Cortés: Veracruz to Tenochtitlan, 1519-1521

The Spaniards arrived on Maundy Thursday and landed on Good Friday 1519, so the new town was named La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. Its council promptly offered Cortés the post of adelantado, or Chief Justice and Captain-General. Envoys of the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II came too; gifts were exchanged, and Cortés tried to frighten them with a display of firepower. Villa Rica was the starting point of his attempt to conquer the Aztec Empire. La Antigua served as the settlement of the city of Veracruz from 1525 to 1599.

Location precision: The 1519 town stood somewhere on this coast; the pin marks La Antigua, which took over as the settlement from 1525.

Visitor guidance: La Antigua has the Ermita del Rosario, built between 1523 and 1524; the so-called house of Cortés may in fact have been a customs house.

Cortés marched to Cempoala with 500 conquistadors and sent word ahead. Twenty dignitaries met them, and in town they were received by the tlatoani Xicomecoatl. Cortés quickly persuaded the Totonac chiefs to rebel against the Aztecs. Later, in this complex, Cortés faced the forces of Pánfilo de Narváez and consolidated his leadership. The site today is a set of public spaces and fortress-like buildings among vegetation, built of river stones and covered with lime made from burning shells and snails.

Visitor guidance: The archaeological site shows public spaces and fortress-like buildings among vegetation.

Tlaxcala was a confederacy of about 200 towns without central government, and after almost a century of Flower Wars it hated the Aztecs. Its warriors still fought the Spanish in three battles between 2 and 5 September 1519. Then, on 23 September, Cortés arrived and the rulers greeted him with joy as an ally against the Aztecs. Tlaxcala, blockaded by the Aztecs, lacked salt and cotton cloths, yet it sheltered the Spaniards for twenty days. Xicotencatl the Younger never warmed to Cortés.

Location precision: The chronicles name the confederacy and its main city, not a single building; the pin marks the modern city of Tlaxcala.

Cholula was a sacred city with a very small army. The accounts disagree about what happened: Cortés wrote that he had found evidence of an ambush plan, Tlaxcalan sources say their ambassador Patlahuatzin had been tortured, and Cortés claimed 3,000 dead in three hours, while another witness said up to 30,000. The massacre had a chilling effect on the Aztecs and their allies. The Great Pyramid, already overgrown by then, now looks like a natural hill crowned by a church of 1594, with about 8 km of tunnels inside.

Location precision: Accounts name the city's main temple, not the spot of the killing; the pin marks the Great Pyramid, the best-known monument of Cholula.

Visitor guidance: The pyramid is a religious site, archaeological site and tourist attraction, with about 220,000 visitors a year.

On 8 November 1519 Cortés entered Tenochtitlan, the island capital of the Mexica-Aztecs, and Moctezuma welcomed him on the Great Causeway. The Spaniards were lodged in the palace of Axayácatl. Cortés climbed the 114 steps of the main temple pyramid and asked to raise a cross; Moctezuma and his priests were furious. On 14 November he seized Moctezuma. Today the ruins lie between Seminario and Justo Sierra streets, with a museum built in 1987; the site received 801,942 visitors in 2017.

Visitor guidance: The ruins and museum are in the historic centre of Mexico City, in the block between Seminario and Justo Sierra streets.

Fighting broke out and the nobility of Tenochtitlan chose Cuitláhuac as ruler. Aztec sources state the Spaniards killed Moctezuma. On the rainy night of 10 July 1520 the Spaniards and their allies set out along the causeway to Tlacopan. Many, weighed down by armor and booty, drowned in the gaps or were killed. A street called Puente de Alvarado recalls the story that Alvarado escaped across an invisible bridge. At Tlacopan Cortés is said to have wept; the old tree where he allegedly cried is still a monument in Mexico City.

Location precision: The causeway has long vanished; the pin marks the Puente de Alvarado street, which keeps the memory of the escape.

The battle was fought on the plain of Temalcatitlán, near modern Otumba. The Aztecs regarded the Spaniards as already defeated, yet in Díaz's account the Castilian cavalry was decisive. Cortés recognized the Aztec high priest Matlatzincatl by his elaborate armor, headdress and flag, charged him and killed him with his lance. The survivors then reached Tlaxcala: all 440 of them were wounded, with only 20 horses left.

Location precision: Sources place the fight on a plain near Otumba, not at one spot; the pin marks the town of Otumba.

Smallpox struck the Aztecs from September 1520. The siege of Tenochtitlan then lasted eight months, with Cuauhtémoc, the cousin of Moctezuma II, leading the stubborn resistance. Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco fell on 13 August 1521, and the emperor was captured trying to escape in a canoe. The surviving Aztec people were forbidden to live in Tenochtitlan and were banished to Tlatelolco. Díaz later wrote: "All is overthrown and lost." The Plaza de las Tres Culturas now contains the archaeological site of Tlatelolco and a 17th-century church.

Visitor guidance: The plaza holds the excavated Aztec site beside the Templo de Santiago.