1519 – 1533
In fourteen years, two of the largest empires on earth fell to Spanish expeditions numbering only in the hundreds. Hernán Cortés toppled the Aztec Triple Alliance at Tenochtitlan in 1521; Francisco Pizarro seized the Inca emperor Atahualpa at Cajamarca in 1532 and executed him a year later. Steel, horses, and cannon mattered — but the conquest was won by indigenous allies who joined the invaders in their tens of thousands, and by smallpox, which killed on a scale no army could match.
Chapter-by-chapter narrative with maps, primary sources, and key events.
Explore battles on a live map with a timeline slider and territory overlays.
Deep-dive into every major engagement — commanders, casualties, significance.
Biographical flip cards with real portraits, facts, and full biography pages.
Trace each figure's full life journey — birth, education, battles, and death — on a live map.
Scroll-driven visualization of casualties — each dot a thousand lives.
Weapons, war machines, and the military innovations that defined how this conflict was fought.
Cause-and-effect chains tracing the war's long shadow on history.
War crimes, massacres, and the darkest chapters of this conflict — documented for history.
In fourteen years, two of the largest empires on earth fell to Spanish expeditions numbering only in the hundreds. Hernán Cortés toppled the Aztec Triple Alliance at Tenochtitlan in 1521; Francisco Pizarro seized the Inca emperor Atahualpa at Cajamarca in 1532 and executed him a year later. Steel, horses, and cannon mattered — but the conquest was won by indigenous allies who joined the invaders in their tens of thousands, and by smallpox, which killed on a scale no army could match.
The Spanish Conquest of the Americas was fought from 1519 to 1533.
The Spanish Conquest of the Americas was fought between Spanish Conquistadors & Allies and Aztec & Inca Empires.
An estimated 8,061,000 people died in The Spanish Conquest of the Americas, including roughly 61,000 military and 8,000,000 civilian deaths. Figures are scholarly estimates and vary by source.
Major engagements included The Siege of Tenochtitlan, La Noche Triste (The Night of Sorrows), The Battles of Tlaxcala, and Battle of Cajamarca.