November 8, 1519 · Valley of Mexico Theater
November 8, 1519
The Spanish crossed the causeway into Tenochtitlan and were met by Moctezuma himself. The city astonished them — a metropolis of perhaps 200,000 built on a lake, with causeways, aqueducts, botanical gardens, and a market larger than any in Spain. Within a week Cortés seized Moctezuma in his own palace and began ruling the empire through its captive emperor.
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