Hernan Cortes and the Conquest of the Aztec Empire

Description of the movements of Hernan Cortes across the territory of present-day Mexico from February 1519 to August 1521 as he worked to conquer the Aztec Empire on behalf of the Spanish Empire. Data: places through which Cortes traveled. Data consists of 81 events of conquest including advances, retreats, rests, and renamings at 51 unique locations. Method: place names, dates, and descriptions of the events at the locations were taken from the following sources: Jeremy Black, World History Atlas (London: Dorling Kindersley, 2015), 125; David F. Marley, Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the Present (Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-Clio, 2008), 23-38; Miguel León-Portilla, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, trans. Lysander Kemp (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006), xxv.