Fall of Tenochtitlan

The 1521 conquest of the Mexica capital by Spanish forces and Indigenous allies after a prolonged siege. It ended Mexica rule in the city and enabled Spanish colonial rule.

Siege of Tenochtitlan: The 1521 campaign in which Spanish and Indigenous forces surrounded and attacked Tenochtitlan. The siege was the immediate military process that brought the city to surrender.
Hernán Cortés: A Spanish conquistador who led the expedition that conquered the Mexica Empire. He directed Spanish military operations during the campaign against Tenochtitlan.
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire: The campaign from 1519 to 1521 that brought the Mexica Empire under Spanish rule. The fall of the capital was the decisive culmination of this wider conquest.
New Spain: The Spanish colonial viceroyalty established in the Americas, centered on Mexico City. Spanish rule built around the conquered capital became the core of this colony.
Mexica: The Nahua people who founded and governed Tenochtitlan and built a powerful central Mexican empire. The city’s defenders belonged to a society distinct from the Spanish forces and their allies.
Lake Texcoco: A large lake in the Basin of Mexico that surrounded Tenochtitlan. Control of the lake and its causeways shaped movement, supply, and combat.
Tlaxcalans: The Nahua people and polity of Tlaxcala, longstanding rivals of the Mexica. Their forces formed a major part of the coalition attacking the capital.
Mexica Empire: A tributary empire centered on Tenochtitlan and ruled by the Mexica people. The capital’s defeat dismantled the political center of Mexica imperial power.
Mexico City: The capital of Mexico, built on and around the site of Tenochtitlan. The colonial city developed over the defeated Mexica capital.
Tlaxcala: A Nahua polity that resisted Mexica expansion and allied with Cortés’s forces. Its alliance shows why the conquest was not simply Spaniards fighting Indigenous peoples.

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