30 May 2025 / 10 House
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Find out moreHow did Spaniards describe Aztec warriors?
Group of models of Aztec warriors
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Syed Mojiz: I just want to see some quotes from spanish conquistadors telling about the skills and appearance of Aztec warriors. There aren’t many quotes of spanish explaining their war tactic and features etc. (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore).
Here are two for you:-
• ‘It is one of the most beautiful sights in the world to see them in their battle array because they keep formation wonderfully and are very handsome... Anyone facing them for the first time can be terrified by their screams and their ferocity. In warfare they are the most cruel people to be found, for they spare neither brothers, relatives, friends nor women even if they are beautiful; they kill them all...’ (The Anonymous Conquistador)
• ‘[The Spaniards] met countless numbers of warriors who were very well armed in their fashion. They used cotton ixcahuipiles, cudgels and swords, and a great many insignia which they wore strapped to their backs, giving them an appearance of great ferocity, since they also had their faces stained, and grimaced horribly, giving great leaps and shouts and cries. These put such fear into us that many of the Spaniards asked for confession...’ (Francisco de Aguilar)
Sources:-
• Aztecs and Conquistadores by John Pohl & Charles M. Robinson III (2005), Osprey Publishing Ltd., p. 57
• The Conquistadors: First-person Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico edited by Patricia de Fuentes (1963), University of Oklahoma Press, p. 139.
Photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.
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Group of models of Aztec warriors
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