<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, or the Spanish--Aztec War (1519--21), was the conquest of the Aztec Empire by the Spanish Empire within the context of the Spanish colonization of the Americas . It was one of the most significant and complex events in world history . There are multiple 16th - century narratives of the events by Spanish conquerors, their indigenous allies and the defeated Aztecs . It was not solely a contest between a small contingent of Spaniards defeating the Aztec Empire but rather the creation of a coalition of Spanish invaders with tributaries to the Aztecs, and most especially the Aztecs' indigenous enemies and rivals . They combined forces to defeat the Mexica of Tenochtitlan over a two - year period . For the Spanish, the expedition to Mexico was part of a project of Spanish colonization of the New World after twenty - five years of permanent Spanish settlement and further exploration in the Caribbean . </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>

When did the spanish conquest of the aztecs began