16. The Conquistadors’ Conquest of Mexico Led to One of the Darkest Moments of History
Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes landed with a small force on Mexico’s eastern coast in February 1519. After subduing the region surrounding modern Vera Cruz, he marched inland towards the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, defeating and allying with natives en route. Natives who refused to join Cortes were massacred, as occurred in the city of Cholula.
As Cortes described it in his letters, after capturing the city, he destroyed it and burned it to the ground, while the conquistadors ran riot, killing about 3000 Cholulans in a few hours. Another Spanish eyewitness put the actual number of massacred Cholulans as high as 30,000. By the time he reached Tenochtitlan, Cortes had a large native army, surrounding a core of Spaniards. A dark era had dawned upon the natives: 90% of them would perish by the time the Spanish Conquistadors had consolidated their rule over today’s Mexico.