Cuitlahuac
Cuitlāhuac
Tlatoani of Tenochtitlan · Huey Tlatoani
1476 – 1520
Biography
Brother of Moctezuma II, elected tlatoani after Moctezuma's death and the Mexica expulsion of the Spanish from Tenochtitlan in the Noche Triste of 30 June 1520. He led the city's resistance for eighty days before dying of smallpox in the great epidemic that the Spanish had unwittingly introduced. His death deprived the Mexica of the most capable leader they had during the conquest.
Events
A two-year campaign by Hernán Cortés and roughly six hundred Spaniards, aided by smallpox and tens of thousands of indigenous allies who hated Mexica rule, destroyed the Aztec Empire. Moctezuma II received Cortés peacefully in Tenochtitlan in November 1519 and was held captive there; he died in disputed circumstances during the Mexica uprising of 1520. The eighty-day Spanish siege ended on 13 August 1521 with the capture of the last tlatoani, Cuauhtémoc.
Also there: Moctezuma II, Cuauhtémoc, Charles V
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