Pedro de Alvarado

Spanish conquistador

• Born: 1485
• Birthplace: Badajoz, Extremadura, Castile (now in Spain)
• Died: 1541
• Place of death: In or near Guadalajara, New Spain (now in Mexico)

Alvarado was a key subordinate to Hernán Cortés in the sixteenth century Spanish exploration and conquest of Mexico and Central America.

Early Life

Pedro de Alvarado (pay-DROH day ahl-vah-RAHD-oh) was born in the city of Badajoz in the Spanish province of Estremadura, an area that had furnished Spain with many professional soldiers in the country’s centuries-long war to oust the Arab invaders from the Iberian Peninsula. He was descended from a family that belonged to the minor nobility, and he played an active role in Spain’s battle against the Arabs. Like most of the nobles of his time, he learned little of such skills as reading and writing. Alvarado knew how to use a sword and was an excellent horseman, but he had few other marketable talents. The defeat of the Arab armies therefore left him, like many of his countrymen, unemployed.

The voyages of Christopher Columbus opened the Western Hemisphere to both exploration and exploitation by the Spaniards. Alvarado in the company of his four brothers, Jorge, Gonzalo, Gómez, and Juan joined the flood of soldiers who saw this new frontier as an opportunity for both wealth and advancement. In 1510, the brothers emigrated to Cuba .

In 1511, Alvarado enlisted in an expedition headed by Juan de Grijalva; the expedition was sent from Cuba to explore the Yucatán. Although Grijalva had problems controlling his young lieutenant, he regarded him highly enough to send him back to Cuba carrying the spoils of the venture. Alvarado’s tendency to go his own way without regard for his orders would prove to be a constant problem throughout his subsequent military career.

Life’s Work

After his initial exposure to the newly explored territories of North America, Alvarado became one of the four chief lieutenants to Hernán Cortés during the conquest of central Mexico in the years 1518 to 1521. Subsequently, Cortés delegated to his subordinate the responsibility for bringing much of Central America into the Spanish colonial empire.

Alvarado joined Cortés’s expedition in 1518 at the Cuban port of Trinidad, where Cortés had begun the process of recruiting followers. Cortés also undertook the acquisition of military stores and provisions and the overhaul of the ships that he planned to use in the voyage to the mainland.

The relationship between the two adventurers would remain a mercurial one throughout the many years of their association. Alvarado, headstrong and independent, was nevertheless an outstanding leader and soldier. Although Cortés regarded Alvarado as one of his top lieutenants, he would later have cause to regret giving command of certain undertakings to his undisciplined subordinate.

Alvarado often behaved unpredictably. On one occasion, he interfered with Cortés’s scheduled execution of a condemned soldier, cutting the noose from the unfortunate’s neck as he stood on the scaffold. He could also be generous; reportedly, he once forgave a debt of 20,000 ducats (equivalent to about $80,000) owed him by a fellow officer. His baser nature, however, led him to commit such heinous acts as burning prisoners alive, turning ferocious dogs on unarmed Mexican Indians, and assaulting the new bride of an indigenous chief. Throughout his career, moreover, he regarded the property of colonized peoples as his for the taking.

Cortés’s expedition consisted of 11 vessels, 110 sailors, 553 soldiers, and 16 horses. With that force, Cortés launched a successful campaign that seized control of all Mexico and destroyed the Aztec Empire in the short span of three years. The Spaniards were ruthless in their dealings with Mexican Indians. They slaughtered those who opposed them, and they exploited mercilessly those who sought to placate them. The invaders not only seized all the wealth that they could extract from indigenous peoples but also demanded that they abjure their ancient religions and accept Christianity .

Although the Spanish force was small, their firearms, body armor, horses, and fighting dogs gave them such an overwhelming advantage over the armies of the indigenous peoples that resistance proved futile. Moreover, the guileful Cortés succeeded in allying his troops with powerful indigenous peoples’ nations such as the Tlaxcalans, who hated the brutal Aztec regime. The Tlaxcalans feared and admired Alvarado. Because of his imposing physique and flaming red hair, they called him Tonatiuh, or “child of the sun.”

Accompanied by his Tlaxcalan allies, Cortés marched on Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City), the Aztec capital, destroying the armies he encountered in the intervening countryside. The Aztec emperor Montezuma II , consumed by doubt about the origin of the Spanish forces and believing that perhaps they were gods, chose to bargain with Cortés, hoping to bribe the latter to leave the country. Once in the capital, however, the Spaniards pursued their usual policy of demanding both riches and the destruction of all the local deities. Moreover, the resourceful Cortés took Montezuma prisoner in order better to control the populace.

Although the Aztec capital was secure, Cortés faced a new problem. His enemy Diego Velázquez, the governor of Cuba, had organized an army three times the size of Cortés’s forces to follow Cortés into Mexico and take him prisoner. The governor had become jealous of Cortés’s success and planned to take over conquered Mexico himself.

Leaving Alvarado in charge in Tenochtitlán, Cortés not only defeated the superior pursuing force but also persuaded the majority of its soldiers to join his own army. Meanwhile, Alvarado had created a problem for his chief by slaughtering a number of Aztec nobles during a religious festival. The outraged Aztecs began a massive rebellion.

Cortés, his army now strengthened by new recruits, marched quickly west once more, reentering the capital and rescuing the hard-pressed Alvarado and his small contingent. Nevertheless, the Aztecs continued their attacks despite heavy losses. Even Montezuma’s appeal to his countrymen to lay down their arms failed and they killed their emperor as he tried to address them. Recognizing his peril and running short of food and ammunition, Cortés decided to retreat to the coast.

