more. Bartolomé de las Casas, the Dominican critic of the conquest, described the attack as a calculated act of terror, a pattern he said the Spaniards had used before in the Caribbean.

The Mexica account recorded in Book 12 of the Florentine Codex, compiled under the friar Bernardino de Sahagún several decades later, presents the killing as an unprovoked attack on unarmed people, encouraged by the Tlaxcalans out of old hatred.

Aftermath

After the massacre, Cortés halted the looting and claimed to restore order. Surviving Cholulan leaders accepted Spanish authority, a new ruler was installed, and Cortés arranged peace between Cholula and Tlaxcala. He sent messages to Moctezuma accusing him of being behind the plot, which Moctezuma denied.

The Spaniards remained in Cholula for about two weeks, then marched west at the start of November, crossing the high pass between the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, today called the Paso de Cortés. On 8 November 1519 they entered Tenochtitlan.

Historians generally agree that the massacre had a strategic effect. It showed the Mexica and other city-states what the Spaniards were willing to do, removed a powerful Mexica ally on the road to the capital and strengthened the bond with Tlaxcala.

Key people

• Hernán Cortés (1485-1547): Leader of the Spanish expedition, who ordered the attack.
• Malintzin (La Malinche): Cortés’s interpreter, credited in Spanish accounts with discovering the plot. Her role is discussed in La Malinche.
• Moctezuma II (c. 1466-1520): Ruler of Tenochtitlan, accused by Cortés of planning the ambush.
• Tlaxcalan commanders: Leaders of the allied force that joined the killing.

Competing explanations

The main interpretations of the massacre can be summed up as follows:

These views are not mutually exclusive. Many historians think the Spaniards, unsure of Cholulan intentions and influenced by their allies, chose overwhelming violence partly as a warning.

Legacy

After the conquest, Spanish friars built churches over and near the old shrines. The Franciscan monastery of San Gabriel was founded in the 16th century near the site of the temple of Quetzalcoatl, and the church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios was built on top of the Great Pyramid. The massacre is remembered in Mexico as one of the clearest examples of the violence of the conquest.

The city itself recovered and remained an important regional centre under Spanish rule. A popular saying claims that Cholula has 365 churches, one for every day of the year. The real number is lower, but the many church domes rising over the town are a reminder of how the colonial church was built on the foundations of an old sacred landscape. Archaeologists have since tunnelled into the Great Pyramid and revealed several building phases spanning more than a thousand years.

Timeline

• 1519, September: Cortés makes peace and an alliance with Tlaxcala.
• 1519, mid-October: The Spaniards and their allies arrive at Cholula.
• 1519, October: The massacre in the temple courtyard and the sack of the city.
• 1519, early November: The Spaniards leave Cholula and cross the pass between the volcanoes.
• 1519, 8 November: Cortés enters Tenochtitlan.

Why it matters

The Cholula massacre shaped the rest of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire by spreading fear, cementing the Tlaxcalan alliance and removing a Mexica ally. The disagreement between Spanish and Indigenous accounts also makes it a classic case for how historians weigh biased sources.