If you're interested in this subject, I highly recommend reading The True History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Castillo. He was one of the actual Conquistadors who fought for Cortez. His version of the events is very very believable, plus, he was actually there. He paints Cortez as a brilliant and masterful manipulator. Montezuma isn't a coward nor does he believe the Spanish are Gods, he simply gets totally scammed and tricked by the ultimate con artist - Cortez. The army Cortez leads wasn't ever even supposed to be his. He scams his way into controlling it and steals the entire army and all the supplies from the Governor of Cuba. Cortez was just absolutely mad, and bold beyond all reason. He even has moments where he starts to crack up. But the dude conquered an Empire with 500 men. And everyone who says it was simply European vs Amerindian isn't seeing the entire story, because he marches his 500 men back to the coast and defeats a second Spanish army of 1500 men that was sent to arrest him for having stolen the first. Then he forces most of the 1500 defeated men to join his army, and marches right back to conquer the Mexican capital again.