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#OTD (ish) 500 years ago the conquistadors struggled from the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, after what became known as the 'Night of Sorrows'. Today @amyfullermorgan @claudiajrogers & I are going to unpick this contested ‘anniversary’. Follow here & #NocheTriste2020 for more! 1/
Perhaps ⅔ of the Spanish & hundreds of Indigenous allies were slaughtered escaping the capital at night, after the Aztecs (correctly, Mexica or Tenochca) ended their hospitality when the conquistadors massacred unarmed Aztec warriors at the Toxcatl festival. #NocheTriste2020 2/
This brought to an end months of careful diplomatic manoeuvring by Cortés & the Mexica, & threw Mexico into open war. @amyfullermorgan wrote more about the events of that night for BBC History Magazine, if you'd like a brief recap! https://www.pressreader.com/uk/bbc-history-magazine/20200514/281887300468530 #NocheTriste2020 3/
#NocheTriste2020 is an event which opens all kinds of qs which are at the forefront of our minds just now. Who decides what we remember? And how we remember it? Why does that matter?
Do ask qs/make us think & tell us about other #NocheTriste2020 tweeting so we can share it. 4/
Do ask qs/make us think & tell us about other #NocheTriste2020 tweeting so we can share it. 4/
This thread is a joint effort with @amyfullermorgan & @claudiajrogers, & we'll be using it (across the day - parenting/working in a pandemic not being conducive to 'real-time' tweeting!) to share ideas and sources, & unpick some of the controversies around #NocheTriste2020. 5/
On their own twitters, @amyfullermorgan is going to dig into how the Spanish sources (which dominate views of #NocheTriste2020) have shaped & distorted our view, & @claudiajrogers is going to reveal some of the fascinating docs which help shed light on Indigenous perspectives. 6/
First, we should say it wasn’t *quite* 500 yrs ago (damn that pesky Julian calendar), but on the night of 30 June/1 July or possibly 1/2 July) the conquistadors were in a predicament. Starving & outnumbered, besieged in Tenochtitlan, they decided to escape. #NocheTriste2020 7/
A woman fetching water (pic: Florentine Codex) saw them & raised the alarm, & the warriors fell on the conquistadors & their Indigenous allies on the causeways. Weighed down with treasure, hundreds of Spaniards died. It was a great victory for the Aztecs. #NocheTriste2020 8/
But, as we all know, it was only temporary. Less than a year later, disease, siege, & devastation would topple Tenochtitlan, leaving it a smouldering ruin, for the Aztecs had refused all opportunities to surrender & fought, often quite literally, to the death. #NocheTriste2020 9/
And the 'conquerors' wrote their story. The Aztec victory 500 years ago became a ‘Night of Tears’, a blip on the way to irresistible European Christian triumph. History literally written by the victors, as @amyfullermorgan explains. #NocheTriste2020 10/ https://twitter.com/amyfullermorgan/status/1278291289767886849?s=20
But it wasn’t only the Spanish who triumphed. The Tlaxcalans too, the most famous allies of the Spanish, who were victorious over their old enemies of Tenochtitlan. In ways, this as much the Tlaxcalan Conquest as it was the Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs. #NocheTriste2020 11/
Following the conquest, Indigenous groups as well as Spaniards reframed events in their own histories to position themselves in the colonial world (even the Tenochca argued they had been allied with Cortés, because of Moctezuma's 'help' for the conquistadors). #NocheTriste 12/
The Tlaxcalans in particular exploited their role in the conquest, to promote themselves in the colonial world. @claudiajrogers is going to disentangle some of these amazing Indigenous perspectives and sources. https://twitter.com/claudiajrogers/status/1278308525224136705?s=20 #NocheTriste2020 13/
So #NocheTriste2020 is kind of weird moment to think of as an 'anniversary', but it's a perfect example of the collision of narratives, & the ways in which one event can be celebrated, mourned, valorised, condemned or ignored depending on a person or a people's perspective. 14/
This brings us to current debates about heritage. The history doesn't change, but how we perceive, understand or present it does. (Although, in the case of the Aztec conquest, even the facts themselves are heavily obscured by the process of myth making.) #NocheTriste2020 15/
There are no public statues of Cortés in Mexico today, and it is the 'last Aztec emperor' Cuauhtemoc who is celebrated, so perhaps the Indigenous view of the conquest is in the ascendant. But then, we still call it #NocheTriste2020, the 'Night of Sorrows', so... maybe not. 16/
There's a lot of cool stuff going on elsewhere about #NocheTriste2020. (Drop yours below, so we can share it.)
@AztecEmpire1520
has lots of great stuff in their timeline, inc. this thread of Diaz's description of the escape with contemporary maps. í https://twitter.com/AztecEmpire1520/status/1278224652305698817?s=20 17/
@AztecEmpire1520
has lots of great stuff in their timeline, inc. this thread of Diaz's description of the escape with contemporary maps. í https://twitter.com/AztecEmpire1520/status/1278224652305698817?s=20 17/
Also showing contemporary remnants of #NocheTriste2020 is this great juxtaposition of the contemporary and historic tree under which Cortés supposedly wept (and planned to return) after his ejection from Tenochtitlan. 18/ https://twitter.com/ellapiensaque/status/1278012634449805314?s=20
Not precisely #NocheTriste2020, but @DavidOBowles has, as ever, a fascinating thread on terminology and the evolving meaning of the word 'Mexico'. https://twitter.com/DavidOBowles/status/1278300322872647680?s=20 19/
