The Conquest of Mexico had the peculiarity of being one of the first European campaigns in America. the men of Hernan Cortes They faced very numerous armies, but they had better weapons on their part, such as weapons of gunpowder and steel. This is the story of how a few hundred men conquered one of the largest empires in Latin America, the Roman Empire. Aztec ruled by the Mexica.
Organization and tactics of Christian armies
The end of the Middle Ages was characterized by the timid appearance of the first professional armies in Europe, although in this first stage they were still very medieval. In the Iberian Peninsula, in 1492, the Catholic Monarchs finally conquered the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, thus culminating the so-called Reconquest. In addition, in that same year, the navigator Christopher Columbus discovered a new continent, the future America, crossing the Atlantic Ocean with a small fleet. The Christian armies (Castile and Aragon) will have to prepare quickly for the new campaigns that lie ahead.
The armies that served the kings of Aragon, Castile and Navarre in the last years of the fifteenth century and the first years of the sixteenth were the result of a slow evolution in which ancient and very modern characteristics were mixed. The first element from which the Spanish armies of the Modern Age were born was the European medieval tradition. “The eight centuries of the Reconquest continued to have a great influence on the way Castilians and Aragonese fought. Almost all military positions and institutions originated in those times”.
“In 1496, the ordinances dictated by King Ferdinand for the Roussillon War, the Spanish armies were organized in “coronelías”, each one composed of twenty “captainías” of approximately two hundred and fifty soldiers.”. Regarding the so-called “coronelías”, they were created and devised by the famous military strategist Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, better known as “The Great Captain”, in the Italian wars. This organization had about 6,000 men and in turn divided into several branches such as pikemen, rodeleros, arquebusiers and crossbowmen.
In the campaign that Hernan Cortes against the empire Aztec It will follow a good number of these guidelines, although due to its small group of men at the beginning of it, about 500 soldiers, it will not be able to carry out divisions as large as the colonelías, but it will carry out several captaincies. Also “In the Indies, the expansion is entrusted to voluntary irregular units, whose more appropriate name is that of “companies” or “companies”, who group combatants of all arms in a very small number and who await their reward from the distribution of the loot.”.
About the tactics used in the campaign of the conquest of Mexico will be different from those used in the European continent. In America, Cuts and his men are going to find another form of fighting on the part of the aztecs, so they will have to change the way they see the battlefield. For example, in Europe it was common for pikemen to fight in tight formations to face the cavalry charges that had caused so many headaches in the Middle Ages. In America this will not happen because the Mexicas do not know the horse, it will be the first time they see such a large animal apart from the deer. “For this reason the horses will be known as Ciervos de Castilla”.
Continuing with the previously explained, the cavalry also had its own way of fighting, mainly there were two types of ways of riding. The first of them called “a stirrup” occurred throughout Europe, and was the way of fighting of the heavy cavalry, that is, charging against the enemy ranks and equipped with plate armor and a large lance. The other way, which is the one that will occur above all in the conquest of the new lands, will be that of “a jineta”. Colloquially this form was known as the way in which the Moors rode in the Iberian Peninsula at the time of the Reconquest.
The cavalry that fought “a jineta” was a light cavalry armed with a thin lance and a light shield called “adarga” that was so useful that it was maintained until the 18th century in the areas of North America where there were Spanish presidios. Returning to America, the Spanish will have to deal with new characteristics, especially natural ones, as we said. The thick jungles of the Central American area are famous. the troops of Cuts they will always try to fight in open spaces where the enemy superiority did not matter, since they could unleash their full potential.
Other tactics that became common in the late fifteenth century was the use of portable or hand-held firearms. After the battles of Garellano and Ceriñola, both in 1503, during the First Italian War, it was shown that this new technology would be key in future armed conflicts. Gunpowder was undoubtedly the great revolution of the Renaissance. Another mission that was given was in the use of larger artillery pieces to destroy the walls during the siege of cities.
This was shown very early on, in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople to the Turks. Despite all this, the expedition of Hernan Cortes it will also be an exception, since gunpowder pieces will not be abundant until late dates like 1521, when Tenochtitlan finally falls.
