De la conquista naval de Tenochtitlan o de la muy breve historia de trece barcos y las Atarazanas de la Ciudad de México

Abstract

Although there is abundant bibliography about the conquest of Tenochtitlan and it has been written about many aspects, the episode of the construction of ships for the attack of the city has not been sufficiently valued, when it was the key to the strategy designed by Hernán Cortés for the definitive taking of the Mexican capital. Nor is there much information about the effective defenses of the new city of Mexico during the first decades of colonial life. Therefore, the objective of this work is to review what was the “naval conquest of Tenochtitlan”, offering some new data about the ships used for that purpose, such as the “Atarazanas of Mexico City”, that is, the fortress built by Hernán Cortés after the conquest, to safeguard the ships and to protect the new population from the threat of any possible uprising. To achieve this, we review some data from historical sources, as well as information on plans and first-hand documents in historical archives.