Tlaxcala's Alliance with Cortés (1519): The Decisive Allies

Tlaxcala’s alliance with Hernán Cortés, made in September 1519, joined a few hundred Spanish conquistadors with one of the strongest independent states in central Mexico. After fighting the Spaniards for nearly three weeks, the leaders of Tlaxcala decided to use them against their long-standing enemies, the Mexica of Tenochtitlan. Tlaxcalan warriors, porters and supplies then became essential to every stage of the conquest of the Aztec Empire.

Background: an island of independence

Tlaxcala lay in the highlands east of the Valley of Mexico. It was not a single kingdom but a confederation of four allied city-states, Tepeticpac, Ocotelolco, Quiahuixtlan and Tizatlan, governed by their rulers in council. Its people, the Tlaxcalteca, spoke Nahuatl like the Mexica.

By 1519 Tlaxcala was almost surrounded by towns subject to the Aztec Triple Alliance. The Mexica cut it off from trade in goods such as salt and cotton, and the two sides fought regular ritual battles known as the Aztec Flower Wars, in which warriors sought captives for sacrifice. Tlaxcala survived as an independent state, but at a heavy cost and with deep hatred for Tenochtitlan.

War before alliance

When Cortés marched inland from the Gulf coast in August 1519, his Totonac allies advised him to seek friendship with Tlaxcala. Instead, Tlaxcalan forces attacked the Spaniards as they entered their territory at the start of September. Several days of hard fighting followed, with the young war leader Xicotencatl the Younger commanding large armies.

The Spaniards, helped by steel weapons, crossbows, guns, horses and their Totonac allies, survived these battles, though they suffered casualties and exhaustion. The Tlaxcalan leaders, including the elder ruler of Tizatlan, Xicotencatl the Elder, and the ruler of Ocotelolco, Maxixcatzin, concluded that the strangers could not easily be destroyed. They opened peace talks, despite the opposition of Xicotencatl the Younger.

Making the alliance

On 23 September 1519 Cortés and his men entered the city of Tlaxcala and were welcomed with feasts. The Tlaxcalan lords offered noblewomen as wives to Spanish captains, a customary way to seal an alliance. Moctezuma’s envoys, who were travelling with the Spaniards, tried to persuade Cortés not to trust them.

Spanish accounts say Cortés pressed the Tlaxcalan lords to give up their gods and accept Christianity. They refused to abandon their own religion at first, and the priest with the expedition advised Cortés not to force the issue. Some of the nobles were later baptised, and the Lienzo de Tlaxcala shows these baptisms as a sign of Tlaxcala’s early loyalty to the Spanish crown.

The alliance was based on shared interest rather than trust. Tlaxcala hoped to break Mexica power. Cortés needed a secure base, soldiers and guides. From this point a large Tlaxcalan force went with the Spaniards, taking part in the Cholula massacre in October and accompanying them towards Tenochtitlan.

The alliance in war

The real test came in July 1520, after the Spaniards had been driven from Tenochtitlan with heavy losses. The battered survivors fled to Tlaxcala. Mexica envoys offered peace to the Tlaxcalans if they would turn on the Spaniards. Xicotencatl the Younger argued for accepting, but the council decided to stay loyal, and the Spaniards were able to rest and rebuild.

In 1521 Tlaxcalan warriors formed a large part of the army that besieged Tenochtitlan, and Tlaxcalan porters carried the pieces of the Spanish brigantines from Tlaxcala to the lake. Xicotencatl the Younger, who left the army during the campaign, was hanged on Cortés’s orders in 1521.

What Tlaxcala gained and lost

After the conquest Tlaxcala received rewards that few other Indigenous peoples enjoyed. The Spanish crown granted it a coat of arms in 1535, recognised it as a city and kept Spanish encomenderos (holders of tribute grants) out of its lands. Tlaxcalan nobles kept some local authority, and in 1591 Tlaxcalan families were sent north to help settle frontier towns among the nomadic peoples there, with special privileges.

Yet Tlaxcala also became a colonial province under Spanish law and church. Epidemics killed much of its population in the 16th century, and Spanish settlers and officials steadily reduced its autonomy. To defend their status, Tlaxcalan leaders commissioned works such as the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, a large painted history of their service in the conquest.

Timeline

• 1519, early September: Tlaxcalan armies fight the Spaniards in a series of battles.
• 1519, 23 September: Cortés enters the city of Tlaxcala as an ally.
• 1519, October: Tlaxcalans join the attack on Cholula.
• 1520, July: Tlaxcala shelters the Spaniards after their flight from Tenochtitlan.
• 1521, May-August: Tlaxcalan forces fight in the siege of Tenochtitlan.
• 1535: The Spanish crown grants Tlaxcala a coat of arms.

Why it matters

Without Tlaxcala, the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire would almost certainly have failed. The alliance shows that the conquest was also a war among Indigenous states, in which Tlaxcala pursued its own goals and won a privileged but limited place in the new colonial order.