<P> The Conquest of Mexico, the initial destruction of the great pre-Columbian civilizations, is a significant event in world history . The Conquest was well documented by a variety of sources with differing points of view, including indigenous accounts, by both allies and opponents . Accounts by the Spanish conquerors exist from the first landfall at Veracruz, Mexico (on Good Friday, April 22, 1519) to the final victory over the Mexica in Tenochtitlan on August 13, 1521 . Notably, the accounts of the Conquest, Spanish and indigenous alike, have biases and exaggerations . Some, though not all, Spanish accounts downplay the support of their indigenous allies . Conquerors' accounts exaggerate individual contributions to the Conquest at the expense of their comrades, while indigenous allies' accounts stress their loyalty and importance to victory for the Spanish . These accounts are similar to Spanish conquerors' accounts contained in petitions for rewards, known as benemérito petitions . </P> <P> Some older Nahua men said they remembered the attack . They said they remembered people in the city grabbing their children and trying to get on canoes to leave before the Spanish arrived . They remembered the cannons being used by their enemies to knock down their city walls, dumping sand into their canals as well as the complex weapons the Spanish had used that were so unfamiliar and new to the indigenous people of Mexico . Even when the Nahua men got a hold of the European weapons, they didn't know how to use them . They decided it was best to just make the weapon unable to be regained . They threw it in the lake and they sank to the bottom, this way the enemy could no longer use it . Hernan Cortes and the rest of his men decided to build a catapult . They wanted to scare the Mexica into surrendering, but it ended up failing and causing a commotion on the Spanish side . The indigenous men were sort of impressed with their enemy for two reasons. They distinctly remember the way iron was manipulated by the Europeans . These men wore iron armor, had iron shields, swords, and crossbows, which meant that their bodies were well protected and that their weapons were strong . And what also stood out was the information network among the Spaniards . It surprised them how swiftly information circulated . </P> <P> Two lengthy accounts from the defeated indigenous viewpoint were created under the direction of Spanish friars, Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún and Dominican Diego Durán, using indigenous informants . </P> <P> The first Spanish account of the conquest was written by lead conqueror Hernán Cortés, who sent a series of letters to the Spanish monarch Charles V, giving a contemporary account of the conquest from his point of view, in which he justified his actions . These were almost immediately published in Spain and later in other parts of Europe . Much later, Spanish conqueror Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a well - seasoned participant in the conquest of Central Mexico, wrote what he called The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, countering the account by Cortés's official biographer, Francisco López de Gómara . Bernal Díaz's account had begun as a benemérito petition for rewards but he expanded it to encompass a full history of his earlier expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme and the conquest of the Aztec . A number of lower rank Spanish conquerors wrote benemérito petitions to the Spanish Crown, requesting rewards for their services in the conquest, including Juan Díaz, Andrés de Tapia, García del Pilar, and Fray Francisco de Aguilar . Cortés's right - hand man, Pedro de Alvarado did not write at any length about his actions in the New World, and died as a man of action in the Mixtón War in 1542 . Two letters to Cortés about Alvarado's campaigns in Guatemala are published in The Conquistadors . </P>

Who wrote the aztec version of the conquest of mexico