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May-June 1520Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

The Toxcatl Massacre and the Death of Moctezuma II

A Spanish attack on a religious ceremony triggers open revolt, and Moctezuma dies trying to calm a population that no longer trusts him

On the timeline · around May-June 1520 · Cortes and the Fall of TenochtitlanCortes and the Fall of TenochtitlanThe Toxcatl Massacre and the Death of Moctezuma II15201521

Quick facts

Massacre
Toxcatl festival, ordered by Pedro de Alvarado
Cortes returned
June 24, 1520
Moctezuma died
June 30, 1520
Successor
Cuitlahuac

What happened

While Cortes left Tenochtitlan in May 1520 to confront a rival Spanish force sent by the governor of Cuba to arrest him, he left the city under the command of Pedro de Alvarado, whose men attacked Aztec nobles during a religious ceremony, provoking an uprising World History Encyclopedia describes the Aztecs rising up and killing a number of the Spanish left behind. Cortes returned on June 24 after defeating the rival Spanish force and persuading its survivors to join him, but found the city in open revolt, with the remaining Spanish trapped inside the palace of Axayacatl under bombardment from the Templo Mayor above them. When the Spanish tried to use the captive Moctezuma to calm the population, he was struck by a stone thrown from the crowd and died on June 30, 1520, having already lost most of the authority that made him useful as a hostage.

Why it matters

Moctezuma's death removed the one lever that had let a few hundred Spaniards control Tenochtitlan without open war, and it happened at the hands of his own people rather than the Spanish, a detail underscoring how completely his authority had collapsed by that point. His death also cleared the way for a new, more confrontational Aztec leadership under his successor Cuitlahuac.

How we know

The massacre and Moctezuma's death are described by Spanish eyewitness chroniclers, and the account of Moctezuma dying from a stone thrown by his own people, rather than Spanish violence, appears consistently enough across sources that historians treat it as broadly reliable, though some later accounts alleged the Spanish killed him directly once he was no longer useful.

Sources

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Part of a timelineThe Aztec Empire25 events · From a wandering clan on a swampy island to the dominant power of Mesoamerica, and its end in a 93-day siegeView all →