Characteristics of the expedition of Hernán Cortés
In 1511, the Extremaduran hernan Cuts had arrived in Cuba. He participated in its conquest and even became mayor of the city of Santiago de Cuba. Years later he organized an expedition with the consent of the authorities to be able to explore the coasts of the Yucatan area. In this expedition, which left Cuba in November 1518, it had a series of very important military characteristics that I will develop from here on.
“The expedition was of course a private company, since it was not financed by the crown but by the capital of several people, but the truth is that if he had to have the consent of the crown, if he obtained it he could wear the royal insignia”. The convoy was made up of eleven ships, four of them were large tonnage ships to transport all kinds of material. In addition, these types of ships were very useful for long-distance travel.
For the trip, Cuts it had approximately 530 Europeans, 40 sailors and 5 experienced sailors. “It should be noted that the sailors and navigators were the only ones who received pay, because they could not get off the boats to obtain spoils from the fights.”. Likewise, these Europeans were also joined by several hundred black slaves to carry out work of various kinds. Focusing on the European personnel, the vast majority were soldiers, but there was an amalgamation of personnel. These soldiers were accompanied by several friars, doctors, carpenters, scribes, master artillerymen and even some women.
The military forces carried on the ships were an equally motley mix. among the men of Cuts there was everything, although the soldiers who came from poor peasant families predominated, who, seeing the occasion, had volunteered to try to seek riches or a better life. “On the other hand, there was also a contingent of noble people, although they were second-class nobles, bankrupt or non-firstborn sons of important families who had left in search of fame or land to live on.”.
These forces were mainly divided into three types, first a large mass of infantry, then the artillery and finally a very small group of mounted horsemen, but no less important. In this mass of foot soldiers would be those from poor and peasant families, the cavalry instead was made up of these little nobles and hidalgos. The artillery must be taken in exception, since although they were not noble, they were experts in the use of these new gunpowder pieces.
As has been said before, the great mass of foot soldiers were of peasant origin, but this had nothing to do with their performance in battle. These men years ago had fought in Italian lands against the French, where very hard battles took place, so they were used to adverse environments.
The artillery. “These large pieces of gunpowder were not decisive as they would be in centuries to come, especially in the 19th century, since the 15th century there was already a significant number of artillery pieces varied enough so that their presence or absence in a given battle had a certain influence in the development of it”. In the eleven ships of Cuts 14 artillery pieces, four falconets and ten bronze culverins were transported.
Finally, we must mention the health specialists. Health, if it can be called that, was very little developed at the beginning of the 16th century, although there had been advances, since during the High Middle Ages medicine was a necessity of the Church. With the appearance of universities this discipline begins to be taught more widely. Mainly there were two types of health, doctors and surgeons. “Surgery was relegated to the background and was considered a manual trade. The trade was learned after three years of theory and two years of practice”.
The first university that gave the opportunity to carry out these studies was that of Valencia in 1503. Doctors were better considered at the time than surgeons (who often even did the job of barber). Doctors often worked for the kings and were part of their chamber.
In the expedition of Cuts there were a few surgeons who were undoubtedly not among the best, like all the members of the expedition, they were humble people with little training but who at least gave better treatment than a peasant could receive in the Iberian Peninsula, which was none. “At the time nothing was known about bacteria, microorganisms or viruses. Half a dozen of the current diseases were included in the so-called “mal miserere”. They had such a name because if one suffered from it, the only thing left to do was ask God for mercy.”.
One of the most common remedies to treat stab wounds was to melt animal fat on top of the wound. This remedy was extremely painful but it disinfected the cut and stopped the bleeding, excuse the redundancy. “In the middle of the campaigns the conquerors ran out of this type of oil. To make more, they did not hesitate to collect the corpses of the Indians to burn and melt them and extract the fat.”.
The means available: weapons and armor
The end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Age saw the birth of new types of weapons that worked with gunpowder, that element that came from distant Asia and that the Europeans used to revolutionize warfare. We have seen previously that Hernan Cortes initially had 14 pieces…