Unknown Tlaxcalan artists / Wikimedia.
26. Hernan Cortes Arrived in Mexico in 1519
Of course, at that time, the place wasn’t known as Mexico. It wasn’t a country, but rather a collection of imperial states ruled by the Aztecs and Maya. He was a conquistador and had a very straightforward agenda: gold, God, and glory. What that agenda amounted to was a genocidal slaughter of the Aztecs and the fall of their empire.