Spanish Defeat of The Aztecs  I believe that the three essential factors in the Spanish defeat of the Aztecs were disease, alliances, and Dona Marina. Without the help of these factors, the Spanish could not have killed the Aztecs. When Moctezuma and Cortes met on the causeways, Moctezuma treated Cortes as the god Quetzalcoatl. He allowed the Spanish into Tenochtitlan. He had no idea that the plan was to assimilate the Aztecs and take their civilization.  Cortes forced a girl named Dona Marina to be his translator. She is also known as La Malinche because she 'betrayed' the Aztecs. She would help him communicate and negotiate with the Aztecs. But sometimes Dona would do more than translate their conversations. She would tell Cortes …show more content…
Dona prevented this from happening by warning Cortes about the attack. The Aztecs were caught by surprise when they found that the Spanish were expecting them. Without the help of Dona Marina, the Aztecs would have succeeded killing the Spanish and the Spanish wouldn't have found out the Aztecs' secrets and weaknesses or taken Tenochtitlan.  When the Spanish arrived in Mexico, they were greatly outnumbered by the Aztecs. So when Cortes was making his way to Tenochtitlan, he gathered allies. He visited the meso American  cities that the Aztecs conquered. Some of them willingly volunteered to him Cortes because they were angry with the Aztecs. Some of them were given the choice to join Cortes or die. Cortes kept building his army up. The more he traveled, the most cities he contacted. By the time Cortes reached Tenochtitlan, he had an army. It levelled  the playing field with the Aztecs and allowed him to decimated them easier. If Cortes hadn't allied himself with the mesoAmerican cities, then the Aztecs would have easily defeated him in one shot.  The Spanish were not people with very good hygiene.They had built up immunities but were carriers of