THE SPANISH

CONQUEST
The first contact with Mexico occurred in
1517, when explorer Francisco
Hernández de Córdoba landed on the
Yucatan coast. A subsequent expedition
by Juan de Grijalva confirmed a land
dominated by a powerful people who
were despised by those forced to pay
tribute to them.
The Spanish governor of Cuba, Diego
Velazquez, then sent a larger force under
Hernán Cortés, with instructions to trade
with the inhabitants. Cortés had more
ambitious plans, , and after landing on
the coast of Veracruz, in 1521, made his
way to Tenochtitlán—today, ruins of the
Templo Mayor archaeology site in the
center of Mexico City—the then center of
power of the Aztec empire, which was
built in the middle of a lake.

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Problems began when Cortés had to leave the city

to meet a Spanish force sent by Velazquez to

arrest him. When he returned, the Aztecs were
fighting to expel the Spanish. Cortés made
Moctezuma go onto the roof of the palace to tell
his people to withdraw, but the Aztec chief was
received with a barrage of stones, wounding him.
He died several days later, and under the war-like
leader Cuitláhuac, the Aztecs continued their fight
against the invaders. By August that year he had captured the
city, and made a prisoner of the new Aztec
leader Cuauhtémoc. Cuitláhuac had died in
an outbreak of smallpox which decimated
The Spanish attempted to escape one night,
the local population.
known as the Noche Triste (somber night): they
were discovered as they crept along one of the
roadways that led out of the city, and a fierce
battle ensued in which Cortés lost many of his
men. Cortés afterwards took refuge with his
Tlaxcalteca allies. In June 1521, Cortés started the
final assault on Tenochtitlán armed with small
ships to use on the lake, and with thousands of
local Indian allies.
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