Tenochtitlan falls
A city larger than any in Europe falls in two years
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The story of a few hundred Spaniards defeating an empire is misleading. Cortés' decisive asset was alliances, above all with Tlaxcala, which had warred against the Aztecs for generations. The smallpox outbreak of 1520 probably killed a third of the city's population, including the emperor Cuitláhuac, before the siege even began. The conquest became the model for the Spanish colonial system in the Americas: the encomienda, the silver mines of Potosí, and an economy that tied the Americas, Europe and China together through silver.
For children
The Aztec capital sat on an island in a lake and had more inhabitants than any European city. Cortés arrived with fewer than a thousand Spaniards — but was helped by tens of thousands of local peoples who hated the Aztecs, and by the smallpox epidemic ravaging the city.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org