Sitio de Tenochtitlan

Tenochtitlán was the capital of the Mexica (Aztec) Empire, built on an island in Lake Texcoco. Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico in 1519, and after a long siege the city fell on August 13, 1521, with the capture of the last tlatoani, Cuauhtémoc.

Keep the dates straight: 1492 is Columbus’s arrival in America, 1519 is when Cortés landed in Mexico, and 1521 is the year the city actually fell, marking the beginning of three centuries of Spanish rule.