1519
Aztec Empire in 1519: c. 5 Million people.
Tenochtitlan (site now of Mexico City) Population: c. 200,000. By comparison: same size as Paris & Naples, the two largest European cities c. 1500 (roughly equivalent to contemporary Boise).
Hernando Cortez Forces: c. 500 soldiers, c. 200-300 Cuban and African slaves to portage, cook etc., 16 Spanish horses, 10 cannon, smaller cannon, crossbows, pistols, war-dogs etc.
Siege of Tenochtitlan casualties: c. 200,000 lives.
Brief timeline:
1300 Aztecs settle in Valley of Mexico
1325 Tenochtitlan founded (video on Tenochtitlan)
1492 Columbus sails the ocean blue, Moors defeated in Spain (last Moorish holdout: Granada), Alhambra Decree: Muslims and Jews evicted from Spain (Important context for Spanish attitude toward the Other)
1493 Pope Alexander VI issues papal bull granting Spain dominion over all lands, undiscovered or discovered, in the New World
1502 Montezuma becomes 9th Aztec king
1511-14 Spanish conquer Cuba
1519 Cortez mounts expedition into Mexico
Winter: Explore East Coast, area around Belize; contact with La Malinche and Gonzalo Guerrero
April 21 Make land
June 3 Found first settlement
July 26 Ships take back first treasure to Spain
September Battle and Defeat Tlaxcalans, enter city
October 10-25 Massacre Cholulans (Cortez' accounts claims to have killed 3,000)
November 8 Enter Tenochtitlan and meet Montezuma
November 14 Arrest Monteczuma
1520
June 24-29 Spaniards under siege and trapped in palace
June 29 Montezuma killed, Cuitlahuac takes over as king
June 30 Cortez and Spaniards flee Tenochtitlan, hundreds of Spaniards die and nearly all treasure lost
July 2-10 Cortez seriously wounded and goes into a coma
October December Smallpox plague wipes out Aztecs
December 4 Cuitlahuac dies of smallpox
1521
Cortez recovers, receives reinforcements, builds a small "navy"
May - August Second siege, Aztecs defeated
(1562-1697