Cuauhtémoc

Cuauhtémoc (also Quauhtemoc, Cuautemoc, Cuauhtemoc, Cuanthemoc, Guatimozin; Nahuatl: Kuautemok or Kuautemoktzin, " stoop -lowering eagle " or " eagle country Ender "; * 1495 or 1502; † February 28, 1525 ) was the last Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan. He was the son of Auítzotl and thus cousin both of Moctezuma II, as well as its direct predecessor Cuitláuac.

After Moctezuma II had been taken hostage by the Spaniards, was chosen as the new ruler Cuitláuac. However, he died after a few months of the entrained by the Spanish pox, so that Cuauhtémoc was elected supreme warlords and tlatoani.

Cuauhtémoc made ​​uncompromising resistance against Hernán Cortés and defended Tenochtitlán to the last. Shortly before the fall of the city but he was discovered and taken prisoner on August 13, 1521 while trying to escape on a boat. For some time, Cortés treated his adversary as a prisoner in all honor and referred to him as the ruler of the Aztecs.

As Cortes in 1524 led an expedition to Honduras, he took with former Aztec ruler, because he feared his growing power in his absence in Tenochtitlan. During the expedition, Cuauhtémoc, was allegedly involved in a conspiracy against Cortés, was executed by hanging. With his widow Tecuichpoch, a daughter of Moctezuma, Cortés begat later, the daughter Leonor Cortés y Moctezuma.

Cuauhtémoc applies in the Mexican tradition as a great national hero, and in his memory Cuauhtémoc is still as strong first name in use. A city in the state of Chihuahua, a town and municipality in Colima as well as large urban park in Mexico City today are named after him. The memory of the leader of the fierce opposition is held up in Mexico in honor, while the indigenous people who supported Cortés then, are considered non-persons.

The mortal remains of the ruler had allegedly been in 1949 Ichcateopan ( Guerrero ) retrieved. The activities carried out by the Mexican archeologist Eulalia Guzmán excavations have been criticized at the time for their little proper technique, doubts the authenticity of the find. A recent study in 1976 concluded that there is no evidence for the identification of skeletal remains that have been identified as that of a young woman, and that the documents should be supported to identify, modern origin.