- Title Pages
- [UNTITLED]
- Acknowledgements
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- How Fighting Ends: A History of Surrender
- 1 Surrender and Prisoners in Prehistoric and Tribal Societies
- 2 Surrender in Ancient Greece
- 3 Surrender in Ancient Rome
- Introduction
- 4 Surrender in Medieval Europe—An Indirect Approach<sup>*</sup>
- 5 Surrender and Capitulation in the Middle East in the Age of the Crusades
- 6 Basil II the Bulgar-slayer and the Blinding of 15,000 Bulgarians in 1014: Mutilation and Prisoners of War in the Middle Ages
- Introduction
- 7 How Fighting Ended in the Aztec Empire and its Surrender to the Europeans
- 8 Surrender in the Northeastern Borderlands of Native America
- 9 Surrender in the Thirty Years War
- 10 Surrender and the Laws of War in Western Europe, <i>c.</i> 1660–1783
- 11 Ritual Performance: Surrender during the American War of Independence
- 12 Going Down with Flying Colours?
- Introduction
- 13 ‘Civilized, Rational Behaviour’? The Concept and Practice of Surrender in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792–1815
- 14 Robert E. Lee, the Army of Northern Virginia, and Confederate Surrender
- 15 Surrender in Britain’s Small Colonial Wars of the Nineteenth Century
- 16 Surrender of Soldiers in World War I
- 17 By the book? Commanders Surrendering in World War I
- 18 The Breaking Point: Surrender 1918
- Introduction
- Index
How Fighting Ended in the Aztec Empire and its Surrender to the Europeans
How Fighting Ended in the Aztec Empire and its Surrender to the Europeans
- Chapter:
- (p.113) 7 How Fighting Ended in the Aztec Empire and its Surrender to the Europeans
- Source:
- How Fighting Ends
- Author(s):
Ross Hassig
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
The Aztec empire never surrendered. In early flower wars fought to demonstrate military prowess, surrenders were feasible among nobles but not in normal imperial wars. Individually, surrender is difficult to distinguish from capture, as captors had little incentive to accept surrender rather than take captives. Polities, however, did surrender, and could do so at any point, the extent of their resistance affecting their subsequent tribute obligations. But surrender was always a political decision. Yet if the leadership did not surrender after their army's defeat, their city would be sacked and the populace taken captives. Famously, however, Cortes claimed that the Aztecs surrendered to him on 13 August 1521, yet the subsequent sacking of Tenochtitlan strongly contradicts his self-serving assertion.
Keywords: Aztecs, Cortes, empire, flower wars, captives, capture, ritual sacrifices, tenochtitlan
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- Title Pages
- [UNTITLED]
- Acknowledgements
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- How Fighting Ends: A History of Surrender
- 1 Surrender and Prisoners in Prehistoric and Tribal Societies
- 2 Surrender in Ancient Greece
- 3 Surrender in Ancient Rome
- Introduction
- 4 Surrender in Medieval Europe—An Indirect Approach<sup>*</sup>
- 5 Surrender and Capitulation in the Middle East in the Age of the Crusades
- 6 Basil II the Bulgar-slayer and the Blinding of 15,000 Bulgarians in 1014: Mutilation and Prisoners of War in the Middle Ages
- Introduction
- 7 How Fighting Ended in the Aztec Empire and its Surrender to the Europeans
- 8 Surrender in the Northeastern Borderlands of Native America
- 9 Surrender in the Thirty Years War
- 10 Surrender and the Laws of War in Western Europe, <i>c.</i> 1660–1783
- 11 Ritual Performance: Surrender during the American War of Independence
- 12 Going Down with Flying Colours?
- Introduction
- 13 ‘Civilized, Rational Behaviour’? The Concept and Practice of Surrender in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792–1815
- 14 Robert E. Lee, the Army of Northern Virginia, and Confederate Surrender
- 15 Surrender in Britain’s Small Colonial Wars of the Nineteenth Century
- 16 Surrender of Soldiers in World War I
- 17 By the book? Commanders Surrendering in World War I
- 18 The Breaking Point: Surrender 1918
- Introduction
- Index
