Conquista de México

In the early 1500s, Spain was searching for new westward trade routes to the spices and silks of Asia, and its explorers were drawn on by reports of gold and other riches. The so-called “feudal problem” also pushed men across the ocean: in Spain there was little land left to distribute, so nobles and soldiers hoped to win estates and titles in the New World.

Hernán Cortés’s expedition reached the Mexican coast in 1519 and completed the conquest of Tenochtitlan, the Mexica capital, in 1521.