Fall of Tenochtitlan and conquest of the Aztec Empire
- Date
- 13 August 1521
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Central Mexico (New Spain)
- Era
- Early Modern
- Significance
On 13 August 1521 the Mexica (Aztec) capital Tenochtitlan fell to a coalition of Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés and tens of thousands of Indigenous allies, above all the Tlaxcalans.
After Cortés landed in 1519 and entered the city, relations collapsed into war; the Spanish were expelled in 1520 but returned to besiege Tenochtitlan for some ninety-three days. A devastating smallpox epidemic, introduced from the Old World, ravaged the defenders and killed much of the population before the final assault. The capture of the emperor Cuauhtémoc ended one of the Americas' greatest states and inaugurated the viceroyalty of New Spain, with Mexico City rising on the ruins of Tenochtitlan. The conquest demonstrated how European steel and firearms, exploitation of internal rivalries, and above all imported disease combined to topple a populous empire, and it opened central Mexico to Spanish colonisation, evangelisation and the extraction of its wealth.
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Empires active in 13 August 1521
- Songhai Empire1464 CE – 1591 CE
- Ming Dynasty1368 CE – 1644 CE
- Inca Empire1438 CE – 1533 CE
- Aztec Empire1428 CE – 1521 CE
- Ottoman Empire1299 CE – 1922 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
Related military & conflict events
- Defenestration of Prague and the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War23 May 1618
- Battle of Chaldiran23 August 1514
- Fall of Beijing and the Ming–Qing transition1644
- Battle of Mohács and the Ottoman conquest of Hungary29 August 1526
- First Battle of Panipat and the founding of the Mughal Empire21 April 1526
- Portuguese capture of MalaccaAugust 1511
Further reading
The wider story
Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire
Fast-paced narrative of Portugal's seaborne empire.
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