he only exploited mesoamerican politics. tlaxcalans hated the aztecs because they were fighting against one another in flower wars and in actual battles. most of cortes's other allied states benefitted politically and economically from aztec governance and only allied with him after smallpox hit tenochtitlan to opportunistically gain status from helping the conquistadors and the tlaxcalteca take it out when they had little to lose by that point due to it already being so weakened.