War · 1519–1521
Fall of Tenochtitlan
Tenochtitlan (Mexico City)
Hernán Cortés reached the Aztec (Mexica) capital Tenochtitlan in November 1519 with a small Spanish force and a far larger army of Indigenous allies, above all Tlaxcaltec warriors. After the Spaniards were driven from the city in 1520, smallpox killed an estimated 40 percent of its roughly 200,000 people, and the Spanish-led coalition besieged the island city until it surrendered on 13 August 1521 and its last ruler, Cuauhtémoc, was captured.
Why it mattered
The fall of the most powerful state in Mesoamerica founded New Spain, governed from Mexico City on the site of Tenochtitlan, and opened the way to Spanish rule over much of the Americas.
Related
- The world in 1500: Sea Roads Open chapter
- Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire February 1519 – 13 August 1521
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