The Dawson Ledger
Event

Battle of Otumba (1520 CE)

Cortes' retreating army defeats a pursuing Mexica force near Otumba on the way to Tlaxcala.

Mesoamerican

Event Details

  • Date: 7 July 1520
  • Type: battle
  • Civilizations: mesoamerican, western-atlantic

Description

Cortes' retreating army defeats a pursuing Mexica force near Otumba on the way to Tlaxcala.

Quantitative facts and their sourcing

  • Date 7 July 1520 (Julian); outcome: Spanish-Tlaxcalan victory (Wikipedia).
  • Wikipedia (stub): Aztec 10,000-20,000 warriors; Spanish dead ~60; Tlaxcalan losses and Aztec casualties unknown. Spanish-chronicle based.
  • PRIMARY-SOURCE (read 2026-10-12): Bernal Diaz (Maudslay transl., Hakluyt 1910) vol. 2, pp. 252-255: the battle turned when the Mexican captain carrying the banner was killed (lance by Juan de Salamanca); "within a matter of five days over eight hundred and sixty soldiers were killed and sacrificed" (including Otumba and the retreat), plus 72 killed at Tustepec, five Spanish women, and "over a thousand Tlaxcalans". Eyewitness participant account.

Confidence

low (chronicle figures). Numbers marked "Wikipedia-compiled (stub)" come from a secondary aggregator and must be upgraded to page-level scholarly citations before any Official use.

Citations

  • diaz-maudslay-v2-ia [PRIMARY-READ] Bernal Diaz del Castillo, A. P. Maudslay (transl.) (1910). Bernal Diaz del Castillo, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, transl. A. P. Maudslay, vol. 2 (Hakluyt Society, 1910); archive.org scan, read. Hakluyt Society (scan: Internet Archive). https://archive.org/details/truehistoryofcon0002bern. Read 2026-10-12; location: pp. 252-255 (Otumba; "The Spanish losses").
  • hassig1994-mexico-spanish-conquest [formal] Ross Hassig (1994). Mexico and the Spanish Conquest. Longman. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4119739W. Verified 2026-10-11 (Open Library record found; edition exists, page-level not checked).
  • thomas1993-conquest [formal] Hugh Thomas (1993). Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the Fall of Old Mexico. Simon & Schuster. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL273099W. Verified 2026-10-11 (Open Library record found; edition exists, page-level not checked).
  • wp-battle-of-otumba [STUB (secondary aggregator)] Wikipedia contributors (2026). Battle of Otumba (Wikipedia; secondary aggregator, stub-grade). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Otumba. Verified 2026-10-11 (resolves).

Review status

SOFT draft. Not Official. Needs editor review of CAD tags (estimated) and page-level citation upgrade.

About this entry

A draft entry preserved from civilization.study. Evidence grade: low. 3 of 4 listed sources are fully documented; the rest are names only. Method and sources

Conflict card

This card is generated from Civitas's war record and carries the same evidence badge as every other conflict card.

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battle · 7 July 1520

Battle of Otumba (1520 CE)

Cortes' retreating army defeats a pursuing Mexica force near Otumba on the way to Tlaxcala.

Evidence: Primary text read Draft estimate

What the record says

  • Unverified (Wikipedia-compiled) Date 7 July 1520 (Julian); outcome: Spanish-Tlaxcalan victory (Wikipedia).
  • Unverified (Wikipedia-compiled) Wikipedia (stub): Aztec 10,000-20,000 warriors; Spanish dead ~60; Tlaxcalan losses and Aztec casualties unknown. Spanish-chronicle based.
  • Primary text PRIMARY-SOURCE (read 2026-10-12): Bernal Diaz (Maudslay transl., Hakluyt 1910) vol. 2, pp. 252-255: the battle turned when the Mexican captain carrying the banner was killed (lance by Juan de Salamanca); "within a matter of five days over eight hundred and sixty soldiers were killed and sacrificed" (including Otumba and the retreat), plus 72 killed at Tustepec, five Spanish women, and "over a thousand Tlaxcalans". Eyewitness participant account.

Confidence. low (chronicle figures).

Where it sits

Sources and evidence

No page-level citation is claimed for any source. Figures marked unverified come from a Wikipedia aggregator and are not for Official use.

Link to this conflict

Art: Patterns of Civilization chronicle art, made with AI: illustrations, not historical evidence. Entries are drafts preserved from civilization.study. Method and sources.