Fall of Tenochtitlan
The Aztec empire ends and Mexico City rises from its ruins
After a long siege, Hernán Cortés's Spaniards and their Tlaxcalan allies took the Aztec capital, already ravaged by smallpox. The Aztec Empire fell, and Mexico City, capital of New Spain, rose on its ruins.
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Did you know
While Magellan's expedition circled the globe, Cortés fought the Aztecs. Magellan was killed in April 1521; Tenochtitlan fell that August.
The last independent Maya kingdom fell only in 1697, 176 years after Tenochtitlan, when Peter the Great was already ruling Russia.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — 13 years earlier
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — 4 years earlier
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — 13 years later
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — 22 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — 5 years later
Middle East
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — 20 years earlier
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — 1 year earlier
Africa
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — 8 years later
Asia
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — 23 years earlier
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — 10 years earlier
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — 5 years later
Alive at the time
- Nicolaus Copernicus (aged 48)
- Michelangelo (aged 46)
- Martin Luther (aged 38)
- Guru Nanak (aged 52)
- Vasco da Gama (aged 52)
- Vasily III (aged 42)
- Ferdinand Magellan (aged 41)
- Babur (aged 38)
- Bartolomé de las Casas (aged 37)
- Hernán Cortés (aged 36)