📅 On This Day in Military History

November 8

1 event across history

⚔️📍 Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), Mexico1519

Cortés Enters Tenochtitlan — Aztec Capital

Hernán Cortés and 600 Spanish soldiers entered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan as guests of Emperor Moctezuma II, walking across the great causeway into a city of 200,000 — five times larger than London at the time. Cortés would later seize Moctezuma as a hostage.

The Spanish entry into Tenochtitlan began the events that would destroy the Aztec Empire and create New Spain — the template for European conquest of the Americas.

Outcome

Spanish enter Aztec capital; conquest and destruction follow