Talk:Battle of Otumba

Latest comment: 4 years ago by Wassermaus in topic Did dead Spaniards fight?

Redirect of newly created article to here, as redundnant

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A separate article recently created, The Battle of Otumba, is now merged here as this was a prior existing article that covered the same topic. Content of that redirected article (originally copied out of the article on the modern township of Otumba) is pasted below--

File:Battleotumba.jpg The Battle of Otumba is part of the story of the Fall of Tenochtitlan, called La Noche Triste. The Spanish had to flee the Aztec capital and reach Tlaxcalan, where they would find allies. After being beleaguered on the causeway leading out of the city, Spanish forces arrived at the plain of Otumba Valley (Otompan), where they were met by an Aztec army intent on their destruction. However, despite the fact that they had already seen horses, seeing Spanish knights in full regalia proved to have shock value, as they had never seen such in open battlefield. Another decisive element was Cortes' decision to directly attack an Aztec general as soon as he recognized the commander and killed him. Despite the poor condition and heavy losses of the Spanish army and the overwhelming number of Aztec warriors, the Spanish prevailed and were able to reach Tlaxcalan to regroup.<ref name="serge">Gruzinski, Serge. ''The Aztecs: Rise and Fall of an Empire''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987.</ref> 20 000 Aztecs were killed. While the town lends its name to this battle, it really occurred in a place called Temalacatitlán.

Some info could be merged into this one, although most of it is already covered. There are also much better sources about to use than the Gruzinski one.--[[User:CJLL

How are these Aztec strength numbers actually considered when there are no trustful sources for them other than some few biased Spanish "Historians"? Its a shame they are not contested like some famous hellenistic or roman battles... A 120-180K average army raised in such a small time? Admins should do something instead of simply deleting edits

Not registered random

Wright|cjllw]] ʘ TALK 05:37, 19 October 2009 (UTC)Reply

The article had no content so I added this paragraph 74.111.185.19 (talk) 11:43, 22 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Background - Cortes's decision to go Mexico after his commission was withdrawn

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I'm rewording the sentence "At the last moment, though, Cortés' permission was revoked, and he decided to launch his expedition regardless, though doing so meant expressly going against the King's authority." When Cortés left Cuba, Velázquez had not yet even received an answer from the king regarding his claim over the mainland; he was just taking a gamble that his claim would be approved, which it was. And Velázquez's patent certainly didn't specify who the captain of the expedition would be. Cortés defied Velázquez, but not the king. DavoLWS (talk) 04:36, 6 January 2018 (UTC)Reply

Did dead Spaniards fight?

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There is the statement that during Noche Triste "Of the Spanish force of approximately 1300, only less than 500 men at arms escaped with their lives,...". Nevertheless the strength of the Spanish army at the battle of Otumba is stated as "~1300". Did the 800 dead Spaniards get back to life? -- Wassermaus (talk) 20:34, 29 May 2020 (UTC)Reply