Predict what might have happened if Montezuma defeated Cortes?

Answer 1

Paradoxically, it would be much less developed than it is today, with an income comparable to that of Guatemala or Belize (US$5800-8700) instead of its current income per capita of US$15,400.

There is a common misconception that Cortes alone annihilated the Aztecs with superior weaponry and a false belief that he was mistaken for the god Quetzalcoatl; the truth is the Aztecs knew he was a man, but he made an alliance with the Tlaxcalan nation, who were bitter enemies of the Aztecs and provided more than 100,000 warriors to help Cortes during his conquest. Also, when contact was made, inadvertently someone from Cortes' crew started an epidemic of smallpox that utterly ravaged the Aztec homeland; it is stated that from a population of 20 million in 1518, after 1521 there were only 2 million people living in Mexico. After such event, the Spanish found relatively easy to mow down the remaining Aztec forces.

Even if the Aztecs would have defeated the Spanish and their Tlaxcalan allies, they would have been eventually destroyed by another conquistador, or another European power, taking much longer to develop into a modern country with infrastructure including schools, roads, mines and plantations. The best example are the Mayans who continued their existence in the Yucatan peninsula, Guatemala and El Peten and weren't subdued until 1697. The direct result of such delay to become "westernized" is the persistent economic backwardness of the region.

Answer 2

The same of what happend but oppisite