http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ mirrored file For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== Tlaxcala As the invading army of Spaniards made their way into the valley of Mexico, one of the first major cities they encountered was Tlaxcala. Cortes sent ahead two Cempoalan chieftains with a letter written in Spanish, which the Tlaxcalans were unable to read, explaining that the Spaniards came in peace. The Tlaxcalans and the Mexica were old enemies. The two cities had often gone to war with one another, and the Mexica often attacked in confederation with its former allies such as the Cempoalans. Because of this, the Tlaxcalans assumed that the Spaniards and their new Cempoalan allies had come to attack them as well. When the Cempoalan chieftains presented the Tlaxcalans with the letter from Cortes, they also presented them with gifts of a Spanish helmet, sword, and cross-bow. In Anahuac it was customary for warring parties to present one another with arms before a battle, and this "gift" from the Spaniards most likely confirmed the Tlaxcalans' suspicions that the strangers did not come in peace. The two Cempoalans were imprisoned by the Tlaxcalans, and a war party sent out to confront the invaders. According to the Conquistador Bernal Diaz, the first major battle between the Spanish army and the Tlaxcalans occurred on September 2, 1519, on a field outside of Tlaxcala called Tehuacingo-identified by some scholars as the present-day village of San Salvador de los Comales (Diaz, 146). According to Diaz, nearly forty thousand Tlaxcalan soldiers under the command of Xicotencatl fearlessly attacked the Spanish soldiers, and all they could do was hold formation to protect themselves from the Nican Tlaca warriors. After the battle, the majority of Spanish soldiers were either wounded or sick. The next day, a small number of Conquistadors on horseback went out to attack near-by villages, setting them on fire and then fleeing. Cortes ordered this done so that the Tlaxcalans would not know that the majority of his troops were injured. Cortes also sent another party of Cempoalan envoys to Xicotencatl, who explained that the Spanish did not want to fight them, but only wanted to pass through their territory to reach Tenochtitlan. The nobles of Tlaxcala told the messengers that they had lost many of their sons in the previous battle with the Spaniards, and were thus very angry, and vowed to destroy the invading army. A few days later, the Tlaxcalans and Spaniards met again on the battlefield. The Tlaxcalan warriors greatly outnumbered the Spaniards and their allies, but were unable to completely defeat the invading army. The morning after this battle, 50 Tlaxcalan emissaries approached the Spanish encampment bringing food, explaining that the Spaniards looked hungry, and that there was no honor in fighting men weakened by hunger. The Spaniards welcomed the Tlaxcalans and ate heartily. At some point Cortes became suspicious of the Tlaxcalan envoy and placed them under arrest. According to Cortes, he "threatened" one of the Tlaxcalans until he confessed that they were spies, and then he "took all fifty and cut off their hands and sent them to tell their chief that by day or by night, or whenever they chose to come, they would see who we were" (Cortes, 61). This brutal act by Cortes adequately depicts his vicious nature, and the way in which he attempted to intimidate the people of Mexico through acts of violence. That night, a Tlaxcalan force attacked the Spaniards, hoping to catch them off guard. Unfortunately, Cortes and his men had been tipped-off by his Cempoalan allies, and the Spaniards were ready for the attack. A few nights later, Cortes and a hundred of his men went out on a reconnaissance mission, when they came across a town of "twenty thousand houses" (Cortes, 62). According to Cortes, the Spaniards took the inhabitants "by surprise, they rushed out unarmed, and the women and children ran naked through the streets, and I began to do them some harm" (Cortes, 62). After seeing the destruction wrought by the Spaniards, the town's leaders approached Cortes and begged him to stop the killing. They vowed to assist the Spaniards in any way, and Cortes ordered his men to leave. The next day Cortes was approached by a Tlaxcalan envoy that appealed for peace. According to Cortes, the emissaries explained that they would rather ally themselves with the Spaniards, "than to see their houses destroyed and their women and children killed" (Cortes, 66). Cortes followed the emissaries back to Tlaxcala, and in a letter to the king of Spain, marveled at the beautiful and orderly city he found there: "The city is so big and so remarkable?almost unbelievable, for the city is much larger than Granada and very much stronger, with as good buildings and many more people than Granada?There is in this city a market where each and every day upward of thirty thousand people come to buy and sell.." (Cortes 67). Cortes was not only impressed with the city of Tlaxcala, but with the entire area surrounding it, which he described as having "many beautiful valleys and plains, all cultivated and harvested, leaving no place untilled?" (Cortes, 68). The Tlaxcalans explained to Cortes that they and the Mexica were old adversaries, whose quarrel dated back many years. Cortes used this dispute to his advantage, and convinced the Tlaxcalans to assist him on his march to Tenochtitlan. Many historians seeking to rationalize the Spaniard's behavior point to this domestic struggle as an example of the "anarchic warfare" that existed among the people of Anahuac , and argue that the colonization helped to bring under control these various warring factions. If one truly agrees with this line of reasoning, it would only be fair to say that in the twentieth century, when Europeans killed each other in the millions during WWI and WWII, a foreign army of Jihadists would have been justified in invading and conquering the warring Europeans, enslaving the men and raping the women, destroying London, Paris, Berlin and Moscow, and claiming all the national treasures for their own, because the English and Germans were uncontrollably fighting one another and obviously didn't deserve to live. No one would believe such a ridiculous argument, and no one should believe that the in-fighting among the Nican Tlaca of Anahuac is any justification for the savage actions of the invading Europeans.