<P> The Spanish made landfall in Mexico in 1517 . A Spanish settler in Cuba , Hernán Cortés , led an expedition ( entrada ) to Mexico , landing in February 1519 , following an earlier expedition led by Juan de Grijalva to Yucatán in 1517 . Two years later Cortés and his retinue set sail , thus beginning the expedition of exploration and conquest . The Spanish campaign against the Aztec Empire had its final victory on August 13 , 1521 , when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor Cuauhtemoc and Tenochtitlan , the capital of the Aztec Empire . The fall of Tenochtitlan marks the beginning of Spanish rule in central Mexico , and they established their capital of Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan . </P>
<P> The Spanish made landfall in Mexico in 1517 . A Spanish settler in Cuba , Hernán Cortés , led an expedition ( entrada ) to Mexico , landing in February 1519 , following an earlier expedition led by Juan de Grijalva to Yucatán in 1517 . Two years later Cortés and his retinue set sail , thus beginning the expedition of exploration and conquest . The Spanish campaign against the Aztec Empire had its final victory on August 13 , 1521 , when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor Cuauhtemoc and Tenochtitlan , the capital of the Aztec Empire . The fall of Tenochtitlan marks the beginning of Spanish rule in central Mexico , and they established their capital of Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan . </P>
who was the ruler of the aztecs when they were conquered
who was the ruler of the aztecs when they were conquered
the emperor Cuauhtemoc
the emperor Cuauhtemoc