What followed proved to be a harrowing adventure for the Spaniards. The night of the retreat came to be known as La Noche Triste (the sad night). Cortés, in a prodigious effort, managed to extricate his forces, although the Aztecs killed and captured many. At one point, Alvarado, commanding the rear guard, found himself alone and surrounded by his enemies on the bank of a canal. He thrust his lance firmly into the water below and vaulted to the canal’s opposite side. The jump that he made was so impressive that even today the spot is called Salto de Alvarado (Alvarado’s Leap).

Arriving once more at Veracruz, Cortés rested, rearmed, and assembled an even greater force for the recapture of the Aztec capital. He stopped short of the city and built several brigantines to ensure his control of the city’s waterways. The Spaniards attacked the Aztec defenders and reconquered the city in the face of suicidal resistance. Estimates of the Aztec casualties from battle, hunger, and disease ranged from 120,000 to 240,000. Some 30,000 to 70,000 survived, and the victorious Spaniards allowed them to leave the ruined capital.

Spain’s emperor, Charles V, named Cortés a marquis and granted him extensive holdings throughout New Spain, as central Mexico was known. At the same time, the emperor designated new civil authorities in the colony, and Cortés never again held the political power that he had achieved as a conqueror. Nevertheless, in his continued capacity as captain general, Cortés did authorize Alvarado to move south to subjugate most of Central America. Alvarado began the invasion of Central America in 1523. He adopted the same techniques employed by the Spaniards in the Mexican campaign: the slaughter of any indigenous peoples offering resistance and the exploitation of those who did not. He conquered what today is Guatemala, El Salvador, and northern Nicaragua.

Arriving at the kingdom of Cuzcatlán, now El Salvador, Alvarado emulated the behavior of Cortés at Tenochtitlán. Welcomed by the country’s king, Atlacatl, and his nobles, furnished with sumptuous quarters and provisions, the Spanish leader repaid this hospitality by seizing the leaders and holding them hostage. When forced to retrace his steps temporarily, Alvarado had Atlacatl and his contingent slaughtered. Although the Spaniards found some gold, the area offered merely a fraction of the wealth that they had acquired in Mexico. Only the Aztec Empire possessed such fabulous wealth.

Named governor and captain general of the kingdom of Guatemala by Charles V, Alvarado turned to other means to build wealth. Recognizing the value of their labor as a commodity, the new governor sought to stop the wholesale slaughter of the Central American Indians. Charles V granted Alvarado the right to build a fleet and explore the southern seas. The new governor also attempted to enter Peruvian ports with his ships and to share in the wealth of the Inca Empire, but he was denied entry by the Spanish authorities already established there.

His final campaign occurred in northern Mexico, at that time known as New Galicia. Asked by the king’s viceroy in Mexico City to come to the aid of beleaguered Spanish forces in that territory, the irrepressible Alvarado moved north and launched an attack against the Native Indians in mountain country during a heavy rain. During the engagement, his horse lost its footing and rolled over Alvarado, killing him. At the time, Alvarado was fifty-six years old.

Significance

The Spanish conquistadores, soldiers such as Pedro de Alvarado, Hernán Cortés, and Francisco Pizarro, invaded and conquered what is now Mexico, Central America, and Peru, for both wealth and prestige. Seasoned fighting men, they and their followers overcame tremendous odds to achieve their victories. In the process, they killed thousands of the indigenous peoples who opposed them. Thousands more died from the hunger and disease that resulted from the warfare itself. The Spaniards rationalized their behavior on the grounds that they brought Christianity to pagan peoples. Priests accompanied every expedition to convert the indigenous to the Christian faith. In their eagerness to spread the tenets of their religion, they also aided in the destruction of the existing indigenous cultures.

Alvarado, a brave, accomplished, if somewhat erratic military man, personified the Spanish conquistador. His cruelty and rapaciousness helped to create the anti-Spanish “Black Legend,” the reputation for brutality that the country earned not only in the eyes of the oppressed peoples of the New World but also among other European nations.

Bibliography

Collis, Maurice. Cortés and Montezuma. New York: New Directions, 1999. In-depth description of the meeting between Cortés and Montezuma and the subsequent conquest of Mexico, with significant discussion of Alvarado’s role, especially in the massacre of Atlacatl and his nobles. Includes illustrations, map, index.

Díaz, Bernal. The Conquest of New Spain. London: Penguin Books, 1963. An autobiography of one of the soldiers who accompanied the Cortés expedition, a brother-in-arms of Pedro de Alvarado.

Holmes, Maurice G. From New Spain by Sea to the Californias, 1519-1668. Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark, 1963. Covers the final years of Alvarado’s military economic, and political career, including his attempts to open up new areas for trade overseas.

Kelly, John Eoghan. Pedro de Alvarado, Conquistador. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1932. Reprint. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1971. One of the few complete biographies of Alvarado available in English.

Prescott, William H. The Conquest of Mexico. New York: Bantam Books, 1964. A complete, detailed history of the Cortés expedition and the role that Alvarado played in it.

White, Jon Manchip. Cortés and the Downfall of the Aztec Empire. 2d ed. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1996. Discusses Alvarado’s role in Cortés’s expedition and the effects of his actions on Spanish colonial history. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliography, index.

Woodward, Ralph Lee, Jr. Central America: A Nation Divided. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976. Chapter 2, “The Kingdom of Guatemala,” provides an overview of Alvarado’s efforts to subjugate the inhabitants of Central America and add that area to Spain’s empire.